All Saints Sunday, November 6 2022
Penelope Bridges
When I lived in Virginia I used to attend a chamber music camp in the lovely town of Lexington, spending a week on the campus of Washington & Lee University. Lexington’s history is intertwined with the history of this country, as you might guess from the fact that the university is named for two men regarded as national heroes by many in southern Virginia. What’s more, the Episcopal Church across the street from the university campus was until recently named the Robert E Lee Memorial Chapel. That has always puzzled me, as nowhere in the Episcopal Church is Robert E Lee named as a saint. It seems that there has been some confusion between a saint and a hero.
It’s not that easy to make a distinction: heroes are people who by their mighty deeds create change and inspire us to do likewise. Saints are people who by their faithfulness to God, made a difference in the world and who inspire us to do likewise. Maybe someone can be both a saint and a hero: Martin Luther King Jr is an example that springs to mind. Pope John 23 might be another, given his influence via Vatican Two on the Catholic Church. Both men brought about change as part of their deep commitment to God, King focusing on the struggle for justice, Pope John on the need for renewal and reform in the Church. Both were heroes of the faith in their different ways.
But I think it’s fair to say that a hero generally gains heroic status through the success of his or her efforts, whereas a saint gains recognition as a saint through his or her obedience to God. And of course don’t forget that, technically, a saint cannot achieve saintly status during their lifetime.
Neither saints nor heroes are perfect human beings, because there is no such thing. All are flawed, all have fallen short: that is part of being human. Among the saints have historically been curmudgeons, obsessives, even bigots and womanizers, while heroes inevitably fall from their pedestals, especially in this age of internet searches and our societal craving to know every detail of a celebrity’s life.
Today, of course is All Saints Sunday, not All Heroes Sunday. We remember and celebrate those who because of their faithfulness provided some kind of example of giving glory to God, whether they were popes or peasants, queens or shepherdesses, teachers, musicians, monks, politicians, missionaries, theologians or philanthropists. Some of my favorite saints include Elizabeth of Hungary, a princess who sold her jewelry to provide food for the poor and died in poverty at age 24; Samuel Isaac Joseph Scherechewsky who was paralysed by a stroke and over the next 20 years typed out his own translation of the Bible into a Chinese language, 2000 pages with a single finger; Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, a monk who helped to bring together a divided church in the 7th century and who is still today greatly beloved by the people of northern England ; Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, black women who repeatedly risked their lives by condemning the abomination of slavery.
We also remember today the people who have made a difference in our own lives or the life of this community, but are no longer with us; people like Joan Ford, Jim Langston, Bill Broughton and Joe Letzkus; people who may never gain churchwide adulation but who led faithful, generous, and loving lives and whose absence we feel acutely. These are the faithful departed whose day of commemoration was November 2: you’ll find pictures of many of them on the ofrenda here in the center aisle.
What difference do the lives of the saints, known or unknown, make in your life and mine? I know that I’m not up to the extraordinary achievements of Elizabeth or Isaac, Cuthbert, Sojourner or Harriet. But their stories are inspiring and they are a part of what keeps the church alive from one generation to the next, just as the lives of Joan, Jim, Bill, and Joe are part of what keeps this community alive and thriving through all the change and chaos of these times. And keeping their stories alive, sharing our memories, reading the names on the columbarium plaques, giving thanks on days like today, we keep these beloved people close, secure in our belief that the Communion of Saints is all around us, just a prayer away as we work and worship, rejoice and sorrow from day to day and from year to year.
This great cloud of witnesses never leaves us, and, if we follow their example in being faithful followers of Jesus, regardless of our individual success or failure in the world, we can be confident that when our time comes we will join that great cloud and add our small part to the continuing history of God’s people.
Our individual story of faith begins officially with the sacrament of baptism, which we celebrate today [at the 10:30 service]. Four people are marking this milestone this morning in a lifelong journey of seeking and serving Christ. Along the way they will encounter saints known and unknown, who will guide their steps; perhaps some day they will even be remembered as saints in their turn.
As you come forward to receive Communion today, bring to mind someone, one of the faithful departed, who has made a difference in your life. Imagine that they are beside you at the altar rail. Give thanks for that person in your heart and make a promise to follow their example in some way. Maybe you will resolve to be kinder, or more patient, or more generous with your time, talent or treasure. Maybe you will make an intention to write more letters, or to see Christ in every person, or to live in gratitude for the ordinary blessings of your life.
If we can find the grace to follow the example of the saints, known and unknown, perhaps we will some day be numbered among the saints of God, and the future Church will be strengthened by our sojourn here.
By the way, that Episcopal Church in Lexington Virginia is no longer named for Robert E Lee: a few years ago, responding in part to the murder of nine people in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the vestry voted to change the church’s name back to its original dedication: Grace Church. In so doing they demonstrated how it is possible to redeem a dark past, how, when, in St. Paul’s phrase, the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, we can find new ways forward, by God’s grace. And so we pray in the words of today’s collect, for the grace to follow the blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living. And we renew our hope that we, like them, may come to those ineffable joys that God has prepared for all the faithful, past, present and future, who together comprise the mystical fellowship of the Communion of Saints.
Amen.
