for all the saints who from their labors rest

who thee by faith before the world confesses thy name, o jesus

A reflection for All Saints from 1 Kings 18:17-39:

…Elijah is a little problematic for today; All Saints. Isn’t he?

Elijah's certainly not humble. 

His words aren’t kind, taunting the prophets of Baal.

But, I’ve come to learn that’s what it means to be one of God’s saints. 

Saintliness is not perfection, it’s hope. It’s trust. It’s the awareness that unless God saves sinners, and sinners only, then we are without hope.

…Let me tell you how I first learned this lesson;

When I was putting together the first funeral liturgy I would preside at, I got the the Commendation of the Dead where the pastor is to say:

"Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming.”

A sinner of your own redeeming?!?

The family didn’t want to hear the pastor call their loved one a sinner, and at their funeral no less, I thought. 

Until I learned they did. 

At every funeral we commend our loved ones to God’s mercy. And we know our loved ones had moments that made us proud to know them. But, we also know our loved ones weren’t perfect. That they were, well, sinners. 

And what you need to hear at a funeral is that God has redeemed that whole person and all of their life. 

We need to hear that God redeems our loved ones. Don’t we? Because we know that they are like us, sinners.

…Death brings us to the proving ground Doesn’t it? That place where all those false gods have “no voice, no answer, no response.”

And at those times, you don’t want to hear all those old virtues that have no word in the face of death repeated, you want, no you need to hear the Word of the Lord that still falls like fire from heaven. That God redeems sinners! That God raises the dead!

It was then I first learned the comfort of God’s word. It is only the sinful God redeems. It is only the dead God raises. 

And it’s no different for us. 

And it’s no different for the ones we’ve lit candles in honor of today, too