All Saints' Day

“Glory to God, whose power working in us -- can do infinitely more than we could ask or imagine.”[1] AMEN.

How many of you play Trivial Pursuit? What is the answer to the shortest verse in the bible? You heard it today. “Jesus wept.” Or in today’s translation “Jesus began to weep.”[2]

How many of you knew the 200th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia was this last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday? Did you realize that this was the first in-person convention for our NEW BISHOP FRANK LOGUE? Last year we had a completely on-line Diocesan Convention! This year it was a hybrid both online and in-person (kinda like our worship service). Diocesan Convention happens once a year, every church has clergy and delegates in attendance, we worship together, and we do the business of the diocese. One of the major undertakings of the Convention this year is reviewing the work of a commission who is updating our Diocesan Canons. We elect new members to various roles in the Diocese. And the Bishop presents the Diocesan Budget and we vote on things that effect this our Episcopal Diocese.

We are fortunate because of our size, that we have three voting delegates – this year it was Donna Tumm, Linda Sigg, and Shelley Martin (our seminarian). Yes Shelley drove down from the Holy Mountain to participate. Thank you to all three of our delegates. In addition, Ray Sigg was an alternate and he attended. Pat Burau and Nancy Moak as Diocesan Council Members also attended. Bob Moak came along for the fun. John Hays was there representing the work that he does on the Racial Reconciliation Council for our Diocese and Brandi Underwood created their website which went live during convention.

Deacon John and Martha, the Rev. Dr. Kurt Miller, Rev. Thomas Barron and the Rev. Mother Terri Degenhardt attended. Kim and I were also there. In total, we had 13 representatives from St. Augustine of Canterbury! The largest in the entire assembly! Please give those folks a round of applause for their support of their church and their diocese. Next year the convention is in Savannah and if you are interested in being a Delegate to convention please let us know! We elect delegates to convention at our Annual Meeting in January.

Quoting right off the Convention Website, “The theme for this coming year, including our 200th diocesan convention emphasizes what God is doing among us. In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes the work that he and Apollos did mattered in planting the church in Corinth, but any fruit it came to bear was because of God’s action. By growth, we mean not simply increased attendance, but as importantly this refers to spiritual growth and maturity.

Pulling out of pandemic will be a real challenge, as many people have lost the habit of church attendance. But the answer is not for clergy and lay leaders to work harder. There is no Good News in that, neither is it faithful. Instead, we are to do our part, just as Paul planted and Apollos watered. We do have a role to play. But the coming reign of God does not depend on us and our getting it all right. We are to be faithful and to count on God to give the growth.”[3] End Quote.

All I know is that God watered the convention every single day! So, it has to have grown. Actually – I think it means the growth of the Diocese. And interestingly enough even during the time of the Covid, churches did the most faithful things that they could. And in some cases, it was completely opposite from what another church did. For example, some of our smaller churches were not able to go online. They reached out by phone and cards. And as soon as they were able to worship together in person they did – not losing a single member. Another church with around 25 Average Sunday Attendance found a way through a donation to provide online access by using a hotspot and an iPhone in the sanctuary and kept their services going for all their parishioners! Both of these responses were faithful responses and yet completely opposite.

One of the questions that Bishop +Frank has been asking has caught my attention. He said he got it when he was working with Bishop Wright from the Diocese of Atlanta. Bishop Wright offered Bishop Logue a clarifying question. One he honed while taking a class in Inquiry-Driven Leadership at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. The professor challenged the executives in the program to craft a question appropriate for their business that would cut to the heart of the essentials for their work. Bishop Rob’s question became: What does fidelity to Jesus look like in this moment? THINK ABOUT THAT.

You could say also – “What does faithfulness to Jesus look like in this moment?” We do what we are able to do and hope that is what God would want us to do. We do not get it right all the time, but we do the best we can. We are to take the next step whatever that looks like. Even if we stumble and that is not the right step, we take the next step and the step after that. We keep on stepping. We do what we believe is faithful by following where we believe God invites us to go. In the past, in the present and in the future, the Saints in our churches keep things going regardless of whatever is going on in the world.

Today we celebrate Feast of All Saints Day. The actual day was this past Monday, however, this is one of the Holy Feast Days that may be moved to be celebrated on Sunday. You are invited to light a candle in honor of a Saint in your life who is in the presence of our Lord. In our baptismal vows on page 304 of the BCP we profess “that we believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” The communion of saints…. What is that?

The communion of saints refers to believers in the past, believers in the present, and believers yet to come ---sharing the common salvation story of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have passed from this world into the nearer presence of Christ at the death of their bodies will have the same salvation that we have. We have a connection with all those who have gone before us and all those who will come after us. We all -- have this in common --- we have been forgiven by His death and saved by His life.[4] At this time in our journey together, I find this Good News to be very, very comforting.

All Saint’s Day is principle feast day that gets overlooked in the church as it gets paired with the stewardship drives – pledge cards and the like. Which by the way, you all should have received this week. Please get those back to us by November 24th so that our Finance Team can work their magic on our budget.

One of the saints – who trained me - that I knew and loved used to say that she would “get a head ache thinking about all the math she will have to do to prepare next year’s budget.” Thank God for John Neal – our Stewardship Chairperson this year – he is also a saint. Typically we only think of saints from long ago that are dead and that did very extraordinary things. But guess what? We are all called to be saints. The saints of God. (You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea; for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too). The life of saint is neither glamorous nor degrading there are moments when we clearly know how -- we make a difference in someone's life.

We sometimes have no idea when we make those impacts. Think about a time in your life when someone did something saintly. Sainthood’s big dynamic is hidden and with small acts – like reading to a kid who has trouble reading and giving them a book, helping to pay a child’s tuition, washing clothes for someone who does not have a washer or dryer, or helping out a neighbor who is kicked out of her apartment and without support, or just sitting with someone who is sad – you know what I mean. Our baptism makes us all the saints of God. What saints did was not hard and they didn't hoard their sainthood!

What do we do now? We continue to be the Saints of God and to tell the story of God’s love for us the story of salvation. Just like the saints who came before us did and the saints who come after us will.

From the moment we are raised up dripping from the waters of baptism we are adopted into the household of God, and declared to be something better than perfect. We are made children, children of the Living God, and declared to be saints, grafted into the long line of those who went before us, who bore witness to the Story of Salvation. Grafted into the very heart of God, the very heart of the king of Glory, the Lord of Hosts. We ask ourselves the question “what does it look like to be faithful to Jesus in this moment.”

That is your identity and my identity no matter what else surrounds us… stock market upheaval, political division, illness or even death…..we are saints of God, called to tell the story of Salvation, called to bear witness, now, everywhere, and always.”[5]

AMEN.

References [1] Ephesians 3:20 [2] John 11 [3] https://gaepiscopal.org/convention/ Accessed November 6, 2021. [4] http://www.gotquestions.org/communion-of-the-saints.html. Accessed October 30, 2015. [5] Sermon, The Rev. Rhoda S. Montgomery, D. Min., read by the Rev. Jim Said at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, November 4, 2012. Adopted.