Happy All Saints Day

This weekend is All Saints weekend.  This is like the Memorial Day for the church. It is a day of remembrance, it is a day of celebration, it is a day of thanksgiving. It is a time to give thanks to God for those people that have been important in our lives and in the life of the church throughout time.  Some saints have their own day, Saint Peter, Saint Mary, Saint Augustine, but for those who do not have their own day, there is always All Saints day.

So why do we celebrate this day?  What is the big deal?  Well some of these people have done some pretty amazing things.  But as neat as that may be, what we are really celebrating is the one in whom these saints have put their faith.  You see, if we were to ask them, they would say, “Oh no, it’s not about us.  We are not the important ones here.  It is all about Jesus.  He is the one who is worthy of all praise and thanksgiving.” 

So today is a day of prayer, praise and thanks to our God for the saints that he has blessed us with.

Our first reading is taken from the seventh chapter of Revelation. The picture that it paints is absolutely breath taking. My hunch is that a lot of people are intimidated by Revelation. It is associated with gloom and doom and things that we cannot understand, and maybe don’t even want to understand. And yet, that is not actually the case. 

You see, the book of Revelation was written to be a great source of comfort and strength for both the church and the individual Christian. Especially as that church and as those individual Christians are about the mission and work that God has given them to do. It wasn’t written to tell us when and how the world would end. Instead it was written to remind us that even when things are bad beyond our imagination, there is always great hope. 

Our reading begins at the ninth verse of chapter seven, but you really need to go back to verse one.  Because this chapter as a whole paints a picture of God’s people.  When you read that chapter as a whole, you see portrayed the entire people of God.  The beginning of chapter seven shows the people of God on earth.  They are portrayed as 144,000. This number is a way of picturing the completeness of God’s people. No one is left out. And something very special is happening. They are being sealed.  They are being given a special protection. This happens through God’s Word and through the baptism and communion. Through these things, the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith. Through these things we are reminded of God’s great love, mercy, and forgiveness that we have through Jesus.  And through these things we experience God’s presence in our lives.

You and I are included in this picture. So as you and I live our lives in this place.  As we experience challenges in ministry, at work, in school, at home, in our families with our friends and neighbors.  Wherever we experience trials and troubles, especially when they come because of our faith, when we experience these things we are reminded of God’s holy and gracious protection in our lives. This a great hope for you and me.

Our verses in our celebrate insert give us part two of this picture of God’s people.  This is the picture of God’s people in heaven these are the ones who have moved from the church on earth to the church in heaven.  They are at peace, and will spend the rest of time in the presence of God. They are his own dear children.  And what are they doing?  They are praising and worshiping God.  And all the angels of heaven around them join in that praise.  This is really the only proper response.  So what we have then is a picture of two groups of people that together form the entire people of God.  For one of these groups there is the promise of protection, for the other the realization of peace.  And though they are in different places they have a special connection.

For the early church, stories of those who gave their lives because they believed in Jesus were a source of hope and encouragement. “if this guy can do it, we sure can.”  That was kind of the gist of it.   There was a sense of connection that the people of God on earth, had with the people of God in heaven.  They ones on earth viewed the ones in heaven as a cloud of witnesses who encouraged them to be faithful in their journey of faith. After all, this cloud of witness knew exactly what they were going through.  So this was an important part of life in the early church. 

Now allow me a definition clarification here.  What is a saint?  Is it only someone who is dead?  No.  A saint is anyone who is a member of the body of Christ. That is it.  Now here is another question.  Who has been an important saint in your life?  Who has been that person who modeled for you the importance of your faith?  Who is that one who taught you the joy of being in a relationship with God?  Who is that person through whom you saw God’s love for you?

For me there are several that come to mind.  The first one that I think of however is my papa. David got his middle name from him that is how important he was to me. The day that I was old enough to sit at the table and be his partner in a game of Euchre was the day that I knew I was no longer just a kid in the family.  I remember my Papa on Sunday mornings before church.  He would be sitting at the kitchen table.  The radio was planning hymns.  He had his hymnal and his Bible opened in front of him, and he would spend time reading his bible, praying and praising his God.

At the time I didn’t understand what was going on. I could not figure out why in the world Papa was doing more church. I mean it was long enough as it was, and he was just making it longer. I wasn’t able to fully appreciate how important his faith was to him and what it meant.  But rest assured that that was something that has stuck with me to this day.  It has been almost twenty years since my Papa has passed away, but this is one of the few memories that I have of him.  Thinking about him and his faith helps encourage me in mine. And though I treasure the few things I have to remind me of him, The greatest treasure I have is knowing that my faith is the same as his, and that his savior, is mine also.

So who are the saints that have been important for you?  Does anyone feel brave enough to share? Or at least share with the person next to you. Now we don’t have the time to share now, but I would imagine that if we had the time, then we would easily be able to spend hours sharing stories. On this All Saints day it is important to remember those who have impacted our faith. It is important to be encouraged in our faith by their faith. Because this too is one of the gifts that God gives to the church. It is important to give thanks to our God for them, and that thanks and praise is the only proper response.

My last question today is this? Who is the person in your life that God is calling you to be a saint to? Where in your life are there people who need to see God’s love for them lived out in flesh and blood?  Who are the people that God has placed you into their lives so that through the relationship that they have with you, they will see and know of God’s love for them.

My papa did not do his morning devotions at the table on Sunday morning so that I would see him.  That was not the point.  He was doing them because it was him living out his faith.  I just happened to witness it. When the saints, that is the people of God lives out their faith, they are not doing it so that people will look at them and say, “Wow! What a great person that person is!”  No.  They do it so that people will look at them and say, “Wow! What a great God that person has!” Because in the end that is what it is all about.  You and I, and all of the people that God sets aside for himself, have been made his own, has been forgiven of their sins, has been given the promise of life in Jesus so that we can live in relationship with our God, and live in a way to bear witness to that God to the world around us.

So to whom is God sending you to be a saint? What are some things that you can do to make that witness known?  Spend some time today thinking and praying about how you can be a saint.  And as you are living this out, be encouraged by that great cloud of witness that encouraged the early church. And do it in the confidence of knowing that through Jesus we have been given everything that we need in order to do this. 

So as we consider the great things that our God has done for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, as we consider the way he has worked in and through the lives of his people, we remember that the only proper response is to praise our God.  Now and always.  Amen.