What can we say November 5? All Saints Day

    I will sometimes in this blog refer you to the previous time in the lectionary cycle the texts for the day / season came around (click here!), as I’ve not accrued much more wisdom! I'll assure you there is much good stuff there! – although I will add a bit that will be more timely (I hope). Peace and courage to you as you preach All Saints (I assume that’s your choice) on November 5.

   I have, while working on a new book (tentatively titled Everywhere is Jerusalem), been pondering places that hallow death – but not in a heroic sense. The American cemetery at Normandy has plenty of grief, but suggests heroic sacrifice. So what places simply speak into tragic death with no implied heroism? The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Alabama, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia. All have a sacred quality – the word “sacred” being key, not implying suffering’s over and all is well, which is what Christians do way too quickly with death, All Saints, and Good Friday. God hallows death. Jesus makes such places and moments sacred, not by the glory that’s around the corner, but by simply being in it with us, by living and dying into the horrific, evil, unjust suffering. Yes, we have hope – but we dare not trivialize death, loss, the consequent loneliness and pain. Especially on All Saints, which can rush a bit, can’t it? Not to depress, but to embrace, and to be honest in the face of all that crushes the human spirit in death. It's only when we've done so that we can speak of the hope. I think...

   So the hope is still there. Let me refer you to my Festival of Homiletics lecture, "Hope as Arsenic," on when we offer to much, or not enough, or the wrong kind of hope. Very important for us who preach!!