November 4, 2007; All Saints' Sunday Readings: Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10,13-14; Revelation 7:2-4,9-17; Matthew 5:1-12; Psalm 149.   The Rev. Dr. Hilary B. Smith For All The Saints Today we celebrate a number of extremely important matters. We give thanks for the end of our exile and our return to our sanctuary. It is so good to be back in the pews. For those who came to St. Paul's on-the-Hill for the first time during the last two months, during the buttress repairs, this may be your first time in our normal worship space. Welcome. In addition, we are baptizing MaKenna Kathleen Blair today, and we are offering our pledge cards for the coming year. All of these events-important in and of themselves, individually-are being brought together within the context of All Saints' Sunday. Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints', being transferred from November 1. All Saints' Day is a time to remember all the saints who we see no longer but now enjoy eternal life with God. We sang about them in our opening hymn: "For all the saints, who from their labors rest." All Saints' is a celebration of our connection to all who have gone before us. As we say in the Nicene Creed, "we believe in the communion of saints." To believe in the communion of saints to know that we are forever connected to those who have been guided to "springs of the water of life by their shepherd." There is a dual focus for this day. We also celebrate that fact we are all saints of God; in our closing hymn we will sing, "the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too." All Saints' Day or All Saints' Sunday is designated as particularly appropriate for baptisms. It is such a blessing to baptize McKenna on this day-it is a great gift that she and her family are giving us. She will be the newest saint of God through Christ being sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism. In following Jesus, we do walk as children of the light. To quote from our closing hymn once again, "the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus' will." On All Saints' we hear the reading of the beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, the persecuted, the pure in heart and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. The statements of blessedness, the beatitudes, are not about getting into heaven. They are not requirements, but rather statements about how things already are for you and for me-how things are for those whose hope is based on God. The saints of God, you and I, are blessed. True, things are not perfect, this is just the beginning-"blessed are they for they will be comforted," in the fullness of time the fruits of the kingdom that we know in part will be fully known. Blessed are those who trust in God. God has made promises to us, and at our baptism we made promises to God. I always explain to those I baptize and to their families that we do not baptize people because we are afraid they will go to hell if we don't. We do not baptize out of fear. Rather we baptize out of our joy for the wonders of God's invitation to new and full life in Christ. This life is something we enjoy now. We live our lives in community with other Christians and in communion with all the saints and God. MaKenna has always been a beloved child of God. Today she becomes a full member of the church, the body of Christ, with all that entails. She becomes our sister in Christ. Yes, certainly, she will know salvation through her baptism, but it is a salvation that she can begin to enjoy now. This is salvation now: to be in a loving and faithful community dedicated to serving God by caring for each other and helping those in need. We live to the glory of God-now; we are blessed. We welcome MaKenna to the body of Christ throughout the world, but also, to this particular manifestation of the body here-St. Paul's on-the-Hill. How appropriate it is that this is the day we choose to pledge our support for God's ministry through this church. When we make our pledge, we are making a pledge to God, to each other, and to those who have gone before us. Money is just money, until we do something great with it. There is a mystical dimension to offering all that you are and all that you have to God, which is done in part by supporting the ministry of the church. It is mystical because we will never know about all the good it does, but we sense it. We sense it when we look at MaKenna and know that we are supporting her life in Christ by providing a church in which she can grow spiritually. Through our offering, we are also connecting with the offerings made by all the saints of the past. All that we are doing here today, rededicating our sanctuary, baptizing, and offering our pledge, is a proclamation that, as stated in our collect for the day, we are knit together as God's elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Christ our Lord. Amen.