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All Saints Sunday , 11/03/2019
Sermon on Lukas :, by Brad Everett
“I believe in the communion of saints”, we confess together regularly when we reach the Apostles’ Creed in the liturgy.
But what does that mean, ‘the communion of saints’, especially as we celebrate the feast of All Saints?
Well, at the risk of stating what might seem to be obvious, when considering the communion of the saints, as with anything in the Christian faith we must begin with Christ.
It is because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can confess and take comfort in the communion of saints—which, at the risk of oversimplifying means, that because of Jesus, death cannot sever the relationship of those who are in Christ. Allow me to repeat that, the communion of saints means that death does not and cannot sever the relationship of those who are in Christ.
Through baptism we have been made members of the body of Christ, which is the church. And while we sometimes speak of the church in terms of the church militant (those of us still fighting against sin, death and the devil on this side of glory) and the church triumphant (those who have passed through death to be with Christ), we are still talking about One church, not two. Those who died in the faith are still as much members of the Church, body of Christ, as the baptized believer sitting next to you is a member of the Church.
It is because of Jesus that there is One church. It is because of Jesus that death does not and cannot sever the relationship between believers. Have aspects of the relationship changed? Of course, but it has not been ended, suspended or somehow put on hold.
The relationship has been sustained because our Lord and Saviour created us, knows who we are, how we best function and what we need. He created us for community with Himself, and with each other. He knows that our relationships with each other, are a vital aspect of our relationship with him. And that for those whose faith is in him, death is not the final word.
What does this mean?—it means that those who have passed on are not cut off from us, but are with us, because they are alive in Christ. And not “alive” in some sentimental greeting card sense of ‘they are never gone if we hold their memory in our hearts’. No, their life in Christ is not a pious sentiment but is an objective reality. Is the person next to you alive because you have taken notice of them or are they alive regardless of your attention? Well those who have died in Christ are every bit as alive—albeit awaiting the glory of the resurrection—but they are alive, as their Lord and Saviour lives.
The Confessions tell us that the saints (the faithful departed) pray for us i.e. they remember us before the throne of God. We do likewise, particularly on festivals like today when we take time to remember and give thanks to God for the faithful who have gone before us, expressing our gratitude not only for their godly examples, but for the relationship we have enjoyed and continue to enjoy with them in Christ.
It is at the altar that this is most completely expressed and enjoyed.
In his book The Presence, Pr. Berthold von Schenk calls the attention of Lutheran pastors and laity to the special blessing the sacrament of Holy Communion offers the faithful – because it is there that we are closest to our Lord and Saviour as Jesus gives himself to us in the bread and the wine.
As von Schenk comments, he feels sadness for those who take flowers to cemeteries, weeping over gravesites and know nothing else. He says he longs to take them by the hand and lead them to the church, up to the altar because it is there, and not the cemetery where fellowship with their loved ones is enjoyed.
Von Schenk writes:
When we, then, view death in the light of the Communion of Saints and Holy Communion, there is no helpless bereavement. My loved one has just left me and has gone on a long journey. But I am in touch with her. I know that there is a place where we can meet. It is at the Altar. How it thrills me when I hear the words of the Liturgy. “Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven,” for I know that she is there with that company of Heaven, the Communion of Saints, with the Lord. The nearer I come to my Lord in Holy Communion, the nearer I come to the saints, to my own loved ones. I am a member of the Body of Christ, I am a living cell in that spiritual organism, partaking of the life of the other cells, and sharing in the Body of Christ Himself.
There is nothing fanciful or unreal about this. Indeed, it is the most real thing in my life. Of course, I miss my loved one. I should miss her if she took a long holiday trip. But now, since she is what some people call dead, she is closer to me than ever. Of course I miss her physical presence bitterly. I miss her voice and the sound of approaching footsteps. But I have not lost her. And when my sense of loss becomes too great, I can always go to our meeting place at the Altar where I receive the Body and Blood of my Lord that preserves my body and soul just as it has preserved her unto everlasting life. Do learn to love the Altar as the meeting place with your beloved who have passed within the veil. Here again the Sacrament is the heart of our religion. The Blessed Sacrament links us not merely to Bethlehem and Calvary, but to the whole world beyond the grave as well, for at the Altar the infinite is shrined in the finite; Heaven stoops down to earth and the seen and the unseen meet.
At this point there is a strain of Lutheran piety that becomes uneasy about this sort of talk concerning saints, and such. But note, that the focus through all of this is Jesus Christ. There is no relationship with our departed loved ones apart from Him, because it only in Him that we have fellowship one with another. And this fellowship with each other is not incidental to our life of faith, because we were created to be in relationship not just with our Creator, but with others within creation.
The relationships we enjoy are not an “add-on” to our life in Christ, they are vital to it. Otherwise, God would have never declared in the garden of Eden that it wasn’t good for man to be alone. Nor would we read throughout the witness of the Scripture of the importance of the various relationship we enjoy, be it, between husband and wife, parents and children, the extended family, and of course friendships, especially those who call themselves brothers and sisters in Christ.
Today we are reminded of the blessed truth that death cannot severe God’s gift of family and friendship for the faithful who are in Christ.
Today, as we remember and give thanks for all the saints, in particular those we have personally known and loved as our companions in our pilgrimage on earth, let us come to the altar this morning, with thankful and repentant hearts ready to join with them in gratefully singing the praises of our Lord who comes to us in his Holy Supper.