For
Sunday, November 4, 2018, All Saints Sunday, Year B, Readings: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9, Psalm 24,
Revelation 21:1-6a, John 11:32-44
Those who trust in him
will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love... [Wisdom of Solomon
3:9]
They will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God
of Salvation. [Ps 24:5]
[The]
home of God is among mortals…God himself will be with them; he will wipe every
tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will
be no more; for the first things have passed away. [Revelation 21:3b-4]
What
comes to mind when you think of a Saint? For
many of us, I expect, the mind-image that arises is of someone many centuries
and continents removed from our everyday place and time in this world; someone
who is an example of complete perfection in every facet of life that is
unattainable for us mere mortals, and, if we're honest, living a life undesirably
difficult for us to accomplish. Yet many saints and Saints, the ordinary and
the officially designated, are/were flawed humans with real human
frailties and struggles. When and how did their lives become exemplary? The best
discussion I have found is from Sister Joan Chittister*, which follows. This piece offers us some food for
prayerful thought on ways we might discover our inner saint and seek to, at the
very least, support the very basic tenets of the Greatest Commandment [Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-34,
Luke 10:25-28].
"For centuries the church has
confronted the human community with role models of greatness. We call them
saints when what we really often mean to say is "icon,"
"star," "hero," ones so possessed by an internal vision of divine
goodness that they give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the
human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves.
What qualities will be necessary to live a life of integrity, of holiness, in
the twenty-first century? What models of those values, if any, have been raised
up to show us the way to God in a world that is more preoccupied with the
material than with the spiritual, more self-centered than selfless, more
concerned with the mundane than with the divine, more parochial than cosmic?
(They) are male and female, Christian and non-Christian, married and unmarried,
religious and lay, pragmatists and artists, named saint by a process or
proclaimed saint by the people who lived in the shadow of their lives. They are
people like you and me. With one exception, perhaps. In their eyes burn the
eyes of a God who sees injustice and decries it, sees poverty and condemns it,
sees inequality and refuses it, sees wrong and demands that it be set right.
These are people for whom the Law above the law is first in their lives. These
are people who did not temporize with the evil in one system just because
another system could have been worse. These are people who saw themselves
clearly as the others' keepers. These are people who gave themselves entirely
to the impulses of God for the sake of the world."
Sr.
Joan has not painted an easy picture of a lifestyle for our time-limited journey
in earthly existence. There are choices to be made and sooner rather than later
though there’s always an opportunity for us to seek God first above all else, to receive a blessing from the Lord and a just reward from the God of our Salvation.
It requires some dedication, some intention, and some transformation. Jesus call us to come out from our self-imposed tombs and unbind ourselves from the temptations that lock us away from our divine endowment. In that release we can change not only ourselves but the culture we live in. Parker
Palmer** says it
best, [We] can transform our culture only as we are inwardly
transformed. So, let’s begin
together.
*Sister Joan Chittister,
Roman Catholic nun and former Prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA,
an activist, author and speaker on a variety of subjects such as spirituality,
religious life, peace, and justice among others. The excerpt is from:
"A Passion for Life: Fragments of the Face of God", Orbis, Maryknoll,
NY, 1996
**Parker J. Palmer
is
an author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education,
community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He is the founder and
Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage & Renewal.
LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY
Leader:
~ O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, in
these times of trial and travail, strengthen us to arise each day with inner peace, purity of heart,
and complete trust in You. Fill us with humility, humanity, and hope following
the example of those we recognize as the Saints who have gone before, and the
saints who live among us now.
O
God of Blessing
RESPONSE:
Help us unbind our faith to abide in
You
~ O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, come into
this, Your home among us, to make all things new. Endow us, as Your instruments,
with the perseverance to guide Local, National, and Global Leaders away from
falsehoods and fraud to the just reward of those who seek Your face. We pray
especially for: add your own petitions
O
God of Blessing
Help us unbind our faith to abide in
You
~
O Lord of Hosts, our King of
Glory, deliver
from distress all in anguish from illness of body, mind, or spirit, and infuse those
who give them care with gentleness and love. We now
join our voices to pray aloud for those in need…
O
God of Blessing
Help us unbind our faith to abide in
You
~ O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, as You wipe
the tears of all who mourn, keep us all in the knowledge that death will be no
more in the joy and gladness of all who live again in the holy city, the New
Jerusalem. We pray especially for:
O
God of Blessing
Help us unbind our faith to abide in
You
~ O Lord
of Hosts, our King of Glory, we pause
in this moment to offer You our other heartfelt thanksgivings, intercessions,
petitions, and memorials, aloud or silently…
O
God of Blessing
Help us unbind our faith to abide in
You
~ O Lord of Hosts, our King of Glory, inspire
the hearts and minds of all who lead us in Your church, who encourage and
remind us through Word and Sacrament, how to lead lives worthy of the calling
for which we have been created. We pray especially for: add your own petitions
O
God of Blessing
Help us unbind our faith to abide in
You
The
Celebrant adds: God of us all, Saints and Sinners together, set our hearts free from the prison of hate, the
emptiness of self-importance, and the mindlessness of earthly privilege. May we
each claim our divine endowment of hope, grace, and mercy as we strive to ascend
the hill of the Lord and stand always
in Your Holy Place. We ask through Jesus, our Christ, and in the Unity of the
Holy Spirit, who together with You are One God above all, through all, and in
all, for ever and ever. Amen.
