Sermon Preached at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Sunday, November 3, 2024, at 8:00 and 10:00 A.M.
All Saints’ Day Celebration
Just Who Do We Think We Are?
“[We are] knit together in one communion and fellowship.” (Collect, All Saints Day)
“Grace and mercy are upon his holy ones.”
(Wisdom of Solomon 3:9)
“The home of God is among mortals.”
(The Book of Revelation 21:3)
“[Lazarus came] out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his faced
wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”
(John 11:44)
“Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.”
(Hymnal, #287, stanza 4)
I truly hope that your goblins and beasties and things that go bump in the
night have been scooted from your lives this season—and sent underground where
they belong. There’s just little point in holding on to the ghosts of our past, for now
is the brightness of the dawn and today is the only day we have…at least today.
And, of course, I also trust we’re done with Halloween candy. Candy corn can be
my undoing, and I’ve had enough of the resulting stomach ache from too much of
all that. At least I’m too old to “trick or treat,” so I don’t go to sleep with a big bag
full of sweets.
But I do enjoy every year celebrating the day that comes immediately after
All Hallows’ Eve, and that is All Saints Day, a day when we celebrate not just all
those past and present folks whom we honor with the title of “saint,” but
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something, some people, as special or even more special than all those saintly
saints…and that is us: you and I! Yes, you and I. For this is all saints season, and
the good news, as good as is the news of Christmas and the news of Easter, a time
when we look at the birthright and promise and heritage that is ours, yours and
mine. Yes, sainthood!
I think we know this already. Why don’t we acknowledge it more openly?
Are we shy? Do we think too little of ourselves? Do we think it would be arrogant
to go around lauding ourselves as saints. But this isn’t an ego trip, for just as I
celebrate who I am, I also honor you with the same title.
Let’s just look a bit more closely at who these saints are whom we like to
raise up and praise. Yes, they are those people in church history with St before
their names. The St. Thomases, St. Theresas, St. Francises, and the St. I-Don’t-
Know-Who Elses that popular the history of the church, past and present. Their
lives are interesting to learn about, for sure. But what is misleading about this is
that we seem to reserve the title only for those Christians who have made an
especially important impact in history, through miracles that surround them or
some other feats of heroism or devotion. This is fine, just so long as it doesn’t
leave out little ole you and me! Let me illustrate what I mean.
In thinking back on the people in my life who have made the largest impact
or influence, I can start with certain family members. I was particularly fortunate in
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having fantastic parents. When I think of the trauma and abuse that some of us
were destined to live with, I realize that we can spend a good part of our adulthood
working out the injuries so many of us receive from poor parenting.
But beyond parents and family, don’t we also remember one or two or more
teachers along the way, who, when we think of them, played a major role in who
we are and on what we admire. I would love to hear some of your reminiscences
about such people. When I think of those I remember, I realize how lucky I have
been to know them.
And then there are just that long line of friends and associate who were
examples to us of so many things: of good humor, kindness, courage, insight.
Some of these people you just felt good being around. There was something
special about who they were. We can’t always put our finger on it. But we know
they are special to us and will always remain so. Many of them are no longer with
us; others are still around to cheer us on in one way or another.
And there are, too, of course, people we don’t know personally to whom we
have the highest regard. They may be an occasional politician, someone we think
embodies what we believe a good leader should exhibit; or a musician (I have a
long list of them, classical, jazz, pop). I was watching a video of Englebert
Humperdinck the other day. I had never paid much attention to him, what a strange
name!… but, by golly, what a wonderful singer.
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People who bring joy, encouragement, insights, and an exhibition of what
the divine is all about into our lives. There are many God whisperers amongst us.
Sometimes we notice; other times we do not.
And now I ask you, what about these people? What place do they hold, not
just in your life, but as human beings, as children of God. What place do they hold
in the larger picture? Are we going to rate them on some kind of scale. I know as
human beings we tend to speak of one person as smarter, more talented, cleverer
than another person. This is we here looking through our limited vision, through
our ego eyes. I ask you, if we pull back a moment and ask how they are ranked by
God, we will find that there is no better or worse, higher or lower.
Of course, this is not to neglect character and the tally of our deeds and
actions here on earth. Just how kind have we been here in our bodies? There will
still be laws; we will still judge each other. Bad behavior will have consequences.
There will still be awards and the Nobel Peace Prize. Of course, nothing changes.
But there is another point of view. We get glimpses of it. Parents surely get this
glimpse, loving each of their children in the same way, unconditionally.
And we get a glimpse of it in the lives of those we will continue to honor
with that title, “saint.” But when we think of the life of the one called Jesus, do we
see a person who would give a prize for his Disciple of the Year? Did he rank
people? Of course, as a human being, he must have enjoyed the company of some
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disciples more than others, but would he have placed them in a ranked order? I
doubt it. I can’t see it.
Loving unconditionally tends to make ranking take a back seat.
Isn’t this what sainthood is about, and what we celebrate, what Jesus taught
us. God does not play favorites. So why should I? I know you will say that, indeed,
you cannot rank all the people you have loved and who you know loved you?
A quote by Sir Walter Scott:
“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above. For
love is heaven, and heaven is love.”
And Henri Nouwen:
“The world is waiting … for new saints, ecstatic men and women who are so
deeply rooted in the love of God that they are free to imagine a new international
order.”
And finally, Frederick Buechner:
“In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief.
These handkerchiefs are called saints.”
And there are a lot more handkerchiefs among us than we realize! Amen.
Amen.