Church of the Incarnation

From the earliest days of the church we've honored those who died for the faith. Martyrs were originally remembered on the anniversaries of their deaths, but as the calendar filled it became the practice to designate one day, All Saints Day, as a celebration of all the faithful departed. By the year 1000, though, the idea of purgatory had arisen, and the notion that believers who died with unresolved sins would be given an opportunity to atone for those sins before being sent to heaven or hell. The church set aside All Souls Day as a time to remember and pray for those in purgatory. All Saints Day was a celebration, and the liturgical color of the day was white, the color used on Easter and Christmas, the color of Baptisms and of new life. All Souls Day was a day of mourning, and the liturgical color was black, the color of despair and of repentance, the color used only on Good Friday.

The day Anglicans now celebrate as All Saints Day is really a combination of these two original commemorations. But I think that's not because we believe in purgatory but because death is complicated, a mixture of celebration and mourning, of confidence and terror. All Saints Day is a time to remember that the Church is so much more than just this group gathered here today. The Church spans the generations, and is made up of people who are a complicated mix of faith and brokenness, of kindness and selfishness, of love and despair. It's fitting, then, that our remembrance of the family of God be an equally complicated mix of love and anger, of appreciation and regret.

In Isaiah, we're told that God will destroy "the shroud that is cast over all people," 1 the cloud of confused and conflicting emotions that engulfs us when we remember those we've lost. God "will wipe away the tears from all faces." 2 "Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more." 3

Mary and Martha had a hard time believing this. They had watched their brother Lazarus die, had heard his last gasping breath and seen his chest cease to move. They had watched the color drain from his face and felt his hands go cold in theirs. They had prepared his body for burial, covering him in oils and spices and tears and watching him disappear from sight as they wrapped him in strips of linen. Finally they had kissed his dear face one last time before wrapping it in a cloth. They had placed him in the tomb, a stone cave, and they felt the thud as the stone was rolled over the entrance.

They knew their brother was dead.

And they were filled with all the normal emotions: emptiness and loneliness without him, fear for their own wellbeing, and anger - perhaps at Lazarus for leaving them, and certainly at Jesus for not saving him.

So days later when Jesus finally arrived and demanded to see the tomb, Mary and Martha were at least skeptical, perhaps even hostile. It was too late. Their brother was dead.

But Jesus came to "destroy the shroud that [was] cast over [them]," 4 to "wipe every tear from their eyes." 5 He stood in the middle of that place of death and sadness and brought forth new life. Now notice, he didn't make things like they were before - Lazarus was still wrapped for burial. But he brought new life, changed life. And Jesus commanded, "Unbind him, and let him go." 6

As we remember those we've loved and lost, we ask Jesus to enter our places of loss and sadness. We ask him to bring new life. We've been forever changed by those we've loved, and we've been forever changed by losing them. But we know Jesus will bring new life out of the loss. We know that Jesus will unbind us from the tangles of death and let us go to live again. And so, with a mixture of emotions only God can comprehend, we remember all the saints who've gone before us, and especially: Faye G. Berry (Joey Gainey's mother)
Thomas Biggart
Jane Blackwell (Tonja's mother)
Lloyd Blackwell, Sr. (Tonja's grandfather)
Mari Blackwell (Tonja's stepmother)
G.W. and Lillie Blanton (John and Sudie Gelok's family)
LeFoy Blanton (John and Sudie Gelok's family)
Edmund and Mabel Bridges (Eddy and Dawn's family)
J.M. and Sarah Brown
Patrick Burris
T.C. and Helen Callison
Bob Campbell
Frances Campbell
Kline Cash
Vergil Cooper (Jenny's grandfather)
Helen Dixon
Charles Edward Earl (Chuck's family)
Helen Riley Earl (Chuck's family)
Wilma and Seymour Earls (Eddy and Dawn Bridges' family)
Ernest A. Fisher (Joey Gainey's grandfather)
Chris Fowlkes
Lewis M. Gainey, Sr. (Joey Gainey's father)
Eleanor Gelok (John and Sudie's family)
Bessie Gibson (Joey Gainey's grandmother)
Frank and Vinnie Gibson (Renée McFalls' grandparents)
Craig Glidden (Scott's brother)
Bill Greene (Pat's husband)
James Edward Greene
Buelah Haggard
Joe Hammett
Margaret Hart
Bill Hart (Gwen's husband)
Mildred Harvey (Bob's wife)
The Rev. Marion Hatchett (former rector of Incarnation)
Peter Imondi
Darvin and Elizabeth Jenkins (Renée McFalls' grandparents)
Terri Jensen (Leslie Brown's friend)
David Johnson
Hazel Linder
Arthur Ralph Lippard (Josephine Earl's family)
Josephine Soper Lippard (Josephine Earl's family)
Margaret Elizabeth Lippard (Josephine Earl's family)
Margaret Love
Frances MacDowell
Mary and Russell
Robert McElveen
Miscarried Children
Mom and Dad
Helen Morgan
Barbara Neff (Leslie Brown's mother)
Ron Owenby (Ronnie and Leslie Brown's neighbor)
Gena Parker
Lisa Clement Parker (Tera Barnwell's daughter)
Mary and Raeford Quinn
Rachel
Woody and Katy Ralston
J. Grady Randolph
Martha Patterson Randolph
Joey Robison (Ronnie and Leslie Brown's friend)
Eloise Sarratt
Jim and Jean Sarratt
Ilka da Silva (Jorge's wife)
Jimmie and Fanny Simms
Olga Simon
The Rev. Ben Smith
Leo and Harriet Smith
Myron Smith
Bob Stevens (Scott Glidden's uncle)
Mac Swygert
Robert and Elizabeth Throop (Cynthia Glidden's parents)
Abby Tyler
Stephen Tyler
Frank and Margaret van Antwerp
Otis and Lorena Vaughn (Tonja Blackwell's grandparents)
Dorothy Wells (Eddy and Dawn Bridges' family)
Claud White
Francis White
Jim White (LaDonna's husband, father to Jennifer and Savannah)
Roland Williams
Bill Winter (Carla's husband)
The Rev. Charles Woodmason (first Anglican missionary in this area of South Carolina in the 1760s)
Pamela Wyss

Unbind us, Lord, and let us go.