Sermon: The Rev. paul leclair

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Sermon: All Saints Day

Sermon for All Saints Day
November 1, 2020
The Rev. Paul LeClair

Revelation 7:9-17 Psalm 34:1-10, 22 1 John 3:1-3. Matthew 5:1-12

Bless our voices, that they may be used for kindness,
our ears for compassion,
our hands for charity,
our minds for truth,
and our hearts for love. Amen

~~~
See what love the Father has given us,
that we should be called children of God;
and that is what we are. 1 John 3:1-3

The COVID-19 pandemic is most frequently described in numbers.
We see it on the news every day; the number of new cases, the number of deaths.
We also know, all too painfully, that every one of those numbers is a human being: someone who loved; someone who was loved;
someone whose life was a story worth telling and remembering.
A new Twitter feed, @FacesofCovid, is the work of Alex Goldstein,
and has been set up to tell those stories. Alex believes that it is very easy,
in moments like this, to allow ourselves to become numb to the statistics
and not see the faces that are behind those numbers. And so, he combs newspapers,
from The New York Times to small-town weeklies, collecting the stories
of the more than 200,000 Americans who have died of the coronavirus.
It reads like a litany of saints:

Margaret was the loving mother and grandmother,
remembered by family and friends for her selflessness and generosity.
Wendell, the beloved school bus driver, is remembered for
his limitless good humor and care for every child on his bus.
86-year-old, Reva, dropped out of high school to care for her brothers and sisters. Then she returned to school later in life and became an educator herself,
helping others to complete their GED.
Rebecca treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients
before she herself succumbed to the virus.
Michael was a volunteer firefighter and EMT in his community.
He died after contracting COVID-19 during a response to a residence
where the patient had a known case of the virus.
Ashlee, a middle-school special-ed teacher, was known to use her own money
to pay for whatever a student needed, from school supplies to clothes.
Tyler, was a husband, dad and youth hockey coach.
I chose these persons from the long list of COVID-19 saints
because they reminded me members of St. Patrick’s,
who, though they have not perished due to the Coronavirus,
they have acted in similar ways, before the arrival of the virus,
and during this current COVID-tide.
Long before many of us felt safe to even leave our homes,
the saints of St. Patrick’s, were working in senior living centers
serving residents whose vulnerability is so high,
they’re still being kept in quarantine.
Others worked in hospitals and essential businesses while most people
stayed safely at home and ordered their food and supplies on-line.
Folks who carefully and caringly cooperated with the lockdown,
found ways to provide needed protective gear, emotional support,
prayers, and guidance, in spite of needing to abstain from in-person contact.
~~~
Today’s Gospel reading told us this.
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain;
and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
Blest are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blest are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blest are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blest are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Hearing these and the other beatitudes, we may wonder,
“How ARE the poor in spirit, blest?
How are those who mourn, comforted?
Well, remember what we heard this morning in The First Letter of John.
See what love the Father has given us,
that we should be called children of God;
and that is what we are.

When we act with compassion; when we feed those who are hungry;
when we dedicate our lives to sacrificing our own wants
in order to serve the needs of others, we become the means by which
God blesses the poor in spirit.
We serve as the conduit through whom
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, are filled.
We become the peacemakers, bless-ed instruments of peace,
who demonstrate that we truly are the children of God.
We too will be Blest. “The merciful will receive mercy,” Jesus taught.
The pure in heart will see God.
When our actions usher in the Kingdom of God,
even if we’re persecuted and reviled, we can rejoice,
because people see God in our actions.
Yes, we too are counted among the bless-ed saints of God.
~~~
In a few minutes we’ll continue the All Saints Day tradition
of lighting candles in memory of the saints who have personally touched our lives.
We do this because today we celebrate the feast of ALL saints;
not just the “official” saints like St. Francis, St. Patrick,
Thomas More, and Mother Teresa;
but the saints we’ve known and who have lived among us.
They are the “bless-ed” of today’s Gospel.
They are the ones, through whom, God touches us and our world.
Today we honor the holy men and women who’ve walked among us
and who’ve touched our lives by the example of
their humility, selflessness, generosity and compassion.
So, let us remember today, with gratitude, the blessings they have been to us.
May the lives of our own litany of saints inspire us
to follow the example of their grace-filled lives
so that, one day, we may join their company in the dwelling place of God.
Amen.


Sources:
The New Interpreters Study Bible, NRSV with Apocrypha, Abington Press, Nashville, 2003
Fast Company, April 10, 2020; The Boston Globe, May 12, 2020
Connections, November 2020, MediaWorks, Londonderry, N.H.


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