By Katie Murray
Today is the day we observe All Saints Day as a congregation. A day where we pause to remember those who are no longer with us, but also, in a way that only faith in a God who conquered death can explain, still journey with us.
The liturgical calendar is a helpful tool throughout the year, bringing our attention to elements of our faith tradition that we might otherwise overlook. Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Pentecost, Reformation Day … all these seasons and days help us to engage the multiple dimensions of faith. I would argue, though, that for anyone who has experienced grief and loss (so, most if not all of us), we don’t need the liturgical calendar to remind us to remember. Grief, as it turns out, can be rather relentless. With time the sting may lessen, but the remembering continues on — at times in moments we can anticipate (a birthday or anniversary), and others in moments that catch us by surprise.
So perhaps what makes this day unique is that we pause to remember not only as individual Christians, but as the corporate Church. We acknowledge today that grief impacts not just our individual lives, but our collective lives as well. We mourn and also give thanks to God for the gift of those we lost this year and the ways their presence among us reflected the image of God in our community of faith.
The last two weeks Timothy preached on the Stewardship of Dreams, and the list of names we will read today includes people who stewarded and dreamed for this church in many ways over the years. Sunday School teachers and directors, committee members and chairs, volunteers at VBS and with our community partners. They were parents, children and dear friends of many gathered here today. People who, through their presence and prayers over the years, have led us to the church we are today.
Thanks be to God for the dreams of those we name today and those we have named in years past. May we, as a church, continue to remember.