Quick Summary:

There’s a trail of tears linking our scriptures this All Saints Sunday. Two profound images from the 1st and 2nd readings, and yet a 3rd from John’s gospel speak of weeping and tears and the God who will wipe them away.

At a vigil I attended at Seattle's Temple de Hirsch Sinai, in memory of those killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Rabbi Aaron Meyer reminded us that the Torah declares that every human being carries within themselves the inviolable image of God.
: Jesus, clustered with friends at the grave of Lazarus. Jesus, who chose to stay away even though he knew his friend’s death was imminent. Jesus, face to face with Mary’s grief, his own eyes filling with tears.

A trail of tears runs through the texts this morning...and to this trail we can add our own tears, can we not? Tears that flow from our inner, personal griefs and sorrows; tears at what unfolds around us in a world that has forgotten the sacred image of God residing in each and every person.