All Saints Sunday – George Yandell
I believe in the invisible. Some years ago in the Memphis paper, a leading nationally televised local preacher responded to a question about the appropriateness of Halloween. The preacher said, “The church appropriated the pagan observance of Samhein [Sow’an] and renamed it “Allhallowmass” and kept its emphasis on the dead. It is not an appropriate observance for Christians because it’s not biblical.”
That preacher, and many Christians today, turn their backs on the invisible relationships that lie behind how we practice our faith. They want clear, handy explanations given to them. They want it simple, packaged. All hallows/all saints may be hard to understand. It’s all about connectedness. There have been only 69 generations of Christians since the resurrection of Jesus. At any point during those 1993 years the connections could have been severed. The church could have died.
The word samain in Gaelic means simply “end of summer.” The ancient Celts observed the beginning of winter on this holiday in early November. A very old custom dictated that all folk would put out their hearth fires. Then families kindled a central bonfire and went from hearth to hearth, and from burial chamber to burial chamber, carrying the new fire. Each hearth and family burial chamber had its fire re-kindled from the one flame. The Celts made a communal effort to light the dark against the coming short days and long dark, cold nights. As they processed around their homes, they remembered their ancestors and told the stories of their lives. They kept their dead ancestors alive in the clan through their customs.
When followers of Jesus came to the British Isles, the Celts learned the stories of Jesus. They immediately recognized that his death and resurrection extended their customs, and they happily converted. They praised the saints who had shown them the power of connecting with Christ and the earth. They recalled their dead friends, and dead enemies as well.
The Revelation to John was written in the closing decades of the first century CE. By that time Paul and Peter had been executed by the Roman Emperor. Many congregations across the Mediterranean had experienced persecution. The throngs of people of all tribes and languages represent those early followers of Jesus who had lost their lives because of their faith in Him. Their assembly before the throne of the resurrected Jesus was joy-filled. They are the ones who have come out of the great ordeal- “they are before the throne of God and worship God day and night within God’s temple.”
We live in unity with them as we worship on this All Saints Sunday. The life they experience now is our hope- it has been fulfilled in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We are living in the dawn of the new age of justice and peace, although we haven’t yet cooperated fully enough with God for the new age of peace and justice to prevail. Jesus said it this way: “Blessed are you who are poor, hungry, weeping and are hated- rejoice! For your reward is great in God’s kingdom which is coming.”
The capital S. Saints represent the new age of God’s love and peace on earth. We are living examples of the communion of saints reaching into a new generation of God’s people yearning for God’s peace to prevail. As our vows are renewed when we recite the baptismal covenant, we are linked with those who are being baptized today across the globe- they are the newest members of the Body of Christ.
The communion of saints is invisible, but for the members of our kinship group gathered here for worship on this holy day. The communion of saints reaches back deep into our history and pre-history. It is all about connecting to power- the power of living in fellowship with one another, with the earth and the universe and our creator.
The communion of saints honors all who have gone before us and who stand with us now. From the source of all light beyond the heavens, we carry the fire into the world and into the next generation. Those who worship together with us are the communion of saints concretely for us. They help make the new age move closer.
I bid you all nourish your curiosity for what lies below, above, within and among us. Let God bind us together in this moment. I bid you seek the invisible power of sainthood that comes from God, however God chooses to offer it. And I bid you seek the power from your spiritual ancestors and help build it your successors, and act in it together.