The Ordinary Communion of Saints: 31 October, 2021
Sometimes the word “saint” trips us up. We think that a saint is someone who is perfect, faultless, infallible; in other words, someone utterly unlike ourselves. But the truth is that once we are baptized, each of us enters that great company of heaven, the communion of saints. . . .
The saints are . . . ordinary women and men who, in their faithfulness, manifest the extraordinary. As one writer has put it, the saints are those men and women who relish life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away. –– Debra Dean Murphy
John 11:32–44
In the gospel of John, Mary had approached Jesus in absolute tears over the death of her brother, Lazarus. (The NRSV says she was weeping in verse 33.) Jesus responded with tears. Rather than being the stoic Lord, which is what Mary called him, he was “greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved” (v 33). He allowed the experience and pain of Mary to touch him, to change him, to bother him.
. . . He let himself feel the pain of death, even while knowing that he held the keys to the end of death, even while knowing he had the power to raise this dead man up from death. We see, yet again, his humanity and his divinity playing out in this amazing and compelling story, and we are humbled . . . by the very real and raw emotion found here in this story of life and death. . . .
When we celebrate All Saints / All Souls, we remember all people who have died. We remember their lives, their impacts on others, their personhood. At the same time, we and those closest to them remember their death. And while there is joy in their life, there is also the very real pain of their death, their passing, their presence no longer being a real, tangible presence. Tears may fall. Tears may be, and most of the time are, a part of this celebration of life and death. Tears are okay, even for pastoral leaders. Tears are full of humility and full of grace, and we need both. –– Kathryn Barba Pierce
Revelation 21:1–6a
How does knowing God’s intention of being in an intimate relationship with humans help us shape that reign already on earth? How are the beatitudes less like commandments and more like descriptions of God’s relationship to the world? –– Sara Webb Phillips
Isaiah 25:6–9
Isaiah foretells God’s future plan for all people: it is like a banquet with the finest wine and richest food. The shroud of death will no longer cover the people, for God ‘‘will swallow up death forever’’ (v 7d). The text implies the virtue of patience, for on that day, ‘‘it will be said’’ (By whom? Those who wait patiently) ‘‘this is our God; we have waited for him. . .’’ (v 9). The promise is for all people, but the faithful will have the joy of seeing fulfilled what they have awaited. –– L. Edward Phillips
Debra Dean Murphy is associate professor of Religious Studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
L. Edward Phillips is an associate professor of worship and liturgical theology at Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, Georgia.
Sara Webb Phillips is a United Methodist minister serving Grace UMC in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a former co-editor of the journal Liturgy published quarterly by The Liturgical Conference.
Homily Service 42, no. 4 (2009): 100–111.