November 1, 2009
Grace Church
Rev. Robert E. Hensley

      Let us pray.  God, whose love has begotten us:  Trouble the waters deep in our souls and help us remember our baptism.  Stir up the fiery embers by which you have marked us as you own, and enflame us with love for the world.  Amen. 

      Let us now sing the praises of the famous, our ancestors in their generations.  God apportioned to them great glory, and majesty from the beginning.  Some were rulers, and made a name for themselves by their valor:  Elizabeth of Hungary, Abraham Lincoln, Emma and Kamehameha. 

      Some led people by good council, by their knowledge of the people’s lore, by their wise words of instruction:  Mother Teresa, Oscar Romero Evelyn Underhill. 

      Some spoke in prophetic oracles:  Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Mahatma Ghandi. 

      Some composed musical tunes or put verses in writing:  Julian of Norwich, George Herbert, e.e. cummings. 

      All these were honored in their generation, and were the glory of their times.  There are some of them who have left a name, so that we all still declare their praise.  And there are some who have left no memorial, who have perished as though they had not lived. 

      And there were people of mercy, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.  Their prosperity will remain with us, and with their descendants, and the inheritance of their good lives will trickle down to their children’s children.  Their followers stand by the covenant with God, as do their children, also, for their sake.  Especially those who have died during this last year:  Stan Richards, Nancy Richards, Jack Ware, Tenney Lehman, and Lois Campbell. 

      Their posterity will continue forever, and their glory will not be blotted out.  Their bodies were buried in peace and their names live to all generations.  Peoples will declare their wisdom, and the congregation will proclaim their praise.  (A reading from Ecclesiasticus with the Remembrance of the Dead.) 

      Listen to these words of a hymn composed by Brian Wren, whom many of you will remember as the husband of Rev. Susan Heafield, former pastor of the United Methodist parish of Martha’s Vineyard until this past year. 

      “All saints?  How can it be?  Can it be me, holy and good, walking with God?  How can we say that we’re all saints?  O that we could! 

      All saints! – Crucified love sings from above what it will do making us new, Naming and claiming us “all saints,” till it comes true. 

      Some saints touch the divine, and as they shine, candles at night, holy and bright gladden the spirits of all saints, giving us light. 

      All saints stumble and fall.  God, loving all, knowing our shame, longs to reclaim:  Standing or falling we’re all saints.  Treasure the name! 

      Come, saints, crowds who have gone beckon us on, hindrances shed, joy in our tread, one in the Spirit with all saints, looking ahead.”   (“All Saints” by Brian Wren, © 1989 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188.  All rights reserved.  Used by permission.) 

      Take a moment and look around you.  This room is crowded with saints, visible and invisible. 

      There are old saints, tiny saints, crabby saints and saintly saints.  Black, brown, pink and peach saints; male and female, straight and gay.  There are saints who stumble and fall, struggling with shame and regret and confusion, and the saints who are always confident and happy.  There are saints brave enough for anything, and saints who are afraid to simply crawl out of bed each day.  There are saints who feel lost and saints who lead us home.  There are saints who can sing and saints who are tone deaf; saints who forgive and saints who hold grudges.  Right here in this very room, there are saints who fight each day the temptation to drink, or to give in to despair, and saints for whom life just seems to flow with ease. 

      This room is crowded with saints, visible and invisible.  Take another moment to look around you and feast your eyes on this huge crowd of the saints of God, each and every single one made glorious and beautiful by the love that God has for each one of them. 

      Now, close your eyes.  Close your eyes and listen with your heart, and see if you can hear that “crucified love” singing down on you from above, making us new, naming and claiming us all saints until we can in fact believe that it is true. 

      And, with your eyes still closed, look around for all of those invisible saints of that crowd who have gone before us:  husbands, wives, mothers, grandmas, grandpas, dear friends, and even some of our children.  Can you see them in your mind’s eye, hovering just above our heads, all their sorrows shed, their faces alive and lit with laughter?  And can you hear them, beckoning us on?  Listen…listen with your heart….

      “Children of God!” they are saying.  “Claim that love which is yours!  Let it bring joy.  Let it make you brave.  Dare to believe!  Care to believe that, standing or falling, you are all saints.  Treasure the name.  Saint.   Saint.  Treasure it!” 

      And now, still with your mind’s eye, look up just a bit higher and see all those Saints with a capital “S”:  Saints Matthew and Paul and Peter and Teresa; Constance and Absalom and Martin.  They are all of them right here, too!  Can you see them?  All those saints who touch the divine, making them shine like candle flames, lighting our path, lifting our hearts in hope. 

      This room is jam-packed full, bursting at the seams with saints.  Every tiny corner is filled with the glory of the children of God!  And it is always that way; most of the time we are so filled with the busy-ness of our lives or preoccupied with other thoughts that we simply just do not notice them.  But today of all days we stop…take a deep breath…and take notice of that vast multitude, too numerous to count, of the communion of saints, and allow them to fill our hearts and our lives. 

      The renowned contemplative monk Thomas Merton had a great definition for the church:  “Here comes everybody,” he said. 

      “Here comes everybody.” 

      I’m not exactly sure what he meant by that.  I am sure, though, at the least, that he meant that the church makes room for everybody…absolutely, without any doubt, everybody.  Gays and straights and old and young and black and white and rich and poor.  Perhaps, just perhaps, he meant to say that only with everybody, absolutely, without any doubt, everybody, will God’s heart finally be full and God’s joy complete. 

      Today around the world new somebodies will be added to this blest communion through Baptism, which will one day be everybody.  That is why we join with them on this day and renew our own Baptismal Covenant along with the newest saints of God.  Each and every one today is rescued from the kingdom of death, and grafter forever into the kingdom of life from which nothing can ever steal them or us away.  Each newly minted Christian today is ordained to the ministry of Jesus, which simply stated, is this:  to go out looking for anybody who needs to be gathered into theeverybody that we have become and are continually becoming through the grace of God’s love. 

      My brothers and sisters, each and every one of you is part of that “everybody”  the church.  Each of you is called to do the one thing in this world, and for this world, that only you can do.  Each one of you is gifted for that work.  You were ordained in your baptism.  You became a member of the priesthood of all believers in your baptism.  You are priests.  Those of us who are ordained priest in the church are to be reminders of your priesthood.  You are the priests.  You are the saints. 

      What makes us all saints is not that we are good or right or strong or brave.  What makes us saints, quite simply, is that God wants it to be so, because of God’s love and desire for us.  What makes us saints is sharing the life of faith, and faith is nothing more or less than saying “Yes”  to that love.  Saints and children of God, say “Yes” to it.  Come home to it.  And go into the world dressed and adorned in it, filled and afire with it, so you may in turn bring others home to it, too.  Amen 

Source:  Liturgy for the Whole Church:  Multigenerational Resources for Worship, by Susan K. Bock, Church Publishing Incorporated, New York, New York.