“All Saints Day” by Pastor Nate

This Sunday is All Saints Day, and while it’s not the Old Testament this year, oftentimes on All Saints Sunday we will read Isaiah 25:6-9. Here’s an excerpt:

“6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
– Isaiah 25:6

I’ll be honest, I don’t really like banquets. I remember the first banquet I ever went to, a friend spent the entire evening explaining the many and various banquet rules.  I couldn’t just eat each bite with a different fork (there were 3 to choose from!), no each fork had a special job to do: one was for salad, one for the main course, and one for dessert.  Now, what’s the fun in that?  And all rules about forks were only a part of the story!

The thing about banquets is that it’s all about the show.  Everything has a special rule and your progress through the banquet is as if it’s an elaborate performance.  In my experience, I was so worried about following the rules that I never really enjoyed the food, the company, and the celebration itself. To me, a banquet ruins a good thing with all its regulations.

And you know what, I don’t think that this just happens at banquets.  There seems to be a natural human tendency to take something great and turn it into a burden.  Financial security becomes greed, love becomes lust, marriage becomes adultery, and politicians become extremists.  Again and again, we take blessings and turn them into something destructive or painful. We’ve become blind to the Good News that is being offered to us day after day.

Here are a few more verses from that Isaiah passage:

“7 On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
8     God will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.”   – Isaiah 25:7-8

All Saints Day is a celebration in the church calendar where we remember our loved ones who have passed.  It’s a day meant to celebrate the promise God has made to remove people’s disgrace, wipe away their tears, and swallow up death forever.  It’s a day of promises and blessings and yet, the pain of having lost a loved one can quickly turn this day into a burden.

And please don’t hear me wrong on this point.  It is a natural process to grieve, it is right to mourn the loss of someone you hold dear, and it is healthy and more than appropriate to weep over the loss, but it isn’t healthy to remain there.

Christ has lifted the shroud that enfolds us all.  Death has been swallowed up forever.

May we rejoice in the promise of the resurrection and learn to embrace all the blessings that Christ extends to us each and every day. Amen.