Beloved disciples in the Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area,Grace and peace to you in the name of the Jesus, who is our Alpha and Omega, our beginning and our end.
On November first, the Church celebrates All Saints Day. John Wesley called it a festival he truly loved, and I understand why. On this day we give thanks for those who have gone before us into glory. We remember the saints of every time and place who carried the love of Christ forward through the ages. We also remember the saints closer to home, in our families, among our friends, and in our congregations, whose lives have left lasting marks of love, learning, and connection upon our own.
We remember those who first opened the stories of Scripture to us. We remember those who taught us to sing our faith, who held a candle beside us on Christmas Eve, and who prayed with us and for us through the years. They loved boldly, served joyfully, and led courageously. In them we caught sight of holiness of heart and life. The grace that worked in them now works in us, and the faith they carried has been placed in our hands.
Charles Wesley taught the people called Methodists to sing:
One family we dwell in him,
one church, above, beneath,
though now divided by the stream,
the narrow stream of death.
This is the communion of saints. It is not a distant destination. It is a living bond, sustained by grace. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, cheering us on as we run the race set before us. They are with us in the sanctuary and at the kitchen table. They are with us at the bedside and in the fields at harvest. They are with us when we sing the hymns they taught us, when we keep the promises they made, and when we serve the neighbors, they loved. And whenever we gather at the Lord’s Table, we join our voices with all the company of heaven. In every place where love is shared and faith is kept, the stream between us grows narrow indeed.
Yet even as we give thanks for their faithful witness, we name our grief honestly. The Church has never asked us to hurry past it - though our culture does. At the tomb of his friend Lazarus, Jesus wept, even knowing what he was about to do. If our Lord made room for tears, we may make room for them too.
Grief is a journey of tears and laughter, of aching absence and memories that still bring a smile. It does not move in a straight line. It can catch us in the grocery store, in a familiar hymn, or at an empty place at the table. Grief is love that has nowhere to go but deeper into God’s keeping. It reminds us how much was shared, and how dearly we miss those who are no longer at our side.
For some of you, this will be the first All Saints with a name newly read aloud. For others, the loss is many years old and still tender. Some carry grief that is complicated, mixed with regret or with words left unspoken. Others grieve losses the world may not see: a pregnancy, a friendship, a congregation that has closed its doors, or a way of life that will not return. All of it is welcome before God. No grief is too small or too tangled for the grace that meets us there.
In his first letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul does not tell us not to grieve. He tells us we do not grieve as those who have no hope. Our hope does not erase our sorrow. It holds our sorrow. Grief and hope are not opposites in the Christian life. They walk together, and the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, walks with both.
So, I invite you to be gentle with yourselves and with one another in this season. Speak the names of those you love. Let your congregation carry you when you cannot carry yourself. That is what it means to watch over one another in love. And if you are walking with someone who grieves, you need not have the right words. Your presence is often the truest sermon and the answer to unspoken prayer.
And as you remember, as candles are lit and names are spoken, and as tears mingle with gratitude, know that you are not alone. You are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, by siblings in Christ who walk beside you today, and above all by the God whose love endures from beginning to end and forevermore.
Near the end of his own earthly journey, John Wesley said, “The best of all is, God is with us.”
May you know that presence this All Saints Day, and always.
Thank you for your faithfulness, and God bless you.
Bishop Lanette Plambeck
Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church
