Today is not Sunday, November 5th.

[I remembered to post on All Saints Day according to the calendar year - November 1. But I also meant to post this past Sunday, the church's worship observance of All Saints Day. So bear with me on this belated-All Saints Sunday post.]

I was thinking about the undercurrents of joy and hope that surround our All Saints Sunday worship. While it is a time of rememberance, it is also a time for celebration. So I wondered, as we go about our lives in the shadow of All Saints Day, what can we take from it? I have decided that All Saints Day has to do with hope, but perhaps a different sort of hope than that which is usually preached on All Saints Sunday. I was thinking about the reason for our hope beyond the simple "Jesus is the source of our hope" answer, which, albeit a true statement, leaves me wondering about the nuances. We know that we hope in Christ, but how do we hope? For what are we hoping? Walter Brueggemann has a powerful attitude toward hope. He reminds us that prophetic hope is not blind wishfulness, but rather hope carries with it a sense of expectation. Hope arises out of a belief that we will receive that which we desire. So for me, this begs the question: for what do we hope when we remember and celebrate the life of all of the saints, especially those who have died? This year's cycle of lectionary readings gave us the following text from Revelation to be read on All Saints Sunday:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."[Revelation 21:1-6a]

"Behold, I am making all things new," says God. These are indeed words of comfort, but what do they have to do with life, death, resurrection, and the hope that we cling to when we face the reality of death? I don't think that the hope in this passage is limited to an understanding of the new heaven and earth as the future hope of life with God after death. I would venture to say that this idea of all things being made new - of the ushering in of a new heaven and a new earth - can be thought of in terms of Christ's resurrection, not merely in the hope of our own resurrection. N.T. Wright speaks of Christ's resurrection this way:

The deepest meanings of the resurrection have to do with new creation. If the stories are metaphors for anything, they are metaphors for the belief that God's new world had been brought to birth. When Jesus emerged, transformed, from the tomb on Easter morning, the event was heavy with symbolic significance, to which the evangelists drew attention, without wishing to detract from the historical nature of what they were talking about. It was the first day of God's new week, the moment of sunrise after the long night, the time of new meetings, new meals, of reconciliation and new commissioning. It was the beginning of the new creation. It was, therefore, the sign of hope for the future, not only for individuals but for the whole world....The resurrection thus opens the door to a new world: a new mode of life for the whole cosmos and for all who dwell in it here and hereafter.

Perhaps the hope that we have is the knowledge that through Christ, the beginning of the new creation has already begun. Through Christ's resurrection, we have the confidence that God has already begun to transform the world, and that the whole communion of saints - dead and living - are participating in a future that has already been accomplished in Christ. We can "look back" at life, therefore, from the vantage point of our future perfection in righteousness through Christ, from the vantage point of that day when we will see God face to face. Because of this, we can remember those who have departed and already see ourselves joined with them in God's kingdom. We pray "Thy kingdom come," together with all the saints, for we are anticipating the kingdom that has already been given to us through Christ's resurrection. This is our hope.