Sermon All Saints Day Revd Dr Elizabeth Welch
Daniel 7.1-3, 15-18
Psalm 149
Ephesians 1.11-end
Luke 6.20-31
Over the centuries, particular people have been singled out and set apart by the church as saints – well known and lesser known. Even today people going on being made saints.
The latest Pope, Leo XIV has actually canonised 9 saints recently, including
- Carlo Acutis: A British-born Italian teenager known as “God’s influencer” for using his computer skills to spread Catholic teachings online. He is the first millennial saint,
- Pier Giorgio Frassati: An Italian Catholic activist and mountaineer who died in 1925 and is known for his work with the poor.
But what’s interesting in the scriptures, is that saints, or ‘holy ones’, from Greek word ‘agioi’, aren’t just the special ones that are singled out. The saints are all God’s people, all God’s holy people.
The word ‘Holy’ can at times have a bad press – it has been critically used as meaning sanctimonious; as having a false pride. It’s been said that people are so full of trying to show that they are humble, that they end up being puffed up; as people who are ‘better than others’. But I think that this is the secular world trying to downplay the religious world. Actually, if we look at what the Christian scriptures say, we discover that it isn’t that any of us are good enough all on our own. We’re each here because of the goodness of God, who goes on loving us and forgiving us. It is as we let ourselves go into the power and presence of God, into the fullness of the love of God, that we’re called the holy ones. It’s as we live in God’s way, for others, and not just ourselves, that we become holy.
It’s interesting to look at the way ‘saints’ or the phrase ‘holy ones’ is used in scripture, in particular in the four passages we heard today. There’s quite a contrast of approaches.
In the first reading Daniel offers a rather mysterious prophecy of the four great beasts. One of the commentators [Hammer) has suggested that the interpretation is not self-evident, but that it might be a possible reference to the different kingdoms surrounding Israel, who would have alternative views to the Israeli kings, and would not have been rooted in the same understanding of God as the Israeli people had in that time.
At the end of the verses we heard today, Daniel writes, in contrast to the great beasts: ‘But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever.’ These Holy Ones are not receiving the kingdom because of just who they are or of their own right, but because they have let their lives be touched by God.
The Psalm today refers to the ones in whom God takes pleasure, who are also the ones who are humble. It’s interesting to see the way the psalmist interprets these people. He includes a reference to the ones who will be praising God with dancing and making music and singing. It’s great to have the band and different musicians leading us. It’s good to have singing as always part of our worship.
Then the psalmist also points to dancing as significant for the people of God. When it comes to dancing, especially in worship, I suspect it’s more in the Pentecostal tradition that we see dancing. I wonder how often we each think that as God’s people, the holy ones of God, we can dance together, and in our dancing, be offering praise to God?
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, offers a rich description of the characteristics of the holy ones of God – including the way in which they hear God’s word of truth, and are marked by the seal of the Holy Spirit. He then goes on to write ‘I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints,’. In those days, ‘saints’ would have been a more general description of God’s holy people, rather than individuals who are particularly named and set apart.
Paul continues by pointing to the gifts of wisdom and revelation that God gives to God’s people, so that they may know ‘the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,’ and the visible power of God in Jesus Christ. The saints are the people who have been touched by God, who know the grace and the love of God, and who inspire others to receive this grace and love.
All Saints day is a good time to reflect, not only on those who are set aside over the centuries as saints, but those we know and love, or have known and loved but have passed, who give us a good example of living the Christian life.
The passage from the Gospel of Luke points to the character of the saints, in terms of the way they live their lives out. In the verses in this chapter, it immediately becomes apparent that saints are far from privileged. They are referred to as the ones who are poor, who are hungry, who are weeping, who are hated and persecuted. And it includes strong words about the offering we’re called to give of our lives, in service for others – even to the extent of loving our enemies and giving to everyone who asks of us.
Over the centuries, particular individuals, whose lives were outstanding because they were persecuted or martyred, and yet who had given of themselves fully to the Christian life, were designated as saints.
Part of the thinking behind this was to commemorate certain people as examples, who could then inspire others. What’s interesting that saints were not necessarily nice, tidy, comfortable, well-organised people. They were often people with a bit of an edge, people who could be seen as rather eccentric, people who challenged others, even people who lived a lonely life. We see John the Baptist – out in the wilderness, or Simeon of Stylites, a hermit who lived on a top of a pillar in the wilderness.
Over the centuries, a Protestant/Catholic divide developed in terms of understanding the saints. In the Reformation, the Reformers argued that there were too many of the ‘set apart’ kind of saints, and not enough recognition of the holiness of the whole people of God. They said that people were transferring their devotion to these particular saints, and losing the sense of the personal relationship to God that was opened up to everyone in Jesus Christ, who is the direct mediator of faith.
There are many countries, across Europe and around the world, who observe All Saints day (which was actually yesterday) as a public holiday. I remember some years ago that Peter and I tried to book a day trip to France on the 1st November, but were assured that everything would be shut down, and there’d be no point in going. So we abandoned that plan.
It’s good to see All Saints day as one of the festivals of the church’s year, pointing to the characteristics of saints, which still challenge and inspire us to live in God’s way.
Celebrating festivals is part of the way in which we inhabit the world as Christians.
Festivals comes as a reminder that we live in alternative way to the norms of our increasing secular and materially driven society. We know we’re shortly coming up to Advent and Christmas, where we take time to prepare and celebrate the birth of Jesus.
It’s interesting that Christmas has been well adopted by our society, in terms of shopping, buying presents and having parties. While the content of the secular celebration is not the fullness of the Christian faith, I’m grateful for these public reminders of the faith that has formed us.Festivals help us to build the regular framework for the Christian life, and to know God more fully.
All Saints day helps us to see again the goodness of God, over the centuries and in the present day. It says we’re surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses. It points us to the different ways in which we can take time to praise God. It reminds us that the holy ones of God are not necessarily those who are wealthy or privileged in this world’s eyes. It calls us to live for others, not just for ourselves.
The scriptures remind us that the journey of God’s saints can include struggles, but that, at the heart of the journey, God’s Spirit touches our lives and lifts us up.It’s a reminder of the diversity of the holy ones of God, but the way in which God brings us together with one another, as we will see today in Holy Communion, as together we share the bread and the wine.
Let us celebrate the saints we know, and give thanks today that we’re each called to be one of the holy ones of God
