Re-member

All Saints Day
Remembering so that we can move forward
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31
Year C



Poem to Remember

Always remember to forget the things that made you sad, but never forget to remember the things that made you glad. Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue, but don’t forget to remember those who have stuck by you. Always remember to forget the troubles that have passed away. But never forget to remember the blessings that come each day.

Definition of Remember
The dictionary definition of remember is to re memor (memoir) – to bring back to mind, to be aware of, to rethink, to look back upon.
But there is a deeper meaning – to literally re –member. We live such fractured lives, where our thoughts are all over the place. We remember the past, not as it happened, but as it is convenient. We remember people with sorrow – for what we should have done, and not for what we do. We can get so caught up on what needs to be done, that we forget to look at the blessings that God has given us in today. I heard a saying that tomorrow is a date on a fool’s calendar. In our fractured state, we worry about what we will do when we have more money, more time, more understanding, never realizing that day will never come. All that we have is today – and who we are and what we have.
Remembering is the task of re membering our lives. Taking all of the parts of ourselves and putting them in one place. Taking our past and our future and making a strong connection with the present. That is all that we have to work with.

History of Englewood
Since coming to Englewood church, I have been fascinated in researching the history of the church. If learning of the young pastor who came on the train to meet someone, they didn’t show up and he realized that there was not a Methodist church in the area, so he gathered the Methodist families and started one. Then there was the newsletter article from the 20’s or 30’s which said the Negros are coming, and a challenge to the church to reach out to them. The building of the new facility in the late 50’s early 60’s as the neighborhood was changing and the facility was starting to age and need care.
I even had a facebook friend who emailed me from Iowa to tell me that a member of his church, James Beebe was also pastor of this church. It was funny because he assumed that because he was pastor in 1910, he must have been the founder of the church. It was fun to email him back to say that this man was five years old when Englewood was founded, so he could not be the founder. Rev. Beebe had a pretty distinguished career, he died pretty early at about 56, but he went on to become president of several seminaries and I think even a district superintendent. And it looks like he had been brought into the conference specifically to run a 1000 member church. He pastured Englewood in its heyday.
In reading the 25th anniversary booklet, Rev. Beebe makes a very powerful statement. It was a celebration of the church and the Sunday school. He say, “It is one thing to be proud of the achievements of our predecessors. It is another thing so to achieve that our predecessors would be proud of us. Let us manifest our pride in the history of our Sunday school, not by boastful words, but by service in our day as faithful and conscientious as the past ever knew. So we too shall enter into the joy of our Lord – and our successors.”
What a wonderful statement of what it means to remember. To connect who we are and what we do in the future, not only with the past, but also with Christ, and the saints that he commissioned before us.

Vision
I was so impressed with his statement, that as I get more and more familiar with Englewood, and I develop the vision and mission for ministry in this area – that is my foundational goal. To remember what was done here in the past, but to create a future that achieves just as much and makes the saints proud.
Ephesians says that in Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were first to set our hope on Christ.
We have inherited a purpose, a plan and a hope. We are all saints – people who have been chosen by god for a holy purpose. We have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit – which gives us ability to recognize that God is with us at every moment of our lives, the ups and the downs. Christ is not only the ruler of our lives, but the example of what it means to live holy. The church is a group of saints that have been chosen by god and who belong to Christ.

What it means to be a saint
Being a saint has nothing to do with whether we are good or bad, or even if we are dead or alive, God has different categories than that. It is about whether we listen to the Holy Spirit and we devote our lives to discipleship and service. We are not concerned with making a name for ourselves in the world, but in the eyes of our ancestors who taught us the ways of God.

Discipleship and Service
The second text for today is called the sermon on the plain. Matthew has the Sermon on the Mount that we are familiar with. In Luke Jesus gives 4 blessings to the oppressed, but he also gives 4 woes to those of us who forget to be in discipleship and service to Christ and those whom Christ blesses. You heard it in the new Revised Standard Version, so I will give it to you in another version. Rev. Eugene Peterson, wrote a version of the bible in modern language, called the Message – and once you have the literal version, it breaks it down.
Luke 6: 24-26 says
There is trouble ahead if you think you have made it. What you have is all you ‘ll ever get. And its trouble ahead if you’re satisfied with yourself, your self will not satisfy you for ling, and it is trouble ahead if your think life is all fun and games, there’s suffering to be met, and you’re going to meet it. There is trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others saying what flatters them doing what indulges them. Popularity contest are not truth contest. Look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors. Your task is to be true, not popular.
Usually on all saints day – we spend a lot of time remembering the blessings, remembering that our tears of loss for our loved ones will be comforted, remember that is we are peaceful we will be blessed. Remembering that in our sadness we will be blessed. Remembering is not task of feeling, it is a task of action and work. I think that it is honoring the woes – the trouble ahead that we really honor the saints who gave their lives before us. It remind us of the work in the present that we have to do. Of who we have to be to honor their lessons and to honor the lessons of Christ. Never be satisfied with who we are and what we have. Never look for the truth within ourselves, be true to our values, not to the world. In all things think of what it means to be in discipleship and service. That is the task of remembering – re- membering – bringing the world together in unity with Christ.
And when we complete that task, God moves us on to another task. In another world.

God makes no distinction

For God, life and death is not defined in terms of whether we are physically present in the body. God notes that there a lot of people in the world who are breathing, but are dead, because they have no idea of what their inheritance is and what they were put on this earth to do. And there are a lot of people who are not breathing, and yet have been granted eternal life, because they are faithful. In god’s eyes there is no separation of the past, the present and the future – they are all happening at the same time. In God’s eyes – there is no distinction of the work of the saint, we all work together for a common cause.
Unfortunately we don’t always see things the way god sees them.

We are never alone

A man from Chicago went up to heaven. And walking the streets of God, and visiting the many mansions, he noticed there was a sign on one door which said quiet please. He asked saint peter why the sign asked for quiet.
He said that behind that door there was a group of saints – they were having church service – and the members of heaven had to be quiet, because the saints truly believed that they were all alone – no one was having church but them.
We are never alone – how many other churches are having service and in praise and worship with us right now, how many people who wish they could be with us, but join us in spirit. We are never alone – but we have to have special days like this, to set aside time to remember – to re-member to connect to all of the saints of God. Let us pray….