“The Great Cloud of Witnesses” based on Isaiah 25:1, 4a, 6-10a and Matthew 27:50-56

Rev. Dr. Wilda Gafney who compiled the Lectionary we’ve used this year, says, “For the Feast of All Saints, this lectionary turns to declarations of God’s faithfulness to all peoples and nations.”1 Perhaps I’m silly, but that was a fabulous “ah ha” for me! When we celebrate All Saints, we are simultaneously thanking God for the lives of the saints AND for God’s presence in the life of the saints. That is, for God’s faithfulness. This awareness brings with it the reminder that even the saints who have gone on before us wouldn’t have themselves if not for God’s actions in their lives.

As a pastor, I sometimes get to hear the stories of God’s faithfulness that aren’t quite public knowledge. The stuff of God can be so vulnerable, and sometimes so WEIRD that it can be hard to share it widely. But I can assure you with the saints we are honoring today who I got to know as their pastor, that there were incredible moments of grace and awe in their lives, for which they were grateful, and in which they were formed.

One story I do have the right to share, and that’s good because it is the story I most want to share with you today. One of our saints who is very heavy on my heart today is Lois Atkinson, it is hard to enter this building without thinking of her because it was so very common to enter this building and either see her or see evidence of her work.

When Lois was actively parenting her three beloved children, her husband and their father came out as gay. It was at the time a rather large scandal in the church, in no small part because he came out from this pulpit and those impacted by it didn’t know it was coming. He left the marriage, and Lois suddenly was the primary provider for her three beloved children. So she got herself a fill time job teaching at SCCC and a part time job too. It was challenging for a while, but things went on, and everyone thrived, and that’s a lovely story.

But there are more pieces, ones that feel really important when we talk about God’s faithfulness and the faithfulness of the saints.

The first of these pieces is that Lois calmly, carefully, consistently, worked in advocacy for LGBTQIA+ people. She served on our Reconciling Team, and she worked hard on making it all that it could be. She marched in Pride Parades. Before we had a Reconciling Team, she worked for this church to become Reconciling – both by giving a lecture on the biology of human sexuality to the church as a whole AND by introducing those who didn’t know queer or trans people to queer and trans people so they could engage with their humanity. Lois kept on working for justice for all people, and she didn’t let anything stop her.

Now, Lois eventually met Richard and remarried and those two REALLY liked each other, which is a very good thing. But the thing that amazed Lois the most was this: when her ex-husband married his long time partner, he invited Lois and Richard to the wedding. She was pretty amazed by that on its own, she thought it indicated that they’d divorced well. Well, Lois and Richard went, and when they came back Lois did something that I only knew her to do that ONE time: she asked if she could meet with me.

Clearly I agreed, and she came in BURSTING with joy. This was the most exuberant I’d ever seen her. She came to talk about the wedding they’d been at, and how WELL she was treated – like an honored guest, and how it had exceeded anything she’d ever expected was possible when they’d divorced. She showed me pictures, and she gushed with wonder at the picture of her adult children with her and their “three dads” – their father and both stepfathers.

Lois didn’t complain about her lot in life, and she didn’t blame anyone for things being hard. In fact the closest thing to a complaint I heard from her was an acknowledgment that for a woman who didn’t like the spotlight, it was hard to be in it when the church was talking about her family, but it was worthwhile because she couldn’t have made it without the church.

Oh friends, I wish you could have seen the wonder in her eyes when she talked about the wedding. I also wish I could remember her words about it verbatim, she said something like “I finally understand resurrection.”

Shoot, maybe I should have held this story for Easter!!

Naw, this is a story of one of our saints, and it could get lost in the brass and lilies of Easter, and it is too important for that. It is real life resurrection, it is hope where even the seeds of hopefulness had never dared to enter. It is life coming full circle in a more abundant and wonderful way that anyone would have EVER imagined.

Also, it is the amazing outcome of decades of faithfulness ending up mattering, which …. let’s be honest, is a story we all could use sometimes.

Our Scriptures today focus on the end of death, that God’s faithfulness will eventually make death disappear. This was definitely a big part of the early Christian narrative. While plenty of other Greco-Roman heroes were said to be resurrected by their various gods or goddesses, the Christian narrative was that Jesus’ resurrection and then ascension opened the door for his followers to defy death as well. By which they meant access to afterlife, because until that point it was assumed only the very very very special who were favored by their gods lived after death. But the early Jesus movement came to believe that Jesus was the firstborn of the dead, and his followers got to follow him into afterlife.

For many Christians today, the promise of heaven is the biggest selling point of our faith. For many of us, and for many of the saints we honor today, that isn’t the central point. For us, the point is making life better on earth, and connecting with the Eternal One.

But, I think we are still people of resurrection. People who see wonder and hope and new life possibilities in life itself. We are people who remember when we lose a loved one that we are able to honor them by living out their best qualities. We are people who believe the kindom is possible, and what we do with our lives matters.

God’s faithfulness is seen in the life of the saints, and in God’s presence with the saints. Resurrection is too. Thanks be to God! Amen

1Wilda Gafney, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church (New York, NY: Church Publishing, 2021), p. 313.

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

Nov. 5, 2023