Remembering... All Saints
Thursday, November 4, 2021 at 4:59PM “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection.” After I had said these words, buried another member of our community, and bid the family goodbye, Greg, the funeral director asked me if he could take me on a tour of the cemetery. It was a beautiful morning. Why not?
He showed me the graves of his parents and grandparents. Then he showed me the graves of a couple who had run the general store in town until a few weeks before the wife died. The husband followed only a few days later. Here was the grave of the town atheist, back in the days when there was only one. There was the grave of a man who had been gunned down in an armed robbery. We visited several other graves and Greg told me more stories. Then he told me what all these people had in common. They had all died, as the lawyers would say, “without issue.” “Who will remember them when I am gone?” asked Greg. Then he asked, “Who will remember me?”
Remembering the dead is something Protestant churches do on All Saints Day. The day after All Saints on the church calendar is All Souls Day and it has been problematic for Protestants because in the Catholic tradition it involves praying for souls in purgatory. Protestants have brought the two days together and on All Saints Day we affirm that every life bears the image of God. Though that image may be easier to see in the lives of those who we call “real” saints, it is true of all lives. When we cannot find that image in those who have died, we can’t fully proclaim the most important truth of all. It’s the truth Greg was teaching me as we walked through that cemetery.
In remembering those who were forgotten, Greg had become like Christ, who came to seek and to save the lost, and who took his place with all souls, including the atheist, the murdered, and those who die “without issue.” In recalling them for me, Greg was embodying one of the vocations of the church: to remember all saints and all souls, always.
Pastor Tuula
LIFE Newsletter, November 2021
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