November 2 2025 Sermon
During my childhood in the 1960s in rural Wisconsin I had a variety of heroes. Fond of Saturday morning cartoons, I had superheroes like Underdog and Superman and Mighty Mouse. On the sports front I had Green Bay Packers heroes, and when I was a preteen the Brewers arrived in Milwaukee, just an hour south of my home, providing me some baseball heroes. Growing up in a devout Roman Catholic family I had a special set of heroes, the Saints. I would hear, or read in the Lives of the Saints, about individuals who lived lives of remarkable faith. When my grade two class was preparing for our first holy communion we were told the story of Saint Tarcisius.
Saint Tarcisius was the child saint who protected the Blessed Sacrament. A young acolyte in the 3rd century, he was martyred for refusing to surrender the Eucharist to a mob while carrying it to imprisoned Christians.
This wide assortment of heroes inspired me, I would in play, pretend to be them or imagine what it would be like. My childlike ego and my naivete – hoped to be like them and obtain the status of hero for myself.
As I have grown and matured, my understanding of saints has changed. Saints, in and of themselves – have become more human, more flawed. What sets them apart is their openness to the transformative love of God in Jesus Christ.
Anglican book, For All the Saints states: “Saints are Christians who in various ways, often against great odds, showed an extraordinary love for Christ. The Holy Spirit acts in their lives so that they chose to bring aid to the needy, justice to the oppressed, hope to the sorrowful, and the divine word of forgiveness to sinners. For the sake of Christ they are servants to the people of their day; and the service they rendered makes them examples to the rest of the people of God throughout history.”
It is the Church’s conviction — a conviction expressed in the Anglican tradition through our calendar of holy days, feasts, memorials and commemorations, — that the saints continue to be our partners and fellow-servants before the face of God’s glory.
This All Saints Sunday – is meant to be a day of encouragement for the saints. We are encouraged in knowing: We are not alone. Individual Christians and their congregations and denominations are each part of something greater than themselves, transcending time and space through Christ. Knowing that we are but a small part of something much bigger can help us to feel both humble and supported; no one individual, congregation or denomination is the be-all and end-all, and none should feel burdened as though they were on their own.
We are encouraged in knowing: By God’s election we are agents of divine power in a struggle. Before the foundations of the world, says Ephesians, God chose saints to be agents of divine power in the struggle. Such election has continued to this day. We may protest that we are not up to the task, that we lack the courage and the strength necessary to live faithfully in such tumultuous times. To such protests the Ephesian letter serves as a reminder of the God whose power is at work in the life and witness of the church. Christians need work to make themselves saints. What Christians can do is increasingly place their trust in the power of God already at work in them. The saving work of Jesus Christ has grafted us into his kingdom, a kingdom that is ruled by forgiveness and love.”
We are encouraged in knowing: We look beyond our immediate circumstances for our hope in Christ. This is perhaps no more clearly stated in our gospel passage today. In his statement of blessings and woes, Jesus tells his disciples, the saints, you and I, that we are blessed in ways that the world, and oftentimes we ourselves, do not recognize. The blessings bestowed upon the saints run counter to our natural expectations. Jesus warns that riches, fullness, laughter, recognition, can be obstacles to the blessings God has in store for us. We are instead blessed in following in the pattern of Jesus. Jesus’ disciples, the saints empty themselves in sacrificial love.
Christian hope is best lived within a hope filled community. On this All Saints Sunday we are reminded that we are a in the glorious hope filled company of the saints, the saints who have gone before us, the saints with whom we live in this present moment, and the saints yet to come. +