10:30 am, Sunday, Oct 29, 2023 ~ FBCA

(Deut 34:1-12; Heb 11:29 – 12:2) J G White

From my years living in Windsor, NS, I remember Garwin. He was an acquaintance in town; the only person named Garwin I’ve ever met. Perhaps his parents has been Baptists; I ended up conducting his funeral when he died. One of my most distinct memories of him was one day I didn’t actually meet him. I was walking in the very small local shopping mall, and saw Garwin down the hall, at a distance. I didn’t greet him. Didn’t talk with him. Didn’t think much of it.

Until a bit later that day. It dawned on me... “Wait! I had Garwin’s funeral last year! Oops. I guess that wasn’t him.”

Have you ever met up with... a dead person? Now, I have never had a paranormal experience, and I’m not the sort of person likely to have that kind of thing happen. But I have talked with many others who have glimpsed the supernatural.

This is the time of year for ‘the dead.’ Tonight is the eve of the eve of All Saints Day – remembering the faithful who have died. So it seems fitting to have the scripture story come up of Moses dying, at the edge of that Promised Land he had led the people to, through many long years.

How do we connect with the dead? And do we communicate with them?

What happens right away is partly what happened to Moses. He gets buried. The people mourn him in various ways. He is eulogized; right here we have a bit of an obituary. Was 120 years old, and his strength and eyesight had not weakened! No other prophet like him. He knew God face-to-face. Unequalled in his miraculous signs and mighty deeds.

His influence lived on and on. Of course; Moses was a giant in Hebrew history. In similar ways, we remember our loved ones and friends who are dead, who loved and influenced us. We tell their stories. We quote them. And, sometimes, we think we feel their influence... is it them?

We want the living dead. To know not just that the dead live on in eternity, but that eternity touches this life.

In some ways, I feel that Protestant Christianity trained me not to believe in talking with dead people, the saints who are already with Jesus. Witchcraft, the occult, mediums and psychics were all decried as evil, wrong, dangerous, ungodly. Look back to the Hebrew story in 1 Samuel 28 of the witch of Endor, called upon by King Saul to bring up from the dead Samuel to get some helpful advice. Dead Samuel was not pleased! Such magic and necromancy was forbidden in Judaism, even by Saul, who then broke his own rule.

Catholicism, and some other Christian traditions, have had much more communication with dead people built into their devotion. The naming of saints seems to be for this purpose, in part: pray to St. Christopher, or St. Jude, or the Blessed Virgin Mary. I was taught to pray to the Triune God only, and in the Christian Service Brigade memorized 1 Timothy 2:5, There is one mediator between God and man, the Man, Jesus Christ.

I don’t think I learned what that ancient statement of Christian beliefs says, the Apostle’s Creed: I believe in the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body. It’s right here in our 50-yar-old Baptist Hymnary. The communion of saints, which equals the fellowship of Xians. This includes the believers dead and gone before us, with us!

I think there are many people who hope for a lot of things from dead people. I don’t mean they want to ‘see dead people,’ though some claim that happens. But you might say that your memory of loved ones inspires and influences you. Perhaps they look over us and look out for us. I hear a lot of that language at the time of deaths and funerals. Some people hope that the deceased will communicate with us – there will be signals or even detailed messages given. I think of folks who believe in ‘diming’ for instance. They keep finding coins, dimes, and every time they believe it is from their deceased loved one; a comforting signal from beyond the grave.

It is basic to Christianity that we believe in communication with someone who died: Jesus the Christ, Son of humanity and Son of God. He’s closely in touch with us, from beyond the grave. But others? Well, perhaps!

This is why I chose that we read from Hebrews 11 and 12 today. Chapter eleven is a litany of Bible heroes, long dead, with highlights of their lives. Next we are told: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. As runners in the race of life, we are cheered on by these dead heroes of the past. We look to Jesus all the way, but we are not alone, we are surrounded by the cloud of witnesses. So, we keep going, beyond those who went before, and this is also all about Jesus.

Do you have some great heroes of Faith? People you knew who now cheer you on, one way or another? Perhaps someone who prayed for you, and their prayers are still getting answered in your life, today! Or the lessons of their life still teach you.

Maybe you know a touch from farther in the past, from someone you never knew, but whose books or stories you have read. Whose music moves you. Whose footsteps you follow.

All of this can be from the Spirit of Jesus, and from that great cloud of witnesses who each have shown, in their lives, the life of God. And you: who shall you touch in the future, even once you are dead and gone? This may be for God to know and them to find out.

This is the Family of God. It is eternal, not bound in time. It is holy and it is down-to-earth. This is the Church Christ builds, and the gates of evil cannot stand against it.

We will sing some of the hymn, For All the Saints, which is basically saying: ‘Hallelujah to God for all the dead.’ Christ blesses us with their influence, today. There is another ‘saint’ hymn in our Baptist book; I don’t know if you know it yet. It says: For the saints of God began just like me,

And I mean to be one too. (Lesbia Scott, b. 1898)