November 6, 2005 - All Saints (25th Pentecost) - Mother Stephanie Parker

FIRST READING: Amos 5: 18-24
SECOND READING: Thessalonians 4:13-18
GOSPEL: Matthew 25:1-13

(Audience participation will be noted in bold print and italics)

Just a quick question: How many of you, by chance, are in the Episcopal Church for the first time today? None of you! O.K.! Look at that! So, I am playing to a stacked house, right?!

Well, we have, in the Episcopal Church today, what might be considered a liturgical perfect storm. We have this incredible celebration of All Saints. Here at St. Paul's, we do this wonderful procession in song, celebrating all of those saints who have gone before us. We also . . . . it's not in your bulletin, but you will see it later . . . we will renew our baptismal vows. This morning, at 8:00, we had a baptism, which is sort of a little bit bigger element of the perfect liturgical storm, but, even today, we will renew our baptismal covenant, as well. So, we have that element going on. And then, for a preacher given to rhetoric and discourse, as myself, we have this meaty, dramatic Gospel - so much pathos, so much tension; you know; Will they get in? Did they get in? - so many things that, quite frankly, for me, as many of you know, I could go on for just hours and hours. But, with such a perfect storm as the one we have today, I will choose not to do that this morning.

With all storms, where is God? As I have said before, where is God in the midst of a storm, even a perfect storm, or in the midst of chaos? God is always hovering there, ready to make order. Right? God always makes order out of chaos, so, fear not, by friends, order will come of this perfect storm today; and, hopefully, I can deliver that to you in an hour or less. O.K., I will try a little bit better than that.

So, first of all, let's talk about All Saints. What we did today when we read those names, what we were really doing, as Barbara Brown Taylor says, was that we were reading off all the names of the people who are at our family reunion. All of these great saints are people who have gone before us, and, as Christians, we share their blood. Now, is that a miracle? How is that possible? We share the same blood, and whose blood is it that courses through their veins, as well as courses through ours? You know it. Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ's blood flows through all of our veins, so we are all children in the Community of God. We all share this great family inheritance.

Now, those of you who have dwelt in the Roman Catholic branch of our family home, the great Kingdom of God, you might know a little bit more about the saints than those of us who have had a more Protestant expression of our faith. So, I am going to put you on the spot here, because you might have the answers. What are the things required for sainthood?

Death

Death! That's a steep one, isn't it?! That's pretty hard! O.K., so if death is a requirement for sainthood, were some of you surprised to see your names among the saints today?

There was a woman at the 8:00 service who found that to be quite a shock! So, that is our first hint that possibly death isn't necessarily a requirement that we, in our understanding of the Community of Saints, have to have. What's another one? What is another requirement for sainthood?

Three miracles

Three miracles, yeah! I have only had two, so far, so I am going to have to wait. No!

Yes, our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters require three miracles - again, a pretty stiff thing. Anything else?

No?

Well, here is the good news. There is a third one, but I can't remember what it is right now.

Canonization?

Well, there is canonization, but that is part of the miracles and the death part. It sort of all gets wrapped up. If you have done three miracles and you're dead, chances are canonization is on the way! You can bet that!

So, why, in the Episcopal Church - when we say we believe in the Communion of Saints - why do we list the names of the living among those who are already dead? Why is that so? We see all of these great Saints that we named today and we celebrated, and we see Saints not only from religious orders, but we see artists and creatives, who gave their gifts. We see so many people. Were they always perfect people? No! Many of the people we named today we know from history not only gave the Church a lot of trouble, but they were far from perfect. I'll take Peter as a great example of that. Look what God was able to do through Peter! Was God able to use Peter to great purpose in the Church? Yes! Was Peter perfect? No!

So, the first good news - for our understanding, let me state it clearly - you don't need to be dead to be a Saint. That's a relief!

The second understanding for us is that you don't need to be perfect. There is no need for us to be perfect in order for God to use us to great purpose - wonderful purpose! Just like all of the Saints from our biblical history and all of the Saints we read today, when you go deeper into their lives, you see that they weren't these one-dimensional plaster characters that we sometimes make them to be. Even those highly-venerated Saints, with a capital S - they had so much life. St. Francis, we are told, used to take his clothes off and roll around in the snow, because he suffered from lusty thoughts. O.K.? Now, I don't know about you, but that makes St. Francis a little more interesting to me! And it goes on and on, and I encourage you to read about the lives of the Saints. These were not perfect people, but these were people whose extraordinary love of God made it possible for God to use them to great purpose.

Now, where else do we see this extraordinary love? I know I see it when I come in here sometimes on Saturday, especially in the summer, when the air conditioning is not on; and there are ladies from the altar guild, and men sometimes, too, sweating bullets, walking around in this hot Church, cleaning off all the pews, putting all the books in order, and getting the Church ready for worship on Saturday. That's a pretty big Saint.

You see Saints all the time - people whose names go unmentioned or unnoticed, who do selfless acts for their neighbor, day after day after day. No matter what our imperfections, God can always use us to great purpose, so, as you look around today, understand that, in God's great Kingdom, and when we pray about the Communion of Saints, we are standing in this incredible family history. From all the way back, as far as you can see, you see those Saints who have gone on before, and guess what those Saints are doing in Heaven, the ones who have gone before. They are cheering us on. They are in Heaven, I have to say, giving us the big wave: Go Saints still on earth! O.K.? They are praying for us. They are with us, and, in this great Communion also, those Saints that have not even been born yet are among them. In God's great time, it's all there. And the only real requirement that all of these Saints share, from the ladies from the altar guild, to the people who go and pick up spare food from our different stores to bring it to the homeless people who have no food, to those great Saints that we celebrate, like Francis and Patrick, all of those great Saints - what is the one common denominator they share? And I have already told you the answer! An extravagant, boundless love of God - a love of God that is so extravagant and so free that God's Light and Love shine so brightly from them that, everywhere they go in the world, it spills out over everyone they see and everyone they touch. And that is the miracle each and every one of us can perform every day, every minute, every hour of the day! That is what it takes to be a Saint, my friends - an extravagant, boundless love of God - a little bit easier than death, although that can be pretty easy to get to, sometimes. Everybody is pretty good at dying. We can establish that. That is a joke, because we are all going to do it. But miracles - the miracles we can do are just to love one another. It is as simple as that.

Now, for the third part, I wanted to sum up with this little piece from the Gospel, where we are told that we have to be prepared. Now, does God ever charge us, especially God in Christ, with anything that we can't do in terms of our Christian journey, our Christian commission? Jesus always shows us the way, and we are told the way.

So, today, since we don't have a baptism on All Saints, we are going to renew our baptismal vows, and, if you haven't been baptized yet, go ahead and say these with us, because you too, my friends, sit in the Communion of Saints. You just haven't quite yet picked up your family inheritance, but it is there waiting for you. You are part of the family, so say these words with us.

Please stand. The Book of Common Prayer, the mysterious red book with the cross on the cover, possibly a mysterious black book with a cross on the cover - page 292.

So, as we re-affirm our vows, we are saying "yes", my friends, to God in Christ, once again saying I love you, and I will love you now, and I will love you always:

Do you believe in God the Father?

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, He rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

I will, with God's help.

Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

I will, with God's help.

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

I will, with God's help.

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

I will, with God's help.

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

I will, with God's help.


May Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins, keep us in Eternal Life by His grace in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

And now, as Andrew sprinkles you with water, not only so we can use this final liturgical tool, but also to remind us that water is the source of life and God's greatest gift in Christ to us.

So that's it, my friends - the baptismal covenant - that is your road map for never, ever being at the moment of being unprepared. Step out into the world every day and let that extravagant love of God spill over into extravagant love for the world, and the light that shines so brightly will shine very clearly through you, the Saints of God. In Jesus' Name . .

AMEN