This
weekend is a wonderful coming together of several diverse religious and
spiritual events. It is a confluence of
not just the old, but of the really ancient as well. It is a blending together of Christian and
pre-Christian festivals and of Catholic and Protestant theological
perspectives.
First
off, October 31st was the day in 1517 that Martin Luther formally
posted his 95 gripes about, and theological arguments against, the Roman
Catholic Church. Not having Twitter back
then, he nailed them with a certain flourish to the door of the Cathedral
Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Luther’s
one-man protest sparked the Protestant Reformation that quickly spread
throughout the world. This event is
important for us to remember because, had it not been for Brother Martin, we
would not be worshipping here this morning in our small church with its big
heart but rather would be attending mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in
Windham.
This
weekend also marks the pre-Christian Celtic Festival of Samhain, which occurs halfway
between the vernal or fall equinox and the winter solstice. Samhain in Gaelic means “summer’s end” and
is a harvest festival. It is the time
when herds were brought down from the hills, when family members (and long dead
ancestors) returned to the homestead for the winter months, when vegetation died
back and killing frosts occurred. As
one blogger wrote, “Samhain is (like) the turning of the wheel. It feels almost
like shutting off the lights for the evening or closing down the store for the
night. It is time to go inward and focus on family and self.”
Not
surprisingly, Samhain was traditionally associated with death and was a
spiritually significant time when the veil between this world and the next,
between the living and the dead, was thought to be at its thinnest. For Outlander fans, this was the time
of year when people like Claire time traveled through the standing stones to
another world. In the end, Samhain is a
festival for honoring ancestors and those who have gone before us.
As
Christianity spread throughout Europe, the time of Samhain coincided with the
Christian Church’s need to celebrate the lives of named saints who did not have
their own designated feast day. Known as
All Saints’ Day, it was initially confined to the Diocese of Rome. However, in the 9th century,
Pope Gregory IV designated it an all-church day of holy obligation. At some point, All-Souls Day developed as
well, which was a day to recognize those non-designated Saints (that is, just ordinary
folks) in one’s immediate family who had passed away.
The
more recent Protestant tradition has been to merge All-Souls and All-Saints Day
into one. After all, we believe that we
– all of us – are both saints and sinners – and so we – all of us – ought to be
honored for our life accomplishments.
This
weekend then, is about new traditions arising from the old, about richer
perspectives on life and death emerging.
One of those perspectives is the close bond we have with those we love –
“Wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, so shall I live” – that
continues beyond death.
Whether
or not you think that the veil between the worlds is particularly thin this
weekend, as Christians we believe that somewhere – somehow – “a great cloud of
witnesses” loves us from beyond the grave, nudging and guiding us through our
memories of them to be more loving, more like God intended us to be. That is why on this first Sunday in
November each year, we have All-Saints’ Remembrances, recalling those men and
women in our families and in our church family who died in the past year. “Wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you
live, so shall I live.”
JAMES ENGLISH – James was a summer visitor
from Winsor, Connecticut. I know very
little about this James English because there were actually two James
English-es, both of whom were snowbirds and both of whom were summer residents of
Raymond. One James English passed away
years ago and was married to Marjorie English, who annually came north from
Virginia until two summers ago. I recently
wrote to her about our James English but have not yet received a reply.
I
do know from talking to Marjorie a couple of years ago, however, that the James
English we remember today was also married to a Marjorie. So – right here in Raymond in the summer were
two married couples of about the same age who were James and Marjorie English
and who attended this church and who frequently played bridge together. No wonder there has always been so much
confusion! I understand they got quite a
kick out of the coincidence as well.
CHARLES GUERIN – Charles is Marie Guerin’s
father. Marie has been on each of our
Maine Seacoast Mission trips. Charles
was 98 when he passed away. He lived
with a mental and physical vitality seldom seen in those so aged. Trained professionally as an attorney, he
devoted his career to the US Treasury, overseeing the tax code and tax
implications of Medicare and working on tax-exempt status for certain religious
groups (Thank you, Charles). He was a
lifelong student and loved gardening, politics, the news, ethics, cooking,
genealogy, and languages. His mind was
always engaged in something.
From
what I could see, he also loved challenging and intellectually pushing his
daughter, Marie. I know he grilled her
on why she was going to Maine Seacoast Mission that first year and what she
expected to accomplish spiritually – and, in doing so, also challenged me.
Charles
was a deep theological thinker, able to see the hand of God working often in
mysterious ways. He was a faithful and
active Roman Catholic, always seeing the potential of his Church, even in the
midst of all the pain and controversy it has experienced over the past
decade.
I
met Charles once when Marie was picking up pot roast suppers here and asked him
what he thought of Pope Francis. He took
my hand and smiled broadly, indicating that, from his perspective, the College
of Cardinals had done well in its election.
I suspect that knowing his church was in good hands made it easier for
him to move on graciously and gracefully.
RAY NEAL – Ray was a generous and faithful
summer member of our church, making financial contributions to upgrade our
sound system here in the sanctuary and to purchase a portable communion
set. Ray also remembered this church in
a trust he established before he died.
As his daughter Pam wrote, it would “probably suffice to say that (Ray)
loved the Raymond church and (his) summers in Maine” where he spent summers for
40 years in a home on Crescent Lake.
Ray
was warm, soft-spoken, and gentle. He
served in the Navy for a number of years, retiring as a captain, and was also
on the Governor’s staff in Rhode Island, his home until he and his wife retired
to Florida. Ray was very involved in our
church and was able to offer the Church Council sage common sense advice on
finances and other matters on numerous occasions.
Caryl
Gilman remembers three of the many loves of Ray’s life:
1.
His wife Kathryn, with whom he had four children. He also adopted Kathryn’s daughter from a
previous marriage.
2.
Fishing – anywhere, anytime – on Crescent Lake, Lake
Champlain, and elsewhere.
3.
His camp in Raymond…even after Kathryn’s death he continued
to spend summers here until 2-3 years ago.
DOROTHEA PUTSCHER – Dorothea “Dot” and her
family were longtime summer residents. She was a high school physical education
and health teacher in New Jersey and worked summers as a counselor at Camp
Wenonah on Trickey Pond. After she
married, she was a fulltime mother of what eventually became a family of six
children - three boys and three girls - maintaining high standards and
expectations for all of them.
In
her later years, Dot blossomed as an artist and craftswoman. She loved painting – whether it was a
landscape on canvas, the boat dock, or the back of the cottage on Sebago that
became her and Dick’s three-season vacation cottage. I understand that she was very organized – maintaining
a list of all things that had been done - and still needed to be done - on the
cottage.
Dorothy
was devoted to her Presbyterian Church in Delaware and to our church here in
Raymond. Over the years, she faced a
number of serious health challenges, including the surgical loss of one of her
lungs. Surely it was her deep faith and
the loving relationships she maintained with everyone in her family that kept
her optimistic and unwilling to give up until God called her home.
BETTY WILSON – Betty is Stacey Grindel’s
grandmother. She lived in Maine all her
life – though when she and her husband Charles retired, she took great pleasure
in traveling to visit with family. She
was an avid reader who also loved knitting slippers and baking bread.
Betty
was a Girl Scout leader and also was involved in Boy Scouts for over 50
years. You could often find her working
with scouts at Camp Hinds. In fact, she
made the first Camp Hinds flags. In
1992, she was awarded the Silver Beaver Award, one of the highest awards in
Scouting – and not often awarded to a woman.
Betty also
volunteered at the Cumberland Fairgrounds, Native American pow wows, and the
Navy Relief Society. She was a loving
caring mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Stacey recalled her this way: “My grandmother was so special and amazing.
Her focus was her family, and she loved us all equally. In college, she used to send care packages to me with
special notes, homemade goodies and a few dollars for spending money. It always
included the saying 'between you, me and the gatepost'. It was a special treat
to get one of her care packages that continued even after college.
I loved her
and still love her dearly. Growing up she was a rock. I learned to cook and
enjoyed canning with her that I now am teaching my kids. I learned from her a
love of service, a love for the outdoors, and the knowledge that family isn't
always related by blood.
SANDY WINDE – Though Sandy has not been
active in our church for 10 years now, he is still remembered fondly by many in
our congregation. He volunteered with Cub and Boy Scouts for 15 years and was
active in the community as a youth baseball and soccer coach and also
volunteered as a middle and high school wrestling coach. Sandy was always ready
to lend a helping hand in his conversational, down-to-earth way – and could be
spotted most everywhere by the distinctive hat he always wore.
Tom Wiley was
a close friend of Sandy and remembers him this way: “Sandy was a friend to all.
My
personal memories of Sandy will always be those of a brother I never had.
We enjoyed numerous scout trips around this country including a trip to
Gettysburg. Sandy was a huge civil war buff and truly enjoyed the sharing and
learning about Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine’s impact on the
battlefields of Pennsylvania. “
Sandy
lived with a terminal illness for nearly three years, throughout it all
approaching life as a blessing with optimism and a deep Christian faith.
MURIEL YEAGER – Most of us here know Muriel
as “MumMum” – a spry, energetic, optimistic, Red Sox loving, vital, and
faithful church member who passed away just shy of 101. Muriel raked leaves and shoveled snow until
she was 98 – and she was still trying to chase wild turkeys out of the back
yard shortly before she died. Muriel was
always at worship, looking elegant, dressed to the nines.
She and Rosemary and Ann were the Golden
Girls and could often be found after church at Tim Horton’s or cruising the
aisles of Walmart together. My guess is
that Muriel cut a wide swath in her younger days, as I have heard tell of her
sliding gracefully down bannisters in New York hotels in her evening dress.
Her
daughter, Margo, asked family members to send a few thoughts for these
All-Saints’ Remembrances. Last week Margo
gave me a page and half, single-spaced with tiny type filled with thoughts and
memories of Muriel. It was a joy to
read, brought tears (good tears) to my eyes as I recalled this loving and
friendly woman who lived so fully right up until she died.
Here
are just a few of the things her family mentioned: ”What I valued most about
Mom was how easy it was for her to make friends. Lasting friends. Some of her friends she had kept contact with
for over 80 years. She had such a large,
kind heart.”
“I
remember raking leaves with her and trying to keep up, and this was when she
was 90. She was a perfectionist. You couldn’t quit until there wasn’t a single
leaf remaining on the lawn. Mom was so
full of life and love.”
“What
I remember most about Mom was her unselfish generosity, never looking for
payback of any kind, just a warm and heartfelt thank you. She would rather have given her savings away
instead of enjoying the money herself. I
can look back and honestly say that I have never had the pleasure of meeting
anyone in my life with such a giving heart as my Mom.”
“What
I remember about Mom was her love for knitting and crocheting. Every kid around was dressed to the tee. She was always kind and giving – and played a
mean card game too.”
“I
don’t know anyone who has touched as many lives as MumMum did. And missed?
Boy is she missed. But I know
she’s in a better place. She’s with
PopPop now. Lately they have both been
in my dreams. I’ve never dreamed of my
grandfather, but now that they are together, they are both visiting me in my
dreams. What a lucky lady I am!”
When
I was in college in New York, my fraternity buddies would offer to drive me
home in the hope of getting a few of MumMum’s brownies. She was known in those days as the brownie
lady. When I was in Viet Nam flying
Marine Corps helicopters my buddies would flock around my cot when they heard
that MumMum had sent me a goodie package.
MumMum had the special gift of letting people know she was thinking of
them. She is truly the belle of the ball, and I know wherever she is everyone,
is having a grand time.
A
blog post I came across this week read:
“’We have had our run. It is time to leave.’” So said Andy Pettitte, pitcher for the New
York Yankees (Sorry, Muriel!).
All
of us will say that sooner or later. If
we have invested ourselves deeply in life and deeply in love we can greet the
end of both career and life with joy and celebration. It is not a joy and celebration that our time
has come to an end, but a joy and celebration that while we had our time we
dared to live fully, to love wastefully, and we found the courage to be all
that we could be.”
Surely
that is the experience of those we have remembered today…..Wherever they go,
may we go too.
by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church U.C.C., Raymond, Maine
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