Devotionals Detail

Reading: Psalm 34

All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day are not just connected by the night and day: they offer us an opportunity to reflect on our theology of death and resurrection. Certainly, our American traditions of Halloween are filled with costumes, candy and a scary ghost story. But it was originally rooted in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, believed to be a time where the boundary between the living and the dead was thin. So it is fitting that the next day - All Saints Day, we honor those who have died in the Christian tradition, and our firm belief that they receive resurrected life.

This Sunday, we will honor those whom we have loved and lost this year. They are the saints in our lives who have taught us more about who God is through the holy image we saw in them while they dwelt on this earth. And we give thanks that God embraces them in an eternal life.

As we mourn their loss, we hear these words of the Psalmist – “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted.” Though death is our inevitable human ending, in that moment there is a thin line connecting heaven and earth. For anyone who has sat by the bedside of someone dying – you can feel it. You are connected to a God who draws near to the dead and the living. 

This is the mystery of death and resurrection that we attend to on All Saints Day. Though we cannot see or understand the how, why or when of death, we can let ourselves be drawn near. Instead of ignoring the fear of death, pretending we can escape it, or dismissing our feelings about loss, we can open ourselves within it to be heard and seen by a God who cares.  When we do this we realize that God is not taking away our suffering, or saving us from circumstances of hardship. The reality of pain, suffering and death is simply part of living. When the Psalmist says God “Delivers me from fears,” it is more accurately translated as “pulled away from my fears.” When the Psalmist said God “saved from every trouble,” it means “to take full care of in a time of trouble.” This is the assurance that as we cry out for help, God draws near. Perhaps this is the way we experience a resurrected life on this side of heaven.

I pray that this week, you will bring your honest cries to God, of your laments and griefs of the saints who have died in your life. Through the music of Faure’s “Requiem,” I believe you will feel God drawing near, embracing you in those cries and caring for you in this time of sadness. May you let God hold your broken heart, tend to your crushed spirit and assure you of resurrection for the living and the dead.