Heaven

Heaven

There’s something real about the communication between this world and the world to come, a kind of communion between saints and souls and sinners that spans the gulf of time. It is not just we who are praying, but we are being prayed for by a great cloud of heroic wit­nesses, some of whom, I believe, are attracted to us, who have our name and have our number and who remember us. It’s a wonderful thing to be remembered. I think we are. Br. Curtis Almquist, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, ssje.org, Brother Give us a Word

I have been rereading Heaven, a book edited by Roger Ferlo, where twenty-five well known spiritual writers write about some of their ideas about heaven. I bought it over ten years ago when I was preaching at more funerals and spending more and more time with people who were grieving. Heaven is almost always a question about which all will eventually ask.

Barbara Crafton writes that perhaps we will be with our loved ones in heaven and suddenly realize that they never left us. Nora Gallagher talks about a difficult parent who was dying and how they eventually find love and peace shortly before she dies. She begins to see her mother’s life from a different perspective. She finally reaches a place where she does not describe her mother as someone who “tortured” her, but that her mother led a “tortured life.”

Alan Jones describes heaven being already all around us. Heaven is a “code” word for the presence of God in our midst. Michael Battle discusses how we are to practice how to show love the way God does in preparation for heaven. “We are to practice heaven.” Barbara Brown Taylor writes that her sense of the communion of saints is so strong that she has never felt alone.

Kathleen Staudt writes about times at prayers when she imagines being in the presence of all those, living and dead, who have been spiritual mentors and friends to her. Maggie Ross writes that heaven appears to her when she is not looking for heaven.

Benjamin Morse humorously writes that pets will be in heaven but they will not chew “on the upholstery.”

Of course, none of us knows what heaven is like, but our promise is that God will be with us throughout all eternity. We know we have a God of love. We have that promise that God and love will always be with us.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Tutu: Revelation and Saints

Tutu: Revelation and Saints

"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
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." Revelation 21:1-5a

Churches throughout the world who use the common lectionary and transfer All Saints to the first Sunday in November will be reading these words today from Revelation. These passages from Revelation are very important to Archbishop Tutu. To him the book of Revelation is poetry and liturgy. It is not a Rand-McNally map of heaven. It is not a timetable for the end of the world. It is full of encouragement, hope and comfort, especially for the oppressed. When Tutu was fighting against apartheid, he would say, "DON'T GIVE UP! DON'T GET DISCOURAGED! I HAVE READ THE END OF THE BOOK! WE WIN!"

Bishop Desmond Tutu later chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, which heard grievances from those who suffered during the apartheid era. The commission gave voice to horrific stories in the hope of burying past bitterness. This is another excerpt from one of his addresses. "People may commit demonic acts but they are not demons. It is very dangerous to demonize our opponents. Everyone has the potential of becoming a saint."

Today we honor saints we have read about and all the faithful departed whom we deeply loved, some of whom died naturally and some who died violently or in great distress. We eventually remember mostly their goodness, but we must not forget that they all struggled with the challenges of the world just as we do today.

The difference is that they are now right beside us, praying for us and with us throughout all eternity. Sometimes in the quiet of the evening or in the early morning before the rest of the house has awakened or outside in nature when a gentle breeze touches our face, we get a hint of their presence and their peace.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Bishop Curry: Love

Bishop Curry: Love

“We were made by a power of love, and our lives were meant-and are meant- to be lived in that love. That’s why we are here.” Bishop Michael Curry, The Power of Love, p. 8, Avery 2018.

If you are any bit an anglophile and arose early on the morning on May 19th, 2018, to watch the royal wedding of the American actress Meghan Markle and Prince Harry at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, you were in for a surprise treat. We knew the American presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, was the preacher. We had heard and seen him preach before. We knew his style. We knew his message of love.

Knowing all this did not keep us from being surprised by his words and delivery. His message, his teaching style were now in a different setting, a very proper English setting. The intimacy, the power, the conviction of his words in that locale somehow made them even more powerful. We wept. We laughed. We wanted to remember every word he said about love, his signature sermon topic. Now we have the sermon in his latest book, The Power of Love, as well as three other of his sermons about love.

Bishop Curry preaches in a style of his African American heritage. He has brought that tradition to the Episcopal Church and now to the Anglican Church. He reminds us of the richness that comes with diversity, when one culture merges with another and produces a hybrid that causes us to stand up and listen to a message we have heard before, but now hear with new ears.

I most remember when Bishop Curry talked about the power of fire and how the invention of fire had changed the world. He concluded with a message from the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that “if humanity ever harnessed the energy of love, that it would be the second time in history that we had discovered fire.”2

Bishop Curry’s message of the power of love is one we desperately need to hear at all times, but especially in today’s environment.

2 The Power of Love, p. 13.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com