October 27, 2022

Beloved in Christ:

“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” This assurance of God, found in Revelation 1:8, and other quotes like this, are often read in our funeral liturgy. This promise of God that God knows us from before our beginning until after our end, that God is present always and embraces and engulfs our souls and our bodies (for God loves both soul and body), in all the times of our lives, is unconditionally loving. The next two Sundays at Calvary present us with the outward and visible sign of the inward grace of God’s eternal presence and love of us. This Sunday, October 30 we have named “Scones, Stones, and Halloween Bones.” It is a Sunday of joyful, even a little bit silly, play. The Annual Stone Throw, a tradition based on the mythology of how Calvary was planted where it is, is pure fun, a little muscle, and good old competition. This year we’ve added in the treat of homemade scones and hot drinks, and, because it is the day before Halloween, an invitation to all to wear your Halloween costumes to church. Young and old – if you like to dress up, this is the day for you and your children, who we know love to wear their costumes all the time anyway, to gather in fun as we play together and joyfully worship God, who delights in us. When creation plays and enjoys life, God is right there with us, joyfully playing too in our gathering. And yes, there will be candy.

Next Sunday, November 6, we will mark All Saints’ Sunday, the great feast day of the church when we remember the Saints who surround us in their witness, and commend in our prayers everyone we love but see no longer, as we also thank God who is not only Alpha, the beginning, but also Omega, the end. From the joy of play to the grief of death, we gather in the sight and encircling embrace of God, from whom we can never be separated. If you would like loved ones who have died to be remembered in the prayers on November 6, please call the office or email office@calvary-rochester.org, or me at rector@calvary-rochester.org, sending the names of those to include in our prayers.

Alpha and Omega – the beginning and the end. There is no time when we are not embraced by God’s love, God’s joy, God’s delight and God’s promise of resurrection. Come be silly a little bit this week, and then come again on November 6 to be comforted in the great cloud of the witnesses of all of the Saints of God, who live now “where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting” (Book of Common Prayer, page 482). Because even at the grave, we make our song: “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”

In the peace of Christ,

Beth+