Homily preached by Fr. Tom
St. Thomas Episcopal Church – Plymouth
November 6, 2013
All Souls’ Day
Wisdom 3:1-9
Psalm 130
1 Corinthians 15: 50–58
John 5:24-27
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
You folks may be familiar with the game “Six Degrees of Bacon.” According the game, any actor in Hollywood has either acted in a production with Kevin Bacon, or they have acted with someone who has acted with someone who was in a film with Kevin Bacon. Or they have acted in a film with someone who acted in a film with Kevin Bacon. This can go on for a while, but the game holds that anyone in Hollywood is within six degrees of association with Kevin Bacon.
I am never much on trivia games, and I am not the guy who watches a lot of movies, but this is an interesting idea. How exactly are the actors in Hollywood movies connected? We might wonder sometimes just how we are connected to each other.
We are here tonight to remember the faithful departed. Susan and I have on the list her grandmother Jewel Bunton. She was a woman born and raised in rural South Carolina. She was a giant of the faith and was the treasurer of Sandy Dam United Methodist for 60 years. She was a woman who kept pit bulls and had strong opinions about hogs. She could fry chicken that was so good I can hardly begin to describe it.
There is a temptation to hear the names today as they are read as part of the Eucharistic Prayer, and wonder just who they were. Now you know a little about Jewel Bunton.
You may be thinking of the degrees of Bacon, and realizing that you know me and I knew Mrs Bunton, so that makes one degree of separation. Your connection to this person you never met consists of exactly one person. It turns out we have a lot of connections to people. I attended a midweek Mass at All Souls’ in Berkeley California once, and the priest there had attended seminary with Fr. Mac. I never expected to find a connection to Fr. Mac in Berkeley, CA. We have many connections through the Church.
I want to point out another place that you and I are connected. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are connected with the waters of baptism.
To get back to the degrees of Bacon, what are our degrees of Jesus? We are members of the Body of Christ, and so even if we are sitting next to a total stranger, we are one degree of Jesus away from that person. We are much more closely connected than we might have guessed.
There is a temptation to focus on what makes us different as we look around us in the pews. Some of us were raised Roman Catholic. Some of us left the church and came back. Some of us have Spanish as our first language. I think we should look instead for what we have in common. We are disciples of Jesus. We have been baptized into the Body of Christ, and we are here by grace.
We are also here on All Souls’ Day to remember someone we love. We have all experienced loss, and that is another thing we have in common at St. Thomas tonight.
In tonight’s Gospel, Jesus tells us “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.” We remember the loved ones we miss, but we remember the Resurrection too. We have hope because Jesus died for our sins.
I will be honest and tell you that I miss Mrs. Bunton. I will also tell you that I am blessed for having known her. I have faith that I will see her again. In one way, just these few sentences sum up the All Souls’ Day homily.
It is more than that though. We pray with and for each other because we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are connected by the waters of baptism and by our shared faith in Jesus.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen