SermonStudio

All Saints' Day


Service Of Worship

All Saints' Sunday

Welcome and Announcements

Prelude

Call to Worship
Leader: With people from all times and places,
People: God calls us to worship him.
Leader: In company with those well--known and little known,
People: God invites us into his presence.
Leader: Along with those of great faith and those struggling to believe,
People: God offers his Son as the way, the truth, and the life.
Leader: Let us praise God.
People: Let us praise God indeed!

*Hymn "Forward Through The Ages"

*Opening Prayer
Loving God, as we come to worship:

unblock our ears that we may hear you;

unclog our minds that we may understand you;

unglue our voices that we may praise you;

unlock our hearts that we may serve you.
Amen.

*Praise Chorus "Holy Ground"

*Affirmation of Faith The Apostles' Creed

Hymn "Awake My Soul, Stretch Every Nerve"

Presentation of Tithes and Offerings
Offertory

*Doxology

Morning Prayer
O God, we give you thanks for all those through the ages who have trusted you, and who now abide in your heavenly presence. A few of them achieved fame, but most went unrecorded, except in your Book of Life. To be sure, they were human, but with the aid of your Spirit, they did great deeds of mercy and offered strong witness to your power and love.

We thank you, too, O God, especially for those who loved and served you within the fellowship of this congregation. Especially now we remember those who transferred to the kingdom triumphant this past year, including [names of persons who died in last twelve months].

And we thank you also that you still call people from every nation and every race and every tongue to come to your kingdom. Help us so to live that we, too, may be counted among your saints.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

New Testament Hebrews 11:32-12:2

Choir Anthem

Sermon Running With The Cloud

*Hymn "For All The Saints"

*Benediction

Postlude


Running With The Cloud

Hebrews 11:32-12:2


What term do you use to identify yourself as a person who is a disciple of Jesus Christ? Most often, I use the word "Christian." Some people prefer to call themselves "born--again Christians" or "believers," but in reality, those are both synonyms for the simpler word, Christian. But I'd like to suggest one more term that you might not have considered: saint. The next time someone asks you about your faith, you can tell them you are a saint.

Now I can guess that not one of you is actually going to do that. I mean, just imagine what would happen if, in front of the guys at work, you announced that you are a saint. After all, it's hard enough for most of us at work to say that we are a Christian, let alone a saint.

But in addition to not using the term because of the probable ridicule we'd face, we're also reluctant to label ourselves as saints because we don't believe we are. In today's parlance, "saint" is usually reserved for someone like the late Mother Teresa or maybe Bishop Tutu or Billy Graham, but not for persons such as ourselves. The word seems to imply an almost superhuman quality of holiness, the ability to be so self--giving that most of us simply wouldn't qualify. Also, we often think of a saint as someone who's dead.

But the New Testament actually uses the word to identify living followers of Jesus Christ. For example, when Paul wrote his first letter to the Christians at Corinth, he began as follows: "To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ..." (1 Corinthians 1:2). For another example, and there are many in the New Testament, read Acts 9.

Most of the time, when the New Testament used the word saints, it was referring to people who were very much alive right then. They were people who were far from perfect. In fact, in the case of the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul was writing because of some unholy things going on in the church. Nonetheless, Paul called those followers of Jesus saints, not for being perfect, but for being redeemed.

In the centuries since, we come to prefer our saints to have already passed on, as this little bit of anonymous rhyme suggests:

To live above with the saints we love, that is purest glory.
But to live below with the saints we know, ah, that's another story.


On the church's calendar, November 1 is called All Saints' Day, with observance of it being on the Sunday nearest to that date. In the high liturgical churches, All Saints' is a major observance. In the lower liturgical churches, All Saints' is an optional service. Personally, while never a fan of high liturgy, I think we can benefit from thinking together about the meaning of the day.

The observance apparently had it roots in Rome, some 1,400 years ago, when a number of Christians gathered the physical remains of a number of unknown Christians who had died martyrs' deaths and dedicated an old Roman temple, the Pantheon, in their memory. Pope Boniface IV, who presided over the dedication, declared the day All Saints' and directed that it be celebrated annually to honor not only Christian martyrs, but also all who in any time or country lived and died for Christ. It became, in fact, a kind of Christian Memorial Day.

But here's the wrinkle, and it gets at why you should care about what this day represents. The major feature of All Saints' Day is that it honors our Christian predecessors not just as the dead in Christ, but in the strong confidence that they are alive with Christ forever. And as such, they are there cheering us on as we run the race of life.

In one sense, we can easily understand that, for we recognize that in this life, we benefit every day from inventions and advances in medicine from people who lived in earlier generations. For example, on any list of great scientists of the past, the name of Sir Isaac Newton is bound to appear. Among other things, he formulated the law of gravity and invented differential calculus. He had a brilliant mind, but with true humility he once observed, "If I have seen farther, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants." He was acknowledging the debt he owed to those who had blazed the trail in science and mathematics before him.

But in our reading for today, the author of Hebrews gives us a different idea. The whole of chapter 11 is a kind of roll call of heroes of the faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, Samuel, and others. When the author of Hebrews finishes this list, he begins chapter 12 with these words: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us...."

The Hebrews writer apparently pictured the living saints - Christians - of his day as running the race of life, but not running it alone. Instead, they were running in the presence of saints from the past, this "cloud of witnesses," who, having finished their own races, have gone to sit in the viewing stands to cheer on those who are still running.

That is the great idea of All Saints' Day - one life following after and strengthening itself by other lives that have gone before it. In my family, for example, I am the fourth generation to be in the ministry. It means something to me to know that my parents, who thankfully are still living, pray for me and encourage me in my work. But it also means something to know that my grandfather, who died when I was twelve, and my grandmother, who was also a minister and died just a few years ago, are now rooting for me from the heavenly bleachers. It even means something to me that my great--grandparents, who died before I was born, are in those bleachers too, cheering my success.

A few years ago, I read an account by Exie Wilde Henson in the little devotional book, The Upper Room, where she wrote about being asked to lead a prayer seminar. She didn't think of herself as a skillful leader, but before saying no, she decided to seek guidance in prayer. She prayed, "Lord, if my mother were alive to pray for me, I would feel confident enough to do this." Henson wrote that God assured her that her mother's prayers were still being answered.1 Her mother is no doubt one of those in the stands cheering for Ms. Henson as she runs the race of life.

But it's not just our direct ancestors the author of Hebrews had in mind; it's the whole body of believers who lived and died in a state of faithfulness to God who are now watching us and calling out heavenly encouragement. We who hold the Christian faith today do so because it was handed down to us by faithful witnesses who lived before us.

Sometimes that linkage with the church of the past is fairly direct. In 1858, a Sunday school teacher by the name of Kimball led a Boston shoe clerk to Christ. That clerk, whose name was Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist. In 1879, while holding a crusade in England, Moody awakened the evangelistic zeal of Frederick B. Meyer, the pastor of a small church. Later, Meyer, preaching on an American campus, brought a student named J. Wilber Chapman to Christ. Chapman, in turn, while working for the YMCA, employed Billy Sunday to do evangelistic work. Sunday so inspired a group of North Carolina men that after Sunday's campaign, they brought another evangelist to town. The person they brought was Mordecai Hamm, who in his preaching there led to Christ a young man by the name of Billy Graham.

You see, what all of this means is that the church universal never consists of only the Christians who happen to be alive on earth at any one time. That is what theologians call the church "militant." This comes from the idea that the church in the world is the body that is at war with the powers of evil that obstruct the purposes of God. Living Christians cannot rest as long as there is injustice, bigotry, hate, conflict, abuse, and so forth in the society. We here are all part of the church militant.

But there is also what theologians call the Church "triumphant," that part of the church made up of all the believers from the beginning of the world who now rest from their labors. That part of the church which is not fighting evil any longer, but which is now fully participating in the triumph that Christ has won for the whole church on the cross. The church on earth exists supported and surrounded by the church triumphant, but the church itself includes both realities.2

There's an old hymn that expresses this idea. It says:

The church triumphant in thy love,
Their mighty joys we know;
They sing the Lamb in hymns above,
And we in hymns below.3


I want to be clear that the church does not support any of that foolishness called spiritualism, including any of that nonsense about people communicating with the dead through so--called mediums or s ances or any other methods. Rather, we are simply pointing out the church of Christ has no end. Death cannot destroy it.

During WWI, a regiment of English soldiers was billeted in a French village. The English colonel, a cynical man, enjoyed poking fun at the village priest. One Sunday morning, the colonel passed the church as a handful of people were leaving after the service. He said to the priest, "Good morning, Father. Not many at Mass this morning. Not very many." The priest answered, "No, my son, you are wrong. Thousands and thousands and tens of thousands." And he was right.

Earlier in the service, we affirmed our faith using the historic words of the Apostles' Creed. Among the things we said was, "I believe in the communion of saints." This phrase can have two meanings. It can refer to the communion Christians share in the Lord's Supper. But it also refers to the unity between the church militant and the church triumphant.

A young boy was asked by his Sunday school teacher what he thought a saint was. As he thought about the question, he happened to remember a large church he had visited with his parents the previous summer. There he had seen some of the saints of old depicted in the stained--glass windows. Finally he replied, "A saint is someone who lets the light shine through." That's at least one aspect of what the race of life is for Christians, to let the light of God shine through us.

And what is that light? If we go back to the book of Hebrews, we find the answer. In chapter 11, we read about some people that the author of Hebrews identifies as "saints." If you know your Old Testament history, you may have been surprised at some of the people who made this particular list. There was Jacob, who for a good part of his life was a sneaky swindler; Noah, who was a known drunk; Rahab the prostitute; David the adulterer; Samson the self--centered, and so on. Actually, none of those on the list were noted for moral perfection. But we only read the final verses of chapter 11. If you go back and read the first two verses of that chapter, here's what it says: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval." In other words, what makes them saints is not the record of their achievements, but that when it came down to a crucial moment, they each chose to follow a course that was in line with the purposes of God. They had faith. The light that shines through them is the light of faith.

And that's why we, too, can legitimately be called saints. If we have faith in God, if we really trust and obey him in the crucial moments of life, we too are saints.

As I said earlier, you may not want to call yourself a saint in front of your fellow workers, but if they are watching, they may be able to see the light of faith through you.

So as we run the race of life, let us take heart that we do so in the presence of the cloud of witnesses, those people of God who lived before us and who now have finished their own races. They have not retreated to the heavenly locker rooms, but are back in the bleachers for our benefit. We knew we had their example and their wisdom - as passed down in writings from the past - but now we know we also have their encouragement and can live by faith, as they did. We run, not with the crowd that ignores the way of God, but with the cloud that ran with him.

Stan Purdum


____________

1. The Upper Room, July--December 1983, p. 68.

2. See George W. Forell, The Protestant Faith, pp. 200--201.

3. Charles Wesley, "Happy The Souls To Jesus Joined," The Book of Hymns, p. 535.