God of the Living

(Scriptures:  Ruth 1:1-18; Hebrews11:32-40; Hebrews 12:1-2;   Mark 12:18-34)

 

November 1^st is traditionally All Saints Day.  Since we don’t generally have midweek worship services at Emanuel – not yet, anyway – on the first Sunday in November we remember those loved ones who have gone to be with the Lord, who are now members of the Church Triumphant.    

“No man is an island, entire of itself,” wrote the poet and preacher John Donne.  Each name listed In our bulletin was significant to some family or some individual.  Each person had, not only a name, but a story.  And at some point in the life of each person on the list, their story intersected with the story of someone connected with Emanuel Church.   Many of them are departed parents, aunts, uncles – in at least one case, a child of one of our members.  Two are former pastors of Emanuel Church. Several are departed friends.   Most of those whose names we remember lived in the greater Philadelphia region, although three of the names were for loved ones who lived and died in Liberia.  And so as small as our congregation is, the lives of our members, directly or indirectly, touch a surprising number of other lives, far more than we can imagine.

Indeed, when you add to the names in our bulletin the names of those whose remains rest in our cemetery, our church finds itself connected with people across the country.    Just from the cemetery inquiries I’ve received in the five or so years I’ve been here, I have an informal email list called “Friends of the Emanuel Church Cemetery”,  to whom I send our newsletter.   While about half of these folks live in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs, two  of these families are from New Jersey; one is in Atlanta, Georgia; one person has recently moved to Illinois; two are from California.   And then there are our friends from the Bethany Children’s Home alumni association – while most are local, one family lives in Virginia.  And then there are our former members, living in Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma.....

    “No man is an island, entire of itself 
    Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.    
    If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. 
   As well as if a promontory were,  as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were…..”

 John Donne used images of islands and continents, but with reference to our Scripture readings this morning, perhaps the image of a lengthy chain or of a net would be more fitting.  Since John Donne has been dead for over 450 years, perhaps he won’t mind if I adapt his poem a bit:  “No one is a link, entire of itself.  Every person is a link in the chain.  If a link be detached, the chain is shortened thereby.”  Or perhaps, “No one is a thread, entire of itself.  Every person is a strand in a great net.  If a strand be broken, the net is weakened thereby.”

Our reading from the Book of Ruth show the importance of our connectedness to other people.   At one time, before the main events in the book of Ruth took place, Naomi was living in the land of Moab with her husband Elimilech, and they had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion – which names mean, respectively, “Sickly” and “Frail” – a bit of foreshadowing.  The sickly and frail sons take Moabite wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth.  The husbands, sickly and frail, die, leaving Naomi with two Moabite daughters in law.  Naomi pleads with the daughters in law to return to their own families, as their family connections would surely offer more than anything Naomi had to offer.  Orpah followed Naomi’s advice, but Ruth valued her connectedness to Naomi so much that she went with Naomi to Bethlehem.  As it turns out, Naomi’s remaining connections to her extended family wind up being sufficient to provide, not only food, but eventually a husband for Ruth, named Boaz, and descendents for the whole family.   And – a bit of a spoiler for next week – at the end of the book of Ruth, we learn that the child of Ruth and Boaz will end up being the grandfather of King David.  And since Jesus was descended from David’s line, this story has significance for us as well.   Could Naomi and Ruth, widowed and struggling for survival, have had any idea how God would use their lives?  A lovely story about God providing for a family of peasants hit hard by tragedy…..but how different our faith would be without this link in the chain.
   
   No man is an island, entire of itself.
   Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
   If  a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less.
    As well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were…..”
   Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind  
    And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

The bell has tolled for those whose names are listed in our bulletin. As Donne wrote, “Any man’s death diminishes me”, and our lives are indeed diminished by our loved ones’ passing.   In some cases, we may feel such strong connection to our loved one that when he or she died, in our grief and sorrow, it seemed like a piece of us died with them.   And yet one of the central affirmations of our faith is that our God is the God of the living, that our loved ones are still alive with God, that the God they worshipped in this life remains their God now that they have passed from this life.   Our loved ones are alive with God, and we shall see them again when we go to meet the Lord.     The writer of Hebrews tells of some of the links in the great chain of faith – Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, Samuel, David, the prophets….[and parenthetically, I would add our departed loved ones to the list]….and then goes on to say, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”  Our loved ones are among that great cloud of witnesses who encourage and support us, cheering from the stands, as it were, for us who are still on our pilgrimage through life.  We feebly struggle; they in glory shine.

Our Gospel reading not only affirms that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is God of the living – and thereby affirms that in God they are alive – but also names that which binds the chain of faith together – love of God and love of neighbor.  And love of neighbor is inseparable from love of God  - as is written in I John 4:20, anyone who says  “I loves God”  but hates their brother or sister,  that person is a liar.  John Donne wrote “Any man’s death diminishes me” – any man’s- or woman’s – or child’s - death – the death of a stranger, even the death of an enemy – diminishes me.  God is the God of the living, and God’s intention for us is life, abundant life in this world and eternal life in the world to come.   In order to serve this life-giving God, we ourselves are called to act in ways that are lifegiving.   We can affirm, with John Donne, “I am involved in humankind.”  We are to care not only for our supporters but for our opponents; not only for friends, but for strangers and even enemies.     

The book of Ruth gives an example of love and care God would have us show, not only for our family and friends, but for neighbors, strangers, even aliens (i.e. what we would call immigrants).  On their return from the foreign country of Moab to Bethlehem, the way in which Ruth the Moabite and Naomi her Jewish mother-in-law survived was from Ruth’s gleaning grain from the field of Boaz.  The institution of gleaning was an ancient form of a social safety net instituted in the law of Moses and practiced in both Old and New Testament times.  Leviticus 23:22 commands:  “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien.  I am the Lord your God.”  And so even in that ancient culture, God affirmed that human life is connected; we do not just live and die for ourselves, but we are to make provision for the poor and for the alien.  In the gospel of Mark, 2^nd chapter, we’re told at one point that Jesus and his disciples were passing through the grainfields and plucked some of the heads of grain.  They weren’t grainfields that belonged to Jesus or his disciples - and so Jesus himself, along with his disciples practiced gleaning in this instance and in this small instance relied on the social safety net of the day. 

Our mothers and fathers of the faith here at Emanuel Church likewise cared for the poor and alien.  Of course, we know of how Bethany Children’s Home, founded to care for Civil War orphans, had its start here at Emanuel.  Some of you have shared stories of the care this congregation provided in years past.  And in these difficult economic times, we continue to support the food cupboard and the ministries of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference.

So as we remember and celebrate the lives of our departed loved ones, may we honor the lives of the departed by honoring our connections to the living – our connections to the network of families with connections to our church, our connections to our neighbors here in Bridesburg, our connections to the poor and dispossessed, and our connections to the wider church.   As we are grateful for the love shown to us by our departed family members, may we love and serve God and neighbor in such a way that someday others will remember the ministries of this congregation, and our own individual acts of love, with gratitude.   Most of all, may we love and serve God and neighbor in such a way that when the bell tolls for us, God will welcome us into eternity with the blessed words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  Amen.