I really like All Saints Day. It is one of the moments in the Christian year which was not at all recognized in my Baptist roots - except for Halloween, of course. As a child I had great fun with Halloween...complete with juvenile delinquent egg throwing, but I never had any idea there was a Christian meaning to it. (Not that it would have changed my behavior.) Now, however, the communion of saints, living and passed on, has a much deeper meaning to me.
Any pastor has to deal with death a lot. Some funerals are routine, but many involve folks we know well and love. Some are even close friends. Also, we are aware of carrying on a ministry that reaches back into Christian and Jewish prehistory. There is a spiritual hand-off in there somewhere which is beyond description. One insightful man stood with me in our Grace Immanuel sanctuary and said, "There is more than one generation in this room." I have certainly felt that.
All Saints is also a special time for Protestants because of Martin Luther's protest against church corruption on that day in 1517. The church had become too hierarchical and predatory ("When the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs."), and Luther nailed 95 theses to the Wittenberg church door. He eventually was asked under threat of death to recant, and uttered his famous, "Here I stand, I can do no other," response.
So, All Saints blends the idea of walking in the path of those who have gone before and standing for what we believe in the present day. Yesterday's revolution is today's orthodoxy, and then we start again. How? Well, that is where the Holy Ghost comes in. I know "Ghost" is no longer the fashionable thing to call this aspect of God, but hey - it is Halloween!
Christ's Peace, Greg
