The Rev. Dr. Hilary B. Smith
St. Paul’s on-the-Hill
Winchester, VA
Readings: Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 34:1-10,
22; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12.
Today we
celebrate All Saints’ Sunday; yesterday was All Saints’, which is always on
November 1. You won’t ever have trouble remembering the date of All Saints’
because it is the day after Halloween – a term that is the shortened version of
All Hallows Eve – the eve of All Saints’ Day.
You
know, Halloween was not created by the devil to lead Christians astray (as some
would have us believe), but it was a Celtic concept adopted by new Christians
and incorporated into their developing religious traditions. The concept of All
Hallows Eve focused on the connection we have to those who have gone ahead of
us into the closer embrace of God. It
was a time to remember that there is not such a great divide between this world
and the next.
As we
celebrate the feast of All Saints’, we are celebrating the connection that we have
will all the saints of God, both the living and the dead. Today we will
consider the famous saints, the saints we have known personally, and how we are
the saints of God, As we sang in our opening hymn, “O blest communion,
fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; yet all are one in
thee for all are thine.” We are connected – we are one with those we love but
see no longer—we are connected by our love—we are connected by the love of
God—all are one in God.
God
created us for community and connection. The love we share is not ended by
death. When we come to communion to receive the body of Christ, the bread of
heaven, we are reminded of the connection and strengthened by it.
You and
I are saints of God – becoming the saints of God more and more throughout our
lives as we become more and more who God has created us to be. We do not become
saints by try to be someone we admire, but by being true to the person God as
created us to be. For the Rector’s Read in October, we read the book Becoming Who You Are, which encourages
us to trust our deepest sense of ourselves and live in ways that honor who we
have been created to be by God.
Of
course, we can learn from the lives of the famous saints and be inspired by
them to press on in faith during difficult times. One saint of our modern world
is Mother Teresa of Calcutta. So admired for her devotion to God and the people
of God, we learn from her personal letters and journals that she went through a
long dark night of the soul. I was surprised to learn of her struggle to
maintain her faith during years of dryness in her prayer life—during time when
she felt her faith slipping away. But rather than making her less of a saint,
it makes her more of one. Mother Teresa, it turns out, can be a guide for us
when we are feeling disconnected from God.
Perhaps
there is a saint that means a lot to you – one with whom you identify. If you
grew up Roman Catholic, you had a saint who was yours I am inspired by the
stories of people whose lives were dramatically changed by an experience of
God– such as St. Ignatius whose realization that the things of the world
provided only temporary happiness and that true joy was to be found through
relationship with God.
Or St.
Francis who heard a specific call from God to rebuild the church – after
physically rebuilding a church that had fallen into disrepair, he came to
realize that God wanted him to build up the people of God spiritually.
And of
course there is St. Paul, who shows us that no one is beyond the reach of God,
having been a great enemy of the church before his conversion. From that
dramatic experience of grace Paul sought to include everyone in the dream of
God, even those gentiles. Our own
program to feed the hungry was named St. Paul’s Table because Paul invited
everyone to the table.
We are
also inspired by the saints who have influenced our lives directly—people we
have known, members of our families and our friends. During the prayers of the
people, we will remember many of them. We will remember founders and friends of
this church who have died in recent years. We will always be connected to them.
Linking All Saints’ Day with our pledge card in-gathering is appropriate
because the promises we make to God now are possible because of promises made,
and actions taken, in the past by saints we have known. Our effort to build up
this church will touch those who will come here years from now – making a
pledge is one way that we celebrate our connection. We are connected to those
who came before us and those who will come after us – our blest communion, our
fellowship divine.
We live
in that place of “already” but “not yet.” We are already the saints of God and
we already share in the fruits of the
kingdom. We already know God as revealed in Jesus Christ and as experienced by
us through the Holy Spirit. We already know something of the kingdom of God
through our fellowship in this Body of Christ, the church. Every time we gather
to worship I feel the deep connections among us. Every time we work together
and come together as many did yesterday for the bazaar, we see the kingdom.
We
already live the risen life when we seek to be Christ-like, loving our
neighbors as ourselves. We already experience salvation when we recognize the
many blessings given to us – the gifts of life and love, of friends and family,
of food and shelter. We are already united with Christ through baptism. We are
the saints of God –loved by God and upheld by God. As the first letter of John
puts it, “children of God;…that is what we are.” The beatitudes in Matthew’s
gospel are clear, blessed are you now
because one day what you experience in part now, will be fully known.
As Christians, we celebrate our connections and our
community with great joy. We celebrate with each other every time we gather. We
know that those whom we love but see no longer are being cared for by God,
where there are no tears, no pain, but rather the water of life. We are knit
together with them in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Christ our Lord.
Amen.