Sermon Preached By Rev. Patti M. Smith - November 4, 2001

Ephesians 1:1-4, 11-12; Psalm 150; Luke 6:20-31

Today the church celebrates All Saints Day. We remember those who have gone before. Just three days ago, on Thursday, many of you were gathered here in this holy place to say goodbye to a beloved member of our church family. John Bridgewater. He was remembered well. He was remembered for his gifts of service. Remembered for keeping his faith in God, for his love of family and friends. He was a part of the fabric of this particular faith community.

We believe he now enjoys the fullness of God’s eternal love. Part of what we do in paying tribute and celebrating a life of one we have loved is to join together in a community meal. Before we finished lunch on Thursday, the word came that our beloved Tavia Wyatt had also crossed the vale into God’s full light. John and Tavia—now joined the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before.

Here we are, you and I, part of an endless line of splendor: The Saints of God!

At the close of John’s memorial service, a bagpiper stood right over there in the middle of the chancel and played one of the most loved and treasured hymns of the church—AMAZING GRACE. God’s Grace, God’s free gift of unconditional love. Such love simply boggles the human mind and overwhelms the human heart. Our God is an awesome God.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come;

‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

How is it that we get this gift of Grace? I would not want to simply recite for you a list of ways we experience God’s free gift of unconditional love. I feel sure that if we each wrote our own list we would find many similarities. Our experience is personal and unique while at the same time human and universal. As people of God and believers in Christ, we share in common one major experience and that is our baptism! In our baptism we are gifted with God’s Grace. It is a gift which can never be revoked. A gift which we spend a lifetime learning to believe, to understand, and to claim. Martin Luther, the great protestant reformer, once said something like this. "When you get up in the morning, put your hand on your head and remember that you belong to God. God loves you and God never leaves you."

All Saints Day is the Church Memorial Day. It is a time to see ourselves in the endless line which stretches far beyond our vision and follows behind us far beyond our ability to imagine. It is a day in which we remember and honor those who have died in the faith, but more than that, it is a day in honor of the Grace of Christ.

It is a day in which we look back and give thanks for all those who have gone before to show us the way. A day to look around at those who are walking beside us or following after us, depending upon us to show them the way.

Visualize for a moment, Alex (a ten-year-old) standing here reading scripture! A class of third graders receiving their own Bible. Look here to my left and see these young people who every Sunday, faithfully, carry in the light of God and carry it out for us to follow as we go into the world and about our daily work. Then we gather here again next week to offer our praise and thanks to God. We give thanks for God’s amazing grace!

Visualize the babies presented here week after week, at this very font for baptism into the Christian faith. Into the family of God. Their mothers and fathers make a vow before God and this congregation to teach their children and faithfully live God’s love before them as an example of the faith they themselves profess. We, as their family of faith, make a promise to sustain and uphold them in their promise. Together, we see God’s amazing grace before our very eyes!

In remembering those who have gone before and preparing for those who are to follow, we are celebrating what Christ has done in and through the witness of us, the saints, now and through the ages.

In just a little while, we will be naming individuals who were members of this congregation, or close family of members. We will read the names, ring the bell, and light a candle of remembrance. We will recall our personal experience of that man or woman as our journeys may have intersected. If we choose, we may stand as a name is read. Whether we know that person or not, we know we are all kind to each other in our humanity. We all share in common parts of the human experience. We just stand in a different place in the line. One of those things we may hold in common is our desire to know with some certainty what happens next after we die.

But that is not something that we can know in absolutes. There are some things that we can know, however! Think back to the morning scripture reading. The Beatitudes speak to us of God’s welcome; God’s blessing. The blessing comes not because of our own worthiness or righteousness but because of God’s divine grace. The Beatitudes are God’s embrace. God’s big hug! We also have Jesus’ word. "I go to prepare a place for you . . . that where I am you may be also." We have other recorded witness of those gone before:

"When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun."

What more assurance do we need than this? We are loved by God. With our human eyes, we cannot see the beginning of the long line of believers, the line of Saints, in which we stand. With our human eyes, we cannot see how far into the future the line will stretch, but with the eyes of faith, we believe that we are standing with the Saints of God!

I invite you to turn with me to page 881 in your hymnal as we declare our faith through the words of the Apostle’s Creed. This creedal statement is one of the earliest written statements of the Christian Church.