The Feast of All Saints falls every year on November 1 and we celebrate it on the next Sunday after that during worship. It’s a day dedicated to honoring all the saints, known and unknown, who have lived righteous lives and are now in the presence of God. While it may appear on the surface to be a universal, annual funeral for deceased Christians, it is, in fact, a kind of mini-Easter, celebrating Jesus’ triumph of life over death—for us.
First and foremost, the Feast of All Saints is a celebration of the victory achieved in eternal life through faith. Rather than mourning the death of those who’ve died, we remember and celebrate their accomplishments and the ultimate fulfillment of their Christian discipleship. This celebration reminds us that the saints aren’t lost to death but have transcended it, just as Christ did in dying and rising again. Furthermore, All Saints underscores our conviction in the communion of saints, or in other words, the togetherness and unity of all the faithful, of the mystical bond that unites those still alive here and now and those who’ve died. Both they and we still live and move and have our being in Jesus. All Saints reminds us of the ongoing connection with those who’ve gone before us, emphasizing that they aren’t absent from our lives but remain an integral part of the Christian community. Once again, this reinforces the promise of the resurrection at Easter, where Christ’s victory over death paves the way for eternal life for us and all whose lives are transformed by God’s loved. All Saints reminds us of the promise of resurrection and the hope of eternal life. It reminds us that death is not the end, but a doorway to a new, glorious existence in the full presence of God—a presence we partake of in part, they in fullness. The Feast of All Saints proclaims the same message of renewal, hope, and life that Easter does, making it a true celebration of Easter, rather than a funeral for the departed.
And, in light of that, proclaim with me: Hallelujah! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!
Let us pray. May only God’s Word be spoken and may only God’s Word be heard; in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The saints—who are they? No, Landon. Not the New Orleans football team. The other saints. The saints of the church. Who are they? When we hear the word “saint,” we often think of someone holy, blessed, righteous. And we often think of someone dead. The saints are the ones who’ve gone before us, lived holy, blessed, and righteous lives, and died in the Lord, having lived lives worthy of the calling to which they’d been called.
Some such saints are well known. St. Valentine—known for marrying Christians when it was illegal, and beheaded for daring to preach the gospel to the Roman Emperor. St. Patrick—known for driving all the snakes from Ireland, and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ to the Celtic people, using a clover to describe the mystery of the Holy Trinity. St. Nicholas—known for giving away his riches to the poor, and for defending the truth that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, so much so that he punched another bishop in the face at a church council meeting! Talk about tense, stressful council meetings!
But there are other saints who have…how shall we put it, stranger reputations. Take St. Denis. He’s known for spreading the gospel in France in the third century. This was before Christianity was the religion of Roman Empire, and so when he was caught, he was beheaded. Legend has it that after he was beheaded, though, his body picked up his head and walked for a few miles. While walking, his head preached a sermon the entire way. Or St. Apollonia. Like Denis, Apollonia is known for spreading the gospel, before Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and she was seized by the authorities and had all her teeth pulled out or shattered, to drive home the message that speaking about Jesus would get you in trouble. Instead of waiting for her executioners to take her to the pyre, however, she jumped into the fire on her own. The church remembers her for staying true to her vows and to the gospel. Apollonia today is honored as the patron saint of toothaches and dentists—and is even thought of as tooth fairy in some parts of Italy!
The saints—the holy, the blessed, the righteous who lived lives worthy of the calling which they were called, and who have died in the Lord. That’s how we think of them. But what if that’s not it? Or rather, what if that’s not all of it?
Don’t misunderstand. Valentine. Patrick. Nicholas. Denis. Apollonia. They’re all saints, to be sure. And many more. But what if it’s not just those recorded in a hagiography, or encyclopedia of saints and their marvelous feats? What if the saints are something more than that?
Well, they are.
The saints are all the baptized.
All those whom God has called holy, blessed, and righteous on account of Jesus.
All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into, not only his death, but also into his holiness, into his blessedness, into his righteousness. For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we, all of us who have been baptized into his death, might become the righteousness of God. It’s not just those who lead extraordinary, outstanding lives of holiness, blessedness, righteousness that catch the eye, but all of us ordinary, everyday people who’ve through the waters of baptism been buried with Jesus, so that, just as he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too walk in newness of life.
And today Jesus lifts up that ordinariness when he pronounces blessing on things that at first glance don’t look like blessings. Blessed are the poor. Blessed are those who hunger. Blessed are those who mourn. These and the rest of the Beatitudes aren’t things that we’d calling blessings, at least according to popular wisdom, but Jesus lifts them up and calls them just that. Blessings. Holiness. Righteousness.
How so? Well, they’re things that in some form or another, we all face as ordinary people in our day-to-day lives. And in the midst of our day-to-day, ordinary lives, we understand the blessing of God when God reaches out to us in the midst of our need, our troubles, our anxieties, our sufferings, our sickness, our despair, and gives us the comfort of his presence—particularly in the lives of the other ordinary people, our sisters and brothers in the Jesus, who believe that God’s power of love is stronger than the grave. In that way, our sisters and brothers in Jesus, in their ordinary, everyday lives touch us with extraordinary, heavenly grace. And in the same way, when we embody the love of God in our own lives, we in our ordinary, everyday lives touch people with extraordinary, heavenly grace. This is the communion of the saints we confess and believe. This is everyday saintliness.
Everyday saintliness understands that we are holy, that we are blessed, that we are righteous—not because of what we’ve done, but because of what God has done for us in Jesus. And this understanding sets us free from worrying about obtaining freedom for ourselves, but to live lives of thankfulness in response to what God’s done for us. Everyday saintliness knows we don’t need to earn God’s love, the one and only thing that can truly make us holy, blessed, or righteousness. God’s love is a gift to us, freely given in Jesus. God’s gift is a relationship based on trust and love, and not on what we do or don’t do or this or that rule.
Everyday saintliness, though, doesn’t take this freedom as an opportunity for selfish gain, but understands and takes seriously the obligation God’s love for us entails.
Yes—obligation.
We Christians, we disciples of Jesus, have an obligation. We are obligated, when we affirm our faith in God, to live lives that reflect the same life that Jesus lived and gave for our sake. True freedom in Jesus necessitates responsibility towards God, one another, and the creation God has entrusted to us. It is the embodiment of the law, the Law of Liberty, St. James calls it, reflected in not only the teachings of Jesus, but in his life, death, and resurrection. The law can be summarized simply—love for God and love for your neighbor.
Our Christian obligation encompasses all aspects of life. From moral and ethical conduct, social justice, and compassion for the less fortunate. It’s a call to be subject to God’s will and the needs of humanity. Disciples freed by the love of God are rooted in loving service, and we understand that our freedom isn’t for self-indulgence but for selfless acts of love. Disciples willingly serve others, not out of compulsion, but as a genuine expression of the love God has first shown us. Our obligation is to love and care for all, bringing to life again and again the selflessness of Jesus’ own love in our daily lives.
Everyday saintliness embraces the freedom and obligation of Christian discipleship in our ordinary, day-to-day lives. We don’t despair when we fall short—as we are bound to do. And we understand that God calls us to live lives that incarnate his love for us. We are free, wholly and completely free, from senseless worry about our standing before God, and we obligated by that freedom to devotion to all that God loves—this world, other people, and to good and proper care for ourselves.
In our ordinary, everyday lives, we persevere. We persevere because in this way, like all those who’ve gone before us, those known to us and those unknown to us, we mirror the faithfulness of the one who lifts up all the ordinary, everyday parts of our lives and calls them extraordinary, heavenly blessing—Jesus Christ our Lord. We remain steadfast, we preserve because of unwavering trust and reliance on God. We remain steadfast, we persevere through challenges and trials with resilience because of God’s love that fuels the saints around us who love and support us with their own ordinary, everyday holiness, blessedness, and righteousness—who embrace their freedom and their obligation as everyday saints.
Their freedom and our own freedom comes from Jesus, and it is the source of strength that empowers us to persevere, confident in God’s faithfulness and love. We with all the saints—saints of the past, saints of the present, and saints of the future—live ordinary lives graced by everyday saintliness, graced by God’s own holiness, blessedness, and righteousness in Jesus, and for his sake, reveal the extraordinary in each of us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Rev'd Daniel W. Spigelmyer, Jr. 