Today is All Saints Day. It's a day that we set aside in the Church calendar to commemorate those men and women who were faithful unto death. Men and women who taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, and served our churches in various ways. It's a day that we reflect upon one of the great paradoxes of the faith. On the one hand, we believe our Lord when he tells us that "Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death." Yet, on the other hand, our own human experience shows us year after year that faithful brothers and sisters do indeed pass away. How do we reconcile our human experience with the words of Scripture?
The answer, of course, is All Saints Day. In our local congregation and in churches of various denominations across the globe, November 1st (or the first Sunday of November) is set aside as a day of holding together this great mystery of the faith. We remember those of our local church who have died since last November. One more time, we announce their names at church, we shed tears, we light a candle as a symbol of the light that they shone into our lives. We remember them and their well-fought fight. We honor them the best that we can.
But at the same time we trust the words of Christ. We recognize that in our humanness we don't always fully understand what God is up to. We don't always comprehend God's activity and how he holds everything together. St. Paul addressed a concerned congregation of believers in Thessalonica who were afraid that brothers and sisters who had died would not be able to share in Christ's great triumphal entry. He wrote to them these words of encouragement, "But we don't want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever."--1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
The image that Paul uses here is of a triumphant king returning from a conquest. When a king returned from a successful campaign, the people would line the streets in adoration and praise as he came home (think Palm Sunday). Paul takes this imagery and reassures the Thessalonians that the dead will be the first ones in line to welcome home Christ our King. Then everyone who is still alive will also line the streets praising Jesus' return as King. What I love about this passage is that he says "we...will be caught up in the clouds together with them..." Together, with them, we are united in praise and glorification. Together, with them, we are of one voice celebrating our Lord. Together, with them, we are brought into one family in a great reunion of all saints.
But until that time, we must remember that we are only physically separated from our loved ones. With Christ as our head, we continue to operate as one body of believers...they as the Church Triumphant (having run their race) and we as the Church Militant (continuing to battle here on earth). Our voices unite with theirs in one great exclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord and savior.
When I was a junior in high school, Mrs. Watson taught a unit on land and its importance in literature. We read a couple of books (Giants In The Earth by Rolvaag and The Good Earth by Buck). To cap off the unit, she showed us a movie starring Sally Field called Places In the Heart. Throughout the movie, Field's character undergoes several struggles and set-backs as she tries to keep her land. The final scene of the movie takes place in her local church. As the people take communion, they pass the paten of bread and tray of cups from one hand to another. As the camera sweeps across following the cups, you see people who have played throughout the movie. Some of the people are dead and others are alive. Some have left town while others have decided to stick it out. But regardless of their station in life (or death) they are present together in the breaking of the bread and partaking of the cup.
This scene sums up All Saints Day for me. It shows the truth of life after death made available through the blood of Christ. It shows the amazing grace of God who unites us together in the Communion of Saints. It reveals the community of faith knit together regardless of race or financial status. Through thick or thin, it is the people brought together under the headship of Christ that receive God's grace and forgive one another. That is the great celebration of All Saints. Thanks be to God.
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