All Saints Sunday - November 2, 2025

St. Pauls - All Saints Sunday — November 2, 2025

TODAY the church celebrates All Saints Day. I wonder what your definition of a saint is…..Let’s see….

1. so admirable that if you died you’d want them to take care of your puppy

2.  but with whom you wouldn’t want to go to an R rated movie.

c. Every Christian, including you, and many other persons whom you wouldn’t want to hang out with.

d. And you certainly wouldn’t want to be one! I saw a T-shit a little kid was wearing once that said: I tried being good, but I got bored.

Many people including the Roman Catholic church think saints are people like Mother Teresa who are so selfless that we feel downright wicked by comparison.

If you ask the average Christian what makes someone a saint, they will probably tell you that we remember and honor holy and extraordinary people who have gone before us — most likely leaving behind them a trail of miracles and amazing acts of self-sacrifice, suffering, heroism and the like.

In the NT, the word saint never refers to a class of super-duper Christians, rather it refers to all Christians. For instance, the letter to the Ephesians is addressed to the saints in Ephesus. Saints are not saintly because of what they do but because of what Christ has done for them.Christian saints are identified not by their own wisdom, good works, holiness, and wholeness but by the fact that they belong to Jesus. And that means, of course, that you are qualified to be a saint, too. As is your worst nightmare of a neighbor. Groucho Marx may have said, I don’t want to be a member of any club that will accept me as a member, but Jesus said in effect, Only sinners need apply—and I will make you Saints. 

But these are narrow definition of sainthood which undermines and excludes what I believe was the original intention of All Saints. The early church, having survived over 300 years of persecution, wanted to remember and celebrate those Christians who had remained faithful in spite of the fear, the hostility and the very real danger of their witness to Christ. So they allocated a special day to honor all those who had endured and persevered during those violent times. My hunch is that the vast majority of these believers were ordinary folks who were probably scared out of their wits, but hung in there because of their faith.

In that sense, being a saint has nothing to do with being special or holy or different. It was, and is, about being faithful — no matter what.

Of course, in those early times, many Christians suffered horrendous deaths and were burnt, crucified, eaten by lions, died in dungeons, etc. Others attained feats of endurance or performed miraculous deeds. But the average Christian Joe or Jane (saint) probably hunkered down and prayed to get through the traumas of the time without losing faith. This is, in itself, heroic.

But, over the centuries, this understanding of saints as regular Christians staying faithful under duress was edged out in favor of the miraculous and the dramatic — the martyrs and miracle workers! It is no wonder that Christians today struggle to really believe they can ever be a light to the world!

Our generation is desperately in need of a renewed and authentic understanding of All Saints. Whilst physical persecution of Christians still exists in some parts of the world, there is another kind of challenge that calls for a courageous response from believers. The human race is facing a darkness that is pervasive and frightening. On all levels, our faith in God’s presence and grace is being challenged — endless wars, climate change, rampant diseases, corporate power, increasing poverty, and natural disaster. These, and a host of other scary realities, threaten to overwhelm us and quench the little bit of light, leaven and salt that we have been desperately holding on to from trauma to trauma. We are, it seems to me, in the midst of a global dark night.

 Many, understandably, are withdrawing into helplessness, apathy, and defeat. But this is precisely the time for the saints — the real ones. This is the time when our understanding of this celebration must sink into a wiser and deeper space such as we read of in the Scripture about the tree that puts its roots deep into the earth seeking moisture. When the storms and violent winds come, such a tree, rooted so deeply, does not break. It is so filled with sap that it bends and moves with the winds — but is not broken. Jamaica

Being a saint is all about being rooted in Christ and staying firm and faithful in the midst of all the violence.

Being a saint in our times means being counter-cultural — seeing beyond and beneath the externals — knowing that, in spite of the fearful realities around us, the light of Christ is always present in the heart of our chaos. As the social activist William Coffin wrote: Hopelessness adapts. Hope resists.

We resist, and we stand over and against injustice, poverty, violence and diminishment of any kind like a tree rooted firmly in the earth, rooted in Christ — we hold on to the Gospel values. We dare to proclaim, in the face of fear and evil, that there is light down there in that darkness — that God is with us and will never leave us. Such a proclamation of faith in these times of darkness makes us, indeed, worthy to be called Saints.

Let us celebrate this Feast with deep gratitude.

Faith

When all around is deadened grey,Help me, God,Keep on believing.

When dulled my soul,Though the song birds sing,Help me, God,Keep on believing.

When even I Dare doubt your grace,Help me, God, Keep on believing.

When dreams collapseAnd bright hopes die,Help me, God,Keep on believing.

Let us celebrate this Feast with deep gratitude.

May All the Communion of Saints and Souls inspire us to be those people who sustain the virtue of Hope in a world that often presents scant evidence that such Hope is justified. May we dare to hope beyond the constraints of mortality that day by day we might take one step at a time into the Reign of God Jesus calls us to follow. Amen.