I speak to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Before I begin I’d like to extend a special welcome to the family and friends of Brynn, Ellie, and Evelyn who are joining us today to help celebrate the baptisms of these three beloved children of God. Today is a good day for the Church.
Today is also a special day in our church year as we celebrate All Saints Day, which falls on November 1. All Saints Day is part of the three-day period that is sometimes referred to as the Triduum of the Dead, or AllHallowtide.
These three days are All Hallow’s Eve (or All Saints Eve), All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. Allhallowtide is a time to remember the dead, including martyrs, saints, and all faithfully departed Christians.
On All Saints Day we particularly focus on those saints who have gone before us and intercede on our behalf. According to “For All the Saints”: Saints are Christians who in various ways, often against great odds, showed an extraordinary love for Christ.
The Holy Spirit acted in their lives so that they chose to bring aid to the needy, justice to the oppressed, hope to the sorrowful, and the divine word of forgiveness to sinners. For the sake of Christ they were servants to the people of their day; and the service they rendered in the past makes them examples to the rest of the people of God throughout history.”
That’s a pretty comprehensive definition of what a “Saint” is… but what an intimidating one too! How are we supposed to live up to examples like that? I’m not extraordinary at anything, except maybe at taking naps. I really love naps.
So I have a different definition of a saint that I’d like to share with you.
In a reflection that a colleague shared about All Saints Day, he told the story of a little girl who attended Grace Cathedral with her mother for worship every Sunday. Many of the Cathedral’s huge and colorful stained-glass windows show pictures of the heroes of the faith, and all of those calendar saints are lit in bright colors when the Sunday morning sun shines through them.
Now the little girl didn’t understand everything that was going on in the liturgy, but she sure loved to look at those windows.
One All Saints Sunday, while on their way home from the cathedral, her mother asked her if she knew what a saint was. The little girl quickly answered:
Oh Yes, saints are people who let the light shine through.
What a beautiful definition of a saint!
Saints are people who let the light shine through.
I like this definition so much more because God can let the light shine through anybody. Whether you’re a picture perfect, creed-reciting Christian or full of questions and doubts, God can shine the light through you for others to see. Jesus reminds us, “You did not choose me—I chose you!”
There’s an All Saints Day hymn that will be sung in many churches today called, “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God,” and I’d like to share part of the third verse with you. It goes like this: “They lived not only in ages past; there are hundreds of thousands still; the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will.”
Anyone, anywhere, can reflect God’s light for others to see… Not everyone is called to live an ascetic life in the desert, or live among the lepers in Calcutta, or call for religious reform in the face of oppressive powers…. But every single person can do what the saints do best.
Saints are people who let the light shine through.
We don’t often hear passages from the Revelation of John, and there is a lot of misunderstanding when we do, so I want to spend some time unpacking today’s reading from Revelation and why it matters to how we understand the Saints.
Quite often the remembrance and celebration of the saints who have died focuses on their removal from our realm, the earthly realm, to the realm where God is. We think of our blessed dead as those who have “gone home to be with God,” or “those whom God has received,”— as if those saints who have died are in a faraway heaven where God dwells.
The problem with this train of thought is that this faraway heaven creates an immense distance between God’s presence and our own earthly lives.
In our reading from Revelation however, that idea of a far off heaven is challenged, and we’re presented with a vision of the new Jerusalem coming down within a renewed creation. It’s not we who are raptured away to some other place or space, but God who comes down to us. Revelation envisions a renewal of our world, not an escape from it.
Revelation gives us an image of God’s homecoming into our world — a homecoming that not only destroys death but also renews the world with all of creation. John proclaims that “the home of God is among mortals”. God comes into our mortality, into our frailty, to dwell with us.
God wipes tears, soothes grief, and heals pain because of the renewal of the earth, not because of its destruction.
This promise of newness — a “new heaven and new earth” — gives a radiant image of resurrection and renewal. The first earth and the sea have “passed away.” John’s point certainly is not that the whole cosmos will be annihilated. The “first earth” that passes away represents the earth as captive to imperial domination and sin. Mourning, pain and death — all found in Babylon, and the imperial powers of Rome — come to an end in God’s holy city.
Many of you will know how much I appreciate the works and theology of C.S. Lewis, particularly when it comes to questions of eschatology or the “end times.”
In Lewis’ book the “Last Battle,” the final book in the Chronicles of Narnia series, I think Lewis’s image of the “New Narnia” is helpful in understanding Revelation’s newness in terms of both continuity and transformation.
Lewis depicts the New Narnia not as an escape from the old Narnia, but rather an entry more deeply into the very same place. Everything is more radiant. It is “deeper country.” The New Narnia is a “world within a world,” where “no good thing is destroyed.”
The old isn’t simply cast away, the old is made new. The people of Narnia are encouraged to come further up and further in!
So you may be wondering… well what has all this talk about a renewed earth and God coming down to dwell amongst mortals got to do with the Saints?
Well, as Christians we’re called to partner with God in ways that’ll allow the power of God and the Lamb to be experienced in this world. The Saints are people who help make that partnership possible.
Saints are people who let the light shine through.
The Saints of ages past, and those living saints who walk amongst us, sit next to us on the bus, serve us in the checkout lane, hand us our morning coffee, and look back at us in the mirror… the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will.
In the everyday actions of living faithful and faith-filled lives, God can use us to speak to God’s people. In the everyday actions of living questioning and uncertain lives, God can use us to speak to God’s people. Every single one of us can do what the saints do best…. Let the light shine through.
Our reading from Revelation today, on All Saints Sunday, gives us the opportunity to think about God’s power of presence in life, in death, and in life after death — God’s power of presence in beginnings and in endings. God is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
The good news rings true when we call the names of the saints gone before us across the veil between life and death into remembrance, and when we do so, we affirm that God’s home is here, among mortals, among the saints from both ages past and those walking amongst us, in the renewed creation.
May we all live so as to reflect the light of God, helping to light the way for others, together casting out the darkness of this world, so that God’s presence in the midst of us can bring us all to light and life.
St. Jude pray for us. Amen.
