“For All the Saints” based on 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13…

This
year I’ve spent some time wondering what the saints who have gone on
before me would think of this year.  In some cases I know the
answers.  My “Nana,” my paternal grandmother, would have been
HORRIFIED by it all.  She was always scared of getting sick, and she
was a major extrovert and isolation would have been her personal
hell.  My maternal grandmother, who I called “Grandmom” would
have been soooo worried about essential workers and those who are
struggling without enough resources.  I fear my grandfathers, both
veterans, would be horrified by the way the USA failed to lead during
this pandemic.

Especially
in the spring, when we knew even less, and isolation was new, the
echoes of my grandparents lives felt close at hand.  Perhaps it was
the isolation itself that helped, they felt as close as anyone else
could get, and memories were extra important.

Paul,
in 1 Thessalonians says, “You remember our labor and toil, brothers
and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any
of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. You are
witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct
was toward you believers.”  The toil was literally labor for money
so he didn’t have to ask others for support.  However, the standard
of “pure, upright, and blameless” still feels really high.  I
loved my grandparents and I loved many of the saints we celebrate
today, but none were PERFECT.

I
sort of like the insults leveled in Matthew, “the scribes and the
Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat;
therefore, do whatever they teach
you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice
what they teach.”  So their actions were bad, but their teachings
were good?  While the intention was to undercut them, I feel like
that is a far more do-able standard!

However,
it really was pointing out the hypocrisy in “Jewish leadership”
in Jesus’ day, so I guess I don’t get to drop the bar.

Despite
how it sounds in Paul, I don’t think that we’re called to be perfect.
Even John Wesley, well known in Christian circles for believing that
people could reach perfection DURING THEIR LIFE-TIMES, defined
perfection as speaking and acting out of God’s love for everyone –
but acknowledged that one could ERR in how one expressed that love
and still be perfect.

Most
of us still don’t meet that standard.

Nor
do our saints.  I knew many of them and loved them and was inspired
by them, but neither love nor inspiration required perfection.

I
do think that love and inspiration do best when they meet with
authenticity.  I”m always struck by the in-congruence between the
human desire to “fit in” and the fact that when I meet with loved
ones to prepare a “celebration of life” that what the people love
and miss are the things that made the person UNIQUE.  It is the ways
that we don’t fit into the norm that people love about us.  (Although
humility can be nice too, as Paul AND Jesus point out.)

As
we come into this week of even higher anxiety and deeper unknowing, I
hope those saints who have been walking with us all year can help us
again.  They have been through unknowing, and come out the other
side.  They have walked with us in love throughout our lives and
their love stays with us today.  

Whatever
comes next, God is with us.  And those people who have been
expressions of God’s love in our lives remain sources of our
strength.  It has been a very hard year, and it isn’t over yet, but
we DO NOT WALK ALONE.  Amen