Today, we are celebrating “All Saints Sunday,” because yesterday – November 1 – was All Saints Day.
A few years ago at my previous church, one of our newer members seemed surprised that we in the United Church of Christ celebrate All Saints Day. She said she thought the holiday was just for Catholics.
Well, no, that isn’t the case: lots of different Christian churches around the world celebrate All Saints Day, though it’s true that Catholics seem to put more emphasis on the saints than we do.
Catholic churches are often named for saints; there are statues of saints in many Catholic churches; and Catholics pray to different saints for different things.
So, for example, if you lose your keys, you pray to one saint. If you have a sore throat, you pray to another saint.
Maybe that seems silly to you, but I love learning about the lives of the saints.
Just as writers study other great writers, and actors study other great actors, I think that all of us who are consciously walking the spiritual path have a lot to learn from studying the lives of the saints…because, I believe, all of us called to be saints.
Now, I know, we often think of saints as extraordinary people who led such perfectly holy lives that we could never possibly attain their level of sanctity.
We put them up on pedestals (both literally and figuratively), but, you know, the saints were just ordinary people – like you and me – but they had an extraordinary love for God and for one another.
And, so, today, on All Saints Sunday, we not only remember the saints who have been canonized by the Church, but we also remember our loved ones who have died and who now dwell in the company of angels and saints.
Now, All Saints Day is always celebrated on November 1, the day after Halloween. You may know that the word Halloween means “All Hallows Eve.” Hallows means “Holy Ones.” It’s another words for “Saints.”
So, Halloween is the eve (the day) before All Saints Day.
On Halloween, people dress up like ghosts and goblins, not the original purpose wasn’t to be scary, but to welcome in the Spirits, those who have died.
The Church chose the date November 1 for All Saints Day because it fell during a Pagan festival call Samhein.
I told you before how the Church often took Pagan festivals and turned them into Christian festivals: like the Winter Solstice became Christmas and the Spring Equinox became Easter.
The Pagan festival of Samhein was a celebration a “thinning of the veil” between the earthly realm and the spiritual realm.
And, it reminds me of the celebration of Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead, which our Mexican friends are celebrating right now.
Beautiful altars are set up in Mexican homes with photos and memorabilia of loved ones who have died; their favorite music is played in the home; and their favorite foods are prepared.
It’s not a time of sadness. It’s a time of celebration, recognizing that our loved ones who have died are still very much alive here with us in Spirit.
In the short time that I’ve been your pastor, I have already officiated 12 memorial services or “Celebrations of Life” here in the church.
And, each time I do so, I reminded of what Jesus told us: That death is not the end of the story; that there is resurrection and new life.
Our loved ones who have passed may no longer be with us on the physical plane, but they are very much alive in the spiritual realm.
A few years ago at my previous church, I met with a woman who expressed concern that her father who had recently died might not be in heaven because, she said, he was not a good person. She said he had done a lot of bad things, and hadn’t accepted Jesus into his heart.
And, I told her that I don’t really know exactly what happens to us after we die, but that I do know God’s love is unconditional…which means God loves us without condition. God is all-loving and all-forgiving.
Last year, I told you all about a wonderful movie on Netflix entitled, “Come Sunday.” It’s the true story of Rev. Carlton Pearson, who passed away a few years ago.
In the late 1990’s, Rev. Pearson was an Evangelical pastor of one of the largest megachurches in the United States. They had more than 6,000 members.
Rev. Pearson was also one of the country’s most-popular televangelists on the Trinity Broadcast Network, and he was invited to the White House by George Bush.
But, as he continued to grow in spiritual understanding, Rev. Pearson had an epiphany. He came to the realization that if God is pure unconditional love then there can be no hell.
And, he began to preach that people didn’t need to be saved, because ALL people are unconditionally loved by God. He called it the “Gospel of Inclusion.”
Rev. Pearson was speaking the Truth, but the Evangelical church considered it heresy, and it cost him his ministry. He lost everything.
But, in 2006, he was welcomed and accepted as a minister in another church: the United Church of Christ.
Rev. Pearson believed that all people are saved, and so do I.
And, I share all of this with you today (not only because we are celebrating All Saints Day), but also because of today’s Gospel reading from the lectionary, where Jesus speaks of “salvation.”
As we heard, Jesus says that Zacchaeus, a tax collector, has experienced salvation.
What does it mean to experience salvation? We hear it so much from Christians today, always talking about “being saved,” and always so concerned about their salvation and the salvation of others.
I believe “salvation” is one of the most misunderstood terms in Christianity today. So, what exactly does it mean?
Well, let’s start by looking at today’s Gospel message about the salvation of Zacchaeus.
We don’t know if Zacchaeus was a historic figure, an actual person, but what we do know is that the name “Zacchaeus” means “clean” or “pure.”
Now, as I explained to you last week, tax collectors were considered “unclean” and “impure” by the religious people of Jesus’s day.
That’s why in today’s Gospel reading the people are so shocked and upset that Jesus is going to the home of an “unclean” and “impure” person, and that (even worse) Jesus is going to share food with him.
You see, good, upstanding religious people, like Jesus, followed the Purity Codes from Scripture, which forbade them from associating with the impure; forbade them from entering their homes or sharing food with them.
The upstanding religious people considered Zacchaeus to be import, but the Gospel writers – on purpose – give this man a name which means “pure,” and they did this to make a point. The religious people may have considered Zacchaeus to be impure, but God did not.
The Gospel writers also chose to describe Zacchaeus as “small in stature.” Taken literally, that means that he was short. But, taken symbolically – which is what the Gospel writers intended – “small in stature” means “lesser than,” someone of “lower status.”
This man of lower status in the eyes of the religious people – in the eyes of the world – seeks to experience something higher, the Christ Presence, and so what does he do? He climbs a tree. The Gospel writers chose a sycamore tree, which is a fig tree.
We hear about the fig tree throughout the Bible. It symbolizes a place of “higher vision and understanding.” It symbolizes a place of enlightenment.
The symbolism of the fig tree is not just in Judeo/Christian scripture.
Our Buddhist brothers and sisters tell us that the Buddha achieved enlightenment by sitting under this type of tree, and our Hindu brothers and sisters to this day still meditate under and around this tree.
Zacchaeus changes his perspective by climbing this divine tree. Down on the ground, society and religion have told him that he is impure, immoral, and of lower status.
Yet, God called him by name (Zacchaeus) to be “Purity,” and by climbing a fig tree (by seeing from a higher perspective), the Christ Presence, enters his home (his inner dwelling place), comes to feed him/to remind him of his Divine heritage (his divine nature), and Zacchaeus experiences salvation.
So, taken literally, this story is just about a short guy who climbs a tree and Jesus goes to his house and shares a meal with him and tells him he’s saved.
But, taken symbolically, this story – like all the Gospel stories– is about us.
When we stop seeing ourselves as unworthy and unclean, and start looking at ourselves from a higher, Divine perspective, we come home to the Truth of our Being.
When we seek out the Light – like Zacchaeus did – we will experience enlightenment. We will experience salvation. They mean the same thing.
Many Christians today have a very different idea of what salvation is.
Many Christians today are concerned about their salvation or about the salvation of their loved ones. For them, salvation means making sure you get into heaven when you die.
That is not what salvation is. Jesus never described it that way. The focus of Jesus’ message was always on this life, not the next one.
Think about it: Zacchaeus experienced salvation not when he died, but right then and there in his home, right in the present moment. As Jesus said, “The Kingdom of heaven is within you. It is here and now.”
Then, there are Christians who think the way to salvation is by becoming baptized and declaring Jesus as their Lord and Savior, as if belonging to the right religion will guarantee them salvation.
But, in today’s Gospel story, we see that Jesus, once again, is demonstrating that anyone can experience salvation, even an impure tax-collector.
The Pharisees – the righteous, religious people – were so confident about their own perfection, about their own salvation, because they believed that they belonged to the one right and true religion. Jesus is telling them otherwise.
I have heard some Christians today say that people like Gandhi or the Dalai Lama or Malala Yousafzai are not saved because they are not Christian.
If you think God grants salvation only to those of a certain religion, you have no understanding of God.
If your notion of heaven is based on excluding certain groups of people and including others, then it is by definition not Heaven.
I’ve told you before the concept of “Hell” was created by the Church – many hundreds of years after Jesus died – as a means of controlling people. The Church wanted people to believe that they needed the Church in order to be saved.
Salvation is not about control. Salvation is about freedom. Salvation is not about following a certain set of rules established by a certain group. Salvation is about becoming more and more of who you really are!
The 20th century Christian mystic, Thomas Merton, said: “Salvation is finding out who I am and discovering my true self. To be a saint means to be myself.”
And, Father Richard Rohr, says: “Salvation is not a divine transaction that takes place, but more of an organic unfolding, a becoming who you already are.”
That really is what religion should be about. The purpose of religion should be to show us who we really are! Beloved children of God!
God loves all of us unconditionally. So, we don’t have do anything to earn God’s favor or win God’s love, because we already have it!
We don’t have to do “good things” in order to ensure our place in heaven. Our place in heaven is already assured by an all-loving and all-forgiving God.
We do “good things” because good things are God Things, and when we do “God Things,” we are becoming more and more who God created us to be: Saints for one another.
And, so, my friends, on this All Saints Sunday, may the examples of all the Saints who have come before us remind and inspire us to do good things, so that we may experience God’s salvation, here and now.
For all of us are called to be saints…not just in the next life, but in this one.
May it be so. Amen.