Sermon Index
All Saints Sunday, November 3, 2019
Today we observe All Saints Sunday. The word “saint” means a holy person. A person is holy when connected to God who is holy and when sins are forgiven thus becoming holy. By this definition, all people who believe in Jesus as their Savior and whose sins are forgiven are saints. That includes us who are Christians.
But today we remember a special group of saints. We remember those who have died and gone to heaven. Well-known saints have the word “saint” before their name, like Saint Francis and Saint Nicholas. But many saints are either unknown or forgotten, and so we remember them today also. And there are the saints that we personally have known, like grandparents and teachers and other Christians in our lives. We remember them also today.
Today is not a sad funeral.
1. Today we thank God for giving salvation to these people. And so today is a victory celebration.
2. Today we thank God that they are a model for our Christian lives. And so it is a time of repentance and prayer.
3. Today we look forward to meeting them again in heaven. And so today has fond memories and love.
I want to share with you a summary of today’s page in my devotion book. It started me thinking. The devotion for All Saints was written by a Lutheran Pastor, Berthold Von Schenk. (My devotion book is "For All the SAints, A Prayer Book For and By the Church" Volume IV, American Lutheran Publicity Bureau.)
He says that when a person we love dies, we still want to be with that person. To meet their loved ones, or to feel close to them, some people go to the cemetery with some flowers. But Pastor Schenk says there is a better place to meet those we love. It is at the Communion Altar.
In the Communion liturgy there are these beautiful words. “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saying: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might: Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest.”
We on earth worship the Risen Christ who reveals Himself in the bread and wine of this Body and Blood. But those who have died in the Lord are with the Lord and so worship him face to face. In the Communion at the Altar we are linked with Heaven, and so we are linked with the Communion of Saints, with our loved ones who also worship the Lord.
The Sacrament of the Altar links us to Christ’s death and resurrection. It links us to Bethlehem and Calvary. It links us to Christ in Heaven. All who are linked to Christ are also linked together. It links us to all Christians in the world today, and those of the past also who are now in heaven, and so it links us to eternity also. Here is where we meet the Saints of old and the saints of new. It is because Jesus comes to us.
In a few minutes we will pray the Memorial Prayer. It is a prayer of our faith and God’s promise. It is prayer of comfort and joy. It is a prayer of peace and trust in God.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church