Sunday Stretch: Vol. 100, All Saints Sunday

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

Sometimes with “special” Sundays throughout the Church Year, I will look back at what I’ve written in past years and see if the texts seem relevant for today, as I did last week for Reformation Sunday.

To be honest, I was kind of hoping to do the same this week for All Saints Sunday. After all, what are we to make of a Sunday meant for grieving and remembrance held just two days before an extremely consequently U.S. Presidential Election, marked by the unremitting siren of Christian Nationalism on the political right?

When I looked back at the last two All Saints Sundays, though, I noticed that this year’s prescribed texts (for All Saints Day, which is technically Nov. 1) were different. They were texts that are among my most beloved, but we hadn’t used them in past years for All Saints Day.

And of course, I would be remiss not to point out that this year’s day of grief is especially poignant for our family, with the recent death of my father-in-law to a fast-moving case of cancer.

What I love about this year’s All Saints texts is that while they make space for grief, they also bring us swiftly into the promise of resurrection, a reminder (as is critical on All Saints Sunday) that death on earth is not the final word. In fact, we are reminded, Jesus’ story and mission necessarily works its way through death on the Cross into a promise of new life for the world.

So we do not lose hope …

Let’s get to the texts!

I am re-sharing this video from my post on All Saints Sunday 2022, with jazz master Doreen Ketchens in New Orleans

Bible Stories

Isaiah 25:6-9

Is. 25:6    On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,

of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

the sheet that is spread over all nations;

he will swallow up death forever.

⁸ Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the LORD has spoken.

⁹ It will be said on that day,

Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.

This is the LORD for whom we have waited;

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

One of the gifts of the prophets (and of more poetic styles of writing) is that they don’t merely tell us about God’s promise for the world, they show us. And they don’t just show us with our eyes, but they invite us into this promise with all five rich senses: see, smell, touch, taste, feel. Can you feel God’s fingers wiping away the tears from your eyes? Can you hear God’s voice saying: Here I AM? Can you taste the rich food and well-aged wines (or mocktails)? Can you see the mountainside teeming with trees and animal life? Can you smell the cooking fires, the scent of other people with you, the falling leaves of harvest season?

Questions to Ponder

Is this text referring to a specific mountain? If so, which one? Does it matter?

Why do you think the prophet Isaiah used the imagery of a mountain here?

Is there any foreshadowing, do you think, to Jesus’ resurrection on the Mount of Olives? Why or why not?

Revelation 21:1-6a

Rev. 21:1    Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

“See, the home^a of God is among mortals.

He will dwell^b with them as their God;^c

they will be his peoples,^d

and God himself will be with them;^e

⁴ he will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more;

mourning and crying and pain will be no more,

for the first things have passed away.”

Rev. 21:5   And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶ Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Some of the imagery of the book of Revelation is scary: pictures of war, destruction, “antichrist,” bloodshed. But this passage in Chapter 21 offers