All Saints Sunday, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
All Saints Day, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Isaiah 25:6-9 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
“I saw a new heaven and a new earth,
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away….”
“And the one who was seated on the throne said,
‘See, I am making all things new.’”
What a grand vision John has!
The reality of which I’m guessing we all long for….
at least the new earth portion.
But, I wonder:
Could we live into such a vision today?
Today we celebrate All Saints Sunday –
a day when I usually talk about the lives of the Saints,
but the reality is that none of the Saints set out to be Saints!
They were just ordinary people
living out God’s radical love and mercy in this world.
As I began preparing for today’s sermon,
this past Tuesday, I read The Center for Action and Contemplation’s meditation,
and given our current national and worldwide context,
I thought it most relevant to our lives as Saints-in-living.
This week’s meditations are about “Seeking the Public Good,”
and this meditation is entitled, “Change Through Relationship.”
Sikh activist and author Valarie Kaur places love at the center of our ability to bring about wholeness in a divided world. She says,
“What does it mean to return to a kind of wholeness
where the way that we love
informs what we do in the world
and what we do in the world deepens our love?....
“What I want to remind us all is that
as much as we must fight for our convictions and stand for what is just,
remember that all those people who vote against you
are not disappearing after Election Day or Inauguration Day.
“We have to find a way to live together still….
“The only way we will birth a multiracial democracy
is if we hold up a vision of a future that leaves no one behind,
not even our worst opponents.
“So you might be in the position to have that conversation with the neighbor down the street
or the uncle at the family table
or the teenager who doesn’t want to vote because she’s too cynical….
In having such a conversation, “you might be the person…
to sit in spaces of deep listening—
and deep listening is an act of surrender.
“You risk being changed by what you hear.
“We don’t see those spaces modeled in the world around us.
We have to create them in the spaces between us.
“Oftentimes it means listening over time,
being in relationship.
“Human beings mirror each other,
so if you come with daggers out,
they’ll come out daggers out.
“If you come out and you really wonder ‘Why?,’
beneath the slogans and the soundbites,
you’ll hear the person’s story and you’ll see their wound.
“You’ll see their grief.
You’ll see their rage.
“You might not agree with [their behavior],
but I’ve come to understand that there are no such things as monsters in this world,
only human beings who are wounded,
who act out of their fear or insecurity or rage.
“That does not make them any less dangerous,
but once we see their wound,
they lose their power over us.
“And we get to ask ourselves:
How do we want to take that information into what we do next?
“I invite people to take their [own] wounds [and] their opponents’ wounds
into spaces of re-imagination—
of imagining an outcome, a policy, a relationship
that leaves no one outside of our circle of care, not even “them.”
“This kind of labor,
this kind of revolutionary love,
it’s not the sacrifice of an individual,
it’s a practice of a community.
“When we invite people to practice revolutionary love,
we always ask, ‘What is your role in this season of your life?’....
“Whatever you choose,
it can be a vital practice of love,
of revolutionary love.
“And if all of us are playing our role—
not more, not less—
then together we’re creating the culture shift that we so desperately need.”
Revolutionary love…
I think this is what so many Saints engaged through their lives.
And it is what our Scriptures are about!
Revolutionary love is what Jesus embodied
and called us to follow.
This morning in Isaiah we hear that
“On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for ALL peoples a feast…”
A feast for ALL, not some.
And he will destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples
and will swallow up death forever.
Much like John’s Revelation,
we have an image of divine power, goodness, mercy, and abundance.
God is making all things new:
a new heaven and a new earth…
and in the midst of it all, God dwells with us!
So how do we participate in such a new creation?
How do we participate in God’s radical and transforming love?
As Valerie Kaur says,
we all have our wounds.
But, if we can step out in our vulnerability and humility
and see that others are wounded, too…
then perhaps we can enter into a real conversation
and maybe even learn something!
At the very least,
we will have honored and respected the dignity of another human being.
Violence, or saying something disparaging, is the easier route,
and we witness that in the news every day.
But harm only begets more harm…
It does not promote healing.
So, how might we stop and listen…
listen for the wound…
and then offer to unbind our neighbor (as Jesus instructed the community to unbind Lazarus)?
How might we allow ourselves to be unbound?
This radical love business is a communal affair.
It is hard to do alone.
We need each other
and the infusion of the Holy Spirit.
In a few moments as we renew our own baptismal vows,
let us remember that the Saints did not intend to become Saints….
They were just following Jesus and the way of abundant life.
That is our calling, too!
And just think what new creation awaits…
can you see it?!
Amen.
