All Saints Day: Eucharist, Mortality, and Small Acts of Grace

I speak to the name of one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Please allow me to start by expressing my joy at being with you this morning.

It truly is a privilege to be in this pulpit, in this incredible city.

And let me express my gratitude to your rector, Scott.

Scott is both a good friend and a colleague in ministry,

He is playing a pivotal role in the

shape and nature of theological education

in the Episcopal Church He serves on the board of both the Virginia Theological

Seminary and the General Theological Seminary And he's become a wise counsellor

and a good conversation partner So thank you Scott for that ministry And thank you,

Trinity Asheville, for supporting your rector.

This is a significant new gift you give of his time to the National Church and

Theological Education.

And for that, we're deeply grateful. So thank you, everybody.

So there's a meteorite that's hurtling through planets, through space,

and it's about to hit planet Earth.

And it'll take out all life on planet Earth.

And there's nothing like the end of the world to get people out to church.

So you have a Baptist minister, a Roman Catholic priest, and an Episcopal priest,

all discussing which text they will preach on that night.

And the Baptist minister goes first, and the Baptist says, it's going to be John 3, 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.

I'm going to bring people to Jesus tonight.

And the other two nod. And the Roman Catholic priest says, well,

I'll be preaching on Matthew 16.

Our Lord turned to Peter and said, upon this rock, I will build my church.

I'll remind people that Peter was the vicar of Rome.

He is the true Pope. And the Roman Catholic Church is the true church.

And you've got to be right above the church. And I'll be available for confession

right after the service.

And the other two nod. and they look at the main line and wonder what text will

the episcopal priest choose and without missing a beat she looks up and she

says i will preach on the lectionary readings for the day.

The lectionary readings for the day. And of course, that's the right answer.

Just because the world's going to end, that's no reason whatsoever to depart

from appropriate liturgical form and order.

Well, let's look at our lectionary readings for the day.

You have that text from Ephesians and you have the gospel from Luke.

The text from Ephesians is really interesting. The author, who incidentally probably isn't Paul,

actually does take us through the fact that the saints of God are made possible,

predestined in Christ and the work that God's doing in God's world and in God's

history to bring about lives that are transformed.

And then the author pivots and says to the church in Ephesus,

I plead with you start opening yourselves

up to the work that God

wants to do in your life allow God

to bring Christ to enable you to be sanctified so you too become a saint of

God and then in the gospel you have the fruits of that life you have a life

which loves enemies You have a life that blesses those who curse you.

You have a life that seeks to live out the golden rule, do unto others as you

would have them do unto you.

You can probably work out from our lections that today is all about All Saints Day.

And this is technically, in the Christian tradition, a three-day festival.

It is a festival that has its roots back in the 5th, 6th, 7th centuries,

when the church started to remember the martyrs of the church and started to

recognize their significance in the ecology of faith.

And then it was the Pope in the 8th century who issued the etic that all Christians

should not simply remember the martyrs, but all saints on All Saints Day.

And then All Souls was added, that's the day after, when you remember all those

who've departed and are on another shore in a greater light.

And in the original theology with a particular focus on purgatory.

And then, of course, you get All Hallows' Eve. So you have the three-day festival of Halloween,

All Saints and All Souls as the moment when we remember those who'd gone before,

and those who are models of the life that we should aspire to live.

You know, one thing I'm really interested in is sociological studies around

church attendance and longevity.

And let me stress, this is just an average. It's not guaranteed by any means whatsoever.

But what's interesting about the data is that out of countless studies,

and I really mean now more than you could count, Here is established evidence

that coming to church week in, week out, adds to your longevity.

At a minimum, you're looking at an average of two years per person compared

to your secular neighbour.

There's this fabulous study, which was a solid methodology in a large sample from 1996,

which established that if you're 25 so this is really good news for a child

about to be baptized if you're 25 and you manage to go to church three times

a week now that's going some for.

Episcopalians so that means you're turning up on sunday you're a member of the

choir and you do an outreach ministry so there's your three uh you will outlive

your secular neighbor by seven years.

So it is extraordinary. There is clearly a connection between church and living longer and good health.

So why exactly?

Well, part of it is that we're a civic organization and we're friends and we

get to know people and there's a community that becomes part of who you are. That's obviously true.

Another part of it is that if you're a member of a worshipping community,

you're less likely to get involved in the fentanyl trade or whatever.

I mean, so that's good too.

But what's interesting is church outperforms secular civic organizations by

far they also have a health benefit but not as much as church so there's something

in church that makes a real difference.

And I want to suggest this Sunday that perhaps that difference is that one thing

we're invited to live with is a sense of our mortality When you think about

it, there's something extraordinary about church.

We're very preoccupied with the reality of death.

So you have that moment when a procession's led by people holding a cross,

a symbol of judicial execution by empire against a dissenter.

And then you have in the

table at the eucharist the celebrant

thank god it's called the great thanksgiving thank god for creation thank god

that god's disclosed the reality of god through prophets and supremely through

christ and then the narrative flows into a meditation on loss and death and betrayal,

a guy who's betrayed by his friends,

who is then taken out and crucified.

And the interesting thing about all that is we call it the Great Thanksgiving.

So what church does is it reminds us that there's a precious gift that we're given every single day.

It's the gift of life.

It's the gift of another moment.

It's the gift and privilege of being.

And what church does is it teaches us that that gift is infinitely precious,

more precious than anything else you can have.

And you're invited every single day to use that gift to make a difference.

To help somebody in need. To help a friend who needs companionship.

To give a little of what you've been given to enable others to flourish.

To bring a little bit more love and kindness where there's hatred and hopelessness.

The gift of church is it's a gift for all of us to start to allow God to do

the work of turning us into saints.

And the gift of the table, it is our conviction that as the celebrant hates bread and wine,

So they become the very divine life of Christ that can come into us and enable

us to be just a little bit more gentle and kind and forgiving.

And the promise of the table is this. Just a gesture.

Just a slight movement in the right direction.

And God will take that gesture and God will take that movement in the right

direction and God will use it to enable us to be a little closer to what God

always intended us to be.

Persons that reflect the love of Christ to others.

Amen.

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60 Church Street and perhaps discover their own quiet moment of grace.

The homily was offered by Rev. Dr. Ian Markham.

Musical contributions were performed by Dr. Kevin Seal.

Introduction and closing reflections were shared by the Rev.

Amy Peterson. Sermon audio was prepared by Nanette Popa.

Production was guided by Karen Marie Frederiksen