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November 06, 2005

Rev. Frannie Kieschnick - The Sunday after All Saints Day

The Sunday after All Saints Day - November 6, 2005
Trinity Parish - The Rev. Frannie Hall Kieschnick

After a long and painful illness, a young mother died leaving her husband and a 6 year old son. His own grief notwithstanding, the young father tried to comfort and support his son but felt utterly helpless. The Memorial Service came and went and father and son found themselves at home alone. There was nothing to do but go to bed but sleep eluded both of them. Unable to bear the sound of his boy beginning to cry again, the young father slipped under the covers with him wrapping his weeping child in his arms.

Finally, the tears stopped and then out of the silence the boy asked- "Daddy, is your face turned toward me?" "Yes, my little, one it is." "Then I think I can sleep."

In the darkness of our lives, in the despair, the pain and suffering of our grief and loss, we too arrive at that place where there is no sleep, no comfort, only tears and we too cry, "God is your face turned toward me?" We long for comfort not only for ourselves, but for our loved ones, for the victims of wars, of natural disasters, of disease.

How blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

That particular Beatitude stands out today for not only do we stand in the midst of a grieving world (we just marked the death of the 2000th Americn soldier in Iraq, not to mention the injured or the Iraqis lost) but we celebrate the Sunday after All Saints Day. One of the things the Church invites us to do on this major feast day is to mourn. I have to say, this year, it seems like especially good timing, for there is much to mourn far and near. Later we will read the necrology-the list of those who have died and for whom we have prayed during the last 12 months of our life together. And we will mourn their loss.

I remember as a child growing up in the church, hearing the words "in the multitude of thy saints thou hast compassed us about with so great a cloud a witnesses that we, rejoicing in their fellowship, may run with endurance the race that is set before us." Of course I didn't understand all those words, I just loved the image of the great cloud of witnesses- in my imagination I saw billowing white clouds filled with angelic faces smiling down at the whole world.

God if your face is turned toward me, then maybe then I can survive, I can move on, I can run the race set before me. God if your face is turned toward us, then maybe your world can survive maybe we can move toward shalom, justice and peace for all your children.

There is a deep and universal truth about pain, suffering and loss. That truth has found expression from the prophets to Jesus to Elizabeth Kubler Ross (God rest her soul) to the experts on post traumatic stress. The truth is- if pain suffering and loss are not grieved, one cannot move forward. Without grief there is no newness of life.

Joan Didion has written a moving memoir called The Year of Magical Thinking. It is about the first year after her first husband's death then five months later her daughter's death. I commend it to you all-Keplers has 70 more copies on order! At one point in the book, Joan Didion quotes an English anthropoligist describing in his 1965 book on grief the contemporary rejection of public mourning as a result of the increasing pressure of a new ethical duty to enjoy oneself. He observed that the trend was to treat mourning as a morbid self-indulgence, and to give social admiration to the bereaved who hide their grief so fully that no one would guess anything had happened.

At her best, the Church has not listened to the trends of the time! And so we gather and we do grieve. I want to point out here that churches are very good places to weep as well- and let's remember that tears of joy are welcome too.

The pupil comes to the rebbe and asks, "Why does Torah tell us to place the words upon your hearts and not in your hearts? The rebbe answers, "It is because, as we are, our hearts are closed and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until one day, the heart breaks and the holy words fall in."

A poet once wrote, A great pain has humanized my soul. Those who are not numb in the face of their own grief or the grief in the world are those who are more fully human and humane. Those who have been comforted are those who seek to comfort others.

Today on All Saints, we place our grief in the context of that great cloud of witnesses known as the communion of saints-the community of saints. As Christians we believe that the community of faith in this life is united with the community of those who have died, have passed through death and now live in the greater life where they see God face to face in the light of eternity. Although our relationship with them is different from our relationship with one another in this life, we are not separated from them. Thomas Merton said, our relationship is not over, it is changed. They surround us like a cloud. We hold hands with them across eternity. We believe that when we experience our mourning in the context of the communion or community of the saints, then we can be comforted for in and through them we know that God's face is turned toward us. and so we sing, "We feebly struggle, they in glory shine, yet all are one in thee, for all are thine- Alleluia."

Those of you who have known me for a while have heard me talk about the balcony people in our lives. I believe in balcony people. People who cheer us on both in this life and from the life to come. They are the ones who lean over and yell from the balcony of hearts, "Go for it. You can do it. I believe in you." They remind us of true happiness not what the world defines as happiness. They proclaim, "Great is the joy in heaven when we work to be true to who GOD made us to be- workers for healing reconciliation justice peace." They sing our song when we forget the words. We may never have met them. They aren't necessarily even aware of us nor that they are present in our balcony but they are part of the communion of saints who encompass each of us with grace. They are the ones in the darkness whose faces we see turned toward us challenging us, comforting us, calling us into our fullest self, into the full stature of Christ.

Let me tell you some stories of this communion of saints linking us in this life and across eternity with a grace that sets us free to participate in the coming of God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Speaking at the funeral of Rosa Parks, this week Hillary Clinton said, "We all need to remember that we can all have Rosa Parks moments. Every time we stand up for someone who is being mistreated, every time we turn away from prejudice and bigotry, every time we support those who are on the front lines fighting for our rights, we are part of Rosa Parks and her legacy." The communion of saints links us to a grace that sets us free.

If you think you have to be wealthy and powerful to be a philanthropist or have a building named after you think again. Last year, the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley honored Bill Gates for his philanthropic reach. This year it honored a 16 year old boy known as JW who lost his fight to cancer this summer. A foundation spokesperson said about their choice of someone who wasn't an executive, On the local level we haven't seen anyone else who's been able to give back like this. His dream was to build a home away from home for families of gravely ill patients and it is about to come true. Although the volunteers say that it has been different with him gone, they look down at the blue wristbands children sold for the project and remember his little sense of humor, how he was telling everyone it would be OK and never give up and they say, "let's get this house built!" The communion of saints links us to grace.

How can I stand in this pulpit, where I stood when I could still hold my children in my arms, and not remember Trinity's saints who have gone before us- Melanie, who inspired more people to come to church than any ad campaign ever -Sam, who was the one who really ran the parish-Wilma, whose flower arrangements Martha couldn't rival.

Each of us today holds in our hearts those who have gone before whom we mourn and yet who live on in our hearts and through our lives, who lean over the balconies of our hearts and call us into our true selves as individuals and as faith community.


One more thing about this God whose face is turned toward us. It is about God's heart and It is what I believe in the deepest places of my soul. Preaching at his son Alex's memorial service, Bill said,

"A dear soul brought me a casserole a few nights ago and said to me she couldn't understand the will of God. I took her by the shoulders, and I told her that it was not my God's will that Alex should die. When Alex's car sank beneath the waves in Boston Harbor, my God's heart was the first to break."

It doesn't matter what our wound or pain or suffering may be. It may be cancer. It may be a dying spouse. It may be doubt, anger, shame or depression or addiction or disappointment or anxiety. It may be the loss of someone dear to us. It may be the pain of the world's suffering or horror at the world's hatred. It may be oppression and injustice. Whatever it is, through Christ, we know that God's face is turned toward us, guiding us into the circle the community of saints, inviting us to be healed and to move forward into the newness that is God's desire for each of us, calling us to listen to our balcony people who believe in us and call to us to turn our faces toward God!

How blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

Thanks be to God.