The Feast of All Saints Day

For those of you in the west today is All Saints Day, the day that we remember the dead in Christ who will rise first at the coming of our Lord.

It is good for us to remember those in the faith who have gone before us and to remember that death has no power over those who are in Christ Jesus.

This is my first All-Saints Day since I first experience the death of some one close to me. And so the Spirit testifies just as boldly now as He did the day I found out my grandfather died, that Death has been conquered and has been trampled down by death!

Here are some words from St. John Chrysostom's Paschal homily that I had the privilege to preach at my Grandpa's funeral.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed [death] by enduring it.

He destroyed [Hell] when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O [Hell], where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

So take heart and joy with the Church in celebrating not merely the lives of the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, but the glorious reality in which we live - a reality in which Death has been trampled down by death!!

Glory to Jesus Christ, Glory Forever!!

Amen.

Where, O Death, is thy sting??

I found out this morning before chapel (4/26) that my Grandpa Howard (C. Dean Howard) passed away either last night or this morning (prayers for my family are much appreciated). I'm sure a lot of different thoughts ran through my mind. I thought about my grandpa and as a good protestant I thought about his salvific state. I knew my grandpa well, but he was a very quiet person. He didn't talk about matters of faith much and so while I knew him to be a genuinely good man (with faults like us all), a man who attended church, and a man who cared for people but expressed it in a stoic fashion, I am also somewhat unsure about his "spiritual state." I say that because in spite of this one my of first reflections was thinking on his death in light of Easter.

We are still living in the days between Easter and the Ascension and my thoughts are constantly on the resurrection of Christ. Even though I mourn my Grandpa's passing I shout even louder in my soul: "Where, O Death, is your sting!" Christ has indeed trampled down death by death and is Risen indeed. In spite of this death and even though I mourn I am reminded and rejoice because:

"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! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

- 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

I'm baffled by this reaction. Yes, I'm sad and I weep, but truly death reminds me of the triumph of Christ. In the face of our enemies (sin, death, and the devil) we proclaim triumph. Praise the Lord. My heart proclaims the scriptures. They take on new meaning for me now. I am learning to breath them. The exhortations from the fathers are also becoming much more meaningful. My thoughts also drift to the Paschal homily of St. Chrysostom:

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.

He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

- Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom

Pleas don't misunderstand me. I do not rejoice in death, but rather death in it's crippled state reminds me of the triumph of our God!! I do not rejoice that my Grandfather is dead, on the contrary, I miss him and will undoubtedly grieve this more fully when i go home for his funeral. I mourn and I weep, I am sad and am broken, and although I'm unsure about my grandpa's salvific state, I am still hopeful for, as Paul says:

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

- 1 Thess 4:13-14.

I suppose one could argue that I have yet to go through the full grieving process yet and thus these thoughts should not indicative of how I am suppose to feel and how I am suppose to think. One could also say that my thoughts will most assuredly change as I go through the prescribed process. To this my response is that we will see. Maybe those assertions are correct and maybe not. For right now, in my mourning and grieving I am sad and yet hopeful, broken and yet not destroyed, and emotionally crushed but not abandoned. For Christ is Risen and all things look new in that light! And so, I commit my Grandfather unto Christ our God and his boundless mercy.

Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever! Amen.

- Ben


P.S. Please know that I didn't post this to create a sense of pity. I know you are all busy so please do not feel the need to call or anything. I know I am loved and supported by you all. But do pray for my family and for safe travel for me as I travel home and back for the funeral and then again in a couple weeks for my sister's graduation.

Reflection after visiting with the Grandparents

Today I drove over to Shinglehouse to visit with both my Grandpa and Grandma Howard and Grandpa and Grandma Stanley before I leave for Kentucky. I was prepared for the standard questions and dialogue and some new topics, as my Grandpa Howard was just diagnosed with in-operable lung cancer (so please be praying), but there is one profound thing that I came away with after it was all said and done.

I realized that, although I have studied theology and would consider myself educated in the things of God (or at least what humanity says about God), nothing...absolutely nothing can compare with a life of pursuing God and enjoying intimacy with him.

So often I think that I can learn so much by just having coffee with a wonderful exegete, or theologian, and while that may be true, I can learn just as much if not more by spending a day conversing with saints of the church who have spent their entire lives pursuing God. There is so much peace and love that exudes from my grandparents, they know and have tasted suffering yet remain faithful knowing that God is in sovereign and in control (sorry my openness friends, but Open Theism doesn't cut it here). I admire their steadfastness to pray, even when things don't always go well. These are the saints of the church, and I bless the name of God for the gift of godly grandparents.

This is what the writer of Hebrews was talking about when he or she described the "great cloud of witnesses" yes the cloud extends to the early church and to the Israelite fathers and mothers but we must not forget that there is a generation that is still with us that can teach us so much about life and about godliness.

I know that this seems obvious... because to a certain degree it is. In fact I've even spoken to an elderly group about this passage in Hebrews and said something similar to the above paragraph, but so often I forget it. So often I think that I can only learn from books and professors... no true spiritual formation comes from intergenerational community, it comes from living with those who have gone before us and have seen the mighty works of the Lord. They can recount his deeds to us and speak to us from experience. We as a generation must not forget them.

It seems that these thoughts go well with my previous post, we cannot do theology outside of the community of faith. On top of that, we cannot do theology outside of intergenerational community. We must be in constant dialogue with the people of God, the people of all ages that life in the faith. I know this talk of dialogue and community sounds a little like arch-heretic Doug Pagit, but it is essential. Although we can't let community and dialogue trump scripture in our development of theology, we do have to let it have a formational voice. I guess what I'm proposing is more or less the Wesleyan quadrilateral with emphasis on scripture and tradition, so I should probably shut up, because I'm pretty sure that Wesley developed a pretty sweet thing and I agree with it a lot.

So with that said, my rant has ended and my thoughts shared about how a day with my grandparents reminds me of the essential nature of community in the body. I feel blessed to still have them and learn from them everytime I talk to them. The very words they speak in peace when you know they are going through inner pain and anguish are a lesson in themselves. I feel I have so much to learn, I only hope that when I go to seminary I can get plugged into a great intergenerational church that will form me in some shadow of the way my grandparents have helped form me.

Blessings to you all!