November 4, 2007 - Celebration of All Saints C
Luke 6: 20-31
The Rev. Stephanie E. Parker


The Great Family


You know, I don't think it is lost on any of us that we are currently living in particularly hard times. I mean, life always has its ups and downs, but we are currently a country at war, the health of our economy and ecology are very precarious, and close to home we know that there are hundreds of people whose lives have been devastated by our recent wildfires.

In times like these we may feel as though God has deserted us, but in today's Scripture we hear that in fact the world has always been a tumultuous place but God's promises are also always being fulfilled.

So tough though these times are, I know that there are still many blessings to celebrate. There are places where God's fine and saving hand are calling us to find rest and release. There are clear invitations to understand that the world that God created is far more than what our temporary woes would indicate.

Today we celebrate All Saints Day. We celebrate that we are living amid a vibrant and great continuum of God's people-people who have lived and died through previous difficult times who are now singing to the top of their lungs of God's greatness and glory.

Joined with us now this day, in this very moment are all of those who have struggled through previous times that held such hardship but have discovered that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The Communion of Saints is one of those great and wonderful mysteries of living in God's eternal life.

In this mystery we are given to understand that we are not alone in our current space and time, but that through the mystery of God in Christ we stand shoulder to shoulder with all of those we've loved and lost, with all of us who live, and with all of the people of God who haven't even been born yet!

In this great and wonderful mystery we are lifted out of finite, temporal time that is measured by minutes, hours, days and years, into the immeasurable and infinite time of God which cannot be measured at all.

Why is this so important? Well think of it this way...we've all heard that time heals all wounds right? And most of us have actually experienced that this is indeed so. I remember pain so deep that I thought I would never be able to smile or laugh again---I hoped, but in my pain I couldn't conceive of it.

But here I am and there are many of you after having lived through such times---and today we laugh, we glory in life---yes, the troubles of the past have forever changed us, but they have not robbed us of life and joy.

And to those of you who are struggling now---take hope from those of us who have gone before and lived to laugh again! Now think about the mystery and gift of God's time--- think about how it is to have an eternity in which to soak up all of the world's woes.

And think of how miraculous it is that we stand with all of those who have traveled this road of life before us that are now gathered around God in heaven and will never feel heat, cold, or heartbreak again. The saints of God call to us to persevere and to have hope and to rejoice in our common life.

What I am getting at here is that we are all a part of a great community. As Christians we are all part of a great family that stretches both backward and forward in an arc to great to measure.

And now I will get to the heart of the true blessing that I think that God provides for us in such troubled times. The blessing is this---through the Church, flawed as she is, God in Christ gives us family. In THIS family there are no rich or poor, no male or female, no straight or gay, no old or young---there are only the children of God---children who have been blessed and redeemed by Christ's love.

Are we still a flawed family? Yes. Are there places where these promises of welcome are not yet so? Yes. But think of this...whether we get it right or not in the present time, what is indisputable is that God continually calls us to belonging-that is why we yearn for it so. We belong to God and we belong to one another.
In the Church, God gifts us with connection and community amid the very times that leave us feeling so disconnected and lost.

And God calls us to heal and comfort one another. Christ teaches us in words such as we hear today in Luke of what the real possibilities are. Christ tells us of our destiny. He tells us that we are a family of people who have God's power to heal, forgive, celebrate and redeem one another.

This weekend we celebrate the Baptisms of three new members into this great and timeless family. We welcome Ryan, Mary, and Magdalena into the generations of Saints who give thanks and praise to God for all of God's blessings. We welcome them to the Body of Christ and to the Church of St. Paul in the Desert, which I believe is a very special and sacred place.

This is a place that is imperfect to be sure, but it is a place where God's generosity and welcome flourish--- and a place where with all of our hearts, minds and bodies we seek to make the kingdom come. Sometimes we fall short. But quite often, as we did as we gathered as a family of faith for the AIDS walk, as we continue to respond to the needs of the fire victims, and so many other loving acts for the sake of the world in need, we fulfill our promise as a people of God.

Today we are invited to stand victorious and unafraid in the face of the world's pain and brokenness as we celebrate our place in the Communion of Saints. Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians that to be a saint is not to be perfect or enshrined in stain glass----he tells us that we are saints because we love Christ and because we love one another.

And because we are a family of love and hope, we also look forward to insuring that all of those who come after us might discover God's light and saving grace in this wonderful place.

This too is our destiny, this is our calling, and it is the inheritance we will leave to those saints who have yet to be born. God blesses us with gifts of abundance to great to be measured and we, with love and joy share those gifts with a world in need. We also share these gifts with one another because we are God's family and that is simply what God's family does. What a joy. What a treasure and a blessing to be a child of God

Paul captures this wonderful truth in his prayer for the Ephesians and I will finish by offering that same prayer for all the saints of St. Paul in the Desert.:

"I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe. Amen.






6