Rev. Paul Tellstrom

Irvine United Congregational Church

“All Saints’ Day”

November 5, 2006

The Apocrypha Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 44:1-10, 13-14

Gospel Reading Matthew 5:1-12 word count: 1,628

I am beginning to hear talk about the secular “War on Christmas” again—at a time when one very real and endless war is still playing out for another year with no end in sight. But the supposed war on religious holidays has its front-line reporters ready when the holiday grows closest, and its generals are geared up to give orders, like the folks at www.saychristmas.org.¹ After last year’s war, which included department store skirmishes by Christians attacking sales clerks who failed to say, “Merry Christmas” instead of “happy holidays,” I expected a similar “Battle on Easter,” followed by some sort of “Mêlée on Mother’s Day,” but none occurred. Still, Christians are arming themselves again to fight the good fight against any and all who wish each other well during the holidays without the necessary word, “Christmas” attached.

I bring this up because Halloween was last week, and I watched our parade of pre-schoolers in their costumes returning from a retirement home nearby. Some of our teachers were telling me later that there are very vocal parents who keep their kids from school on Halloween because of the pagan aspect of the day, and they take their children to church for a religious service presumably to keep themselves unstained by the devilish nature of the day.

These folks have it all wrong. Halloween has always been the attempt to understand and to some degree exert control over the mysterious power of death that permeates our fragile and very mortal lives.

Psychologists have a phrase called, “the rule of paradoxical effect.” What this means is that if any point is stressed strongly enough, those listening or reading will develop an opposite attitude. For example, if I tell you that whatever happens, you are not to look at our banner for the next five minutes, what is the one thing that you will struggle not to do? Or in the classic formulation, tell your child who is eating beans not to stick a bean in his or her ear when you leave the room.

So, as a pacifist and conscientious objector in the Christian War on Holidays, I want to thank my Christian friends on the other side for creating a five-billion-dollar a year Halloween industry that fills my neighborhood each year with competing displays of extravagant ghoulishness and brings 100-200 kids to our door fully costumed in a sugar rush.

When I was a kid, we had a carved pumpkin on the front stoop. Now I put out over a dozen ghostly luminaries, a life-size witch in my window, and a giant inflatable spider on my roof, just to keep up with the neighbors.

In fact, Christians won the war on holidays centuries ago. We forget that we took over, acquired Halloween, once called the “Festival of Samhain,” from the Druids 1600 years ago. The Celts celebrated the beginning of their new year, November 1, by offering a variety of bonfires and prayers to those that had died throughout the previous year. They believed that the souls of these departed friends and family members spent New Year’s Eve being judged as to what form they should take for the next year, and on New Year’s Day, November 1, they traveled to their new abodes.

It wasn’t long after discovering this that Christians took over this pagan celebration, and transformed it into “All Hallows’ Day.” And so, All Saints’ Day became the time to honor the lives of the people they knew and loved who had no day of their own and to recognize the importance of the lives of those in their congregations who had passed on in the last calendar year.

Roughly six centuries before taking over this day from the Druids & Celts, the scribe Yeshua Ben Sira was writing in Jerusalem. He wrote a guide to ethical living, in which he stressed characteristic wisdom teachings: prudent speech, wealth and poverty, honesty, diligence, choice of friends, sin and death, retribution, and wisdom itself. Although honored by Jewish and Christian traditions, the book called Ecclesiasticus, or The Wisdom of Yeshua Ben Sira, or merely Sirach is not in our canons.²

However, near the end of his work, Yeshua Ben Sira wrote a hymn, meant to be sung congregationally. His “Hymn in Honor of Our Ancestors” contains the famous opening words, “Let us now sing the praises of famous men, our ancestors in their generations.” His words are appropriate to the day, and are spoken in our churches when we remember those we love who are no longer with us.

In the synagogues, and later in the churches, came the need to stop and remember. To lift up those now gone who did great things, and those who lived quiet lives; to remember the kindnesses, the influence upon our lives, and the friendship and direction we received.

Ben Sira even writes, “Some of them have left behind a name, so that others declare their praise. But of others there is no memory; they have perished as though they had never existed; they have become as though they had never been born, they and their children after them.” Some of the saints are now forgotten, though they lived lives that gave sustenance to others.

In many churches, it is tradition that on All Saints’ Day a list of those who have died in the past year is read to the congregation. In those moments, the congregation may feel a sense of loss or diminished resources. But our teachings say that the church’s numbers and strength are swelling and growing stronger. As each name is called out, the “cloud of witnesses” grows thicker and more substantial, until the church grows potent with the remembered presence of so many brother and sister saints.

A saint is a person who is an example of faithfulness and right-living; a person who shows forth something of his or her light in their lives.

Think of the saints today—not famous ones, but of those saints who have touched your lives, of those who have inspired in you a deeper faith, of those who have made you feel inspired to want to live within the same world they inhabited. Think of those whose love and lives have awakened something in your soul.

You may be thinking of some of the faces behind the names that were read today—people who provoked inspiration, trust, teaching and love.

I think of a minister named Dr. Gambell who died when I was eleven, a man who stirred me to faith. When he died I felt a vacuum in the church, and I decided at that age to take up his calling in order to try and fill that vacuum somewhere down the road.

Of whom are you thinking? Walk with the remembrance of those people to the table today; those whose dedication to being living reflections of God’s love has warmed your hearts.

Who were the peacemakers that inspired you to know the wisdom of seeking peace? Who were the merciful that demonstrated mercy’s gentle power? Who were the pure in heart whose goodness filled you with the knowledge that it was not only possible, but preferable to live simply and ethically? Who were persecuted for righteousness’ sake that so inspired you to fight for justice?

“Blessed are,” says Jesus, prefacing each of these saints—for their reward is great…and blessed too are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Conversely, what is it about your own life that will cause you one day to be lifted up as a saint? What kids do you mentor, raise or love, and is there room in your van for one more of their friends when you go someplace kids like to go? Who is it that at their stage of life needs a helping hand? Who could benefit from a simple offer to go to get them to the grocery store or to the doctor? Some day, someone will be remembering something you did for them. Make the opportunities for the creation of such memories grow.

The ancient Festival of Samhain included a tradition that is still speaking to us about the power a cloud of witnesses can project into our lives. According to legend, as each family came to the communal bonfire on the Eve of Samhain, they brought with them the final coal from each of their own hearths. Combining these coals they would start a huge, warming watch-fire. Around this fire, they would sing those praises of famous men and women, telling stories about the ones who had passed away during the previous year. Then, they would allow the bonfire to slowly die down.

Finally, all that was left were a few glowing coals. Each family would gather one of these embers and carefully nurture its warmth until they once again reached their home hearth. There, that single coal from the community bonfire would be used to restart the family peat fire as the New Year slowly dawned. It was a new day, a new winter, but it would be warmed by the memories of loved ones long past.

So it is with All Saints’ Day, here and now. Bring an ember home today, a piece of the warmth of someone now gone, but whose life was shared in this place and held close to your heart.

Thank God for those who seem to you to be blessed; those like the ones to that Jesus calls blessed; those whom you believe are indeed set apart by God and made holy because they have encouraged you to live towards your high calling. Those who do to others as they would have others do to them. Thanks be to God for all the saints who from their labor rest. Amen.

Sermon Resources & Information

1. www.saychristmas.org. Sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund.

2. Written circa 180–175 BC. The author, Yeshua ben Sira, was a Jew who had been living in Jerusalem, who may in fact have established his school and written his work in Alexandria. His work was written in Hebrew, nevertheless, and translated into Greek by his grandson in Egypt, who added a preface.

The Greek Church Fathers called it also “The All-Virtuous Wisdom.” The Latin Church Fathers, beginning with Cyprian, termed it Ecclesiasticus because it was frequently read in churches, and was thus called liber ecclesiasticus, or “church book.” Today it is more frequently known as Ben Sira or simply Sirach.

Although it was not accepted into the Tanakh, the Jewish biblical canon, The Wisdom of Ben Sira is quoted, though infrequently, in the Talmud, and works of rabbinic literature. It is included in the Septuagint and is accepted as part of the biblical canon by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, but not by most Protestants.

3. Information on the “Festival of Samhain” from “Just Say Boo,” Homileticsonline.com

Scripture for Sunday, November 5, 2006

Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 44: 1 - 10, 13 - 14

Let us now sing the praises of famous men, our ancestors in their generations. The Lord apportioned to them great glory, his majesty from the beginning. There were those who ruled in their kingdoms, and made a name for themselves by their valor; those who gave counsel because they were intelligent; those who spoke in prophetic oracles; those who led the people by their counsels and by their knowledge of the people's lore; they were wise in their words of instruction; those who composed musical tunes, or put verses in writing; rich men endowed with resources, living peacefully in their homes— all these were honored in their generations, and were the pride of their times.

Some of them have left behind a name, so that others declare their praise. But of others there is no memory; they have perished as though they had never existed; they have become as though they had never been born, they and their children after them. But these also were godly men, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten; their offspring will continue forever, and their glory will never be blotted out. Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name lives on generation after generation.

Matthew 5: 1 - 12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.