All Saints: A Glimpse of a Larger Reality

Isaiah 25: 6-9 & Revelation 21: 1-6a
Roger Lynn
November 1, 2015
(click here for the audio for this sermon)

Toss a pebble into the center of a pond and the ripples from that single stone will spread to fill the whole surface. So it is with our understanding of life. It usually starts out narrowly focused – it’s all about me! Slowly our awareness and appreciation expands to include those closest to us, those we care about the most. If we live long enough, and pay attention, and are fortunate enough to have people in our life who encourage us to lift our eyes and open our hearts, the ripples of awareness spread to include our neighbors, our community, and eventually even the whole world. 

Most of the time we need help seeing this reality. Most of the time we need help even believing it is there. There are so many distraction which lay claim to our attention and seem to tell us that it just isn’t true. Someone we love dies, and we feel the pain of separation. It is difficult to see beyond the haze of our grief. The world is torn apart by violence, and we feel the despair of fear. It is difficult to lift our eyes to see beyond the cloud of our anxiety. We lose our job, or our marriage, or our health, and we feel the weight of insecurity. It is difficult to focus much beyond the immediacy of the moment.

In our particular faith tradition we have some help built into the calendar. Every year on November first we have the opportunity to celebrate the Feast of All Saints. Among other things, it can serve as a reminder that in God we are all connected, even beyond the grave, beyond the fear, beyond the insecurity. The ripples of awareness reach the shore which seems to divide us (in whatever form such divisions take), and the shore just disappears. We are offered a glimpse into a larger reality – a reality in which there are no divisions, there are no separations, there are no barriers, there is only connection and wholeness and abundance. Singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer put it this way in her song “All Saints’ Day”:
There’s a blurring of the borders
And I swear that I heard voices
But every act of simple kindness
Calls the kingdom down and all around us.

Can’t you feel it ever closer
We breathe it in and then we exhale
We touch both sides and now eternal
Standing closer to the veil
(from “All Saints’ Day” by Carrie Newcomer ©2005)

Both scripture readings for today offer powerful images with which to sustain such glimpses. They obviously come to us from folks who have paid attention and opened their hearts. They speak to us of a reality where abundance is the norm, connection is the standard, and everyone is together in the presence of God. The language is extravagant. It is exuberant. It is radically hopeful. Isaiah speaks of an amazing feast being set for ALL people, and even death will no longer be able to separate us. John talks about everything being made new. And both of them have an awareness that the whole outlandish vision is built on the foundation of God’s presence in the midst of us right here, right now. All else springs forth from that reality.

So why is something like All Saints’ Day important? Why should we care about readings such as those from Isaiah and Revelation? What difference do such things make in our lives? I believe they matter because they remind us of a truth which we very often lose sight of. It is the truth that appearance-to-the-contrary-notwithstanding we are not alone. We are connected – with God, with each other, with ourselves, with the world around us, with everything. And when we lose sight of this truth (which we frequently do) it is so easy to fall into despair. It is so easy to let pain and fear overwhelm us. It is so easy to react in ways which are hurtful to ourselves and to others. Look around at all of the things which we sometimes label “the problems” of the world – war, violence, poverty, prejudice. Think about how much of that flows either directly or indirectly out of a loss of sense of connection. Look at the things which plague us at a personal level – loneliness, depression, fear, grief. Think about how much of that flows either directly or indirectly out of a loss of sense of connection. 

The reality that we are connected is true not because it is in the Bible. It is in the Bible because it is true. It isn’t true because it is a part of Church tradition. It is a part of Church tradition because it is true. It speaks to our hearts and we feel it resonate. I can’t prove it, but I can know it. I can’t convince you of it, but I can invite you to open yourself to the reality. 

Remembering is important, not just so we will feel better, but because remembering the truth that we are connected has a powerful impact on the very shape of the world within us and around us. And we do need help remembering. Occasions like All Saints’ Day offer us that help. Visions like those we find in Isaiah and Revelation offer us that help. Ripples in the pond, spreading out in ever-widening circles, encompassing more and more of our world. We pause to remember our own loved ones who have died, and in experiencing the connection we still share with them we catch glimpses of the possibility that just maybe there is also a connection with others as well. We hear about the feast which Isaiah describes and we remember the connection we experience whenever we gather around the communion table to share in the sacred feast. And we catch glimpses of the possibility that just maybe there are others around the table as well.

Open your hearts. Open your lives. Pay attention. The ripples of a larger reality are lapping at the edges of your soul. God is inviting us to experience a whole new world of connection and wholeness and abundance. Will you dare to accept the invitation?