Beloved Remembrance
/Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. -1 John 3:2
The letters of St. John positively drip with God’s love for us and with the love we’re called to pour out for others. It is God’s love that heals us, binds us and transforms us. As John tells us, we are God’s own beloved children. It is not always easy to trust that such unconditional, abundant love exists for us, because most of us have picked up all kinds of other messages throughout our lives - messages from others and from our own judgmental minds that tell us that in truth we are actually quite unlovable.
The balm in Gilead that heals the sin-sick soul is trusting in God’s life-altering love for us. When you know you are deeply loved, your life becomes more confident, courageous and focused on. sharing that love with others. And there’s no telling what a beloved life will eventually blossom into.
During normal times, we may go about our day to day business feeling just ‘fine’ without thinking about God’s love much at all. We usually neither actively need nor consciously crave the deep love of God because, well, we figure we’ve got things well enough under control ourselves. Sure, it’s nice to know that God is a loving God. But for the most part, we’re far more personally aware of the love of our family and friends, the satisfaction we get from our work, the enjoyment of our enriching activities. We feel confident that we’ve got our lives and our future all worked out on the good days, right? So, we can take it from here, God. But gosh, thanks for the offer.
It’s when tragedy strikes, when we’re inflicted with loss or serious illness, or become subject to violence, devastating job loss, addiction, the abuse of power or widespread disaster (such as we’re living through right now) that we begin to wake up to our true need for God’s care and love. It is then we find ourselves longing to trust in something much more powerful than the overpowering problems of the world, and to trust in something much bigger than our own current struggles. It’s during hard times we recognize how important it is to have trust that God’s love can and will bring us through these hard times sooner or later - even if we have no idea what that will look like from here. Even when, as St. John put it, what we will be has not yet been revealed.
All Saints Sunday is a Holy Day that reminds us that our short lifetimes are not all there is. This Sunday we will remember the long line of faithful people that have come before us and whose memory not only upholds us, but whose continual presence accompanies us on our way through this life. It is the day when we remember just how big the family of God really is - how very many brothers, sisters and siblings in Christ we have in our family album! And we’re reminded how many are praying for us, interceding for us, and always loving us unconditionally, no matter what we’re going through.
On All Saints Sunday, we have usually gathered in the side yard of the church after our regular service to have a short service of remembrance for all the saints who have gone before us, whether they are as well known as St. John, or as personal as your own grammie. This year we’ll be having our service of remembrance during our Sunday live Zoom worship, and I invite you to share names of those you wish to have mentioned during the remembrance by emailing their name(s) to Elsa along with a phrase or sentence saying who they were to you no later than this Saturday to be included in this Sunday’s service. You might like to have a candle ready at home to light when your names are read.
What we will be has not yet been revealed, but we have seen glimpses of the Kingdom of God in our lives through those we admire and love. I hope you will take a moment to share the names of those through whom God’s love has shined brightly for you.
