Charlotte
Collins Reed
Christ
Church Episcopal
November 3, 2019
All Saints Sunday
Miss Minnie Lee was my grandmother’s closest and
dearest friend.
Their
friendship spanned at least 6 decades. They were the best of friends, raising
their children together, and sharing celebrations, heartaches, meals, some
really dreadful wine, and pretty much everything else.
When Miss Minnie Lee was well into her 80's, or maybe
her 90's, she crocheted an afghan for me. The afghan is navy blue, tightly
crocheted, in a pattern that looks something like a net, but with larger, tight
knots much closer together than a real net. I know nothing about crochet, so
describing the piece in more detail is a bit like trying to speak a foreign
language. The afghan is a treasure not only because my grandmother’s dearest
friend made it for me, but because Miss Minnie Lee was completely blind when
she crocheted the piece. She had totally lost her sight when she made this
queen size, perfectly and intricately hooked, afghan.
How on earth could Miss Minnie Lee crochet without
sight?
After pondering this great mystery for many years,
finally the answer dawned on me. After she lost her sight, Miss Minnie Lee
could still crochet simply because she had crocheted her entire life. Her hands
knew exactly what to do, how the yarn felt, how the hooks moved. Of course,
sight was a plus, but her brain and her hands were really doing the work, not
her eyes. She had practiced over and over again, over the course of many
decades, until she got to the point where she really did not have to see in order
to create beauty.
Today is All Saints Sunday, a major and favorite feast
day of the church. The hymns are some of the most beloved hymns in the hymnal.
The candles stir up powerful memories and emotions. The sound of the names of
our loved ones bypasses our brains and goes straight to our hearts. So, you
might think that the story of Miss Minnie Lee and her afghan is the story of an
ordinary saint, an ordinary person, overcoming disability to do something
creative and beautiful. And you would be partially correct. But only partially.
The story of Miss Minnie Lee is really the story about a woman who practiced
and practiced a skill over and over again, over years and decades, until when
the time came that she could no longer see, she had embodied the skill and
could continue on without her sight. The saints of God practiced their faith in
exactly the same way. They practiced Bible study, prayer, worship, Christian
fellowship, generosity, hospitality, and acts of mercy over and over again
through the course of their lives. My guess is that sometimes that work was
joyful and sometimes that work was tedious, even boring. But when put to the
test, as the saints of God all were, their faith had become so embodied within
them through the constant practice that they were able to live that faith to
respond to the darkness they encountered. The scripture they needed for
strength was imprinted on their minds. Their relationship with God which had
been strengthened by years and years of prayer, sustained them. Perhaps even a
great hymn or two dwelled within them to give them hope and courage. The saints
of God were able to stand up to injustice, love their enemies, practice radical
generosity, care for the poor and the sick, or proclaim the gospel in the face
of persecution. The saints could be the
light that shines in the darkness because their lives embodied the faith they
had practiced.
This morning, we hear Jesus say "Blessed are you
who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry
now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will
laugh." What makes the poor, the hungry, and those who weep blessed? And
why would Jesus call woe upon the rich, the full, and those who laugh? I do not
think Jesus is talking about the reversal of blessings and woes in the next
life. I think Jesus is talking about blessings and woes now. What the poor, the
hungry, and those who weep know, that sometimes I forget, is that we cannot
make it in this world alone. We are all dependent on each other and on the
goodness of others in order to survive. The poor know that we are all connected,
as do those who mourn. Those of us who
are neither poor nor hungry tend to think that our success is our own and we
forget that we are all connected. On All Saints Day, we do not celebrate the
achievements of individual Saints. On All Saints Day, we celebrate that great
body we call the communion of Saints. In the opening collect, we prayed
"Almighty God, you have knit together the elect in one communion and
fellowship in the mystical body of Jesus Christ, our Lord." This All Saints Sunday, we will baptize Maisie
O’Sullivan. In baptism, she will become
part of the communion and fellowship that we celebrate this day. We promise to help Maisie practice the faith,
day in and day out, so that her faith is embodied within her. We promise to model for her the vows of the
baptismal covenant which are the concrete ways that we embody our faith and
recognize our connection with all humankind. That is the work of the saints and
that is the work to which we commit ourselves in baptism.
As we remember those who have gone before us, their deep
faith and their impact on our own lives, All Saints Day calls us to practice
our faith the way Miss Minnie Lee practiced her crochet-over and over again
until, when the light was gone, she could crochet in the darkness. All Saints
calls us to be as connected to each other as we feel this day towards those who
have gone before us, because faith is first practiced in community. And, in the
midst of the candles, our prayers, the music and emotion of this day, All
Saints calls us to go out into the world as people who embody our faith and be
the light that shines in the darkness.
Amen.
