Dear People of St. David’s,
Fall is my favorite season. I love back-to-school, even four decades after leaving the classroom, with all the fresh pens and markers and clean notebooks. The current election season has been hard and roughly half the people are disappointed, but I still love election day, when I get the chance to peacefully participate in our government! I know that if I don’t like the result, the first Tuesday in November will come around again as reliably as the shortening days. I love crisp air and crisp apples, and the chance to wear a soft sweatshirt. The color of the leaves transports me back to my childhood in northern Chester County and forward to my home in God; because in my human imagination, the heavenly habitation is clothed in the oranges and scarlets and ochres of deciduous trees.
In the church, we celebrate the fall with a triduum of feasts that begin on October 31, Hallowe’en. All Hallows’ Eve, as it once was known, is followed the next day with All Saints’ (Hallows’) Day. The third day (the church is full of third days, have you noticed?) is All Souls’ Day, or the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. Together the three days help us to deal with our fear of evil and lack of control, pay attention to faithfulness and wisdom, and respond honestly to our grief, all while emphasizing how connected we individual humans are to one another.
On Hallowe’en, we make fun of the Devil. That is what those costumes are about; it’s an attempt to be funny about the things that scare us. While my two grandsons looked a lot like little boys in black pajamas last week, those painted-on skeletons reminded us that even little boys full of promise are human beings whose lives on this earth are limited. So, we throw humor toward that scary thought, dress little kids like the walking dead, and generously share sweet candy to savor the sweetness of human life.
On All Saints’ Day, we remember the heroes of faith, commonly called Saints. The New Testament defines saints as those who follow Jesus. You don’t need to be perfect; you just need to be doing your best to follow in God’s way of love. We honor those among us, the dead and the living, who are good at doing that. The saint who carries a torch in the church service, and the saint who brings her little children to church every Sunday, and the saint who keeps the financial records of the church with accuracy and honesty are maybe even more important in our lives in Christ than St. Patrick who drove the snakes out of Ireland and St. Jude the unknown Apostle who now helps us to find lost car keys.
Those two days might be enough—a day of fun and a day of honor, but there is that third day, when we remember all the faithful departed—all of those who are dead now, but whose lives meant something to us on this earth. If you have read this far, you are already making your mental list of All of your Souls. A fall-lover like me has a lengthy list, and I’m happy to share some stories with you, so grab me after church sometime and we can talk. Get on with making your own list now but let me encourage you both to include your family—and to think outside your home. Colleagues, teachers, friends—all those whose examples inspire us to be the ones God made us to be.
At the Family Service last Sunday, we read about Lazarus, just as we did at 8, 9:15, and 11:30. We talked about Jesus’ friend, and how sad Jesus was when Lazarus died. We read the incredible story of new life for Lazarus, and practiced yelling at him to come out of the tomb. We heard how Jesus told the crowd to unwrap Lazarus from his mummy wrappings (that made us think of Halloween) and we realized that the people got to help Jesus when he gave life back to Lazarus.
Then we thought about All Saints’ and All Souls’ and we named those heroes, alive and dead, who help us to follow in Jesus’ Way of Love. And because it is fall, we wrote the names of our saints and souls on beautifully colored paper leaves and hung them on a wire tree near the altar. We thanked God for our family tree of heroes in our prayers and we kept our saints and souls in sight as we shared the Bread and Wine and knew the presence of God among us.
This year, as the leaves shine and then fall, swirling through the days, thank God for the saints and souls who give us laughter, and courage, and good examples as we follow Jesus through this life and into the next.
Faithfully,
The Rev. Nancy Webb Stroud
Priest Associate
Photo by Bill Stroud.
Published on November 7, 2024