Reno UMC Sermon: 11-01-09

November 1, 2009
Rev. Judith Bither

Saints Alive!

Back when I lived in Manteca, I witnessed a curious phenomenon. I would find myself sitting behind a car with a memorial to a lost loved one prominently displayed on the back window or bumper. The stickers would list the person's name, birth and death dates, as well as a slogan of remem-brance, noting that this person would never be forgotten.

It was not a coincidence that the vast majority of those stickers were on cars driven by Mexican and African descendents. James H. Evans Jr. notes, "in traditional African societies, the death of a member of the community does not portend the end of the life but the passage from one phase of participation in the community to another. When a person dies he or she lives on as part of the community as long as relatives and friends remember his or her name. These remembered ones, or ancestors, participate in a kind of personal immortality. Countries south of our border do not celebrate Halloween, but Day of the Dead. The families all gather at the cemetery with picnics, cleaning up the graves, they celebrate the lives of those who have died, but whose spirits are alive. Likewise, one of the most popular reasons for getting a tattoo is as a remembrance. These are actually called memorial tattoos. Making a mark that will last you the rest of your life is a sure way of remembering a person, place or moment. Since at least World War II soldiers chose tattoos to remember their buddies who had died in combat. One of the most popular tattoo responses to the September 11th was a similar tattoo of NYC firefighters. Reading a website about memorial tattoos someone had this wise suggestion: Remember time heals all wounds, but the ink does last for a lifetime.

If you think about it, all these practices mirror the Christian practice of All Saints or All Souls Day--a day set aside to remember the saints and martyrs who have gone before us into God's glory. We've been celebrating this day since the fourth century as a feast of All Martyrs. It is that feast, or communion, that continues to link us to Christians who have gone before us. Whenever communion is cele-brated, we are called to remember not just Jesus, but all of those who followed in Christ's footsteps and stood strong in the faith in the face of persecution. As we take in the bread and cup, we are joined by their spirits and strengthened by their witness….we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.

In the meantime, God promises to end our mourning and grief--God will "destroy the shroud that is cast over all people" and "wipe away the tears from all faces." Because those who have left us in body have joined us in spirit, we are never without them--never without their memory, their influence or their ultimate presence. Instead, God emphasizes the fullness of life instead of the finality of death. When we enter fully into life, we find that thoughts of death melt away as we tend to the needs and joys of those around us.

Each year on All Saints' Day, our congregation celebrates the lives of those we've lost from our communion. We read their names, the organ chimes and today we lit candles on the altar. We remember their presence with us in the worship service and at the communion table.

Each church surely has its saints that keep us being true to our mission year after year: they given generously of their time and talent and when possible, their treasure. One saint I remember best was Trulen. Trulen was a retired high school math teacher when I arrived in Manteca in 2002.

After retiring professionally from teaching he volunteered at the church after school program to tutor in math. He was also our church treasurer for over 20 years. The church didn’t have a paid financial administrator, so Trulen kept the books, wrote the checks and all the other tasks required. He also became a kind of father figure to our all-woman office. He checked in almost daily to see how everyone was doing. Trulen was a large and quiet man who had struggled with depression off and on throughout his life. He began coming to a Grief Share group that I offered shortly after his parents died within a month of each other, His wife Judy came with him. Several times Trulen made the comment that he wouldn’t want a memorial service because who would come? You know where this story is going: at 1:00 AM Easter morning of 2004 my telephone rang. It was a nurse from our church calling from the hospital. She called to tell me that Trulen had died, his wife was there and they hadn’t told her yet. I went right away. The Saturday after Easter we held a memorial service that was standing room only. Four previous pastors attended. Stories were shared about how Trulen had touched life after life in his quiet unassuming way.

From Trulen’s example I learned that we don't have to wait until death to live as a saint in the world. Instead, we can find our sainthood here--entering fully into life through the communion with those still living and those who have gone before. Pastor and author Frederick Buechner writes that "to become a saint is to live not with the hands clenched to grasp, to strike, to hold tight to a life that is always slipping away the more tightly we hold it; but it is to live with the hands stretched out both to give and receive with gladness."

Trulen lived with his hand stretched out, giving and receiving with gladness. When we live in this way, we learn how to trust in God. We are given that unshakable knowledge that God loves us and we can rejoice and be glad in that salvation. Just as the martyrs who have gone before us, we give our lives completely to the God who redeems us.

Reaching that point of trust isn't easy. Even as we remember, honor, and seek to emulate the faith, if not the suffering, of those who have gone before us, we have a great fear of our own death--following those saints of God into eternity ourselves. It's not just the actual physical process of dying that we fear, however.

A study done in Britain in April 2008 found that 32 percent of those polled feared dying alone. What is at the heart of that fear is a yearning to be remembered. If we die alone, then we have no one to carry on our name--no one to immortalize us on car windows or in their hearts.

Evans writes that when a person's name is forgotten "the process of dying is finally accomplished. However, the no-longer-remembered ones are not vanquished from the community. They are then referred to as the living dead and enter into a state of collective immortality".

In Isaiah 25:8, we are promised that God will "swallow up death forever" and wipe away our tears. This is what accomplishing the process of death is about. While many are immortalized on car bumpers, with tattoos or on crosses by the side of the highway, still others have been long forgotten. On this All Saints' Day, we honor them all--those we can name and those whose names have been lost to history--swallowed up in the passage of time. The good news is that God has not forgotten them. Each name is carved on the palm of God’s hand….perhaps as a memorial tattoo! This day let us rejoice in that as we remember our loved ones today. Amen, let it be so.

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