21^st November 2009

ALL SAINTS (Sunday 1 November 2009)

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley

Lessons -- Psalm 146; Revelation 7:9-17; Mark 12:28-34

I believe in the communion of saints. (Apostles' Creed)

Today is 'All Saints Day', a traditional festival for Roman Catholics,
Orthodox, Anglicans and Lutherans. Known to have been celebrated in early
5th Century Syria, it was originally a 'Feast of All Martyrs' held on
Easter Friday to link those who had died for their faith with Christ's
costly death and glorious resurrection. About this time, too, the phrase
'the communion of saints' was added to the Apostles' Creed to elaborate
what it meant for the Church to confess faith 'in the holy catholic
Church'.

Over the years two meanings have come to be associated with 'All Saints':

1 St Paul addressed Christians in local congregations as 'those called
to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name
of our Lord, Jesus Christ' (1Corinthians1:2,3). They have been 'set apart'
to glorify Jesus Christ as Lord of heaven and earth. This was taken up in
the 16th Century Reformation with the emphasis on 'the priesthood of all
believers'. Each and every imperfect member of the body of Christ is a
saint!

2 Since the early days 'saints' have been regarded as martyrs who have
died for their faith in Christ (on earth) and who now share in his risen
glory (in heaven).

Both meanings help us understand what it is for the Church to believe in
the 'communion of saints'. We are acknowledging our participation in the
Church's bold and often costly witness to Christ as we give thanks for
all, the living and the dead, who have shared in the 'holy communion' of
his love for the world. 'Saints' of every time and place share in the very
purposes of God for the earth and thus participate in 'communion with
Christ' and with each other.

All Saints Day should be one of the great festivals on our Church
calendar:

* It reminds us, as Paul reminded the Corinthians, that all members of the
Christian communion are called by grace to be 'saints' who are 'set apart'
to confess before the world God's sacrificial love for the world in Christ
and to be single-minded and wholehearted in adoration of God and love of
neighbour (Mark 12:28f). It reminds us all of our present vocation!

* It reminds us that many 'saints', like the prophets before them, endured
severe testing, persecution and death for their loyalty to Christ -- that
martyrs were and are murdered for confessing their faith in the face of
tyranny. It reminds us of the persecuted Church in this and every
generation!

* All Saints Day reminds us that these saints so 'hungered for God's
righteousness' on earth that they risked their lives. They show us that
being 'saintly' means, not being 'holier than thou', but loving the earth -
- God's earth -- with such a passion that arrogance must be unmasked in
the hope of the better world which has been embodied already in the person
of Christ. They jolt us out of our complacency by reminding us that the
Gospel calls us to confess our faith in Christ by being 'counter
cultural'. All Saints Day reminds us of the cost of discipleship!

* It reminds us that with all our idiosyncrasies we are united in bonds of
affection with countless folk -- known and unknown -- who have gone before
us in confessing Christ as Lord of all. It reminds us that, in sharing
'holy communion', we are members of his Body. We are privileged to belong
to the 'communion of saints' and must never grow tired of remembering
pioneers of faith with love and gratitude. It reminds us of our unity
across the ages!

* It reminds us that what has been begun in Christ and celebrated in the
Church shall come to glorious fulfilment. It reminds us of our hope!

The saints were so open to God that, while being profoundly aware of their
own unworthiness before God, they challenged the world's idolatry and
inhumanity. They confessed Jesus Christ as Lord of all even as they
confessed their own sins. St Paul and St John (Revelation) address their
fellow Christians as 'saints' while insisting that they acknowledge their
part in disrupting the communion of fellowship to which they have been
called.

It is no accident that, straight after confessing faith in the 'communion
of saints', the Apostles' Creed confesses the 'forgiveness of sins'. The
Christian community in every age is enabled to live and work only because
of the reality of grace.

Saints are enabled to live in this way because they know that, with all
their frailties, they belong to a living community which transcends time
and space, life and death, and gives eternal meaning to their small
contribution to the story of God's undying love for humanity.

That is why today we remember with gratitude all who have died in the
faith of Christ -- the well-known, the unknown and those known only to us -
- and commit ourselves to follow their bold examples in their own day by
confessing the faith of Christ crucified and risen. 'All the saints' are
to be remembered in love, as those who have loved us in Christ and hope --
as members of the 'new heaven and new earth' already begun in him.

We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who, by their example,
summon the Church to live in faith, hope and love in the midst of our
world.

On All Saints Day therefore we remember all who have died in the faith of
Christ. And we commit ourselves to follow their examples by glorifying God
and defending human dignity wherever God is mocked and our fellows suffer
abuse, affliction, tragedy or death, because of their own or other's
actions.

What a freedom it is to be in communion with those who have experienced
the mercy and goodness of God in Christ, often in the midst of persecution
and turmoil!

We do not need to worry about our own tiny and seemingly insignificant
part in the coming of the Kingdom. We do not need to worry that, in death,
we shall be forgotten. On All Saints Day, we are assured of our connection
with the story of God's fidelity to the Church. We are assured that,
whether or not other people remember us by name, we shall be remembered by
God in the 'communion of saints' as sisters and brothers of Christ
himself!

We don't have the words to explain such a reality. Being 'in communion'
with flesh-and-blood people who have died in the faith of Christ stretches
our imagination. That is why, as well as needing examples of love and hope
from every generation, we need hymns which sing of 'victorious martyrs
joining their lays and shouting the omnipotence of grace' (AHB 1) and
liturgies which say, 'We praise you with the faithful of every time and
place, joining with choirs of angels and the whole creation in the eternal
hymn . . . .' Such exuberance is the mark of true saintliness!

We should embrace All Saints Day in this spirit.

* It reminds us of the motley cast of people who, in quiet and unobtrusive
ways or at great cost, have answered Christ's invitation to discipleship
by confessing the faith to provoke the arrogant and encourage the sinful.

* It impresses upon us the urgency of being saints in our own day: to
confess Christ crucified and risen with a singleness of heart that isn't
discouraged by smugness, shallowness or fickleness within the 'communion
of saints' or the communities in which we live and work.

* And it enables us to live in hope knowing that, in life and death, now
and eternally, we all belong to the 'communion of saints': to those who
have been unsettled, invigorated and enthralled by God's gracious calling
to confess the faith of the risen crucified Christ.

Prayer: Almighty God, whose people are knit together in one holy, catholic
and apostolic Church, the mystical Body of Your Son, grant us grace to
follow Your blessed saints in lives of faithful commitment, and to know
the inexpressible joy You have prepared for those who, however
falteringly, have loved You; this we pray through Your Son our Lord Jesus
Christ, who lives and reigns in communion with You and the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and forever. Amen

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt
Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of
Confessing Congregations within the UCA.

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