*Names are changed to respect privacy
Today is All saints day. The day in the church year when we traditionally remember all who have died that were close to us especially in the past year. Often I tell stories about the deceased. And though we lost fewer church members this year than sometimes, there were still some very hard losses in and connected to our midst. Husbands and wives, children and grand-children, siblings and good friends still feel very keenly the loss of their loved ones. And in our lesson for today Jesus talks about those people, about the loved ones, when he says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. and so we’re going to talk a little bit about those people today. Sometimes we tell stories on this day of those who have died but in this case the stories will be of those who mourn.
We’ve had three funerals connected to our communities lately and I want to tell you a story of those who mourned at each.
Most recently here we had a great celebration of the life of *(Emma)*, you can still see the flowers from it all around. The service was lovely, she wrote it herself and then there was a very large luncheon afterwards, people gathered together and shared stories, visited, really celebrated who she was to each of them. Funerals are a blessing in that way because they seems to mend old wounds sometimes. when we gather together around something so big as God’s promise of forever, things like our mortality seem awfully small. That is one was that blessed are those who mourn is lived out, both as a promise and as a command that we bless one another.
So After the meal the people closest to Emma traveled to the cemetery, including her 94 yr old sister whom she lived with, both caring for one another in the ailing later years. *(Jean)* couldn’t walk to the grave so the family made a half circle with an opening in it just where the car that Jean was in was parked about 25 feet away. I talked very loudly and in that way the saints young and old sent off their dear sister. It was a warm feeling bringing her into the circle like that and people acted like including her in God’s final promise of love was about the greatest gift that they could give her. Maybe because they knew it was a gift that was given to them as well.
Next a couple weeks ago, someone from the Castleton community died and I was called to do her funeral at Ray’s. Her family was very sweet and loving and she had a whole bunch of Grandsons. They came in hodgepodge suits like teenage boys do, with dirty tennis shoes on their feet and that look on their faces. But when we gathered around the grave after the service they made a little honor guard around they few chairs that they funeral home had set out. Verily lifting their father and mother, elderly aunts and the like into them and playing a game of musical chairs to make sure that despite the mud and he cold and the snow their little family unit now without their matriarch was held together and safe. Like a band of shepherds for the mourning sheep. I think that scene was one of the greatest gifts that they could have given me that day. Maybe because it was such a sure sign that that is a gift that the good shepherd gives each of us starting at our baptisms and culminating on the last day.
Farthest back, about a month or two ago there was a funeral for a man connected to the East Schodack community. He loved classic rock music, his wife and his bike. So did the mourners. They gathered around the casket helmets under their arms, Harley gear on, big longs beards (not that there is anything wrong with that Ed*...) and tears in their eyes. He was youngish and had served in the military. They left trinkets in the coffin and shook my hand after the service like hearing that God loved their friends was the greatest gift they’d gotten in a long, long time.--Maybe because they knew it meant God loved them too.
The reason I tell these stories is because when we gather together to remember those who have died, we know them, we know their great qualities and their flaws. we remember the times they didn’t get it right. we remember the times we fought with them. we remember their struggles and pains. The times they fell short and the times they overcame. we remember them as real people, fully saints, fully sinners. And we hear most clearly in the promise of our gospel lesson that each one of them is blessed for who they were, for the work that they did for God’s world in their lifetimes. And most comfortingly and assured by God’s love promised to them when they were still saints and sinners with a long way to go. And if this is true for them. we know that it is true for us as well and that is the great, good news that All the Saints bring to us today. Amen.
Today is All saints day. The day in the church year when we traditionally remember all who have died that were close to us especially in the past year. Often I tell stories about the deceased. And though we lost fewer church members this year than sometimes, there were still some very hard losses in and connected to our midst. Husbands and wives, children and grand-children, siblings and good friends still feel very keenly the loss of their loved ones. And in our lesson for today Jesus talks about those people, about the loved ones, when he says blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. and so we’re going to talk a little bit about those people today. Sometimes we tell stories on this day of those who have died but in this case the stories will be of those who mourn.
We’ve had three funerals connected to our communities lately and I want to tell you a story of those who mourned at each.
Most recently here we had a great celebration of the life of *(Emma)*, you can still see the flowers from it all around. The service was lovely, she wrote it herself and then there was a very large luncheon afterwards, people gathered together and shared stories, visited, really celebrated who she was to each of them. Funerals are a blessing in that way because they seems to mend old wounds sometimes. when we gather together around something so big as God’s promise of forever, things like our mortality seem awfully small. That is one was that blessed are those who mourn is lived out, both as a promise and as a command that we bless one another.
So After the meal the people closest to Emma traveled to the cemetery, including her 94 yr old sister whom she lived with, both caring for one another in the ailing later years. *(Jean)* couldn’t walk to the grave so the family made a half circle with an opening in it just where the car that Jean was in was parked about 25 feet away. I talked very loudly and in that way the saints young and old sent off their dear sister. It was a warm feeling bringing her into the circle like that and people acted like including her in God’s final promise of love was about the greatest gift that they could give her. Maybe because they knew it was a gift that was given to them as well.
Next a couple weeks ago, someone from the Castleton community died and I was called to do her funeral at Ray’s. Her family was very sweet and loving and she had a whole bunch of Grandsons. They came in hodgepodge suits like teenage boys do, with dirty tennis shoes on their feet and that look on their faces. But when we gathered around the grave after the service they made a little honor guard around they few chairs that they funeral home had set out. Verily lifting their father and mother, elderly aunts and the like into them and playing a game of musical chairs to make sure that despite the mud and he cold and the snow their little family unit now without their matriarch was held together and safe. Like a band of shepherds for the mourning sheep. I think that scene was one of the greatest gifts that they could have given me that day. Maybe because it was such a sure sign that that is a gift that the good shepherd gives each of us starting at our baptisms and culminating on the last day.
Farthest back, about a month or two ago there was a funeral for a man connected to the East Schodack community. He loved classic rock music, his wife and his bike. So did the mourners. They gathered around the casket helmets under their arms, Harley gear on, big longs beards (not that there is anything wrong with that Ed*...) and tears in their eyes. He was youngish and had served in the military. They left trinkets in the coffin and shook my hand after the service like hearing that God loved their friends was the greatest gift they’d gotten in a long, long time.--Maybe because they knew it meant God loved them too.
The reason I tell these stories is because when we gather together to remember those who have died, we know them, we know their great qualities and their flaws. we remember the times they didn’t get it right. we remember the times we fought with them. we remember their struggles and pains. The times they fell short and the times they overcame. we remember them as real people, fully saints, fully sinners. And we hear most clearly in the promise of our gospel lesson that each one of them is blessed for who they were, for the work that they did for God’s world in their lifetimes. And most comfortingly and assured by God’s love promised to them when they were still saints and sinners with a long way to go. And if this is true for them. we know that it is true for us as well and that is the great, good news that All the Saints bring to us today. Amen.
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