All Saints

Here is a quick thought on this Sunday following All Saints Day.

Farmers have a leg up on understanding God’s plan for our resurrection. They already know the plan goes something like this: Plant the seed. Watch it transform and grow. Enjoy the results. We don’t have to read far in the New Testament to reach several stories in which Jesus or the early apostles use agriculture to help us understand Christian life. The imagery helps us contemplate God’s plan for our ailing bodies.

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. when you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed…. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is  sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable. – 1 Cor 15:36-37, 42

What comfort these words bring. They acknowledge that although someone may come to life broken and in disrepair, that someone, if they live in Christ, will live anew with an unbroken body free from the negativity of sin.

I think of these words today as we celebrate All Saints Day in worship. Today we recognized those who have fallen asleep this past year, and yet will wear the crown of life. Jacob is one of these, for although he entered this world early and broken he was saved through Baptism.