Sunday Stretch: Vol. 54, All Saints Sunday
Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...
Hi Readers,
Today is a special Sunday in the church year, and not just because we get to “fall back” an hour. The first Sunday in November is traditionally celebrated as “All Saints” Sunday, and even as many All Saints Sundays in the local church found me scrambling at the last minute to find the right set of candles to help remember all the saints, when we finally got to the Sunday morning service, I was always grateful to take a breath - and remember.
For All the Saints. Days like these are days that remind me of the absolute essentiality of the Church in our modern context, even as I, like you, have seen all the surveys about the rise of the “nones,” and the ongoing stories of abuse and corruption within the Church and its leaders. For all of its sin and foibles, at its best the Church (and other religious places of worship) offer a place of peace and respite, a sanctuary, if you will. In the midst of inundating headlines about mass murder and violence and war and natural disaster, we come together to pause, pray, lament, and remember.
Often, as I present to groups about the ongoing and rising threat of white Christian Nationalism in America, I get an anxious question near the end of the presentations. WHAT CAN WE DO? WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
And I think about that question a lot. In the moment, I often offer resources or points of connections to other groups and leaders who are working together to raise a unified resistance against Christian Nationalism, in the media, the courts, and the Church. But as I think more about that question, too, on a day like today, I want to remind people, You’re doing it. In these moments where we gather together to ask questions and share the hurt and pain that Christian Nationalism has caused in our own communities and families and relationships, we are sharing that pain with one another and with God. We are giving voice to the deepest needs of our souls, and I believe wholeheartedly that what follows that is an action that can’t always be predicted, but is always hastened by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit nurtures our budding relationships. We find new connections and new sources of hope. Our spirits are renewed to fight another day, to pray with renewed hope and assurance. What can we do? I believe, for you reading this today, you’re already doing it. Take heart.
All Saints Sunday
While the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox churches worldwide more formally recognize sainthood, in the Lutheran churches where I’ve served, we’ve honored on All Saints Sunday all of those who we’ve lost, especially those who have died in the past year. In the same way that Martin Luther called for the priesthood of all believers, I believe in the sainthood of all, that saint is a term to be bestowed on all whom we’ve loved and lost, and that saints are made by God and not by humans, with a heavy dosage of grace.
Therefore today, before we get to the Bible texts, I want to take a moment to remember with love someone close to me who died this past year.
A photo of my grandma and Carl in their element, at the U.S. Open tennis tournament
I first read the work of Lutheran theologian Carl Braaten while I was studying at Luther Seminary. I remember the article because his writing felt unvarnished and utterly honest, breaking through some of the academic and theological throat-clearing that you become accustomed to in reading academic studies. While that same unvarnished and biting style would sometimes lead fellow Lutherans to get frustrated with Carl or feel hurt by his words, I guess I felt a kindred spirit with him even when we’d disagree, especially on topics like feminism. What I never doubted was Carl’s utmost commitment to the Gospel, and to finding as clear a way as he could to do the work that Jesus calls us into, without getting caught up in the approval of the world.
Carl died last week at the age of 94, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he left behind another unfinished book. Even in his 90s, he was always working on something. His theological convictions and passion for writing never seemed to dampen with age, up until his health declined a few months ago.
I got to know Carl on a more personal level beginning in 2011. He had become friends with my grandma, Beryl, due to their shared love of tennis (and honestly, their shared competitive fire on the court). My grandma and her then-partner, John, hosted a dinner in their home for me and my husband, Ben, and for Carl and his wife, LaVonne, when Ben and I came to visit them in 2011. In person Carl was opinionated but also warm, and curious - wanting to know what I thought and what my opinions were, even as I was then just a seminary student serving my pastoral internship.
Not too long after that dinner, both my grandma and Carl’s significant others died. After a time of grief and mourning, Carl and my grandma found joy and love in one another and were married - both of them in their late 80s! I loved sharing their story; people always found it inspiring and a vision into what life could look like in old age.
In 2019, Ben and I faced Carl and my grandma on the tennis court. He still had a sneaky, fast serve that was very tough to return. The speed of his serves was matched only by the speed with which he would buzz around the retirement community in his car, impressing even my young sons.
Later that year, I got to share an early version of my book, Red State Christians, with Carl. He wrote an endorsement for it:
Angela Denker has cast a bright light on the makeup of America today, polarized between red and blue states, right-wing and left-wing voters, conservative and progressive Christians. What Denker found is that this is not a case of us against them, us insiders against those outsiders. The divide runs right through every American family, whose members share a common humanity deeper than surface differences.
As I was googling Carl again today, I noticed that the conservative Reformed/Evangelical website begun by infamous misogynist and Minneapolis Baptist pastor John Piper, The Gospel Coalition, had run a somewhat favorable review of Carl’s 2010 memoir, Because of Christ.
TGC liked Carl’s conservative stance on the leftward movement of the ELCA, and his hesitancy about full acceptance of LGBTQ people. I like to think that Carl changed his mind on that latter point, as I have, because of ongoing theological reflection and revelation, for which I am immensely grateful, as well as for the intervention and instruction of wise friends and LGBTQ friends and church leaders in my own life.
It was interesting, though, to note TGC’s befuddlement with Carl near the end of the review. They didn’t like that he saw Jesus in the socialist antiestablishment and anti-racist reformers of the 1960s. For what it’s worth, I always knew Carl as a staunch Democrat and as someone who was committed to social progress and change, especially against the ongoing pernicious sin of racism in the Church. And I also saw him champion women in the church, many times, despite some of his comments on “feminism.” After all, my grandma has always been one of the fiercest and strongest women I know. Well into her 80s, she was campaigning for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in Arizona and attending education classes for progressive political causes. She and Carl were both strongly anti-Trump and worried about the spread of Christian Nationalism in America, and what it was doing to the Gospel.
What I noticed in the TGC review was that while this conservative group appreciated that Carl was willing to criticize those they also criticized, they didn’t like that he didn’t fall into line with the rest of their ideas. I see in this rejection something I also see reflected in Carl’s endorsement of my book, as he writes about divisions and the Church and insiders and outsiders. Even with all of his theological success, I could sense that Carl’s willingness to critique the Church itself had made him into an outsider in the Lutheran Church he loved so dearly. I can certainly connect to that feeling, and to his reminder that Jesus would have us champion first our common, shared humanity.
Too often people connect most on the fact that they hate the same people, rather than connecting on the fact that we can find love in one another. An unswerving commitment to the Gospel and to the world-denying Theology of the Cross can often lead to loneliness or despair or a feeling of isolation from the very organizations and churches who you love the most. Despite his brave and confident exterior, I think Carl felt this way sometimes, too.
A few years ago, Carl and I emailed back and forth about a new social message put together by the ELCA regarding government. This was just a few months before the 2020 election, and I was hopeful that the document would make clear our Church’s rejection of Christian Nationalism.
Instead, I was sorely disappointed by a statement that avoided the toughest political issues and rooted itself in Two Kingdoms theology, often used as an excuse for Lutheran quietism. I re-read Carl’s response the other day; here is part of it:
Here is what I think about it. I think it is not written by a creative theological mind. It commits the original sin of a theologian, it is boring. I think it was written by a lawyer with an interest in current politics. I also think it does not address the daunting challenges Christians in America face today. It hovers above the fray in generalities. When the ELCA adopts this social statement, everyone will go home and nothing will change or matter. Maybe some delegates to the right will be disgusted, because they will smell that it leans too far left for their taste. Theologically, this social statement does not even attempt to speak for the whole church, but only for "this church" and for "We Lutherans." That is the way a sectarian church writes. Every historic Lutheran confession, starting with the Augsburg Confession, attempted to speak the truth for the Church of Jesus Christ, and not only for a handful of German reformers. This social statement uses Scripture only to exemplify what this church affirms. Scripture should used rather as the basic source of the truth the church believes, teaches, and confesses.
I can’t help but smile reading this. Perhaps it is unrealistic to hope that theology can be for the world and not just for the Church, but I believe it - in fact - that is the reason why I persevere in doing theology at all. And it mattered to me, a lot, that such an esteemed Lutheran theologian (and ace tennis player) felt the same way - and still had the same strong care and love for the Church, at the age of 91, to keep writing and thinking about these things tirelessly and consistently.
Fittingly for a man who so devoted his life to the Lutheran Church, Carl died on Reformation Sunday. I think of him hearing these words from A Mighty Fortress as he is today with Jesus:
A mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His Kingdom is forever.
For all the Saints. Including Carl.
As we recognize All Saints Day today at
, I want to do something a little bit different. Below, I will share the texts for this week - but without our usual follow-up reflection or questions. Instead, I want to invite you to share with me the saints of your life who you are remembering today. You can put them in the comments or hit REPLY to this email. I will mention their names as I pray later this week and light a candle.This is a special FREE edition of the Sunday Stretch.
Thank you especially to all the paid subscribers who make this newsletter possible.
All Saints Day Bible Stories
Revelation 7:9-17
Rev. 7:9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Rev. 7:13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
1 John 3:1-3
1John 3:1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when hea is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Matthew 5:1-12
Matt. 5:1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
Matt. 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matt. 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Matt. 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Matt. 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Matt. 5:7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Matt. 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matt. 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Matt. 5:10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matt. 5:11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falselya on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
PRAYER
Dear God,
Today we remember and give thanks for all those who we have loved and lost. We remember especially all those who have died in this past year, including (insert names of your loved ones here). We ask God that you would draw close to you all of us who grieve and mourn, that you would bind us together in love and understanding, and that you would help us to live and treat others according to Your immense example of love and grace.
In Jesus’ name we pray,
AMEN
An Invitation
A Community that prays for one another is transformed by the power of the Spirit. We’ve been praying for and with each other now for over a year! For the new year, and about once a quarter, I will re-start this space for prayer requests and praises. Please email with your own requests and I will share here with your permission!
For all churches and church leaders who are recognizing All Saints Sunday today, and for all those today who remain in deep grief over the loss of a loved one, especially all those who have died violently and suddenly.
For all in the Holy Land facing violence and war, especially in Israel and Gaza, and for protection of human lives in the midst of terrorism and state violence. Help people turn away from terrorism and violence and war.
For Jewish people around the world, who have been reminded again of the powerful sway of anti-Semitism and past pogroms and hate-filled violence against Jews, including in the Holocaust. Bring solidarity and protection and peace in their midst, especially for Jewish faith leaders who are seeking peace and protection for Palestinians in Gaza as well as for Jews in Israel.
For all in Afghanistan who lost loved ones and suffered tragedy in recent earthquakes.
For Armenian refugees and all those who have been torn away from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, and for a cessation of violence in Armenia and Azerbaijan.
For farmers and farmworkers who are working on the harvest: for safety and a bountiful crop as they work in the fields.
For the people of Morocco, and the lands and towns surrounding the historic city of Marrakech, as they rebuild and mourn the destruction of a devastating earthquake last month. And for the people of Derna, Libya, and all those who lost their lives, their homes, loved ones, and everything they had in flooding there last month.
For victims of gun violence across America over the past year, and especially God for your justice to ring out against all those who continue to lend support and credence to white supremacy, especially in the Church. Help us to speak clearly for the call to justice and an intolerance of racist actions and policies in America.
We continue to pray for a cessation of violence and war in Ukraine, and for refugees and migrants around the world who are without a safe place to call home.
We pray for all people experiencing extreme weather, and those without safe shelter or a warm/cool place to sleep at night. For all those in need of food. For all those looking for work. For those injured in travel on the roads and on the sea and on the rails, especially migrants who travel dangerous routes with their families seeking safety and freedom, both on the Mediterranean Sea and at the U.S./Mexico border. For people in the South, in Mexico and Central America, and California - and all those living in the midst of extreme heat, that they would have access to cool places to sleep and live, and that rain would come. We also pray for those experiencing flooding, and those living in the midst of wildfires and wildfire smoke, especially in Canada and the Northwest Territories - also for those experiencing extreme heat and without enough shade and water in the midst of grueling outdoor work, especially farmworkers and construction workers across the United States, India, China, and the Middle East.
We pray for the people of Holy Land, for Israelis and Palestinians, Christians, Jews, and Muslims - that all will be treated with justice and be given equal rights before the government, to live, work, and practice their faith. We pray for an end to violence and protection of the vulnerable, especially children and the elderly.
We pray for all churches, church leaders, and volunteers as they lead congregations in this season after Pentecost. May religious leaders step aside to make way for the creativity of the Holy Spirit, and not resist the blowing winds of change and disruption.
We pray for the people of Iran, where protesters’ lives are being threatened and women are being arrested simply for advocating for their lives and criticizing an abusive government. We also pray for women and girls in Afghanistan, whose right to education and employment has been taken away by the ruling Taliban.
We pray for the victims of gun violence across America, and for brave legislators who are seeking to change overly permissive gun laws. Bring justice, resolution, truth, and mercy, dear God, and culpability to those who profit from the sale and manufacture of guns.
We pray for all those living and existing at the U.S./Mexico borderlands, and for migrants around the world who are seeking safety and a better life for their families. Protect and keep safe all those who travel far from home, risking their lives, especially parents, children, and seniors - and people from countries at war and under political strife, especially people from El Salvador, Haiti, Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia, Peru, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Sudan, and many other countries around the world. Grant mercy and open hearts to those who work in border enforcement, and prevent violence and death at the border.
We pray for all students, teachers, staff, administrators, families, coaches, bus drivers - and all those involved with kids heading back to school. God bring peace, safety, joy and laughter to classrooms across our world this school year, and help kids to have a safe and productive environment to learn and to love the world.
On this post-Labor Day month, we pray for all those who work hard to advocate for better conditions for workers across the world, especially those who work in dangerous conditions each and every day for low pay, especially farmworkers and caregivers and factory workers and nurses and first responders. Be with all those who are striking for fair pay and conditions, from autoworkers to hotel workers and restaurant workers.
I ask for prayers especially for a colleague and friend of mine who is going through cancer treatment and was diagnosed with another chronic illness earlier this year.
For those who serve in leadership positions in American politics and government, and for media members who report on American politics - may they all be guided by respect for truth and honor for the people they serve, to move past internal disputes or social media attention and to governing and reporting with attention to those in need and those suffering in the US. and around the world.
For protection for members of the media and journalists around the world who put themselves at great risk to report the news and share stories.
Dear God, we pray for renewal and hope and change in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the Creating, Redeeming, and Sustaining God!
AMEN
P.S. …
A Few Notes:
First, a huge THANK YOU to all subscribers. I get a little email notification every time someone signs up, and every time I get one, I feel joyful and honored that you want to spend part of your day with this community. I mean it when I say: “I’m listening,” to you as well, and please don’t hesitate to share with me your thoughts + ideas for what you’d like to read in this space.
To PAID SUBSCRIBERS: I am humbled and honored that you’ve chosen to spend part of your limited budget on this newsletter. To borrow words from another newsletter I love, you are directly funding freelance journalism with your subscription, and I have to thank you more than ever for your continued support. Our world’s media and journalism is in a state of crisis, with fewer and fewer billionaires in control of global news outlets, and journalists being either laid off or threatened with violence for their work every single day; with fewer and fewer newsroom positions paying a living wage. I pledge to you to steward your paid subscription faithfully + use it to support honest, hard-working, and LOCAL journalism. One of my goals in this first year is to open this newsletter to other journalists, and pay them a fair wage for their work.
THANK YOU for your support. If you’re not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one.
On free vs. paid-subscriber posts only: My plan right now is that the Friday + Sunday posts, focusing on news + spirituality, in that order, are available for subscribers only (I am going to continue sharing a sample, with a line where the paywall cuts off for our paid subscriber community). My plan is that the Tuesday blog-style posts will always be free, to enable as much access as possible, while creating a smaller and more intimate experience for paid subscribers, who are also able to comment and share in community in fuller ways.
Free Trial: Substack always offers a free week-long trial subscription to this newsletter, so you can get a taste of the Friday + Sunday posts and see if you’d like to subscribe!
If a paid subscription is a hardship for you, but you’d like access to the Friday + Sunday posts: PLEASE do not hesitate to reach out. I will be happy to provide a complimentary subscription for you.