All Saints’ Sunday, Yr. C

The Rev. G. Hendree Harrison, Jr.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Candle light and eternal life

            My father once preached an All Saints’ sermon to me in ten or eleven words while we were driving down the road in his truck.  A family friend was sick at the time.  This friend was a particularly close friend of my dad’s, and he was very sick, so sick that we thought he might not live.  It was just the two of us in the truck, and I said to my dad as we drove along, “What will we do if John dies?”  He replied with this funny little sermon, “Well, we’ll be sad, but you know life goes on.”

            We’ll be sad, and life goes on. 

            Before you get to thinking, you’ve just heard the shortest Sunday sermon ever….

Dad was preaching in a pick-up truck.  For this church sermon you’ll have to allow me about 800 more words to unpack what my father did in one sentence.

            Today is All Saints’ Sunday.  All Saints’ is a favorite day of mine because it is the holy spot in our faith walk where birth and death collide in the waters of baptism and come out washed clean and called -everlasting life.

            And you’re thinking you like my dad’s sermon better right?!  Because what in the world does that mean?  Birth and death collide in the waters of baptism and come out washed clean and called – everlasting life.?

            We, Christian folk, believe that life never ends.  That is, even human death, the death of the body, does not extinguish the light of life that sparks and flames at the very core of all children of God.  Life goes on.  That means quite simply that every last person on our All Saints list of the departed in your bulletin, while gone from our sight is not gone from God’s sight.  Life goes on.

            The gospel’s promise is that nothing can separate us from the love of God- not even death.  So, we’re sad at remembering all the loved ones on our list, but we know that life goes on.  Somehow, someway, our loved ones live on, perhaps in the very heart of God, we don’t know the precise when, where, why, and how, but we believe that life goes on, and on, and on and on.  So, that’s the death piece of today’s All Saints’ collision.  The birth bit follows. 

            At birth we welcome children of God into the everlasting love affair we Christians are wrapped up in with God in Jesus Christ.  In just a few moments we will lay hands and oil and water on Brad Mayfield and tell him that God loves him and that we love him.  We will tell him, by his baptism, that he belongs to God and that he belongs to us, and that his life will go on and on.  Because that is what life does!  Life goes on.

            I think I have a real life illustration that serves this Christian notion that the light of life goes on and on.  There was a candle light vigil for victims of domestic violence on the steps of the McMinn County Courthouse Tuesday night of last week.  There was not a huge crowd there, but there was a healthy swarm of twenty some odd women and children.  The gathered folks listened to a soft, elegant musical performance and a short, poignant talk by the director of the Hope Center and then from the top of the courthouse steps, a lit candle was passed down to the people, so that each person might light their own candle, and quickly enough each person present was holding a lit candle against the crisp night air, and slowly the group walked, candles in hand, around the courthouse.

            The walkers were quiet but a single woman stood on the top step right at the courthouse doors and sang a hopeful song in a clear voice and her song floated around the courthouse following behind and going before the vigilant walkers with their candle lights.  By their presence and by the flames they held in their hands, the folks at the vigil said clearly, Life Goes On.  They did not banish violence or do away with death and pain that night, but they did say clearly that violence and abuse are not the end of the story. 

            Nothing ever puts out all the lights.  Life goes on.

            On All Saints’ Sunday we remember those who came before us, and we celebrate the Christian belief that their lives go on in the Kingdom of God.  And on this All Saints’ Sunday we invite the baby, Brad Mayfield, into this well lit circle of believers through the holy waters of baptism. 

            I know it sounds counter-intuitive that a crashing-together would produce something good, but this All Saints’ Day collision of baptismal birth and the remembrance of our beloved dead, really does yield a vivid symbol for everlasting life.

            Neither birth nor death is the end of things.  I mean, it’s not enough just to be born and death is no end.  Rather, there is life beyond birth and indeed, there is life beyond death.  Birth and baptism, and death and burial are but starting places in the Christian walk.

            Now, we can choose to deny life.  For instance, Brad’s parents could choose to raise him away from the church and the fellowship of the body of Christ.  Were that to be the case, although nothing could separate him from the love of God, he would not realize and enjoy the full depth of meaning God hopes for his life to achieve.  Life beyond birth would not be the deep, rich, graceful life that the gospel promises.  However, if Brad’s parents choose to raise him in the church, and then he chooses, when he’s old enough, to engage the Christian walk as it is laid out by Jesus in this morning’s gospel, life will likely become immeasurably rich for him.

            Listen to Jesus words  - “[Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, turn the other cheek, give to everyone who begs, do to others as you would have them do to you.]”  What a tremendous baptismal charge to family, church and child!  Can you imagine the wonderfully hopeful and fruitful life Brad could have, that all of us could have, if we would allow our lives to be directed by that measure of love?

            Life goes on indeed!  Now, let’s dip into these waters of Baptism like the multitude of saints who’ve come before us.  Brad, we will light your candle off of ours as a sure and hopeful sign and symbol that Life goes on, and on, and on.  Amen.