How To Celebrate All Saints’ Day

This Saturday, November 1st, is All Saints’ Day. It’s a day for Christians to remember and celebrate those saints and martyrs who have gone before us in the faith. It’s kind of like the “Memorial Day” of the church – we celebrate the faithfulness of those who have died in Christ and who are now part of the “great cloud of witnesses” who cheer us on as we run our race.

The idea and practice of remembering and commemorating the dead in Christ goes at least as far back as 270 AD, and there are numerous references to these kinds of feasts in the writings of the early church. At Christ Community we’re going to celebrate All Saints on Sunday at our 5pm worship gathering. I want to invite you to participate in it, and I’ll say more about what we’re planning below, but first, some of you may be wondering: Why celebrate this feast? Why spend time thinking about these dead people?

Because they have something to teach us.
It can be far too easy for us as modern Christians to fall victim to what C.S. Lewis called “chronological snobbery,” where we assume that what is newer (living people) is by nature superior to what is older (dead people). We like new things, and sometimes we’re tempted to dismiss out of hand anything that’s “out-dated” or “traditional.” But G.K. Chesterton once provocatively (and humorously) asked why we should deny our ancestors the right to vote just because they happened to be dead. He called tradition “the democracy of the dead,” where we allow those who have passed on to continue to have a voice of influence in how we do things.

Many of the Christian saints and martyrs who have gone before us have an immense amount to teach and show us about faithfulness to Christ, courage in the face of fear, perseverance in the face of adversity, humility, servanthood, joy and love. And not just the “biggies,” like Mother Teresa, St. Francis, St. Benedict, Martin Luther, and the like. It’s also those that we know, those who touched and impacted our lives. Our loved ones who have died in Christ can continue to teach us if we allow them a place in our thoughts and prayers. We can remember the lives of the departed and commit our lives to following in their faithful footsteps.

Because they are alive and part of the Body of Christ, just like us.
Strictly speaking, those who are dead in Christ are just as much the church as we are. Death is a thin wall, really. Scripture says we are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.” This isn’t just a nice way of talking, it’s a reality; we are surrounded. If you’ve ever gotten the sense you’re being watched, you are! And sometimes if you get quiet enough, maybe you can hear what sounds like the faint sound of a crowd roaring… it might be the echo of the voices of millions of saints and martyrs who are cheering us on.

Because we will be (re)united with them at the resurrection of the dead.
Although it doesn’t erase the grief and pain of experiencing the death of someone you love, the really good news is that, in Christ, partings are always temporary. We have a risen Savior who guarantees that we too will rise from the dead and enjoy new life in the new creation. Part of the joy of the resurrection will be being united with our loved ones who have died in Christ. The comforting truth is that we will see them again, and it’ll be the best family reunion in history.

In addition to thinking about saints who have gone before us, All Saints Day is a great day to remember the persecuted church.

So this Sunday (Nov 2) Christ Community will be celebrating All Saints Day by hearing several people give 3-5 minute “mini-biographies” of saints, martyrs, or a group of currently persecuted Christians that they find especially inspiring. If you have a saint you’d like to talk about, email me (ben [at] christcommunityfw [dot] org) to see if there’s space left, because you’d be welcome to join us! I want to hear from as many different people as possible. If you’d simply like to come and hear about a few saints and worship with us, that would be wonderful, too.

We’ll respond in the Eucharist together, and by singing Graham Kendrick’s song “How Long?”, which reminds us that we are united in one Body not just with the faithful dead, but with Christians all over the world, many of whom are experiencing terrible trouble because of their faithfulness to Christ. Here’s a few lines from the song:

Lord, help us to live worthy of
Our sisters and our brothers
Who love you more than their own lives
Who worship as they suffer
To embrace the scandal of the cross
Not ashamed to tell your story
To count all earthly gain as loss
To know you and your glory

How long, Lord, till you come?
How long till the earth is filled with your song?
How long until your justice shines like the sun?
How long, Lord till you come?
How long, how long?

On All Saints’ Day we remember the fact that Christianity is a corporate faith, that we participate in a communal salvation, that God’s kingdom creates a diverse yet unified community. We need one another, and we need the example of the saints in history, because we often don’t know what faithfulness looks like until we see it with skin on. We often don’t know how to follow Jesus until we see another human being doing it. When we remember the saints, we see what faithfulness looks like, and we pray that their faithfulness would become ours, and that we could pass on the faith to others as we have received it.