Pastor Detweiler’s sermon for All Saints Sunday, Nov. 2:

“In the sharing of Holy Communion, we are reminded that we are not alone: we are joined to all who have been baptized, including those who have come before us and those who are yet to come.”

Matthew 5:1-12

As we heard in the children’s sermon, in the church we use the term “saint” at least two ways: to refer to people who have called the church to greater faithfulness and been recognized for it - like St. John, St. Patrick and Dietrich Bonhoeffer - and to indicate all the baptized of every time and place, living and dead - like our grandparents, Aunt Betty and Uncle Fred, you and me. We do not use the term “saint” the way it is used in the culture: to describe people who are always nice and never offend anyone, because that is not the same as faithfulness to the word of God and trust in God.

All Saints' is a thematic day in the church year. We can choose to emphasize different aspects of the overall theme:

· We are all saints through baptism (that “God rides the lame horse and carves rotten wood,” as Martin Luther put it);

· We can call attention to the people who have been models of faithfulness for us and others - saints here on earth;

· We can remember all the faithful who have died - the saints with God.

Today I want to use the word “saint” primarily to mean all the baptized of every time and place. Each Sunday when we say in the creed “I believe in ... the communion of saints ...” it is a statement that we are connected through baptism and Holy Communion with the whole church in heaven and on earth. But often we act like we don't believe it, like we are cut off from each other and from those who have died.

Shirley was always a loner, and that was enhanced by her tendency to complain. Her husband, on the other hand, was more gregarious and had been involved in the community, serving on the school board and other groups. When he died there was no obituary in the newspaper, no service that anyone knew about. The next door neighbors didn't even know. A month or so later when a caring neighbor, Penny, struck up a conversation across the fence, Shirley complained about how lonely she was since her husband died. After recovering from the initial shock, Penny offered her condolences and said “I don’t believe we are alone. The people who have died are always with us.” “I don't believe that,” Shirley said, and walked away.

It’s too bad she feels that way and it is no wonder that she is so lonely. But she really represents more people than we might like to think. Many people believe that any connection between us and those who have died is severed by death. But saying “I believe in the communion of saints” assumes the existence of a community of people who understand that they belong to each other, that they will trust, help, and care for each other. That communion includes the dead as well as the living.

The church is that kind of community. It is that kind of community because we gather to praise God for his promises to us, especially the promise of the resurrection to eternal life that we have through our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection.

All Saints’ calls to mind each year not only the glory of God’s promises to those who believe and are baptized but also of our communion, our community or relatedness, in Christ and his church.

In churches built by Swedish immigrants, the communion rail is usually semi-circular and attached to the wall at each end. The people were taught that the circle is completed by the saints in glory. When they knelt or stood at the rail they were joining the communion of saints - people long gone from us and people yet to be born and believe. Holy Communion became a visible reminder that they were not alone, that they belonged to a community larger than the people they could see.

There is today a deep hunger for community, for belonging and the communion with others that goes with it. It is part of the reason there is so much interest in angels. If angels are watching us, then we are not alone even when it seems we are. Those of us who are fortunate to have lived in one place most of our lives often take the community around us for granted. We are not even aware of the depth of concern and support for us because we have never been without it or never had to rely on it.

But what about those who live here but are from somewhere else? What about those with no family nearby? When we say in the creed “I believe in the communion of saints” we are also offering ourselves to be part of the community that reaches out to and cares for each another and those outside who need God's love embodied in people.

Carole grew up in a faithful Italian Catholic home. Both her parents and many of her aunts and uncles are dead. Carole misses them but doesn't act bereft of them. In conversation she will say “I can just hear my mother and father talking up there: ‘What's the matter with them? They should know better than that.’” Or she’ll say, “I can just imagine my grandmother saying,” then say something in Italian. She is not alone - she is aware of the communion with the saints in heaven. But she keeps in close touch with her family and the extended family that her church has become. She has a lively sense of the communion of saints here on earth and in heaven.

Henri Nouwen was a well-known writer of spiritual books. Some years ago, when his mother died, he said “although I was very close to my mother I did not see her often because she lived in Holland and I in the U.S. I feel that she is much closer to me now than before.” This is an aspect of believing in the communion of saints.

When we come to the altar for Holy Communion, we join all those who have gone before us and those who are yet to be born and believe. In the sharing together of the bread and cup we are joined to one another and to the whole church in heaven and on earth - all the baptized of all times and places.

Our sharing symbolizes the community or communion of saints. It joins the saints above and the saints below. We can see that we are not alone but are joined to Christ and through him to one another and the saints in glory - the saints above and the saints we know. We give thanks for that promise and the hope and peace it brings.