WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.040 Well, friends, uh jumping right in, all Saints Day, right? 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:11.839 A day that we are remembering all the saints who have gone before us uh in this life. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:13.439 Uh it's an interesting thing. 00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:16.160 We saw it in the kids talk this morning. 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:22.160 We kind of wrestle with uh our full understandings of what the afterlife might be like, right? 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.800 And we're sort of limited in what we know. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:26.719 I I say sort of limited. 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:28.800 We are absolutely limited. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:36.719 Uh and you know, there's only one person who uh went there and came back, I guess, or went there and gave us some message of what is there. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:42.079 Uh otherwise, we're kind of have to just go by faith. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:49.679 And in the midst of that, we've got a lot of different images of what that is, the afterlife looks like. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:57.439 You know, you start from uh a lot of um what I would call the more existential understandings, right? 00:00:57.439 --> 00:01:08.159 The idea that maybe there's nothing there, and and this is, this is the life, this is what it is, and there's nothing beyond this, and we ought to live our lives in that way. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:13.920 And at least maybe even in our consciousness, that's all we really know, right? 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:28.560 You've got that on the one side, and then you have faiths like Christianity, who have u images of what we understand to be real and true about what happens after we die, right? 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:44.719 Uh a stronger understanding of something that awaits us when we pass, some new existence with God, with maybe some new connections to the world that that would be with God. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:54.400 And even introducing uh these concepts of ghosts and angels and saints out there. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:58.959 And it's really weighted beliefs, right? 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:12.879 These are not without uh a certain level of importance to us, especially as we start talking about those who have passed before us, those who have touched our hearts, have been part of our lives. 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:18.319 We're invested in what we believe about what happens after we die, right? 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:20.960 It matters to us. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:35.120 You know, I remember when my dad passed away, I had the very first feelings of, hmm, I might not be too upset about when my time comes. 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:46.400 Because at that point, I might get to go see my dad again and be reconnected with him in whatever existence lay beyond this. 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:56.800 I can't know what happens after we die, but that belief, that belief itself is is very comforting. 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:57.439 Right? 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:03.759 I can I can rest and have and find comfort in that belief about what happens in the afterlife. 00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:08.000 One day I'll pass and I'll see my dad again. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:13.439 I'll see other people who have been meaningful to me again. 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:17.199 Maybe you have similar feelings. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:21.599 Maybe there's someone like that for you. 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:30.400 It's in that spirit that we enter into this passage from Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, right? 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:40.400 So another letter coming from the Christian part of the Bible, the New Testament, many of them from Paul or written by people who knew Paul or walked with Paul. 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:41.599 This is one of them. 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:43.759 It's the second letter. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:49.039 This one's probably a disciple of Paul that wrote it. 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:55.120 And he's addressing some concerns, this writer, about persecution. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:08.639 Early in Christianity, uh, when it was just a movement and there weren't that many people who were part of it, there were concerns about one's safety in that small movement. 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:19.680 You had to worry about governmental factors, kings and others who might be concerned about you worshiping something other than the kings and others. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:33.199 Maybe they have some justification for worrying about subversion or what have you, but the reality is lots of Christians were worried about getting hurt in those situations. 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:48.000 And for their belief system, the concern was, well, what if I die or are martyred in the word we sometimes use, people dying for their faith before Jesus comes back? 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:48.560 Right? 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:50.639 This is early, early Christianity. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:54.319 There was this understanding that Jesus was going to come back. 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:58.319 Uh, today we don't hold as tightly to that belief. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:05.839 It's been so many years we think maybe either Jesus isn't coming back in that way, or maybe Jesus came back as the church. 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:13.040 This uh massive institution of believers who follow Christ that is worldwide. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:22.959 Uh but in the time they were concerned that, well, wait a minute, I want my eternal spot to be with Jesus in heaven. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:27.680 If I die before he comes back, am I going to get to be in that place? 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:29.199 Right? 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:40.800 And Paul's reassuring them, and he's saying, you know, if you if you die especially for your faith before Jesus comes back, you will be part of the crew that comes back with him. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:46.560 And there's that assurance that Paul is making to these people in Thessalonia. 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:53.040 But it does open up a door to us thinking about what happens in the afterlife. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:06:01.680 It opens up a door to talking just a touch about uh some of the cultural understandings of Dia de los Muertos, right? 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:05.360 This cultural thing that's come from uh Latino culture. 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:09.680 Uh we still kind of wrestle with it a little bit, right? 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:16.720 You could hear it even with the kids this morning where we we like it and we like certain parts of it, but there's certain parts that aren't true. 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:18.319 We heard Kiki, right? 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:21.920 Some of it's not true. 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:26.639 We have to remember this, but then there's other parts are really, really pretty cool. 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:35.519 Even the the phrase day of the dead sometimes makes us go, ooh, oh, hey, settle down. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:36.800 You know, we're Christians. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:38.720 Dead's a pretty hard word. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:40.879 We got this afterlife thing. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:42.319 We pass, right? 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:44.800 We transition, right? 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:57.759 So it the the that word, even itself, uh it sometimes it's conjuring up images of zombies and and witches and other weird, weird things. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:04.800 Uh, and we start thinking about well, does this afterlife have some concerns for us? 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:20.319 Should we be worried about what lay in that afterlife? Dia De los Muertos, the tradition around it, actually isn't even really involved with that, even though we've kind of projected it onto them. 00:07:20.319 --> 00:07:23.360 Day of the Dead is really about remembrance. 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:27.279 It's about remembering those who have passed. 00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:29.680 Candi did some really good research. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:31.680 She was telling me about it. 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:50.000 Uh uh up here, you have certain elements that are part of the journey, because you were inviting those who have passed to come back and engage to a certain extent, not to come back to life necessarily, but to have this moment of engagement to remember and to enhance that memory. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.399 So we have food up here, which I've put behind the Bible. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:57.040 Candi's probably disappointed about that. 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:03.040 We have drink for them because they've journeyed to come and re-engage with you. 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:07.199 Uh, the uh lights that are up here light their pathway. 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:16.879 Uh, there's certain things like the these light uh um cutouts kind of symbolizing the fragility of the whole experience. 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:29.600 There's a lot of layers to the belief system, but they're all guided around this idea of we are going to re-engage with those who have passed before us. 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:38.639 We're gonna re-engage with uh um those people who touched our hearts and continue to live in our hearts. 00:08:38.639 --> 00:08:44.799 In many ways, Dia de los Muertos is really All Saints' Day in the way we understand it. 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:51.519 In our more uh um well-known, I guess I'll call it cultural systems and things. 00:08:51.519 --> 00:09:00.559 There's some similarities, but remembering the saints, All Saints Day, that's kind of the connection between the two. 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:07.759 It invites this idea to me about well, what is a saint then? 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:17.200 What kind of attributes do these people have that have grabbed onto our hearts, that continue to live in our hearts? 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:24.159 You know, the Catholic Church has a more formalized understanding of a saint and certain things, markers that they need to reach. 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:32.080 Christianity broadly is a little more uh um, I'll say, accessible as far as sainthood. 00:09:32.080 --> 00:09:43.919 That saints is a more general term, meaning somebody who's modeling the faith, modeling it in a way that uh uh uh uh invigorates our faith and inspires us to faith. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:56.720 But partly how we land with Paul in this letter to the Thessalonians is that he does do just a short description of what it means to be a saint. 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:09.440 He writes, first Paul is affirming he is affirming to them in the sense that he says to them, Your faith is growing abundantly. 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:14.240 There's a checkpoint if you're looking for saints. 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:17.279 Is your faith growing abundantly? 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:20.320 Not by accident, but with some intention. 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:26.639 He also says about he talks about how our love for each other is growing. 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:29.519 Another good marker for a saint. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:33.279 Is this somebody whose love for others is growing? 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:37.120 Is this somebody who fosters love between others? 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:45.200 And finally, he says, you are recognizing that you are still works in progress. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:51.759 You know that God isn't quite finished with you yet. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:11:07.759 That's why this passage is kind of good for doing a light description of a saint, but I do want to say I feel like we might be missing the spiritual part of that understanding. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:10.960 I got a quote here from Dr. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:28.480 Reverend Barbara Holmes, and she is a theologian and uh professor and uh general deep spiritual being who passed away about a year ago, but she talks a little bit more about what saints are, at least in her understanding. 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:39.600 She says, although some folks use a very narrow definition of the word ancestor, I use the word as an indicator of legacy and interconnections. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:49.840 The ancestors are elders who pour their lives into the community as a libation of love and commitment. 00:11:49.840 --> 00:12:01.919 They live and die well, and when they transition, they do so in full connection with an engaged community. 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:16.879 Thereafter, they dwell in the spaces carved out by our spiritual and cultural expectations, and they may be in another life dimension, but they connect with us in dreams, in memories, and in stories. 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:30.639 I thought she captured that that last super important piece about the saints that we remember here on All Saints Day. 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:35.519 These are people who lived life well. 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:39.440 They lived and they died well. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:48.559 These are people we connect with in our dreams, in our memories, and in stories even today. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:51.759 They're people who shaped our lives. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:13:00.240 They shaped us, they remind us of what it means to be able to live well, and even to die well. 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:12.399 Many of them remind us of what it means to be church, a good church, taking care of each other, taking care of the world around them. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:21.759 So today on All Saints Day, let's let them be remembered and held deeply in our hearts. 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:23.679 Amen.