MAKE EVERY MOMENT MATTER
Joshua 24: 14-16
ACTS 1: 1-11
ALL SAINTS DAY 2026 – November 1, 2026
Ah, Mark … I left Mark for last purposefully. Of course, I was worried how his name might hit me emotionally because I am still mad and have layers of sadness that his death lit the fire for. I am guessing that if he had gone to the doctor to get checked out last year, he might still be with us … a lesson for all of you especially you men. On Friday I had a colonoscopy … no cancer. Mark as I have mentioned periodically went to two churches most Sunday’s … Mark also worked almost seven days a week in his business … Mark had talked about sleeping out in a cardboard box with me on the streets of Atlantic City this year for Covenant House but when I crawl into a box somewhere on those streets on November 13th … only Mark’s spirit will be with me.
When I went to get my colonoscopy, I had to remove all of my many bracelets including the one for Megan and the one that has pretty much been on my right wrist for almost 30 years. Once upon a time here at St. Paul’s I handed a matching bracelet to those in church that day … it reads MAKE EVERY MOMENT MATTER.
A lady gave me this bracelet after a speech I gave for Social Security … she said I sounded like a man who tried to make every moment matter. I already had these bracelets to hand out to my youth group I told her but she asked why I wasn’t wearing it. Well, I have worn it to Uganda in mission, to Israel to gain a focus on faith, to Red Bird, on the streets of Atlantic City with the homeless, in cardboard boxes, and every Sunday that I have been your pastor. MAKE EVERY MOMENT MATTER … a challenge for the saints of the church … a challenge for all of us … a challenge for me. Joshua told his people, “So now, revere the LORD … serve him honestly and faithfully … put aside the gods that your ancestors served and serve the LORD.” That unnamed lady was a saint to me … she gave me this bracelet that has gone through showers, storms, brilliant sunlight, the day my daughter was married, the day Dax was born, the day we lost Megan, it was on my wrist as I touched Mark as he died … it’s still here. Makes me wonder if I can remember all the saints of my life. She changed me.
That’s what saints do … SERVE THE LORD … they do their best to MAKE EVERY MOMENT MATTER … they hear the call of Jesus before He ascended into heaven … “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you AND … AND YOU WILL BE MY witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and all Samaria and as I like to add in Swedesboro, Glassboro, and even unto West Deptford in New Jersey.” SAINTS of the LORD take on the Holy Spirit in special and unique and even unusual ways to serve God and offer witness to the reality of Jesus Christ.
In Bible study this week I think it was Gail who asked … what was that group that sang for every day there is a season? It was the Byrds who brought Ecclesiastes to the popular music scene. Those of you who are of my age probably sang it with enthusiasm over the years … ahh years and time always on the march … we played the song at Lane McClintock’s celebration of life … “To everything turn turn turn there is a season turn and a time for every purpose under heaven” … “a time for searching and a time for losing, a time for keeping and a time for throwing away, a time for tearing and a time for repairing, a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking, a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for war and a time for peace.” I would argue that this is the time … for each of us to consider how we can be a saint of the Lord … and whether we are making every moment matter or whether we have become so overwhelmed that we can’t sort things out to determine what’s next because we have gotten used to living like we have for years and years.
I grew up in a household and a church where we seemed to avoid using the word saint. A reflection of the anti-Catholic prejudice that this nation once held. Remember that people said that John F. Kennedy would be loyal to the Pope not the Constitution and urged people to vote against him. The Irish and Italian Catholics from Europe were harassed and beaten when they came to this nation because they weren’t good Protestants. So, I only heard the word saint when I worshiped with my second family.
Until I discovered that the saints of God were amongst me … that the saints of God are the treasured ones of God who don’t necessarily receive the title from some church but rather are reflective of the lives they touch while walking this planet. But I did discover some of the incredibly awesome saints with that official title attached to their names forever … I read a quote from one to start worship. Saint Therese.
I could go through the names …. St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta whose impact most of us are aware of, she said “Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” That’s pretty much MAKING EVERY MOMENT MATTER … the world would be so much better if each of us merely did all we could to let no one ever come to us without leaving them happier. St. Catherine from that beautiful city of Sienna said, “Everything comes from love.” St. Thomas Aquinas said something that strikes home with me on this Communion Sunday, “The Eucharist is the highway to heaven, the Sacrament of love; it signifies love, it produces love” and in loving all of our neighbors we can MAKE EVERY MOMENT MATTER. I ran into Pastor Andy from Holy Nativity Lutheran Church in Wenonah and we ended up talking about Saint Francis who said, “Jesus is happy as life is to be lived, as light to be lit, as love is to be loved, as joy to be given, and as peace to be spread.” Of course there is Saint Patrick … “I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me; God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, and God’s word to speak for me.”
And, then I was asked a thought provoking question the other day … “Who are the saints from my life.” So, I am going to give you a minute to pause … to close your eyes … to consider who are the saints who have travelled in your life. I have many … many of whom are still offering me lessons of life and lessons of faith.
Paul writes in Romans … “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be His Holy Saints grace and peace to you.” He writes to the church in Ephesus … “by the will of God, to God’s holy saints … the faithful in Christ Jesus.” In the Psalms we read, “Sing the praises of the Lord, you His saints; praise His holy name.”
Of course, I merely have to look at my left wrist to see Megan’s name … at the funeral this week of my friend Joan Vicari as we walked back out of the cemetery a member of the church I served for 13 years came up to me and said, “I think about Megan all the time … her hugs. Her hugs were the best ever.” I joyfully celebrate that Meg was truly a saint and her legacy continues her sainthood as much as any named saint of the church.
I don’t have time … or rather you don’t have time to hear of all of my saints but some I do want to mention … Stan Lewis, my pastor as a kid who became my mentor and friend and saint once I received a call to be a pastor. I have his books … Stan grew a church led missions, took me under the waters, and he even knew when it was time for him to step back and let someone else take over Randall Baptist Church. He could have stayed longer … perhaps he could have been there when my dad died and I wouldn’t have lost my faith but even in retirement Stan was my pastor and friend and he would consult, teach, laugh, and pray with me. Although he never could remember what he said that makes Communion special to me.
Speaking of my lost faith … Reverend Bill Southrey I believe was with me in a special moment by God’s Holy Spirit. I had wandered denying God and Christ because of a bad minister … but there before going to lunch after a meeting at the Atlantic City Rescue Mission I was rescued by Bill … he gave me this Bible, my kitchen Bible. His work with the homeless … his love of the poor and downtrodden and even with intense Parkinson’s disease Bill still preaches, teaches, and loves and is still a saint. He rescued me.
Out on the streets of Atlantic City … this homeless man named Johnny … never knew his last name. A Vietnam vet with severe PTSD and an alcoholic … you’d call him a classic homeless man … he became my friend, taught me lessons about pious religious types, and the first time I slept in a cardboard box on the streets of Atlantic City he taught me how to sleep in a box on the streets and even though I did not tell him where my box would be … he was standing over me when I woke up on a cold Jersey shore Saturday 15 years ago. Plus … when he unexpectedly showed up at my church … I confiscated this bottle of liquor from him and will keep it forever. Johnny died on the streets …
Little Esther in Uganda at the NICU and nursery for Watoto Children’s ministry was a saint as a 1 ½ year old … she took my Buffalo Bills hat and put it on her head … we played games with a pebble moving it back and forth between my white hand and her tiny black hand. She helped me be less cynical about certain things … a saint. There’s Myron Glick and Bruce Main two true visionaries I have worked with and for.
I can’t forget United States Senator Birch Bayh from Indiana. A man who could have and should have been our President. Birch gave me as a college kid the best lesson of life outside of faith that I ever received. We remained friends until he passed away in 2019 at the age of 91.
And this darn green candle … we lost her this year. Kathie Spellman. In so many ways Kathie was a saint to me. Yea … she had moments when I made her really mad but her strength, her perseverance and her faith … all taught me so much. Her Celebration of Life was one of the most difficult ones I have ever given.
Which brings me to this difficult moment … one of the most difficult moments of my life when I look out at all of you saints. You have truly been saints to me and for me … you laugh with and at me. You remind me that I am 31. You helped me through the days of loss with Megan and Mark and your prayers and love helped me win the battle with cancer and heart disease.
I mentioned Stan Lewis … this was one of his books. I didn’t mention my dear and close and special friends Jake and Dale and Drew whose wisdom I too often have pushed aside but as I sat at Dale’s house back in June before the incredible sadness of July and August … I was reminded … about life. How close I came to not being here. In conversations with my nieces, Miranda and Jordan and Jordan’s husband Jonathan and Mark’s wife Camille … I heard them mourn with anger that Mark never had the time to enjoy life he was ALWAYS WORKING … never a free weekend … WORKING … always had to work … day and night … a workaholic, which sadly is a Delaney trait. In June I had a dozen friends stop by the porch for coffee, pastries, and conversation it felt so good. At the beginning of October, my high school class got together for one of their bimonthly lunches … this time they scheduled it for me … more than 30 of us together laughing and enjoying each other including 3 friends from kindergarten still my friends after all these years. I went to Communion at Calvary Episcopal Church and then talked to my friend, their pastor, Robert … we talked about the extra stuff of being a pastor … the stress, the lack of real friends because we are always the pastor. He likes when I stop by his church on Wednesdays because I get it … and we are friends. This Thursday I stood in the pulpit again at Central United Methodist Church in Linwood … a pulpit I stood in for just under 13 years … looked out on many faces who sat in those pews when I was their pastor … they even told me how they remembered and missed special things about me.
You need to know that you are truly an incredible church family and that I love you all more than I can say. From the moment I walked into this church I sensed it would be a special place for me … I didn’t know if the Bishop would keep me here 3 years or 5 years but it felt good and that good turned into great wonderful, marvelous, incredible, and this is my faith home but in this journey it is time to move on … a decision had to be made by December 1st because of our church calendar and planning. So I have informed the Bishop that I will be retiring at the end of June … moving onto the next destination in life. It’s funny … I looked up Birch quotes … he said, “If you really want to make a difference you ought to go back home and run for school board …” well I don’t think I will run for school board but who knows … what I do know is that I need those friends, just like Stan Lewis … I know this is the time … Mark’s death and knowing that he was always too busy to do things with me or on the rare occasion when he wanted to do a weekend thing with me … I had church. I love this church and plan to celebrate St. Paul’s and all of you … as much as we can over the next few months and we will always be connected … this isn’t easy but I am at peace with the decision. God bless you all. AMEN