Sermon

The Rev. Noah Van Niel

11/13/16

Feast of All Faithful Departed: Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 130; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58; John 5:24-27

            Today we celebrate the feast of All Faithful Departed, or as it is more commonly known: All Souls’ Sunday. I want to talk about the “All” part of that. And I want to talk about the “Souls” part of that.

Our Old Testament reading this morning comes from chapter 25 of the book of Isaiah, which is a part of a section sometimes called the Isaiah apocalypse—a story of how a people feeling beaten down and broken are to be redeemed. It seems to me we are living in a country that is experiencing its own mini apocalypse, in that there are a lot of people who have been feeling broken down and beaten up and tossed aside who have found their redemption in an electoral victory. This has left the other half of the country feeling broken down, beaten up and fearful for what the future holds. I imagine that there are people from each of these camps here this morning. Continue reading →