Sermon Preached by the Rev. Sam Frazier, Vicar

Saint Andrew=s Episcopal Church, Haw River, NC

November 1, 2009

All Saints Day, Year B

The celebration of All Saints@ Day is a very positive thing for each one of us.  We all get caught up in the details of our everyday lives, and we sometimes forget about the big picture.  Sometimes we feel that we cannot see the forest for the tree standing smack dab in front of us.  Well, All Saints= Day opens up our vision.  It makes us wider and taller so that we can see beyond the tree and the forest and the mountains and the curve of the earth on the distant horizon.  Today we gather around this table that is our altar. The Eucharist that we celebrate is a door that leads to the great feast that God has prepared for all the legions of saints.  We can see beyond our small table to the vast table of the Lord.

And on this All Saints= Sunday, each one of us is reminded that in the everyday things we do, we sanctify life.  There is no one here today who is a famous saint, but each one of us is a saint who makes life holy as we live through it.  All Saints= honors billions of ordinary people like you and me who over the centuries have known, loved, and served God, often without any fanfare or obvious reward.  Today we hold up the Arank and file@ people of our faith.  We recall the ones among us, seen and unseen, who have been salt and light for Jesus in the world.  We remember that no one comes to faith alone, and no one stays faithful alone.  We were all brought to our faith by others and we are all sustained in our faith by others.  Someone acted like Christ to us, and that brought us to him.  Someone was God=s agent sent to us.

The Book of Ecclesiasticus in the Apocrapha starts out by calling attention to the famous people who have lived over the ages: LET US NOW SING THE PRAISES OF FAMOUS MEN, OUR ANCESTORS IN THEIR GENERATIONS.  These famous people, both men and women, include: wise teachers, prophets, ambassadors, scholars, poets, musicians, the rich and powerful.  These people are remembered in history books, in buildings and in stone memorials.
Ecclesiasticus goes on to say: BUT OF OTHERS THERE IS NO MEMORY; THEY HAVE PERISHED AS THOUGH THEY HAD NEVER EXISTED…BUT THESE ALSO WERE GODLY MEN, WHOSE RIGHTEOUS DEEDS HAVE NOT BEEN FORGOTTEN.  Now this is a group in which any one of us can claim membership.  Plain, ordinary people.  We all qualify to join.  And so on this All Saints= celebration, it is these godly people whom we praise.  This is our day - yours and mine.  This is a day to remember and praise all those people whose names we will call out during the Prayers of the People.  They are our mothers and fathers, our brothers and sisters, our aunts and uncles, our friends and our enemies.

Although the people of All Saints= Day are not remembered in the history books of the world, in God=s sight their lives and deeds will never be forgotten.  We think of our own loved ones who have died, those who loved God and tried to serve God=s people.  Before we join them, we hope that we may accomplish as much as they did.  All Saints= Day is our day, yours and mine.  It is a celebration of the holy in our ordinary, everyday lives.

It is wrong to think that there used to be heroic times but no longer, that people used to know God personally but do not now, that there was once a holy time as described in the Old and New Testaments but not now.  It is wrong to think that it is too late for us to discover holiness in our lives.  The truth is that the absolute holiness of God, the absolute love of God is available to every person in every age, even in our own times.  My friends, there was never a more holy time than right now.

Saints are not only the faithful people who have died.  In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us about the living saints, those among us who live in hope even when life seems hopeless: the poor in spirit, the grieving, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, those who are persecuted.  In the midst of their suffering, these living saints yearn for God=s new creation to be present now.  Jesus promises that God=s plan is to restore to these suffering saints the comfort, blessing and power that they have been denied.  Three of Jesus= special blessings also speak of those living saints who actively love their neighbor.  Blessed are the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers.  The faith and hope of these living saints naturally flow into love and care for their neighbors and for all creation.  Each of the Beatitudes hails a failure according to the judgment of the world: the hungry, the poor, the sorrowful, the meek, the merciful, the peace loving, and the persecuted.  People who fit this description find themselves in high risk situations all over the world.  As individuals, they are easy to find, easy to exploit, easy to manipulate, and easy to eliminate.  But it is just these people who are the apple of God=s eye.
Jesus= Beatitudes hardly describe people who shine in the circle of the famous.  These beatitude people are not the stars of the Superbowl half-time show; they are not big time world leaders in business and government.  These beatitude people are more likely to be found working in an urban slum somewhere rather than in the circle of the rich and famous.  Are you a saint?  Do you trust in Jesus Christ?  Do you yearn for God=s new creation?  Does faith lead you to love and care for our world?  If so, you can say: YES, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, I AM A SAINT!

Listen to the words of this most unlikely saint, Elvis Presley.  He once wrote: AI ain=t no saint, but I=ve tried never to do anything that would hurt my family or offend God…I figure all any kid needs is hope and the feeling he or she belongs.  If I could do or say anything that would give some kid that feeling, I would believe I had contributed something to the world.@

The Beatitudes motivate us to throw ourselves into the loving arms of Jesus.  In so doing, we surrender our self-reliance and mortgage our independence.  We accept the fact that this is a holy time for each one of us.  We accept the fact that our everyday lives in the kitchen or in the garden or at work are holy and that love, God=s love, is in us and through us and all around us.  We accept the fact that each of us is one of God=s saints.  And we accept the fact that God has taken Saint Andrew=s by the hand and is leading us to a new and greater ministry of love.  This is truly a holy time.

And now, a special goodbye to one of the saints – our own Nan Cushing.  Nan has been our Deacon for six years, and has given so much to us.  Her dedication is an inspiration to us all, and we thank her for her service to us.  We wish her well in the next phase of her life.

Thanks be to God for Nan!  AMEN.