A Responsive Call to Worship for All Saints Day

All Saints Sunday is a very special day in our church year. It is a day of remembrance here at the beginning of November and closer to the end of the year. On this day, the church remembers, and we remember.
Pastor: We remember, O God: The countless saints of history who have blazed a trail of courage through time.
All: We remember, O God…
Pastor: The tender touch of loved ones, the example of heroes, the healing words of comforters, the remarkable acts of fearless ones.
All: We remember, O God…
Pastor: The gentle strength of grandmothers, the loyalty of friends, the kindness of strangers, the joy of children, the sacrifice of parents.
All: We remember, O God…
Pastor: The supreme love of Jesus, the blessing of his Spirit, the reminder of his words, the sharing of his suffering, the glory of his resurrection: shown forth in the lives of his disciples, young and old, dead and living, articulate and silent, strange and familiar, brilliant and ordinary.
All: We remember in every time and place

let us worship God with joy! AMEN.

 

Our blessed Saints.

All Saints is a very special day in our church year. It is a day of remembrance, a day of longing & grieving but also of loving, believing and hoping. Today is a day of remembrance. A day of bittersweet memories of grief and sorrow, of a hard time of suffering, illness and hospitals, of the last breath of a person who meant the world to us - and still do. Today is a day of sweet memories of time that has passed, or voices silent yet still lingering in phrases, in moments and in remembering hearts.

It is a day of looking back. It is a day of the past. And yet in a profound way it is a day of hope and faith to – look beyond this life, beyond the losses of our lives, beyond the grief and separation, beyond that door between this life and that life to be and to come. To look beyond our tears, mourning and crying – and looking to that time and that place where God will swallow up death forever and wipe away the tears from our eyes. Someday, somewhere, somehow.

This last Monday, my family and several others from the church and from the vast Danish Community attended a concert at The Wiltern in LA with the wonderful talented Danish singer Lukas Graham. Lukas is a great storyteller. His stories are carried by his amazing voice and his great music. Many of his songs are about his beloved father and the loss of him. His songs have been therapeutic to him in his time of mourning, and they also give him a strong sense that his dad is indeed still here even if he is not there.

The lyrics of his song “Not there>”

 I only got you in my stories
And you know I tell them right
And remember you and I, when I'm awake at night
So give it up for fallen glory
I never got to say goodbye
I wish I could ask for just a bit more time

Every step I take
you used to lead the way
Now I'm terrified to face it on my own

You're not there
To celebrate the man that you made
You're not there
To share in my success and mistakes
Is it fair?
You'll never know the person I'll be
You're not there
With me...

Though I know that you're not there
I still write you all these songs
It's like, you got the right to know what's going on
As I struggle to remember how you used to look and sound
At times I still think I can spot you in the crowd
You'll never know the person I'll be
You're not there
With me...

So even if his producer jokingly and with yet a bit concerned look, told Lukas Graham at the beginning of his career: “All of your songs are about a dead man. Great!” and even if the loss of his dad did and still do mark his songs, there is a wonderful living love in these songs. Even if he is not there…. He is still here in his heart, in his memories, in his songs, in his performances and in his every step that he is taking on his own now.

Our beloved, blessed, missed, departed Saints are with us every breath we take and every step we make. Because love is stronger than separation and death. Love is the power that builds a bridge from this land to the unknown land of eternity.

A beautiful poem called “They are not dead” expresses how they are not there and yet here.

They Are Not Dead

They are not dead,
Who leave us this great heritage of remembered joy.

They still live in our hearts,
In the happiness we knew, in the dreams we shared.

They still breathe,
In the lingering fragrance windblown, from their favorite flowers.

They still smile in the moonlight's silver
And laugh in the sunlight's sparkling gold. 

They still speak in the echoes of words
We've heard them say again and again.

They still move,
In the rhythm of waving grasses, in the dance of the tossing branches.

They are not dead;
Their memory is warm in our hearts, comfort in our sorrow.

They are not apart from us,
But a part of us
For love is eternal, and those we love shall be with us throughout all eternity.

Love is eternal, so even if our beloved blessed loved ones are not there, they are here with us. They are not apart from us, but a part us of.

A part of who we are, how we are; a part of why we linger a certain fragrance windblown and a part of why we laugh or smile of certain sayings, or words.

“Who will remember them when I am gone? “a kind old man once asked me as I met him at his Sunday Walk at the cemetery at my old village church in Denmark.” Who will remember them when I am gone and no longer will visit their graves, place flowers and speak a few words…”? And then looking up at me with his weary old yet piercing blue eyes asked: “Who will remember me?”

These old beautiful graveyards of Denmark truly are and were places of remembrance. Names on the headstone tell stories of lives and loves, of trials and triumphs, of birth and death.

On this day, on All Saints Sunday, we affirm that every life bears the image of God and the blessing of Christ. On this day, we believe that every live is worth remembering and as we remember in time, we hope that God remembers in eternity.

Even if the church remembers and revers all their historical saints, the brave men and women who gave their lives for their faith – we truly affirm today and believe that this is a day of All Saints, all humans – and that all will be remembered. There might not be very much excitement in talking about the early saints of the church… all of these with ST. in front of their names. Even though many of the hymns for today refer to the saints of god, who shone in glory, - most of us prefer saints closer to home. Our communion of saints is a far more familiar crowd of those who died in our congregation in the past year, our own parents or grandparents, our uncles and aunts, our friends and our neighbors.

As Lutherans we are reminded today: that we too are saints. Wonderful, ordinary, bruised, broken, unlikely blessed saints – living saints.

Thus, All Saints Sunday is also filed with memories of the history of ours, of all the wonderful brave men and women who shared their lives with us, and whom we call our saints.

As Lutherans we need to remember today that Sainthood is given to us all through baptism. The priesthood of all believers. So, saints are people like you and me. Ordinary people.

Certainly, Sainthood is evident in grand gestures and achievements. But sainthood is also present in everyday, ordinary people and actions. There are saints here in the pews today. There are saints who make sure that the bulletins are folded. There are saints who greet worshippers. There are saints who sing and play with us. There are saints who recycle, cleans and cares: saints who send flowers to grieving families; saints who prepare and serve lunch and saints who give warm hugs and smiles every Sunday.

Saints who live extraordinary ordinary lives and are blessed even when they are poor, are hungry or weep. Saints who live extraordinary ordinary lives when they turn the other cheek, embrace and respect their enemies, show charity and has made the Golden rule their life rule: do to other as you would have them do to you.

That is Saintly living.

Martin Luther tells us these saints are the church: ordinary people who are called by Jesus to live out their calling today. Living Saints, and we are connected in eternity to past, present and future saints. We do stand or sit in a long line of faithful good people – a long row of saints.

We all have our saints, that we remember today.

We all have our tears to be wiped away.

But remember today:

They are not dead, who leave us this great heritage of remembered joy.

They still live in our hearts, in the happiness we knew, in the dreams we shared.

They are not dead; Their memory is warm in our hearts, comfort in our sorrow.

They are not apart from us, but a part of us
For love is eternal, and those we love shall be with us throughout all eternity.

Amen.