Bring Out Your Dead or When the Saints Go Marching Out

For many Christians, this weekend is a time of remembering the great women and men of God who were killed for or died in their faith. These days of remembering and celebrating are called All Saints Day and All Souls Day. Until about 11 years ago, I had only known of this weekend as most in America do: Halloween. Unfortunately, many pastors and congregations still only know it as such...and miss a great opportunity for their church to remember the lives of the Christians who have gone before them; the "saints" who modeled the Christ life for them and upon whose shoulders their faith is built.

All Saints and All Souls days are not new. They are old; very old. One of the reasons many Protestants haven't heard of them, much less celebrated them, can be traced to the Protestant Reformation. Unfortunately, many important formative practices were thrown out at that time because they were considered "something that Roman Catholics do"...as if that were a bad thing. Ironically, in America, the same churches that find holy days such as All Saints/All Souls as too Catholic, have absolutely no problem remembering their war dead in the context of worship on Memorial Day weekend and Veterans Day and Fourth of July. Weird, huh?

The church needs to have their own Memorial Day; a day for bringing out the dead and holding their lives before their congregations as a reminder of how we might all remain more faithful to our calling. A day to remember the great sacrifices people have made for the sake of God's Kingdom. A day to celebrate the lives of parents and grandparents (not necessarily our own) who modeled the way of the Kingdom for us when they were alive. A day to reflect on the deceased church members who faithfully rocked us (or our babies) in the nursery, taught our Sunday School classes, and cried through the congregational prayer times for the sick and hurting in our churches. A time to celebrate the "Great cloud of witnesses" that are cheering on this current generation of Christ-followers to remain faithful and obedient until our time comes to join their ranks.

This weekend, I will remember the names and lives of holy ones from our history: the early martyrs, St. Augustine, Aquinas, the Desert mothers and fathers, Day, King Teresa, Luther, Calvin, Bonhoeffer, Barth, Yoder, Wesley, Spurgeon, Wigglesworth. I will also remember the lives of those saints I knew and who knew me, and shaped my life: my grandparents who modeled their faith; The men and women of Calvary Assembly of God and Frayser Assembly of God in Memphis,TN that formed my earliest images of God; the deceased men and women of Nederland First Assembly of God who prayed for me and believed in me through my teenage years; Aunt Bev, who was a kindred spirit in my journey; former church members like Mr. Britton, Ms. Moore, Ms. Roberson, Mr. Bozarth that taught me, as a young minister, about living and dying. I will remember my teachers: Dr. Conyers, Dr. Foster, and Dr. McEntire. I will remember my friends who were gone too soon: Kyle Lake and Jennifer Kelley.

So, this weekend - whether your church does it or not - bring out your dead. Remember the lives that were shared with you in order that you might know and live a more faithful Christian life. Allow those memories to cheer you on in your own following of Christ. Remember that your faithful life (notice, I didn't say perfect) is a model of faithfulness that others who are following behind will one day will remember and give thanks for as you, dear saint, take your place alongside those who have gone before.


Grace and Peace.

**If you would like, please leave names and/or stories of the "saints and souls" who have been models of the Christian faith for you in the comment section below**

The Doxological Life or An Alternative to "My" Life.

One of the first claims of ownership that children make is "Mine!" As cute as that claim may be at first, the long term practice has deep and residual effects. "Mine" moves from childhood testing of boundaries to a lifelong, identity-forming proclamation. The things we claim as "Mine" as adults become so intricately intertwined with our identity, we often fail to recognize we are more than what we claim as ours. Entire lifetimes are spent in the endless pursuit of what I can claim as "Mine" (I want more to be mine!), in order for us to feel good about ourselves; to feel accepted.

This way of being shapes the very fabric of our existence. Our current economic structure is predicated upon our incessant hunger for more things to have and own. Without it, our structures fail and we all, seemingly, end up without. This has global ramifications, because our economic structure is tied to global markets as well. So, those in power have nothing to gain by helping individuals practice anything other than consumption; wanting more of "mine".

Ironically, in the practice of "mine", the owner becomes the owned and gives their entire being to the collecting and protecting stuff in the name of ownership. We are enslaved not only in an endless cycle of wanting/needing more, but a life of fear induced by the thought of losing what we claim as ours. This extends beyond things like houses, cars, and toys to life; that is, breathing, heartbeats, and such. In all of our effort to keep what is ours, and the further entanglement into the myth of mine/ownership, we fail to see the only way to be free - to have the truly abundant life: the recognition of life as a gift.

When we begin to not only see, but practice, life as a gift, we are truly free to live the abundant life; the good life. When we not only proclaim with our mouths, but live as such, that nothing lasts forever, then we make a revolutionary proclamation to the powers that be that our lives and freedoms are not contingent upon what is "mine", but upon the One who claims creation as their own. When we finally make peace with the fact that everything is finite and gift, we can live what I (and others) call a doxological life; a life of thankgiving.

Many Christians sing the Doxology in their churches as a confession of God's provision. It is an act of worship. But there is a great need in our culture for Christians who will not only sing the doxology as a worship act, but will practice making their life an act of doxological worship. Christians whose entire life is about practicing something other than "mine". Christians who recognize that everything - and I mean EVERYTHING- is a gift from God. Think about the implications of that for a second. What would it mean for you today if you truly recognized that there is no real reason for you to be alive right now reading this, or to have the food you ate (or chose not to eat...or to have a choice to eat or not!), or to have the clothes you put on, or the edifice of wood and brick that keeps you out of the elements? Would it change how you practiced your life if you recognized that no matter how far you try to trace your claims of "mine" that it ultimately ends with being a gift from God, and that every gift can be given and/or taken away?

I think that if we practiced this recognition - this doxological life - the hold that things tend to have on our lives might be loosened a bit. We might be able to see that cars are meant to get us places, homes are to keep us out of the elements, food is to sustain us...well, you get the picture. Additionally, we may be more prone to see the "other" who does not have a way to get places, or homes to keep them out of the elements, or food to sustain them as a gift as well. Instead of seeing them as burdensome people who are merely wanting what is "mine" without all the work "I" put into it to making it "mine", we might see them, too, as gifts. We may see them as fellow humans, like ourselves, who are in need of unmerited (without worthy qualification) grace. A gift that reminds us of why God gifts us in the first place...for the redemption of his creation. And isn't that just like God to give us stuff, not so we can claim it as "mine", but in order to practice giving it away...and in doing so, proclaiming to the world that we are indeed God's.

It is in losing our lives that we find life; it is in weakness that strength is made perfect; It is in letting go of the things that own us that we gain everything.

Grace and Peace.