Dear Friends in Christ,
I am writing this on All Saints Sunday, one of my favorite festivals of the church year. I love that we take this day to remember the pillars of faith (saints like Francis, Julian, Hildegard, and Augustine) and the ordinary saints of our own lives and the lives of our congregations (I am thinking especially of my half-brother and father today).
I have become just a bit obsessed this year with Ray Makeever’s hymn (found in All Creation Sings): Death be Never Last. He wrote the first verse shortly after his wife died and the other verses came later. Here’s a choral arrangement of the hymn by David Sims:
Makeever celebrates the saints and provides the crucial reminder that resurrection is real and certain, a promise affirmed by the bodily resurrection of Christ, “We walk in light of countless faces bright as beams of rising sun, certain as the morning chases night in endless ages run. Turning eyes to their shining mem’ry, to their faithful past, saints be now the truth divining: death be now but never last.” In the third verse he offers thanks and praise, “When joy returns with laughter singing thanks to God for life’s sweet song, let us follow after bringing thanks to God for those now gone.”
His words about the rising sun resonate with me on this day for another not quite theological reason: this is the day we change our clocks. Though we have been experiencing less daylight since the solstice, this Sunday is the day that all becomes real to my body and soul. I find myself pulled outside in the afternoon to soak in some sun. I start lighting more candles in my home office.
It is easy for spirits to dip in the winter months, and that possibility, I believe, is exacerbated when friends and neighbors with government jobs live in limbo. It’s increased when ordinary citizens who depend on SNAP benefits don’t know how they will put food on the table. It is heightened when our immigrant neighbors (really any people of color) are staying away from schools, churches, workplaces, and grocery stores for fear of an ICE raid.
The thing about All Saints Day is that it is a day of deep remembering—remembering the followers of Jesus who cared for the least among us in ages past. As we feast together this month, around the Communion table, around the dinner table, at your church’s feeding ministry, draw strength from the saints who first set those tables, who made sure that people were fed, body and spirit. Remember that the same triune God who nourished and sustained them is likewise nourishing and sustaining you—granting forgiveness and sustenance for life and ministry.
As Makeever reminds us, even in the darkest days of winter, life’s sweet song continues. So “let us follow after bringing thanks to God for those now gone.”
Bishop Meggan Manlove