Pr. Ben Adams
All Saints
October 31, 2020
Meet You On The Other Shore
Any day we get to hear the Beatitudes proclaimed in church is a good day. And I know what you might be thinking, did Pastor Ben cherry pick that Gospel text for today ahead of Tuesday’s election? And the answer is no, it’s just a liturgical godsend when the lectionary serves up a set of texts like we have today. Because beyond the far reaching blessings of the Beatitudes, we also have be beautiful imagery of Revelation that promises God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and the strong assurance from Psalm 34 of a God who answers us when we seek, delivers us from our terrors, saves us from our troubles, who is a refuge for us, and we are invited in this Psalm to taste and see that the Lord is good.
I don’t know about you, but those are just the words I need right now, because I’m feeling pretty weary with this new surge of the pandemic, I’m feeling pretty anxious with the election just days away, I’m feeling pretty angry with the news of two more fatal police shootings of black men, Walter Wallace in Philadelphia, who suffered from bipolar disorder and was in crisis during the time of the shooting, and Kevin Peterson in Vancouver, Washington who was suspected of selling drugs and ran from deputies before he was shot. On top of all that, there has been a pretty significant personal loss in my life as one of my mentors and seminary professors, the Rev. Dr. Cheryl Pero died this past week. She was welcomed into the company of all the saints in light.
It’s just been a tough time to say the least, complete with tears, so when I hear that God wipes away our tears, gives us refuge from our terrors and troubles, answers us when we seek her, and blesses us abundantly, that’s the assurance I need to be reminded that although the world is chaotic and hard, we can still taste and see that the Lord is Good. With so many saints to count, it is the good Lord who holds all of our dearly departed in the divine embrace while simultaneously wiping the tears we shed in our grief. And in our grief we are blessed. Jesus reminds us of that today in the beatitudes, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
In his 1953 semi-autobiographical novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin tells the story of John Grimes, an intelligent teenager in 1930s Harlem, and his relationship to his family and his church. The novel focuses on the role of the Pentecostal Church in the lives of African-Americans, as both a negative source of repression and moral hypocrisy, but also as a positive source of inspiration and community. And I’d like to share a section of the novel towards the end, when the main character, John, finds himself laying on the floor of the church possessed by something, unable to move, but has several visions that culminate with him journeying to a river and there he glimpses the company of the saints in glory that mirrors our text today from Revelation.
Baldwin writes:
Then John saw the river, and the multitude was there. And a sweetness filled John as he heard the sound of singing: the singing was for him. . . . No power could hold this army back, no water disperse them, no fire consume them. They wandered in the valley forever; and they smote the rock, forever; and the waters sprang, perpetually, in the perpetual desert. They cried unto the Lord forever, they were cast down forever, and lifted up their eyes forever. No, the fire could not hurt them, and yes, the lions’ jaws were stopped; the serpent was not their master, the grave was not their resting-place, the earth was not their home. Job bore them witness, and Abraham was their father, Moses had elected to suffer with them rather than glory in sin for a season. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had gone before them into the fire, their grief had been sung by David, and Jeremiah had wept for them. Ezekiel had prophesied upon them, these scattered bones, these slain, and, in the fullness of time, the prophet, John, had come out of the wilderness, crying that the promise was for them. They were encompassed with a very cloud of witnesses: Judas, who had betrayed the Lord; Thomas, who had doubted Him; Peter, who had trembled at the crowing of a cock; Stephen, who had been stoned; Paul, who had been bound; the blind man crying on the dusty road, the dead man rising from the grave. And they looked unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of their faith, running with patience the race He had set before them; they endured the cross, and they despised the shame, and waited to join Him, one day, in glory, at the right hand of the Father.
Oh how beautiful is that?! That scene ignites a hope and an imagination within me of all of the saints who have completed their baptismal journey and now sing in the valley by the river, welcoming us back again and again to the waters of our own baptism. Because it’s in these waters that we connect to our cloud of witnesses who surround this water singing as a testament that these waters of our baptism can be for us our sign of the end of all tears.
One day we will meet with the saints on the other side of the river, but until then we listen deeply for their song and try to find our own part in the song. We join the hymn of all creation as we celebrate the baptized people of God, living and dead, who make up the body of Christ.
This joining of the song of the saints, is something we believe deeply in here at Holy Trinity and you’ve probably experienced here in worship. Another place I have experienced this is at our sibling church Holy Family Lutheran in the former Cabrini-Green neighborhood just North of us. If you’ve ever had the chance to worship with them in-person you’ll know that they end each service, they join hands and sing to one another this song:
“Just in case the Lord shall come, before we get together again, I’ll meet you, I’ll meet you on the shore.”
And then for good measure, someone will lead the congregation by proclaiming, “God is good!” to which everyone responds “All the time!” and “All the time…” “God is good!”
In just a brief moment at the end of their worship, the members of Holy Family affirm all of what the scriptures teach us today that our God, the Good shepherd blesses us and leads us towards the river of life that springs forth life for all people for the sake of the world. This river of life we experience now on this shore through our baptism, and one day will sing with all the saints in glory when we meet them on the other shore. Amen.