When I was a chaplain, we were all assigned to create “toolkits” for our work. Many of my peers created more virtual boxes – verbal or intellectual – or binders, in fact, rather than boxes, full of words and ideas appropriate to the various tasks of a chaplain. I may be a little too literal sometimes, but I made a tangible kit full of tangible objects, and I still use them on a regular basis.
I created a “God Can,” similar to the more familiar “God Box” but punier, because what we can’t do, often, God can. Into it we release our unsolved problems, our unmanageable drama, our impossibilities and entanglements, asking God to do what we cannot.
I created a small book, pocket-sized, full of poems and prayers of many religions and of none, appropriate for birth and death and everything in between. In it I wrote a “liturgy for baptism near the time of death,” for those infants born too early or too unwell, whose birth and death take place on the same day, and sometimes in the wrong order.
As the above sentence must reveal, chaplains see a lot of death, and intensely.
I created a little box that doesn’t have a name. It’s tiny and strong and sturdy. Inside, eternal light shines and the names of the dead are written on little paper scrolls. One side of the box blesses them in Latin. I created this box to have a place where All Saint’s Day could be observed at a moment’s notice; where our beloved departed ones are not forgotten. Sometimes I take it out and unroll the scrolls to remember and mourn. Sometimes I have a new one to add – last week, Polly Johnson.
This Sunday I invite you to bring a remembrance of someone who has died, to join with others on the Ofrenda we will prepare for All Saint’s Day. A photo, a favorite possession, a candy they loved, or just their name written on a tiny piece of paper. I’ll bring the little box too. At the table we will remember our strong Presbyterian conviction that it is not just some who get to be set aside as special saints. We believe in the priesthood of all believers – that all of us can minister in God’s name – and the sainthood of all believers comes along with that. A funny bunch of saints we may be, not always holy or good or strong, but this is the community loved and blessed by God, and we celebrate together with all who have walked this way with us.
Every Blessing,
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Rev. Talitha Amadea Aho