Amanda McMillen, All Saints Sunday 2023

Good morning and happy All Saints Day Sunday! On this first Sunday in
November, we celebrate All Saints’ Day, which is on November 1st each year. It’s a
holiday where we remember the Saints, the martyrs of the church who were persecuted
or killed for their faith, as well as the earliest Christians we read about in Scripture. All
Souls’ Day is traditionally celebrated the next day, on November 2nd, the day that we
remember all those who have died, not just the first Christians and martyrs throughout
time, but also those ordinary people that we have spent our lives living with and loving,
who have died before us. Our parents, our grandparents, our siblings, our friends, our
teachers, our neighbors, our children. These two days, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’
Day often get combined into one celebration, because whether we are talking about
saints of the church, the early faithful who developed the language of theology of the
Christian faith, such as Saint Paul, Saint Theresa of Avila, or Martin Luther, or we’re
talking about Grandpa Johnny, Aunt Jane, and mom and dad, either way, we are talking
about regular people just like us, sinners that God loves dearly.
In our reading from Revelation this morning, the writer of the book, named John,
has a vision of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
robed in white, with palm branches in their hands” who praised God in gratitude of
God’s salvation. This great multitude, who are robed in white, are those “who have
come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.” Who are these multitudes, from every nation, every language and
peoples? They are those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.
This multitude is made up of people from every nation, from all tribes and all
peoples - who are the tribes and peoples who you would never imagine being together
in peace and worship of God? I know you’re thinking of some today. Those are the ones
who are there. And who are the individuals in your life or from your past who have died,
who were difficult to love? I want you to imagine them there before the throne of God.
They are there because their robes have been washed in the blood of the lamb. They
are not there because of their great accomplishments in life. They are not there
because they were “good people”, because they had a rich religious life of going to
church, they are not there because they always thought before they spoke, or because
they led with patience and kindness in every interaction. They are not there because
they made all the right choices. They are there, worshipping the Lamb, simply because
they were washed in the blood of the Lamb. They are there because of God’s grace,
and God’s grace only.
On this day, we remember the saints. All saints, in fact. And this room right now
is full of the saints. Perhaps you are sitting next to someone and giving them a little side
eye and thinking - surely not all of us. Let me tell you, even that person is a saint. Why?
Not because they don’t drive you crazy sometimes. Not because they always think
before they speak. Not because they lead with kindness and patience in every
interaction. Not because they load the dishwasher correctly and always remember
important dates and never hurt you with their words and are perfectly selfless at all

2
times. The only reason that the people in your life are saints is for the same reason that
you are one - we have all been washed in the blood of the lamb.
On this all saints day, we dwell on all the saints - yes even those ones we think
are the least saint-like. Catholic priest and writer Thomas Merton in his book, No Man is
an Island, wrote this: “The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly
themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do
not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love
them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” Loving the saints in our
lives actually means expecting less from them. Expecting them to be human, that is to
say, sinners.
Because the one prerequisite to being a saint is, ironically, being a sinner. A
sinner who has been forgiven by Jesus and washed in his blood. Another poignant
Merton quote; he writes, “To be a saint means to be myself.” To be a saint isn’t to strive
for some kind of human perfection, or to otherwise be anything other than who I actually
am, but rather to be a saint means to be familiar with my true self, my imperfections, my
sin - familiar enough to recognize that I need help from God. To be a saint means to be
myself, which is a sinner, and to leave the rest up to God.
So what I am saying is that you are a saint, simply because you are a sinner
loved by God, and the people in your life, those you love and those you tolerate, are
also saints, because they are also sinners loved by God. But the celebration of All
Saints Day is really about those who have gone before us - the saints in our family
trees, the saints that we have loved and lost.
Each week in church, as we go through the communion liturgy, we sing what’s
called the Sanctus, the lines “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven
and Earth are full of thy glory, Hosanna in the highest; blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.” We sing together the praises of God as one
group of voices, just like the multitude sing in this passage in Revelation. But right
before we say those words the priest opens with this: “And now, with angels and
archangels, and with all the company of heaven, who forever sing this hymn to proclaim
the glory of thy name.” “With angels and archangels and with all the company of
heaven.”
We are praising God together with all the company of heaven each week, with all
those who have gone before us - how is this possible? How is it possible that we can
sing God’s praises along with those who have died, who are no longer physically with
us? The only way that it is possible is because those who have died are actually alive
and well in Jesus, because in God, eternity is present tense. The time is always now in
God. You see, All Saints’ Day is a day when we remember those who have died, and
we mourn them. But it’s also a time when we recognize the reality of the resurrection -
that those who have died are with Jesus, which means that they are in fact alive. All
Saints’ Day is a kind of time-bending celebration. Right now, we miss our loved ones.
And yet also right now, we are with them through Jesus Christ.
We are united to Christ by faith, and by extension, we are also united to one
another, like one big web of saints. One big web of humanness, of sinners who are in
need of God’s forgiveness, of saints who are free to be ourselves, knowing that we are
all washed in the blood of the lamb. And because of that Lamb, who sacrificed his own
life on behalf of all of ours, death has been defeated. Death is not the end. One day,

3
hunger will be no more, thirst will be no more, and God will wipe away every tear from
your eyes. And together, with those who have gone before us, who have been washed
in the blood of the Lamb (and I want you to picture who it is that you might be standing
next to in that day), we will stand before the throne, reconciled saints together, and sing:
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! Blessing
and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God
for ever and ever! Amen.”