Haggai 2: 1-5

In the second year of King Darius, I the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? I(s it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O In the second year of King Darius, I the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying: Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? I(s it not in your sight as nothing? Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the Lord; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the Lord; work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.

Hebrews 12: 1-12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of god. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or loose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children?"My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts." Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Matthew 8: 18-22

Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached and said, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Sermon Text

The past week marked not only a national election, but also, All Saints Day, November the first. Some of you may not be familiar with All Saints Day. What's that? Well, when early Christians died for their faith at the hands of persecutors, they were honored as saints. They were honored in worship, and Christians broke bread together in their memory. At first, each saint had his or her own feast day. But during the reign of the cruel emperor Diacletian there were so many Christian martyrs that the church could no longer assign a special day for each one. So the bishops decided to honor all saints on one day: November the first. Protestant Christians believe that a saint is any person who has received the Spirit of Christ. So, we honor not just people who have died as martyrs, and not just people reputed to have performed miracles, but anyone who has opened his heart and mind to the risen Christ, and shared Christ's love with others by word and deed. All Saints Day has passed; but on this, the first Lord's day following All Saints Day, we shall remember and honor all sanctified people: both the living and the dead, and especially those who have joined that cloud of heavenly witnesses mentioned in our Hebrews text this morning.

The other day Alice and I were watching a T.V. program about a Chinese explorer who may have discovered America before Christopher Columbus did. We were astonished to discover that his descendants still visit his grave, more than six hundred years after his death! That degree of honoring ancestors is very rare in our culture. Perhaps you and I will be remembered by our great grandchildren, or maybe even by our great great grandchildren, but beyond that, our words and deeds and personalities will likely be forgotten. God will not forget us, though. God cares for each soul, and time is nothing to the Eternal One. So, even if we neglect to honor certain people today by naming them in prayer and lighting a candle for them, as forgetful human beings will do, they shall not be forgotten by the One who gave them life. They shall remain in God's light, a light that never goes out.

During the refreshment time today, after worship, go into the church library and look at the photographs on the wall showing some of the early elders of this church, stern looking gentlemen, some of them posing like Napoleon Bonaparte, with hand in lapel. They represent our forebears, that great cloud of faithful witnesses who surveil all that we do. Have you ever wondered what they must think of the race we are running? This balmy Halloween I was sitting on my porch passing out bags of pretzels to the trick-or-treaters. I ran out, for there must have been more than a hundred little ghosts and goblins, angels and princesses, lady bugs and Darth Vaders. The hue of their skin was as varied as their costume. In a moment of relaxed reverie I felt so kindly blessed! How did this come to be, I wondered: that black children and white children are trick-or-treating happily together, in a neighborhood where whites and blacks live peaceably together? Those stern gentlemen on the wall did not envision this coming to pass of Martin Luther King Jr.'s glorious dream. Nor could they have imagined families consisting of same-sex parents, nor even women Elders! As they look down from their wall upon the race we are running, I wonder whether they are offended and disappointed with what they see in this sacred space, our inheritance from them, the fruit of their labor? The prophet Haggai, writing after the return of his people from exile in Babylon, remembered a former elegant temple which had fallen into almost complete ruin. "Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?" he lamented. Is that the way the stern elders on our wall see the race we are running: Christendom lost, their sanctuary yawning, the walls which they built now leaking? Or, might they be able to appreciate that by God's Spirit we have our own unique race to run, and we are running it rather well, and accomplishing things that hadn't yet dawned upon their minds or hearts?

My mother passed from this life at forty-six, when I, the eldest of her three children, was scarcely grown. Had she survived the cancer, she would be eighty-two now. Sometimes I wonder what she would think of me, of the man I have become. Would she approve of the choices I have made, of the grandchildren and great grandchildren she didn't lived to see, of the causes I now spend my life for? I used to be able to hear her voice, but the years have taken it away. Still, I do imagine she's saying to me now: Run your own race, Tom! Run your own race as best you can. Don't let your suppositions about my approving or disapproving hold you back. Cast aside any burden that clings to you, yes, even the ones you feel I might be placing upon you, and run your own race!

It's peculiar that we, the living, think we have to pray for the dead, as if it's they who need the more help! If we can get over the notion that the dead are like those stern elders who peer down from our wall, probably clucking in disapproval about much that goes on, if we can cast off that burden, and imagine them instead as colleagues in prayer, then maybe we can enjoy the astonishing blessing I felt this Halloween, the blessing that comes from realizing that we in our own time are running a unique race, and rather well, thanks be to God. As you come forward to honor a beloved saint today by lighting a candle, thank God for the life they shared with you, thank God for the race they ran, but at the same time, thank God for your own race, and the ways that God is blessing you in it, which may not have occurred yet to the saints you are honoring.