WHILE YOU MIGHT be reading this today, I needed to write it last week to meet the logistic requirements of publishing a newspaper.
I have been anxious about our upcoming elections, and images of war-torn cities and death have been affecting my sleep and appetite. What in the world could I share with you this time that would be worth reading in crazy “unprecedented” times like this?
I looked at the calendar for when this column would be read and saw that Halloween would be just last night. But, also on the calendar for the day this would be published was a note that it would be All Saints’ Day.
“Hmmm,” I said to myself. “Maybe I should refresh my memory about that,” I continued. And so, I did.
The meaning of All Saints’ Day has been mostly lost in the sugar high of Halloween candy from last night’s trick-or-treating. For well over 1,000 years, though, it has been a day set aside in the church’s calendar to recall individuals whose good works in the name of God help us model how we can live more faithful and productive lives.
OK. So much for history.
Like all set-aside days of the Christian faith, there is a scriptural reading for contemplation, and I especially like the one for this year, Isaiah 25: 6-9.
An important note is that scholars date its writing to a time of near-total military and political chaos in Judea.
Jews had been in Babylonian exile but were now freed to come home — but had little to come home to, including an understanding of their God as other than a God of justice meted out harshly.
In this passage, the prophet Isaiah writes that not all is lost in the chaos and God has not forgotten them. The message takes the form of a metaphor of a meal prepared by God for all peoples. In the Old Testament, the meal, its host, its preparation, its sharing, was rich in meaning and to have God be all the above in this metaphor was profound. The message that God had not given up on them literally brought them to tears.
I offer a close paraphrase of this Isaiah scripture.
On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of the finest of foods and the finest of wines. A meal of rich food with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that covers all people and will swallow up death forever. Death will be no more and he will wipe away the tears from all faces.
This is the God for whom we have waited. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Why is this passage from Isaiah the one appointed for All Saints’ Day?
I think it’s because it offers promise that, in God’s time, chaos and death will end and it will be worth waiting for. The God of justice is also the God of invitation to a life-giving meal, where all are welcome — regardless of how they choose to vote.
All Saints’ Day is a feast day as well as a day to commemorate all the saints in our lives.
From our scripture, this is also a day when God remembers us, too, with a meal.
The table is set. Come sit down. Talk to who is sitting next to you.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Don Corson is an Ordained Deacon in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) and the winemaker for a local winery. He is also the minister for Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Forks. His email is ccwinemaker@gmail.com.
