Today is All Saints’ Sunday. Today, November 2, is also the Feast of All Faithful Departed. And this day is also one of four set aside as “especially appropriate for baptism,” which we will administer shortly.
There’s a certain mystery around these days that I find appealing. Friday was Halloween. Despite what some people or paranoid Christians think, Halloween is not a day of devil worship. It is, technically, All Hallow’s Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day. One way to think about this is to think about the Lord’s Prayer. In that prayer we say, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Halloween is the eve of the day when we celebrate those who are hallowed in the faith – the saints who have gone before, the saints who are now, and the saints who are yet to come.
On All Saints’ Day we remember the Saints of the Church, those people who did great deeds or who died heroic deaths. People like Antony and Athanasius, Elizabeth and Francis, Teresa of Avila and Thomas Cranmer, and so many others. The observance of a festival commemorating martyrs and Saints of the Church goes back in some form to probably the second half of the 3rd Century.
And then in the early 10th Century, people began to realize and recognize that there were many, many Christians who lived out their lives quietly and faithfully in service to the Lord. These are part of the myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands surrounding the throne of God singing, “Blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!” These are the people whose great work is to live faithfully. These are the ones who set the altar, clean the church, and sweep the crabapples and snow off the walk. It was for these people that the day after All Saints’ Day was added to the Church calendar in order to remember them. That day came to be known as the Feast of All Faithful Departed.
So it is that on this day we remember all the formal Saints of the Church who lived heroic lives as well as all the informal saints of the Church who lived quiet, but no less faithful, lives.
This may seem like an odd time to ask this question, but what is God’s name? Obviously we don’t know, but when Moses met God in the burning bush, Moses asked, “What shall I say to the Israelites when they ask me the name of who sent me?” And God said, “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM has sent you.”
I AM is the best we have for God’s name. I AM indicates no before, no after, only a perpetual and eternal existence from before time and for ever.
This is what John was seeing in that vision from Revelation. The myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands are all the faithful people of God – past, present, and future – gathered into one place and moment. All the saints of God are gathered around God at the crystal sea lost in wonder, love, and praise. Today that moment is here with us as we celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Faithful Departed. Today we are gathered with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, the myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, as we sing, “Holy, holy, holy Lord.”
And today, into this holy throng, into this gathering of All the Saints and Faithful Departed, into the myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, we bring Astrid.
With her baptism she is adopted into the household of God. With her baptism all the saints gather and welcome her into the beloved community. With her baptism she is sealed and marked as Christ’s own for ever with an unbreakable seal. Her baptism, though, is not the end of the story.
As with any birth or adoption, this is but the beginning of her journey. It will be up to her parents, Brooklyn and Skyyler, to raise her up in the faith, giving her a foundation on which to stand. It will be up to their church family to help ensure she grows in the faith of Christ. It will be up to her godparents, Lexi and Jaquez, to help encourage her and pray for her as she grows. And, at some point, it will be up to Astrid to continue seeking, learning, and growing as a faithful follower of Christ.
For Astrid, her journey is just beginning. For the rest of us, we have been journeying through the faith for some time. Maybe, like Astrid, we began our journey as an infant, baptized in the arms of a priest. Maybe some of us came to the faith later in life. But, as Jesus illustrated in a few parables and Saint John Chrysostom pointed out in his Easter sermon, it matters not when you arrived, it only matters that you arrived.
Every year on this Sunday we are reminded of the promises and vows we made at our baptism. These are important enough that we renew our vows at least four times a year. But this one, on this All Saints’ Sunday when we renew our baptismal vows, we are also reminded of our place in the mystical Body of Christ. For those who have arrived, either early or late, we are reminded of our place with the myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands of saints with whom we are joined in the eternal presence of the great I AM. We are reminded of that as we baptize Astrid and as she joins us in the household of God, confessing the faith of Christ crucified.
On this All Saints’ Sunday, let us remember that we are joined with saints above and saints below in one great fellowship. Let us remember that we are part of the myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands who gather together to sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
And let us welcome Astrid into that holy assembly as we join with her family in helping her take those first steps of faith.
Amen.
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