Saints building the kingdom / Santos Construyendo el Reino All Saints, Year B

Melissa Campbell-Langdell

All Saints, Oxnard

All Saints Sunday, Year B

(Is. 25:6-9; Ps. 24, Rev. 21:1-6a, John 11:32-44)

A favorite short story of mine by Flannery O’Connor ends with a glorious vision of the heavenly train of saints ascending to heaven.  Hay un cuento de Flannery O’Connor, una escritora del Sur de los EEUU, que describe una señora que piensa que es mejor que los demás y en un día difícil para ella, se da cuenta de que los últimos realmente serán los primeros.  This lady owns land with her husband and has black farmhands working for her but she thinks she is better than them and better than the so called “White trash” she sees in town.  Algunos trabajadores morenos trabajan en su granja y ella piensa que es mejor que ellos y la otra gente blanca del pueblo que son de bajos ingresos.  It turns out a college girl attacks her in the doctor’s waiting room in town.  Una chica le ataca mientras esta en el doctor y le dice que es del diablo.  Now a girl at the doctor’s office tells her she is from hell, which confuses the woman, because she is convinced she is saved.  When she gets home, she eventually asks God what that was all about.  Le pregunte a Dios de que trataba esto.  Y no recibe una respuesta, pero una visión:

 She is not given a response but a vision:

“She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were tumbling toward heaven. There were whole companies of white trash, clean for the first time in their lives, and bands of black [folks] in white robes, and battalions of freaks and lunatics shouting and clapping and leaping like frogs. And bringing up the end of the procession was a tribe of people whom she recognized at once as those who , like herself and Claud, had always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right. She leaned forward to observe them closer. They were marching behind the others with great dignity, accountable as they had always been for good order and common sense and respectable behavior. They, alone were on key. Yet she could see by their shocked and altered faces even their virtues were being burned away. She lowered her hands and gripped the rail of the hog pen, her eyes small but fixed unblinkingly on what lay ahead. In a moment the vision faded but she remained where she was, immobile.”[1]

Ella vea que la gente que ella pensaba que eran los más pobres y tan faltando en educación fueron primeros en su visión, y la gente que pensaba que era más responsable y educada fueron en la parte atrás, y esto fue un choque para ella.

Because the truth is, we have known from earliest times that the band of saints is a bunch of misfits for Christ.  Los santos de Dios siempre han sido la gente más humilde, menos impresionante, y un poco loca.

We are reminded of this by one commentator, who says that the audience of the book of Revelation needed to be built up because “they were Jews become Christians in a Roman world, members of a heretical wing of a minority faith barely tolerated by a brutal empire.”[2]  Los cristianos a quienes fueron escrito Apocalipsis fueron” judíos convertidos a cristiandad en un mundo romano, miembros heréticos de la fe judío, que en si mismo fue casi no tolerado por el imperio romano.”[3] Es decir, ellos fueron gente humilde y un poco no bien respetado. 

Just how humble our roots are as Christians is pretty hard to remember on All Saints Sunday, and for good reason!  Tenemos una rica tradición de honrar una letanía de santos, y a veces olvidamos nuestras raíces humildes como cristianos, especialmente en el domingo de Todos los Santos.

We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, and today we honor those have gone before, those with names known to all and those whose names are just known to us and to our families.  Honramos hoy los santos quienes tienen nombres conocidos y santos solamente conocidos a nosotros mismos.  We are also in a company of saints here and now, all of us striving to be saints.  Salmo 24 habla de la gente justa y yo sé que aunque es difícil y no estamos allí todavía, que estamos tratando de ser santos cada uno de nosotros.
We are welcoming in new saints today, with the sacrament of baptism, and lifting up the saints among us who have been learning about the sacraments in First Communion.  Damos la bienvenida hoy a nuevos santos en el santo sacramento de bautizo y estamos levantando los pequeños santos quienes han estado aprendiendo sobre los sacramentos en la celebración de su Primera Comunión. 
In the church at large right know, there is this concept of building the New Community, which is a wider vision of ministry that includes all races and generations.  Veremos un poco de esta visión de la nueva comunidad hoy en Todos los Santos, en que tenemos un ministerio multicultural e intergeneracional.  

We have a community that is becoming ever newer here, and it is this new community to which we all ultimately strive.  About the Revelation passage one has said that the “creation of a new community in communion with God is not the result of history but the purpose of history.” / “La creación de una nueva comunidad que esta en comunión con Dios no es el resultado de la historia pero es el propósito de la historia.”[4]  Es decir que formar una comunidad unida, un Cuerpo de Cristo realizado en la unidad y unión de todas las naciones, es el propósito del evangelio.  The unity of the Body of Christ is what it’s all about.

The New Jerusalem is something we hope for, but we aren’t standing idly by and waiting on the Lord only.  We are living into it now.  Estamos viviendo el reino de Dios hoy, y esperamos la nueva Jerusalén de Dios en el reino que viene.

And, with all our striving, it is good to remember that God loves us as the ragamuffin bunch we are.  En todos nuestros esfuerzos, esta bien recordar que Dios nos ama como el grupo ecléctico que somos.  Dios no nos quiere perfecto como lo describe el mundo.  Our perfection is in loving others and God with all our hearts, minds and souls, and being true to the gospel, not necessarily in being impressive.

And the good news here is that “It is finished.” “Ya esta hecho,” dice Cristo.  Our salvation is already won!  It is finished.  Ya esta hecho.  Such good news there never was.  We are saved, but we still get to live into what that means, day by day, striving to be the saints that we are just a little better.  Estamos salvados, pero cada día estamos tratando de realizar esto mejor, en nuestras vidas y en nuestras comunidades.  This doesn’t mean we are protected from suffering in the meantime as we try to live into the kingdom.  No estamos protegidos del sufrimiento mientras intentamos de vivir el reino de Dios, como vimos en el sufrimiento esta semana por huracán Sandy.  We certainly pray with our brothers and sisters affected by Hurricane Sandy and must do what we can to heal the world a bit as it is.  But we have a hope fixed on Christ.  Tenemos una esperenza en Cristo.
And soon we will take our place in that heavenly train.  Pronto tomaremos nuestras posiciones en la fila de los santos.  And perhaps we will rejoice at the antics of those in front, and maybe even be pleasantly surprised by who’s there.  Posiblemente tomaremos gozo en la jubilación de los en frente de nosotros en la fila, y posiblemente quien esta en fila nos sorprenderá un poco.  The mantle of death will be lifted, just as it was for Lazarus, so many years ago.  El manto de la muerte estará levantado, justo como fue levantado para Lázaro hace tantos años.   And this time, the end of mourning will not be just for one, but it will be for all.  Tears, tears that cleanse us will no longer be needed as we will be washed fully clean.  We will mourn no more.  Death will pass away. 
And until then, let us go into the foretaste of the banquet that we have had prepared for us today.  Let us be bathed afresh in baptism with Cody, with Donna and with Mikey.  Tomaremos la Santa Comunión de nuevo con Cody, Mikey, Gerry, Billy y Alan.  Let us taste that communion anew with our brothers in Christ.  Recordamos nuestro bautizo con ellos. 
And today, at the international celebration, let us feast on the life God has given us in this new community.  Que comemos los manjares hoy que Dios nos ha dado en esta comunidad de fe.  But may we never be distracted from the truth.  Porque la verdad es que lo mejor no ha venido todavía.  For the best is truly yet to come.  Hallelujah!

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[1] Flannery O’Connor, “Revelation” (Excerpt) As published at http://unfoldingflanneryoconnor.blogspot.com/2011/05/full-text-revelation-by-flannery.html (Accessed 3 November 2012).  Forgive my replacement of “folks” but that seemed pastorally sensitive in this case.

[2] Roger A. Ferlo, “Pastoral Perspective: Revelation 21:1-6a,” FOTW Year B, Vol. 4.

[3] Ibid, my translation.

[4] David Cortes-Fuentes, “Exegetical Perspective, Revelation 21:1-6a,” FOTW Year B, Vol. 4.