It is the season of All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Dia De Los Muertos, all celebrations focused on remembering the dead and honoring their ongoing significance to the living, even their ongoing presence in our lives. The observances of different faiths, cultures and traditions are certainly not all the same but they are united in their emphasis on the value of remembering.
In the Christian tradition, the focus in this season of remembering often falls on gratitude for God’s presence with us both in life and in death. We will highlight verses like Psalm 23:4 – Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me, and Romans 14:8b – Whether we live or whether we, we are the Lord’s.
Of the psalm Rabbi Allan Berkowitz writes, “The way the writer of the poem refers to God changes mid-poem, from the third person (He leads me) to the second person (You are with me) …At the very moment, when fear is at its worst – when the sheep and we are feeling the most vulnerable – You God are with me.”
When my mother-in-law was dying of cancer and chose to end her life under California’s End of Life Options Act, it was Paul’s assurance to the followers of Christ in Rome that my wife and I read at her bedside. For us, and we hope for her, it was a promise that Eternal One is always and forever shepherding us from death to life.
There is much going on in, as a friend describes, our “upside down” world. There is much to worry about. There is much to fear. The 2025 Chapman University Survey of American Fears reveals that this year the ten most pervasive fears among the American public are, in order: Corrupt government officials, People I love becoming seriously ill, Economic/financial collapse, Cyber-terrorism, People I love dying, United States involved in another world war, Pollution of drinking water, Russia using nuclear weapons, Pollution of oceans, lakes and rivers and Government tracking of personal data.
No one, in good conscience, could say that there is no need to worry about these things. The threats they represent are real. Yet, the promise of this season is also real. No matter what is going on we can pray in good faith, “God, shepherd us from death to life even as you have as you have done for those we honor in this season of remembering. You are the God of both the living and dead. In you abide faith, hope and love. Lead us in this world of many shadows. Amen.”
Jim Hopkins is Pastor Emeritus of Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland.
