Sunday Homily - November 4th, 2018 - All Saints Sunday

All Saints Icon

I.

"See, the home of God is among mortals.
   He will dwell with them as their God;
      they will be his peoples,
         and 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 21:3-4 NRSV]

Today, we celebrate the great feast of All Saint's Day,
   A day in which we all remember and rejoin that mysterious cloud of witnesses
      in worship of God Almighty, who has made a dwelling
         even with the most unworthy creatures of his creation.

Because these saints of ages past,
   these pillars of faith, hope, and love,
       are not commemorated because they were flawless:
            but they are commemorated because they were particularly special vessels
               of Jesus Christ and His love for the world.

Missionaries, such as St. Peter and St. Paul,
   who showed the power and presence of Jesus Christ to the wider world
      even though they may have had an incredibly difficult relationship otherwise [c.f. Galatians 2:11]

Evangelists, such as St. Matthew and St. John,
   writers and recorders of the actual Good News of Jesus,
      who were still among the disciples who constantly lacking in faith along the road
         even as centurions and lepers showed more faith in Jesus than they did at some times.
             [c.f. Luke 17 and Matthew 8]

Theologians, such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas,
   who have shaped the entire trajectory of theology within the Western Church
      and yet St. Augustine had to first be saved from his life of drunkenness and debauchery
         and St. Thomas Aquinas, after seeing a vision of Christ, declared all of his work as "straw."
            [c.f. St. Augustine's Confessions and St. Thomas Aquinas's ecstatic vision]

The Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the First Covenant,
   like Abraham and Sarah who became the father and mother of many nations
      and yet both either disbelieved or laughed in God's face when it was revealed
         what the divine plan would be for their lives.
            [c.f. Genesis 21]

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
   we give thanks and join in with them this morning
      in celebrating the reality that we all participate in actively:
          "the home of God is among mortals."

II.

Because, the celebratory fact about All Saints Day
   isn't supposed to be the saints themselves.
      As all of them together would tell us,
         they don't want to be remembered for their great deeds
            or their wondrous signs
               or their treatises in theology:
                  they instead want Jesus Christ to increase, even as they may decrease.

St. Paul cries out, "Friends, I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ
   who lives within me." [Galatians 2:20]

Sarah and Abraham answer, "When God blesses you, God means it! And that blessing
   sometimes comes in the most unlikely ways, like having a child in your 90s!"

St. Michael the Archangel and Standard Bearer calls out, "Holy Holy Holy Lord,"
   with the rest of the saints in heaven and on earth in the earth-and-heaven-shaking SANCTUS. 
      [Revelation 4]

And Ever Blessed Mary quietly and reverently raises her eyes to her Son, the King,
   and says, "Hear the prayers of your Handmaid for those on earth:
      your will be done on earth, as in heaven."
         [Luke 1; para. Lord's Prayer]

What all the saints remind us is about our divine duty and ultimate purpose
   that we are all called to as followers of Jesus Christ, Son of the Everliving God.

Our ultimate duty is to spread that saving Gospel,
   the salvation of God,
      throughout the world.

And our ultimate purpose
   is to be in such union with God and with each other
      that we are caught up into that great cloud of witnesses
         having been purged and sanctified into the vessels of Holy Love,
            the very vessels of God.

III. 

And, today on All Saints Day, and on Sundays in general
   we have a very special way of outwardly showing
      our inward virtue of Faith
         as it pertains to our liturgy.

The altar ministers, choir members, organist, and your priest
   all wear white garments, which outwardly symbolize our baptism,
      the washing of our clothes as white as snow
         in the blood of the Lamb of God.

Your priest wears festive clothing,
   that, if you look at various markings and symbols,
     priests bear the symbols of Jesus Christ our Lord.
        Because the celebrant of the liturgy is not me
           but rather Jesus is the celebrant of all our liturgies,
              being our Great High Priest in heaven.

-----
[at 10:30am]

[Today, we processed with two torches along with the crucifix,
   and the two flames symbolize the Holy Spirit and God the Father,
      who are both described as Fire in the book of Hebrews and the book of Acts.
         And, with the crucifix, these symbolize the Holy and Undivided Trinity
            the God for whom our parish borrows the name.

And also, the incense at the front,
   symbolizing the presence of God and the purification of our footsteps.
       Just as God led the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt as a pillar of cloud by day
          and a pillar of fire by night,
             so also do we follow the cloud of Christ's presence in the incense.

But not just the smoke of the incense is important, but its material.
   Because the resins that are burning are frankincense and myrrh,
      the very gifts of the Wise Men to the young child Jesus,
         as a foreshadowing of his death and resurrection.]

-----

And, on top of all that, All Saints is a baptismal feast,
   a celebration reminding all of us Christians of that saving Baptism that we receive
      when we follow Christ into the mystery of his death and resurrection
         by our own mystical burial and rising through the Holy Spirit.

And today, we will renew our Baptismal Vows,
   vows that guide us as Christians of the Episcopalian mold
      to live into Jesus's commands by loving God and our neighbor.

IV.

We do a lot in our liturgy,
   but it is all for a purpose and for a symbolic and holy reason.
      And as we celebrate alongside the company of heaven present even now,
         Remember.

Remember and rejoin with the ancestors who have passed on the Christian faith to you
   and who are now caught up in that place where there is no more sorrow
      and no more pain.

Remember and rejoin those great saints of ages past as they pray you on in your life,
   and recognize that you are never alone in this kind of family
      where death cannot divide us who are of Christ's body
         and where the grave cannot contain those whom God has saved from judgment.

Remember, friends, all the particular saints of your lives,
   not by being flawless or being without struggle,
      but who have been the simple vessels of Christ's love for you.
 
And, in the example of all the saints,
   remember Jesus Christ, who first loved us.
      Because our duty is to love in such a way that the Kingdom comes,
          and our purpose is to be those vessels
              that hold that precious Love
                 which saves the world.

In the Name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.