A Litany for All Saints

* For all the saints, who from their labor rest,
* Who thee by faith before the world confessed,
* Thy Name, O Jesus, be for ever blessed.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones present at our beginnings:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Abraham and Sarah,
Isaac and Rebecca,
Jacob and Rachel and Leah,
makers of the covenant, forebears of our race:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Elizabeth and Simeon,
Joseph, Monica and Helen,
exemplars in the love and care of children:

Stand Here Beside Us!
John the baptizer, map-maker of the Lord's coming:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might:
* Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
* Thou, in the darkness drear, the one true Light.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who showed the good news to be the way of life:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Thomas the doubter;
Augustine of Canterbury;
Francis Xavier;
Samuel Joseph Schereschewsky;
all travelers who carried the Gospel to distant places:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Bernard and Dominic;
Catherine of Siena, the scourge of popes;
John and Charles Wesley, preachers in the streets;
all whose power of speaking gave life to the written word:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Benedict of Nursia,
Teresa of Avila;
Nicholas Ferrar;
Elizabeth Ann Seton;
Richard Meux Benson;
Charles de Foucauld;
all founders of communities:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
* Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
* And win, with them, the victor's crown of gold.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who gave their lives to the care of others:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Louis, king of France;
Margaret, queen of Scotland;
Gandhi the mahatma, reproach to the churches;
Dag Hammarskjold the bureaucrat;
all who made governance an act of faith:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Peter of the keys, denier of the Lord;
Ambrose of Milan, who answered the Church's summons;
Hilda, abbess at Whitby;
Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, protector of the Jews;
Jean-Baptiste Vianney, cure d' Ars,

Patient hearer of catalogues of sins;
All faithful shepherds of the Master's flock:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary Magdalen, anointer of the Lord's feet;
Luke the physician;
Francis who kissed the leper;
Florence Nightingale;
Albert Schweitzer;
all who brought to the sick and suffering the hands of healing:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* O blest communion, fellowship divine!
* We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
* Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who made the proclaiming of God's love a work of art:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Pierluigi da Palestrina;
John Merbecke;
Johann Sebastian Bach;
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart;
Benjamin Britten;
Duke Ellington;
all who sang the Creator's praises in the language of the soul:

Stand Here Beside Us!
David and the Psalmists;
Caedmon;
John Milton, sketcher of Paradise;
William Blake, builder of Jerusalem;
John Mason Neale, preserver of the past;
all poets of the celestial vision:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Zaccheus the tree-climber;
Brother Lawrence;
Therese of Lisieux, the little flower;
William of Glasshampton;
all cultivators of holy simplicity:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
* Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
* And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones haunted by the justice and mercy of God:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Amos of Tekoa, who held up the plumbline;
John Wycliffe, who brought the Scripture to the common folk;
John Hus and Menno Simons, generals in the Lamb's war;
Martin Luther, who could do no other;
George Fox, foe of steeple-houses;
all who kept the Church ever-reforming:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Paul the apostle, transfixed by noonday light;
Augustine of Hippo, God's city planner;
Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, architects of the divine;
Charles Williams, teacher of coinherence;
Karl Barth, knower of the unknowable;
all who saw God at work and wrote down what they saw:

Stand Here Beside Us!
John, the seer of Patmos;
Anthony of the desert;
Julian, the anchoress of Norwich;
Hildegarde, the sybil of the Rhine;
Meister Eckardt;
Bernadette of Lourdes;
all who were called to see the Master's face:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Joachim of Fiora, prophet of the new age;
Johnny Appleseed, mad planter of Eden;
Sojourner Truth, pilgrim of justice;
Benedict Joseph Labre, priest and panhandler;
all whose love for God was beyond containment:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* The golden evening brightens in the west;
* Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
* Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones who died in witness to the Christ:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Stephen the deacon, the first martyr, stoned in Jerusalem:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Justin, Ignatius, and Polycarp, who refused the incense to Caesar:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Perpetua and Felicity, torn by beasts in the arena at Carthage:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley,

Burned in Oxford:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein, put to death at Auschwitz:

Stand Here Beside Us!
James Reeb, Jonathan Daniels, Michael Schwerner,
Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, shot in the South:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Martin Luther King, shot in Memphis:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Janani Luwum, shot in Kampala:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Oscar Romero, shot in San Salvador:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Martyrs of Rome, of Lyons, of Japan, of Eastern Equatorial
Africa, of Uganda, of Melanesia,
martyrs of everywhere:

STAND HERE BESIDE US!
* But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
* The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
* The King of Glory passes on his way.
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Holy ones of every time and place:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Glorious company of heaven:

Stand Here Beside Us!
All climbers of the ladder of Paradise:

Stand Here Beside Us!
All runners of the celestial race:

Stand Here Beside Us!

[The people may call out saints' names]

Great cloud of witnesses:

Stand Here Beside Us!

Mary most holy, chief of the saints:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, yes-sayer to God:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, unmarried mother:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Mary most holy, gate of heaven and ark of the covenant:

Stand Here Beside Us!

* From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
* Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
* Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
* Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus our liberator, creator of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, redeemer of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, sanctifier of all:

Stand Here Beside Us!
Jesus our liberator, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and
the end:

Stand Here Beside Us!

*The litany of saints above is chanted annually at the Church of St. Stephen and the Incarnation in Washington, D.C., at the principal eucharist celebrating All Saints' Day. It was composed around 1979, largely by William MacKaye, former religion editor of the Washington Post, though some of the images were taken from A Liberation Prayer Book of the Free Church in Berkeley, California, and has been adapted here and there in the subsequent years.

All Hallows Eve (Day 1)

Halloween is All Hallows Eve, or the Eve of All Saints' Day:

“All Saints' Day is the centerpiece of an autumn triduum. In the carnival celebrations of All Hallows' Eve our ancestors used the most powerful weapon in the human arsenal, the power of humor and ridicule, to confront the power of death.” – Rev. Sam Portaro from “Brightest and Best”

"Halloween is the time of year when we see that Christ has so triumphed over Evil, that even little children can mock the Devil with impunity." – Fr. Victor

 

You, O Lord, have made us from the dust of the earth and to dust our bodies shall return; yet you have also breathed your Spirit upon us and called us to new life in you: Have mercy upon us, now and at the hour of our death; through Jesus Christ, our mediator and advocate. Amen.

Lyke Wake Dirge

On this night, on this night,
Every night and all,
Hearth and house and candle-light,
And Christ receive your soul.

When from here away you pass
Every night and all,
To Thorny Moor you come at last;
And Christ receive your soul.

If ever you gave hose and shoes,
Every night and all,
Sit then down and put them on;
And Christ receive your soul.

But if hose and shoes you gave none
Every night and all,
The thorns shall prick you to the bare bone;
And Christ receive your soul.

From Thorny Moor then you may pass,
Every night and all,
To Bridge of Dread you come at last;
And Christ receive your soul.

If ever you gave silver and gold,
Every night and all,
At Bridge of Dread you’ll find foothold,
And Christ receive your soul.

But if silver and gold you gave none
Every night and all:
You’ll tumble down into Hell’s flames
And Christ receive your soul.

From Bridge of Dread then you may pass,
Every night and all,
To Purgatory fire you’ll come at last;
And Christ receive your soul.

If ever you gave meat or drink,
Every night and all,
The fire will never make you shrink;
And Christ receive your soul.

But if meat or drink you gave none,
Every night and all,
The fire will burn you to the bare bone;
And Christ receive your soul.

On this night, on this night,
Every night and all,
Hearth and house and candle-light,
And Christ receive your soul.

October 29 Sermon (Proper 25)

(Given at the 8 AM service.)

Lord, give us the eyes of Jesus to see our neighbors and the strangers we meet.
Teach us what it means to love the stranger as we love ourselves.
Forgive us for our selfishness, for our silence,
for not caring enough for the strangers who come to our communities.
Teach us to love and care for the stranger the way you love us all. Amen
(Rebeca Jiménez Yoder)

Last week the readings were about our allegiance to God (or Caesar). This week it is about love.

As the Beatles would say – “All you need is love. Love is all you need.”

Jesus is asked by a lawyer who was confronting him after he silenced the last leaders who challenged him, “Which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

You can feel the lawyer trying to trap him in his words, but Jesus reminds us of our interconnected relationships.

Jesus said to him, "`You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

It is an ethic of love that matters most. Our relationship, our love of God who created us, to whom we render the whole of our lives and the love of our neighbors as we love ourselves. Love is the key to our interconnectedness to creation.

As a friend of mine put it, “This love I am talking about is a choice, a decision, an act of the will, and it belongs in the heart of your relationship with your spouse, your children, your parents, your siblings, your friends, your co-workers. [and I would add it belongs to the heart of our relationship with our God.] Have the courage to not simply talk of love, but to put love into action. The love God has for you is patient and kind and will never fail. Choose to share that same amazing love with the people in your life.” (The Rev. Canon Frank Logue)

As I sat with my friend’s words, I saw this across my screen:

“One neighborhood in Minnesota put their love into action by paying back a beloved World War II veteran who likes to spend his retirement walking around the neighborhood twice a day. But at 95 years old, at times Harvey Djerf needs to stop to catch his breath. “A few years back,” Djerf told ABC News, he noticed one neighbor had left a chair outside for him in their yard.

“It’s kind of snowballed now. I’m up to 12 chairs now,” he said. “They must’ve seen that I was pausing and catching my breath and that’s when they probably took pity on me.”

It’s kindness not pity that makes Djerf’s neighbors in Plymouth, Minnesota, put chairs out for the veteran. They also bring him lemonade on hot summer days and even cookies, he said.

Djerf said it means a lot to him, especially since he’s been living in the neighborhood for 66 years. In fact, Djerf and his wife of 69 years built their home in 1951.” (ABCNews.com)

That is love for the neighbor, a stranger who walks in their very midst. It is kindness. It is following what Jesus asks of us. And sometimes love goes even deeper, for the ethic of love, is an ethic of life.

In March 2008, Christopher Gregory died suddenly from a ruptured aneurism. He was 19 years old. His parents were devastated. In the awful, bewildering hours following their son's death, they were asked to consider donating his organs. But Chris had already answered that question: just the week before he had innocently mentioned that he wished to be a donor. Their decision to donate simply affirmed their son's generosity.

Three months later, they received a letter: "I cannot possibly imagine the grief caused by your loss," it read. "Certainly, there are no words anyone can say or write to extinguish that pain. Nevertheless, you have shared with me the grandest gift I will ever receive - the gift of life."

Chris' parents eventually met the writer whose life was saved by their son's lungs. They would go on to meet the four other people who were given second chances by Christopher's gift. Chris' mom and dad have since become advocates for the Donor Network of Arizona.

Chris' father, Eric, wrote this in an article this past summer [June 12, 2017]: "The experience of losing Christopher, but knowing his death meant life for five others, changed me in ways I never thought possible. I learned that it's possible to see God in all things, even tragedy. The more I learned about the science of organ transplantation, the more confident I have become in the existence of God. I learned that the butterfly effect is real, that something as seemingly inconsequential as checking a box while applying for a driver's license can have a tremendous effect years later and miles away . . . Most of all, in the face of division and distrust in the world today, I learned that how we treat one another matters. If the heart of a 19-year-old white boy beating inside the chest of a 65-year-old black man does not give us hope, then I do not know what hope is." [American Magazine]

To love with our whole heart and soul and mind enables us to move beyond our fears and sorrow in order to comfort, to forgive, to heal. Jesus reveals the mystery of our beloved God loving his creation so completely and so selflessly that God asks that such love be shared by his people throughout his creation.

The generosity of heart of people like Chris and those who make possible the gift of organ donations is centered in the love of the "great commandment" of Jesus' Gospel: to love with the same selfless compassion, care and completeness of the God who created each of us.

Those neighbors in Minnesota also showed a generosity of heart for a neighbor in a simple gesture of providing a chair for him to sit in and rest while he walks.

This is love. Love of neighbor as we love ourselves. This is how we love God, by how we treat God’s creation. In the end it is up to us to act:

Do all the good you can,
To all the people you can,
In all the ways you can,
As long as ever you can. (J Wesley)

And do it with love. Amen.

October 22 Sermon (Proper 24)

O Loving God, help us receive the Gospel not just in words or phrases, but rather in power, in the Holy Spirit, so that our lives may bear witness to your call. In confidence, we want to labor in love and breathe your faith, hope and charity. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. (Anne Osdieck)

To what do you give your allegiance?

We all have “devotions or loyalty to persons, groups, or causes.”

· Some here love the Yankees. Others the Red Sox. (and the chosen few the Tigers or Mets!)
· Some are Republicans. Others Democrats. Some are independent.
· Some here love meat. Others are vegetarians or even Vegans. (& sometimes illness or allergies force us to have a certain devotion.)

Often what we are devoted to has a very personal or familial connection to us.

· Some walk against cancer. Others against diabetes or muscular dystrophy or domestic violence.

What gets us in trouble is when we decide that this allegiance means more than anything else, when we lose faith, hope & charity for strife, division and animosity.

For Christians, our ultimate allegiance is to God. That is where we place our faith and our hope.

And yet all these other things we devote our time and talent and treasure too sometimes challenge this connection we have with our creator. They vie for our ultimate allegiance, and sometimes we raise them above our relationship with God. In the Gospel, those who were opposed to Jesus, wanted to test where his allegiances lie…

“Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”

Answer one way and lose those opposed to the Roman occupation in the Holy Land, answer another way and Rome would come down on Jesus. So Jesus asks for a denarius, a Roman coin from the accusers, and famously says to them (KJV):

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

Jesus moves the conversation of paying taxes to the emperor from what the Herodians and Pharisees wanted to hear, a trap that Jesus couldn’t escape, to a deeper level of truth. Yes, give to the emperor that which is the emperor's, it’s his picture on the coin, give it back to the emperor. And give to God that which is God's.

In his response, Jesus is not saying, "give to the Emperor those things that are the Emperor's, and the rest to God." Nor is Jesus saying, "give to the Emperor the worldly things and give to God the spiritual things."

These statements would put Caesar equal to God, and Jesus would never make the Emperor or another thing to be worshipped or obeyed or equal to God. That is the wrong perspective. We may give our money back to the government, to the Emperor in the form of taxes, we pay bills with it, we spend it, we save it. But the almighty dollar isn’t almighty, and it belongs to God just as assuredly as we do.

“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

“For God created everything that is & by God’s will they were created and have their being.” Everything is part of God’s creation. We are made in the image of God. So the answer that Jesus gives, remind us that we owe God everything, & we owe God our lives: how we live them, how we give them away, it’s all important. Our ultimate allegiance is to God, the creator of all.

Twenty-seven years ago, NASA's Voyager 1 was about to leave our solar system. For 13 years it traveled to the edge of our galaxy taking pictures and collecting data. On February 14, 1990, as the tiny spacecraft moved on to infinity, astronomer Carl Sagan, then a member of the Voyager imaging team, convinced NASA to turn Voyager's cameras around to take one last look at Earth. The photograph of Earth, from 3.7 billion miles away, was hardly beautiful - but this grainy, low-resolution photograph showed the immeasurable vastness of space, and our undeniably small place within it. Sagan later wrote of the image in his book Pale Blue Dot:

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark . . . The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand . . .

"There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal kindlier with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

The perspective of that remarkable photograph is the ultimate answer to the question the Pharisees pose to Jesus: What is NOT of God? All good things - from a stream of clear, cool water to a parent's love for a small child - begin with God, the Author of all that is right and good and compassionate.

In his confrontation with the Pharisees over taxes & Caesar's coin, Jesus challenges us to behold our "pale blue dot" from a perspective of gratitude for its goodness, resolving to respect and protect it for the good of all our fellow space travelers to eternity, and to remember that our allegiance is to God, who created us & our pale blue dot and this whole beautiful universe.

May we with our lives, truly render unto God the things that are God’s! Amen.

#PrayFastAct for all Who Face Homelessness

From EPPN:

As the seasons transition and the days become colder, we answer the call to pray, fast, and act this month by supporting action for people facing homelessness, unaffordable heating utility bills, and extreme housing insecurity.

THIS OCTOBER, JOIN THE EPPN AND PRESIDING BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND THE ELCA AS WE:

PRAY for our nation’s elected leaders to stand with those who struggle to secure safe and affordable shelter.

“God of compassion, your love for humanity was revealed in Jesus, whose earthly life began in the poverty of a stable and ended in the pain and isolation of the cross: we hold before you those who are homeless and cold especially in this bitter weather. Draw near and comfort them in spirit and bless those who work to provide them with shelter, food and friendship. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.” –For the Cold and Homeless, The Church of England

FAST to call attention in our own minds and actions human plight that eviction, poverty, and homelessness create.

Share on social media using #PrayFastAct and @TheEPPN. On the 21st, post a picture of a dinner place setting with the reason you are fasting this month. We fast on this day in solidarity with people who must choose between paying their utility and housing bills and buying food for their family. Consider participating in an electricity or heating fast by turning it off in your home for the day.

ACT by urging our elected leaders to support strong policy solutions that address affordable housing needs and homelessness.

Urge Congress to support strong policy solutions that address homelessness!

Learn more here.

Pale Blue Dot

As mentioned in my sermon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

Why kneel? or stand? What are we saying?

In light of the current dust up around kneeling during the National Anthem, I was thinking about the diversity of Christianity and how some in our ranks (who are Christians) do not swear on a bible, do not stand for the flag (or pledge allegiance), and some refuse compulsory military service.

Here are some articles that may help us to reflect on it:

https://blog.diocesewma.org/2017/09/25/bishop-fisher-why-we-kneel/

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/heres-what-many-white-christians-fail-to-understand-about-the-nfl-protests

http://mikefrost.net/tale-two-christianities-knees/  (written in May!) 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/24/colin-kaepernick-vs-tim-tebow-a-tale-of-two-christianities-on-its-knees/

http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2017/september/theres-no-dishonor-in-kneeling-on-colin-kaepernick.html

and some background:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-colin-kaepernick-green-beret-20160902-snap-htmlstory.html

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/heres-how-nate-boyer-got-colin-kaepernick-to-go-from-sitting-to-kneeling/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/colin-kaepernick-football-protests.html