Jack Hardaway
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The Lord is glorious in his saints.
And the lives of the saints are the stories that hold the world together.
God’s glory shines through people, and that glory is life itself.
There are ancient legends.
Maybe even myths.
About the righteous ones, a group of people, sometimes there are 36, sometimes 45, sometimes some other number, but usually it is 36.
No one knows who they are, including them, but they are the lynchpins that hold the world together. Without them the world falls apart.
They are like these secret super heroes, whose humility and love make the critical difference.
No one knows who they are, including them, so we should all live as if the world depends on us to keep turning and existing.
Humility and love, the glory of God that is life itself.
There are many stories about these mysterious heroes, they read like a cross between Indiana Jones and a diary of a normal everyday sort of person working, doing chores and going to the grocery store.
Like certain mild mannered reporters in comic books, except they have no idea about super powers or capes.
The heroes who live their lives with humility and great love, and thus unwittingly save the world.
You can imagine the stories about the devil trying to find out who they are or how to foil them, and always failing in his schemes.
The righteous ones, who are they? The mystery beckons.
Wonderful stories. Revealing stories.
We are all the stuff of such legends, our lives unwittingly saving the world.
Make no mistake, each of our lives is a hero’s journey. The fate of the world depends upon you.
Humility and great love, God’s glory shines through these, the glory that is life itself.
That is the journey.
It tips the balance.
All Saints’
We celebrate them today, and the Glory of God that enters the world through them, the glory that saves the world.
We renew our faith.
We baptize those who pledge their lives to the mysterious power of God’s grace that has risen into this life in the Risen Lord, Jesus the Christ. He is the fullness of the glory of God, that is life itself.
And we remember those who have gone before us, the great cloud of witness, the heroes who have saved the world.
Please stand as we remember our dead since last All Saints’.
Are there others?
May their souls and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Remain standing. (It is time to renew the Sacrament of new birth.) (We now celebrate the Sacrament of new birth.)