ALL SAINTS DAY? by Pastor Ken Rickett

Among my many experiences were four summers during my college and seminary years in which I served as a summer youth minister. Each summer was spent in a different congregation, three summers in North Carolina and one summer in West Virginia. It was a good thing that I had four short, ten-week summers as youth minister to deal with my naiveness about the nature of ministry and the humanity of church people! Whew! What a learning curve!

Picture this! The H is a brand-new fellowship building with a modern kitchen. The — is the church cemetery, and the C is the Church building with the sanctuary and Sunday School rooms.

H —- C

The girls, perhaps 25 or 30 of them, were having an all-night party at H, the new fellowship Hall. Twas a warm June night…

About midnight several boys—under my guidance—and very quietly…went into the cemetery with several candles. Using a lit candle, we “boys” softened the bottom of several unlit candles and put them on top of several tombstones. The softened candles quickly stuck and stayed upright on the cold marble gravestones. A couple of the boys stayed in the cemetery while me and several others quietly opened the sanctuary windows in the church (C) . Then I turned on the church PA system on full volume. One boy sneaked out to the cemetery to tell the two guys there to light the candles. My partners in crime…some of the boys…made ghost sounds in the microphone at the pulpit, and those loud, screeching sounds floated out the open sanctuary windows and over the cemetery….and through the few open windows in the fellowship House (H), the girls heard the creepy sounds and looked out the windows…and saw a number of candles burning atop of several graves.

O, my! The blood-curling screams that emerged from the clueless girls….!

My only saving grace in this whole experience is that I had the foresight to tip off one of the female chaperones who was with the girls that ghostly evening. But I did not expect that it would take her several minutes to get the girls’ attention and calm them down.

As you might expect, eventually several of the girls came out and walked through the cemetery. One girl, both laughing and yet crying, pointed to a gravestone with a burning candle and exclaimed, “That’s my grandparents’ graves!” And she remembered them! Right then and there I knew that I should have paid attention to the dates on the tombstones and used only those gravestones of persons whom those girls would not have actually known and remembered.

Believe me! The next Sunday the news of the “ghostly night” was well circulated, and many adults seemed to enjoy the boldness of the prank. Very, very nervously I apologized to the family of the girl whose grandparents’ graves were “lit up.” I was lucky…they laughed and said that those grandparents had a sense of humor…but I was under no illusion….it could have been a quick end to any hopes that I had of becoming a minister someday!

This being the time of the year in which the Church recognizes ALL SAINTS DAY (November 1st) or ALL SAINTS SUNDAY (the Sunday closest to Nov. 1st), I thought of the prank that I described above, and once again I felt the relief that this girl’s family was so gracious and remembered the sense of humor of their loved ones. Or perhaps they meant that their loved ones were looking down from above with humor at the seriousness we attach to death when the life yet to be (zoe) is far beyond whatever we can imagine.

And I recall the story of Jesus who raised Lazarus from the dead. And Lazarus’

reaction as he arose from the dead? I have to believe that Lazarus laughed. He did not laugh at the absurdity of death. No Way! Lazarus laughed because he had been to the “other side” and as laughing because he once feared death, but had no reason to do so!

God’s gift of life (zoe) is incredible! All Saints Day? Well, it is not a day about our loss of a dear one, it is a day of celebrating God’s gift of life (zoe) to our loved ones! Amen!