All Saints Sunday, 2021

All Saints Sunday, 2021 | Evan McClanahan |

If you have ever been lost at an amusement park, then you know the value of those maps that say, “You are here”. You know the ones: they let you know not just the layout of the park in general, but where you are in relation to everything else. After all, if you don’t know where you are – though that massive, wooden roller coaster should be a clue – then a basic map of the park won’t help you very much.

Such a map would be nice for time, as well. I mean, all of time. You know, at one end you have the creation and at the other you have the second coming of Christ. In between you have Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Jesus, the Middle Ages, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the human race evolving into cyborgs and the inevitable war with self-aware machines. If somewhere along the way we could see that timeline, and there was a massive “You are here” sign…yeah, that’d be great.

But how far out is the Second Coming? Do we just have to hang on for another few decades? Or do we need to be planning to keep Christianity alive for many more millennia? Or heck, is it possible I will have descendants still able to be called human beings 100,000 years from now, still partaking of the Lord’s Supper, gathering in buildings like this, awaiting his return?

What if we are, effectively, the “Early Church?” That’s kind of a crazy thought experiment, no? Do we not all assume we are living at, or really close to, the end of the line? Paul did. He expected the second coming of Christ at any moment. The Thessalonians did, which is why Paul wrote to them not to be too freaked out when the died before Jesus’ second coming. There is plenty of evidence that those in the Middle Ages – including Martin Luther – believed the end was nigh. And certainly, there has been no shortage of quacks and cults in our own time that have predicted the second coming of Jesus, including the Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Late, Great Planet Earth, and many more.

But even though the view that Jesus’ return is immanent – which, by the way, is always how we should view his return and that is why we have the season of Advent – we have no idea when that return may be. Believing it is kind of close but not immediate is probably how we keep ourselves sane. If the return of Jesus is too far away, our imaginations run wild with science fiction visions of a very gnarly future. But if it is too near, then we will not see our children graduate from high school. So, I think for psychological reasons, we tend to think of ourselves toward the end of the time line, but always a safe enough distance away to get our affairs in order.

Well, I use this imagery because it is All Saints Sunday, the day we remember those Saints who were brought into the Church Militant this year and who have entered the Church Triumphant this year. And in the midst of a world that is changing at a ferocious pace, this may seem quaint or unnecessary. But it isn’t. Because we have no idea where we are on the timeline. And so our call as Christians, as parents, as grandparents, as community members, is to teach the faith once delivered to all the Saints (Jude) generation after generation. Because we have no clue when Jesus will come again, we press on, baptizing and making disciples, so that if 1,000 years from now this church is still standing, we will have played a small role in its survival.

You see, as Christians, this is the kind of work to which we have been called: to be generationally-minded cogs in the apparatus of God gathering His people into His Kingdom. But that generally is a terrible way to sell anything these days. Now, it is all about you, now, doing amazing things, impressing the world with your social media posts and being anything but average. To be “on trend” or “trending” is the most important thing of all.

Except that it is not. Day in, day out, week in, week out, year in year out, we baptize and make disciples in preparation for the judgement of God. We don’t know when it will be so we are in it for the long haul. Trends don’t matter. Being liked, even, doesn’t matter. A quick buck isn’t what we are interested in. No, we slowly, patiently, and diligently, carry on with the tasks we have been given, which necessarily should mean we have different priorities and a different way of life from those around us.

For example, we do not overindulge. Jesus tells the story of a rich man who had so much wheat coming in, he builds bigger barns to hold it all. Then he declared that he would eat, drink, and be merry. God calls that man a fool, for he indulged in the moment and did not share his wealth with those in need. Hey, if we are in this for the long haul, we need to plan not just for tomorrow, but for 100 years from now, maybe 1,000 years from now.

And that brings me to a second way we should look different: we plan for the future. This congregation celebrates its 170^th anniversary this year and in a few years, this building will celebrate its 100^th birthday. What are our plans for the next 170 years? Who will be using this building then and in what condition will they find it? Are we willing to do the work of preparation for the next generations to follow us, honoring those who have come before us in the process? Or will we only focus on today?

Third, we must make it clear that Christianity is not and has never been just a cultural attachment to your already busy life. It dictates everything about your life: how you spend your money, who you date and marry, how you spend your time, what you believe about moral issues, and though I acknowledge there is debate that takes place on this issue, ultimately how you vote. That is, however you vote, you should be able to defend that vote on your Christian principles.

At a minimum, these three – overindulgence, planning for the future, and making our faith the centerpiece of our thought lives – are how we live as Saints so that we can fulfill our role in this time and place. To those who have died in the past year, their race has come to an end. For those baptized this year, congratulations! You are on Team Jesus and your generational work has just begun.

Just don’t think that because our way of life, our life’s work, is so very different and perhaps less dramatic and self-centered than the life the corporations want you to be involved with, it’s wrong. It isn’t. Consider the raising of Lazarus. In raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus demonstrates his power of life over death. This is a story that tells you just who Jesus is, that he is, standing before them and before all who hear this story, the man between the world we can see and the world we cannot. When Lazarus came out of that tomb, that is God saying with an unmistakable voice, “Follow Jesus; He is the life, the healing, the resurrection, the power, and the glory that you seek.”

So keep going. Keep following Jesus. Keep doing the work that the saints have been given to do, day in and day out and year in and year out. Do not tire of it or think it worthless. Do not believe the lie that it doesn’t matter. Year after year, the saints of God do the work of the Church that, who knows, may be the seedbed for the next 10,000 years. Since we don’t know, we persevere, and never lose faith in so doing.

Let the unbelievers, the God-haters, the blasphemers, the materialists, and the narcissists tire of their work of rebelling. The Saints will fight on, following and worshiping the man who stood on the precipice of this world and the next. For if that man, God in the flesh, is not worth our perseverance, no one is. But if we carry on, it won’t just be another 170 years, but all of eternity, that the Church will rejoice in the presence of the risen Christ. Amen.

First Lutheran, Houston

Pastor Evan McClanahan