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pray with me Holy God may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. Our Lord and our Redeemer . Amen, I have a disclaimer to make,

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there will be no mention of zombies today. I understand that for those of you who may be fans of the show, the Walking Dead, perhaps you thought that today was your day. I'm sorry to

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disappoint Rather I chose this title, the title for today's sermon communing with the Walking Dead as a way of encapsulating what we have come to celebrate here today . The phrase Walking Dead, I use to mean

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a paradox, to name a paradox that refers to the significant figures in the faith as well as two significant and memorable loved ones who have died, who are no longer physically present with us, but rather

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continue to walk with us in spirit. Mhm Not only do they walk with us, but they continue to inspire us and even hold us accountable to the high calling of God's kingdom. After all, it

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is fitting. It is fitting because today we celebrate El Dia de los Muertos, commonly known as the day of the dead liturgical e this stands right in between All Saints Day, which is today and all

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Souls Day, which is tomorrow. Now as a historian, I was perplexed by the celebration of All Saints Day because there is no consensus as to its origin, especially in the Western church, fortunately the

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Eastern Church does have a um does have a source and that is Saint john of Chrysostom the church father from the fourth century When in 359, he preached a sermon Commemorating all the martyrs, all the martyrs

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who had died for the faith. And of course this is not to be confused with all souls day historically, the day in which the church prays for the souls of the faithful departed, who still remain

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in purgatory awaiting their final purification before entering heaven. Now in the early church martyrs, many martyrs faced public death, public ridicule torture. They chose to face this rather than to betray their faith. Ignatius

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of Antioch, Justin martyr, Polly carp, perpetua and Felicity. And of course pretty much every writer of the new testament. Let me highlight perpetua and Felicity. You see perpetua and Felicity were church mothers

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from North Africa specifically the region of Carthage. And in the late second century beginning of the third century , they were arrested and tried and although perpetual was pregnant with a child, both were executed publicly.

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They were fed to the beasts as they said and we know about them only by second sort of second hand, a telling of second uh retelling of their , of their testimony. But you see these two

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women provide us with a powerful testimony because they refused to abide by the patriarch ical expressions, expectations of their time. They refused to abide by the roman pesetas to honor their elders specifically their fathers and to

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denounce their faith and they refused to do this because they dared not betray the Lord jesus, rather they chose to wrestle with the beasts instead. And so surely Today's reading verses 22 and 23 applies to them

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, jesus says, blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, revile you defame you on account of the son of man, rejoicing that day and leap for joy. For surely your

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reward is great in heaven. That is what their ancestors did to the profits. And we can say to the martyrs like felicitous Felicity and perpetua. And so you might be thinking, okay, you're not

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talking about zombies, but what do you mean about community? What do you mean communing with the so called Walking Dead? Well, I'd like to suggest , as I see many, many students of church

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history here, I'd like to suggest that by reading the text of the martyrs and of the theologians and church fathers and mothers before us by discussing their writings by learning from their witness. We are able to

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commune with them. one can say that we summon their spirits and invite them to inhabit our reality such that they continue to walk and speak today. Now of course, church history professor would say that right

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, but one can also say that that is in fact what we are celebrating more broadly here today? Los Martos is a popular festival, a popular um sort of cultural ritual, if you will uh however

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, you have to understand that even though I grew up in a mexican household, we were protestant and los Muertos was far too catholic. So you know , we we dare not partake. Uh and so

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I didn't grow up practicing el Dia de los Muertos and I came to learn about it as an adult , which is, you know, which should be of comfort if you feel a bit lost or if

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you're unfamiliar with it, rest assured you're in a good place, fortunately Disney has your back. Because if you've seen the movie, the Pixar movie coco , you have a good idea of what's behind this

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tradition. El Dia de los Muertos is historically a family ritual in which family members gather to visit what's called El Campo Campo santo or the cemetery. Holy ground is a literal translation, but it's a cemetery

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where family members and loved ones are buried. Some families stay out all night on visual and they bring a friend a zor offerings of food and drink, maybe a cigarette or an album, a cd y'all

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. Some of you, some of you don't know what a playlist, right? And so you know , and these things are supposed to be, you know, things that were special to those that have

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passed away and these things are too, are meant to draw them back once a year to visit with their families and their friends. And here's the first important theological lesson that we can glean from this Dia

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de los Muertos in essence, it reminds us of the catholic city of the church. What do I mean by that? Well, it reminds us that God has made a new people out of jews and

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gentiles out of every nation under heaven, the dead and the living to live in communion with one another with God and with the rest of creation. That deserves an amen. Hey man, alright now,

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of course, this community transcends time and space, which is what makes today a bit strained. We're not used to at least actively thinking about invoking the dead communing with the living dead, But it's an

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important one because it has implications about how we order our lives here today. So, Lydia de los Muertos, I want to suggest offers a few more important theological lessons as you can see by the beautiful

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display here. This is a colorful playful tradition. You see the skulls and the paper mache and candles and candies and these things that are really joyful and bright. However, it should not these things should

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not be seen as a mark of disrespect for the dead. Rather it should be seen. These things should be seen as a subversive act that in fact undermines the dominant power structures, particularly by mocking death

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. Now, one of the most important figures in the history of El Dia de los Muertos is Jose Guadalupe posada and his image is there on the right hand side on the edge. He was a Mexican

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artist of the late 19th and early 20th century who created hundreds of humorous lithographs like this one that you've probably seen. This is also a copy of this is also on the table, lithographs like this,

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right of a, of a skull, of a skeleton wearing something wearing usually some kind of extravagant attire and his most famous piece of art. It's this one, it's called talavera Katrina Katrina, which means

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dapper skull. However, posada used this as a form of satire to in fact ridicule the upper classes of mexican society. For you see, he juxtaposed death and the the temporal reality of human existence.

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The contingency of human existence with the extravagance of the wealthy an elite, those who had amass wealth during the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz, we'll meet their end just like the poor, just like the rest of

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us. However, posada's critique wasn't just directed to the elite, like jesus, He spoke to the poor as well. For you see in this art piece, posada is also offering a critique of of

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a political response embodied by the poor and specifically the indigenous people of his day. Another name that this art piece is known by is Katrina la cala vera car ban Sarah garbanzo. Now, Garbin serra should

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sound familiar because it's the same word from which we get Garbanzo bean Garbanzo. So garbine serra was the person and it's in the feminine, so it's the woman who sells garbanzo beans in posadas context, this

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was usually an indigenous or mestizo woman of the working class peasant, most likely who made their living selling beans probably on the street or some fair. And in his time, the indigenous and mestizo community faced

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a temptation of temptation that lingers with us today and that is one of whiteness for you. See, the indigenous women would put on light makeup in order to whiten, their skin, would dress in european

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fashion specifically because they were ashamed of their indigenous heritage . And so through his art, posada would say , you do not have to be ashamed of where you come from. You do not need to reject

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who you are to be valuable. And in fact his art was part of a lot of broader movement that led to the mexican revolution And um culminated with the most comprehensive land reforms of the 20th century.

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And so it is in this way that Elia de los Muertos offers a third and for now a final theological lesson and that is God's preferential option for the poor. And we see this in today's text.

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Today's text in luke's Gospel is referred to as the sermon on the plane rather than sermon on the mount as it's found in Matthew because jesus comes down from the mountain to be with the people. And he's

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and he gives these beatitudes these lists of blessings and he just supposes those two groups, the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who are shunned or hated by society, jesus like posada,

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I should say posada like jesus says, you are loved, you are blessed, you are valuable. And he juxtaposes this with a list of woes shame on you. You're gonna get your comeuppance, the

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rich, the field, those who laugh at the expense of others, those who are socially exalted, the powerful. It should be noted that this is the only Gospel that includes the list. This list

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of woes. It's not it's not found in any other gospel. It's a very deliberate, a very unique aspect of this text. And so, with this in mind, I want to leave us with

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one final thought. And that is that with el Dia de los Muertos, this day in which we commune with those that have come before us with the Saints, with our loved ones, with those who

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we have perhaps forgotten. But should remember, we should remember that we inhabit a world with the Walking Dead as well. There are people in our life as Orlando. Patterson says, that inhabit an existence

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of social death who are already deemed not worthy, who are already deemed to black or brown to matter too poor to be of significance to stupid to to to be worth educating, destined for failure, destined

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for prison, destined for the streets. And it is the catholic city of the church that also calls us to account and to be in Communion to seek out and to stand in for stand up for those

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that inhabit the margins. Because when it's all said and done as the apostle paul says, we're all , we're all returning to dust and not only not only that, but we await a resurrection because we

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serve a Lord who has already conquered death. That's why 1st Corinthians, he says, death has been swallowed up in victory. Where O death is your victory, where O death is your sting for you

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see the very tool that the empires of this world used to oppress us, Our Lord has already conquered