For ALL the Saints

The hymn is stuck on repeat, replaying all day long.
"For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest, Alleluia! Alleluia!"

This coming Sunday, we will light a candle and name the saints who have passed from this life into the next.  It is a powerful ritual.  It is powerful because the names awaken memories.  It is powerful because with some names I can still hear the sound of their voice.  It is powerful because when I see all the candles burning...I glimpse the truth of the phrase, "A great cloud of witnesses."  We are blessed by our ancestors...our forefathers and foremothers in the faith.  Men and women who taught us Sunday School.  Grandmothers who held us in their lap as they softly whispered the psalms in our ear.  Our teacher who banged out hymns on the piano.  We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who confessed, professed, and helped us catch the faith.

Yet, increasingly, we know that much of the cultural story tellers of the faith are fading fast.  People are not brought up in the faith from a young age.  Church attendance continues a downward slope.  But please know that this not another guilt trip...but simply a statement that as saints in the church today we have work to do.  We need to keep sharing the extravagant love of Jesus, because there are other voices that preach a different gospel.  We need to keep being open to blessedness so we can be blessedness in our work places, volunteering, at the soccer field, and when we are out getting groceries.  Another All Saints Day speaks prayerfully about how we can meet saints anywhere, "You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea; For the saints of God are just folk like me, And I mean to be one too."  Maybe it is a little hokey, but it reminds me that saints are not just people from the past, they are in our midst in the present.

They are people who allow the light of God to shine through their words, actions, and presence.  Not perfectly, not all the time.  Sometimes we still get mad a children or the person who cut us off in traffic.  Saints respond honestly and try to keep letting that light of God burn brightly.  And realizing more and more that this is less about what we do and what God is doing in us.

I pray you will give thanks for the fingerprints of Saints imprinted on your life and heart.  I pray you will continue to let God's love drench your life every day.  I pray that there will be more than a trace of grace as we turn the calendar to November.

Blessings