Scripture: Luke 6:20-31; Psalm 149:1-9; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Matthew 5:4; Isaiah 25:6; Luke 24:13-35
On All Saints Day, faithful remembering of those we love who have died is not the cold regurgitation of fact but an act of love that, grounded in resurrection hope, inspires how we live now.
Illustrations: duke-dog-boat-ride, ephraim-combined-memory-story, airport-trip-every-detail, borges-one-to-one-map, borges-pierre-menard-quixote, wearing-black-mourning-customs, isaiah-feast-no-weight-gain, emmaus-unrecognized-resurrection, dementia-confabulation, stalin-death-tragedy-statistic, inspiration-inhale-incense, wise-men-incense-gift, bob-weeks-bob-fossick
November 2, 2025
What We Remember
Psalm 149 Luke 6:20-31
Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful. Let Israel be glad in its Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with victory. Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters and their nobles with chains of iron, to execute on them the judgment decreed. This is glory for all his faithful ones. Praise the Lord! - Psalm 149
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets. “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. - Luke 6:20-31
We got a new dog in the spring. His name is Duke. He is a Bernese and St. Bernard mix. We got him from the St. Bernard Rescue in Liberty Hill. He is a soft, fluffy giant who likes most other dogs. But sometimes he may have an issue with another dog and he wants to make sure they know about it.
This summer, we took him on a motorboat ride for the first time. I grew up with dogs all my life. None of them ever really liked being on a boat. It was not something I was excited about, but Dominic and Ephraim really were focused on getting Duke on the boat. They really wanted to see if he would like getting on the boat.
There were some signs that he would enjoy it. One being that he likes to sit in our front yard and let the breeze just flow on his face. In the summer, we would try to take him on walks during the day, and he would get about 50 feet and just plop down in the shade and feel the breeze.
So we get him on the boat. It’s an exciting time. He actually enjoys it. Everybody is really, really happy.
Now, a few weeks ago, Ephraim had to write a story. Ephram is 10 years old. He’s in fourth grade. He had to write a story. And so the story he wanted to write was about Duke going on the boat for the first time. But he wanted to make it a little more exciting. And so, he changed the memory a little bit. He combined two memories to make a better story. We had taken a boat ride with Duke, and we had taken a boat ride to a restaurant. He wrote a story about taking Duke on a boat route ride to a restaurant.
He did this naturally, without much forethought. Most of us, when we tell stories. exaggerate bits, and lessen bits. The bare delivery of facts is not very interesting.
Moments have to be summarized to tell a story. Things have to be made concise or even cut. depending on the time constraints. When people ask how a trip went, they’re not asking for every detail,
We got to the airport an hour early. We grabbed our luggage from the car. Security went swiftly but we didn’t pick the right line for the x-ray machine. We were pre-check but….
When you ask how a trip went, that isn’t the story you want to hear, because in reality, to relay every detail of a two day trip would take two days.
Jorge Luis Borges has this brief short story called On Exactitude and Science, where he describes an empire that demands that all maps be made with a one to one comparison. So every map of the land is the size of a land with no concision, no brevity. The map takes up the entire empire.
Borges has another story that’s applicable for this. It’s called Pierre Menard, the author of Quixote. It’s about this French writer who is obsessed with Don Quixote by Cervantes. So much so that he doesn’t want to only do a new translation, or be inspired, but to offer a line by line recapitulation. Which is basically to just publish Don Quixote in his own name. What is a copy? What is inspiration? What is a story? What is a life? How do we tell a story of a life? How do we tell the story of someone who’s no longer with us rightly? Does that mean to be faithful to the memory?
Series Intro
My friends, today is All Saints Day. The day that we remember the Saints, the Holy Ones who came before us. The word saint comes from the Latin word for holy.
Sometimes when’ I’m translating, I like translate as holy ones to not be confusing for those of you who grew up Catholic. In a little bit, we’re going to have a time in our service to remember specifically the members of this church who have passed away in the last year. As well as a moment for all of us to remember those who are dear to us, who have passed away. Catholics have this distinction between All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, but we put them together, focusing on the saints in our life.
Many cultures have patterns of grief, seasons of mourning, like wearing black. People often respond to that negatively. People say to me, I don’t want people crying at my funeral. I don’t want them wearing black or being sad. -I don’t know a person who wants another person to be sad. But, gosh, I hope they’re really sad when I’m gone. I’ve never had that conversation in the hospital. People who were about to go want joy for their loved ones; they want peace.
In the Christian faith, our consolation is life eternal with Jesus Christ, but grief is not something that should be avoided. It is not a negativity.
Jesus says blessed are those who weep. In a more literal translation, Jesus says, “Happy are those who weep. It’s the starkest contradiction.
In Matthew it is even stranger: happy are those who mourn for they will be comforted. It’s the starkest paradox within the Sermon on the Mount. Happiness and grief next to each other. Again, the comfort and consolation of Christianity is that our loved ones are not suffering anymore. They are present with God, in a way, like Isaiah 25, where there’s a great feast and you can eat and not become bloated or gain any weight. You can just enjoy the bounty of the Lord fully.
The Bible is not super clear about the life together to come. But one thing it is clear about is that the life to come is not like this life. It is different; it is a transformed life. On the road to Emmaus, followers of Jesus did not recognize his resurrected body. He looked different. Our ultimate future is resurrection. Paul shares this in 1 Corinthians 15.
“Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 NRSV
This is our joy, our longing, our desire. It’s our own future and the future of our love wants to be present with God in this kind of way.
So what does that leave for us now? Who can we be? What can we do now? But specifically, how do we remember? Or what do we remember? There can be a challenge, sometimes, amidst grief to remember honestly. There can be a challenge when we want to just remember the good things. What we remember of those whom we love is not about the past, though, it is about the present. It is about how we are going to live now. What kind of life is there for us, now.
That’s what the sermon on the plain is about. That’s what the Beatitudes, found here and in Matthew 5, are about. That’s what Psalm 149 is about. How are we going to live now? What kind of person are we going to be?
If you’ve ever experienced a loved one suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s. memory loss is something that’s, commonly expressed. But another symptom is confabulation. Confabulation is an unconscious combining of memories and stories. Putting them together, not for a dramatic emphasis, but because that’s the only way that you know to tell them. Sometimes, if you’re not used to it, when someone confabulates in front of you, it can be frustrating. I often have to batten down my own desire to correct people. People are not wrong when they confabulate. The point of communication with someone you love is sharing a story, sharing a memory, it is not the cold regurgitation of fact. It is the connection there.
When we remember those whom we love who have died, we don’t need to be cold recorders of fact.
We grieve because we love. When you don’t love, you don’t grieve. This is the connection of the famous quote from Joseph Stalin, one death is a tragedy, a million deaths, a statistic. As humans, we can’t relate to a million deaths, we can relate to one death. We see a child killed, we think of our own child. We see a person suffering. We think of a loved one suffering. We connect it. As a church, one of the things we must do is remember together. Those who are grieving remember, but the rest of us sometimes think, ohh, it’s too sad to bring up. But again, grief and sorrow are a sign of love, not weakness. We grieve because we love. And in actively remembering, we continue to love. When we are inspired by the lives of those who went before us, we are actively remembering them. Inspired comes from the Latin word inspirare, which means to breathe in. or more literally to inhale. When we’re inspired by someone we inhale them. That’s why we light candles. And this is why, today, I wanted to try something a little different and have incense in worship. Incense has been a part of Christian tradition since the very beginning. The wise men brought incense to the baby, Jesus. Incense helps us to actively inhale, to actively be inspired.
I was blessed to know Bob Weeks and to remember him dearly. I heard many stories of Bob Fossick and I’m grateful for them. In then this time to come, I hope to inhale and be inspired by what I remember and not struggle to find the important thing or the best thing, or the most truthful thing, or the most honest thing, but to inhale and let the memory come so that my life now will be inspired by God, by their faithfulness, kindness and love, grace and humor.
For those whom you all have lost, for the members of this church and for those outside of it, may you be inspired this day. May you remember this day. May you tell stories. May you remember the stories they told you. May you inhale the stories of their lives so you can inhale Christ’s story in their life.
May you remember that grief is a sign of love, but our consolation is in our risen Lord, from whom nothing can separate us.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen. Amen.