All Souls - a Time to Grieve, A Time to Imagine

On Sunday at St. Georges we join the ancient celebrations of All Saints and All Souls. We will join with Christians around the world who have or will light candles and remember those who have died over the last year or two. These are days that allow us to celebrate both the great saints and those we have known and loved and who, for better or for worse, have helped shape who we are. We give thanks for their lives and acknowledge our grief at their passing. It is a moment to be still, to know our loss, and to give thanks. As we do this, we take another step in letting them go trusting that they now rest in God, as they have always.

Our gospel reading from Luke 6 is a wonderful restating of God’s faithfulness both to the covenant with Israel, and through that to the promises of restoration and the wholeness of creation – shalom; already acclaimed by Mary in her song in Luke 2, and by Jesus while reading of the scroll in Luke 4. After being on the mountain choosing his new apostles, Jesus describes how the world will look when the world and all God’s creatures are seen as belonging fully to God. It is a moment of faithful imagination of God’s worldwide shalom which has come near in Jesus himself.

The saints are those who were inspired by this shalom. They are among the blessed who had their imagination and hopes shaped by this glimpse of God’s future and trusted that it was for them. They are blessed in both trust in God and in God’s future, and in their hope of justice. They are an open circle inviting us into their midst having our imaginations shaped in trust to God’s future, knowing we are held by God in love, just as those we love are held.

A friend posted this quote on Facebook, “Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. “Be still” they say. “Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”” (Linda Hogan - Thanks Franciscan Action Network.)

So as we remember those who have loved us and we seek to honour them in how we live our lives, I wonder how we understand Jesus "blessing" in this reading and how we have experienced it?

Where do you find yourself in the gospel reading today?

What does Jesus offer as you remember and give thanks?

As a footnote I am not preaching this Sunday so there will be no sermon notes. But I would enlarge on the above if I was preaching.