From goolies and ghosties and long legged beasties and things which go bump in the night, good lord deliver us.

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you....

Two prayers - one appropriate perhaps for Halloween, and the other the one for All Saints Day. One day apart, but what a world of difference - one that acknowledges the scary things of the world, the other which speaks of the great communion we share as we are enveloped in the life of God through the light which shines for us in the life of Jesus, Christ our Lord.

Yesterday the funeral of the son of one of our members, Bailey Hobgood was held. A man whose disability should have shortened his life long ago, but who persevered in his own way achieving more than anyone expected. All Saints Day was not only his day of burial, but his day for he is one of God’s own forever. It was on All Saints Day that the great Anglican theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple was also buried. In some ways there is a world of difference between Trip and William Temple, but not in the Kingdom of God.

The reading from Ecclesiasticus speaks to this reality that God’s presence shines in those who are remembered for famous deeds and in those who are known only to a few in their own time.. The mark is not whether we are remembered, but whether we are open up to experience God’s faithfulness, so that God can show up, if you will, in us.

Fr. Corbin Eddy, whose writings I have referenced in the past, speaks about the beatitudes, that portion of the sermon on the mount which we heard in the Gospel reading, in a little different way than we might generally see them. He says that they have two primary focal points,” the first four are about the dispossessed of the world - the poor, the meek, the mourning, and the hungry who are so present in our world. He says that they are the ones... who have no reason for hope, no reason for joy, no access to the resources of this world, no access to justice. In the kingdom of heaven, this simply cannot be... these people must and will be vindicated.... These beatitudes are not about spiritual virtues, but about real life situations in the real world which must be reversed... and Jesus’ conviction that God will turn this around.”

The second set of beatitudes refers to those whose lives are committed to bringing about this change. “The merciful are those who value mercy... who don’t blame the poor for their own condition, who do not judge lest they be judged, who eat with the outcast, who give money to those in need and right what is wrong. The pure in heart are those whose inner life matches their outer life... who do not pretend to be pious and do nothing. The peacemakers are those who are actively committed to Shalom which involves dignity, integrity, civility, community and justice for all. These are people who are committed to co-operate with God’s will for the well-being of society and creation.”

Clearly commitment to this way of life may and undoubtedly will put us in situations to risk our own well-being. Jesus said he who would save his life will lose it and he who is willing to lose it for the Kingdom on earth will find it. Or as we heard Jesus’ words as he spoke to his disciples, “ Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of stuff about you falsely on my account...for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. “ When the going is hard, we can hopefully remember those who were willing to stand up for us to preserve our dignity, to feed us when we were hungry in whatever way, to shelter us from the storms even when it cost them to do so. I hope you have had those experiences or at least have observed them on behalf of others so you will know what it looks like when the Kingdom of God is happening in real life.

In the words of the Rev. Dr.Wendy Dackson: “Exercising these virtues does not require that we dedicate our lives to the Church, but rather that we dedicate our lives to God. It does require courage, because showing mercy, or doing what is right, is not always popular. The history of the Christian faith is a history of people who love mercy, justice and peace so much they have been willing to die for those things. It has been the history of people who have given shelter to the poor, worked to free slaves, treated women as equal to men -- in short, people who have believed that God created everyone and everything and are willing to treat all of their sisters and brothers as member of God's beloved family.”

There is a true story about a church in which stained glass windows ran the entire length of the nave; those windows depicted many great Christians throughout the centuries. Among them martyrs, bishops, priests and nuns, to be sure, but also artists, poets and politicians. The rector of that parish told of a young boy whose mother explained the windows to him, saying that the people pictured there were saints. The little boy quickly responded, "Oh, I get it. Saints are people that the sun shines through."
Well, yes she replied, in a sense. Saints are people who live in the love of God, people who let the light of God's Son shine through them.”

Letting the light of God shine through us, giving us courage to act even when it is risky, eyes to see God’s heart for others clearly, compassion to reach out and bring mercy, peace and dignity. These children who have been baptized this morning will be marked as Christ own forever, marked with the sign of the light of Christ which we pray will always surround and shine through their lives and ours.

Amen.