All Saints’ Day, 2004

Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10, 13-14

Psalm 149:1-4

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-17

MATTHEW 5:1-12

Today is All Saints’ Day, which happens to be, this year, the only day between two major American cultural events: Halloween and Election Day. Both of those days, we can say, in many ways are possible because of this one, which in the Church’s teaching looms larger than either.

Huh?

Halloween literally means the Eve of All Hallow’s Day – All Saints’ Day. Ancient pagan peoples had a day to remember – and seek to appease – the dead at a time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere when the hours of darkness exceeded and started to dominate the hours of light. The Christian Church chose to celebrate a Major Feast commemorating all the faithful departed at that time of year, on November 1, celebrating God’s rule over life and death and God’s loving invitation to eternal life to all the faithful departed. Halloween – a day some mark as recognizing sinister and/or pagan spiritual forces while more celebrate as simply a day for dressing up, pretending and partying – was supposed to be in the shadow of All Saints’ Day.

Creepiness has become a major industry in America, between costumes and movies and themed TV shows. Some people take the day way too seriously and dabble (or plunge) into the spiritually dangerous realm of the occult. For most, it’s an innocuous time for decorating and “trick or treating”. But far too many miss or are unaware of the serious and joyous message of All Saints’ Day: that even and especially faithful Christians who have endured what John of Patmos calls “the great ordeal” are welcomed by God to life beyond this life – glorious new heavenly life which is wonderful literally beyond our imagination.

That’s not pretend; that’s for real.

O.K., so what does All Saints’ Day have to do with Election Day?

All Saints’ Day celebrates all the saints in the original, biblical sense of the term (as St. Paul used it): all the faithful in Christ, famous, obscure and unknown. Not just the “Hall of Famers” like the Blessed Virgin Mary, Peter, Paul and the rest, but the vast crowd of believers from their time right up to our own time. Christianity teaches that all the faithful are unique and precious – indeed that all people are unique and precious. It says in Genesis that all human beings, male and female, are made in the image of God. That’s radically different from ancient pagan teachings, and establishes the basic worth and dignity of each and every human being.

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Granted, it took a long, long time for the meaning of those words to sink in – and in some places they haven’t yet – but I cannot imagine the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” without those words from the Bible, and the teaching of the Christian Church, serving as their foundation.

From Genesis to St. Paul to the Christian Church to Thomas Jefferson to Election Day, 2004: connect the dots. The link is there: the ultimate worth to God of each and every person makes democracy possible to imagine, and indeed theologically mandatory until the return of Christ as King on earth.

Today at this service we also celebrate the eve of “All Souls’ Day”, the day the Church remembers all those who have died. We remember them in the sure knowledge of God’s care for all of the departed, in accordance with God’s will, regardless of their faith or lack of it. Only God fully knows each human heart, so we commit each person, Christian or not, to God’s eternal care in whatever way God sees fit, thanking God for creating each and all of us and for giving all people freedom to do good or to do ill. God will reward or punish people as God sees fit.

In that humble and inclusive spirit we tonight remember all those who have died in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, remembering by name those American military personnel who were from New Jersey and observing moments of silence in memory of all American military personnel killed in the wars (whose names are posted in the Welcoming Area), and then in memory of all persons, civilian and military, from whatever country, all of whose names we do not know but all of whom are precious to God, who created them.

Human life is precious. I pray that out of these ordeals in these countries true peace with justice may emerge in which there is freedom, and reverence for the lives of all. That would make these painful losses far easier to bear.

In the meantime, we remember with sorrow and respect all those who will not live to see such a day. May we, here, be inspired by the best people who have gone before us in whatever walks of life or circumstances they found themselves, and especially those of the Household of Faith, that we may offer our best to the glory of God and the well-being of others, and be saints of God in our time.

The Rev. Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Monmouth Junction, N.J.