by Rev. Eric Folkerth

As we’ve done the past several years, Dennise created an “Ofrenda” on our front porch last weekend. It’s a tradition that comes from her Mexican heritage and is connected with the well known “Dia de los Muertos” holiday.

The Ofrenda always gets a lot of notice from the many Trick-or-Treaters who swing by the house. It’s a bit non-traditional in that it not only includes Dennise’s ancestors, but mine as well. There are pictures of her Mexican forbearers and pictures of my German ancestors in Central Ohio. There’s a picture of a childhood friend of Maria who died far too young.

It’s a lovely ancient tradition that centuries ago now was, calendar-wise, moved to coincide with the younger Christian tradition of “All Saints Day.”

And no matter how you mark the start of the tradition, it’s clear that around the first part of November human beings tend to look back. We pause our busy lives for just a moment to remember our literal and spiritual forbearers.

We will do that at Kessler Park this coming Sunday. We’ll celebrate “All Saints Day.” This will include lighting candles and saying the names of our “Saints” who have died during the past year…those members of KPUMC who have gone on. However, our commemoration will also include a time for you to call out the names of your personal saints too. And, finally, we will remember the many lives lost to COVID-19 during these past two years. The pandemic has tragically created many saints before their time, and some of you are wrestling with those losses. So, you’ll be invited to light a candle in their memory as well.

Why do we look back? Why do we remember the past?

Because it helps destroy the dangerous cultural myth that we are “self-made.” NONE of us are self-made. In fact, we are all here now because of the hard work, challenging choices, and sometimes just plain dumb-luck of our forbearers. We are each —genetically and spiritually— the descendants of thousands of years of human culture. We owe a great debt to our Saints.

A living saint in my life is Rev. Dr. Zan Holmes. Zan loves to talk about the concept of “Balcony People.” (This concept is borrowed from the author Joyce Landorf). Balcony People are like our personal saints. As we move through life, we look up from the stage of our life, we see them there in the “balcony” cheering us on.

Zan always described his balcony people as including his own father and mother, but also saints like Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King. They are an amalgam of both the personal and the societal.

When you arrive for worship this Sunday, take a look around the sanctuary. Read especially some of the plaques underneath the stained glass windows. These are some of the saints of Kessler Park. We stand on their shoulders, and it is a good and right thing to remember them.

Grace and Peace,

Eric Folkerth

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