BLOG. 10/29/14. EXCURSUS: REMEMBERING ‘ALL SAINTS DAY’

I hope the regular readers of these Blogs will indulge me an excursus from my regular thoughts (on: the church as ‘colonies of God’s New Humanity in Christ’) and allow me to offer some thoughts on the significant celebration that gets almost totally overlooked, what with all the ‘foofaraw’ over Halloween, … namely, All Saints Day (11/1/14).

Maybe it all began during my six years as pastor of the Canal Street Presbyterian Church in the colorful city of New Orleans, where All Saints Day is a public holiday, and folk go to clean up the multitude of above-the-ground burial sites, and visit the graves of relatives, take picnics along, greet friends, and essentially hang out in those very visible places. New Orleans is a city quite significantly formed by its strong Roman Catholic heritage (along with Voodoo, fabulous food, jazz, etc.). Our Presbyterian church house was just a few blocks from some of the major cemeteries so it was hard to miss seeing that annual observance. Then, later, my secretary for a decade was a devout Roman Catholic lady and would frequently bring me the missalettes from her church, which they used for daily mass. Being a ‘card-carrying’ reformed Protestant, I had never been exposed to all of the saints observed in the liturgies of the Roman Church, and began Googling them, and found all kinds of amazing Christian folk that the Roman Church had beatified into sainthood. Later I even bought a volume about all the numerous saints and read of their careers. Pretty awesome.

But then I realize that the vast majority of the faithful saints of the church over these two millennia have lived faithfully out of sight, and unrecognized except for those close to them in their day, and in obscure places. If I read New Testament scriptures correctly, all of God’s people are properly designated saints, i.e., those called by Jesus Christ to be part of his holy nation, so that Paul will address the Christian folk in Rome as: saints (Romans 1:7).

Unrecognized, hardly remembered, yet faithful in out-of-the-way places in the ordinary stuff of each day. I remember Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written In a Country Church Yard (1751), in which he was looking at an old cemetery in the church yard, and wrote: “Some mute, inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood.” Yes, God’s new creation people have lived so often in obscurity, and under wretched conditions, and yet faithful to be salt and light as God gave them grace.

In my own life it has not been even primarily ‘clergy’ but, rather, modest, self-effacing, faithful followers of Jesus who have prayed for me, encouraged me, formed my life of discipleship, and without whom I’m not sure where I’d be or what I would be: my own father and mother toughing it out in the Great Depression in faith, modeling for me so much. Then there were those who were significant in the armed services, artisans, and mechanics, and salespersons, and physicians, … and especially my own wife, who not only was the most significant Christian influence, but who left behind a long legacy of those (primarily) young women for whom she was a “mother in Israel.”

So on this coming Saturday, which is All Saints Day, my practice will be to list in my prayer journal all of those saints, whom I can recall, who have been a blessing to me over these many years, and then pray that I may join their ranks and be such a blessing to those whose lives I touch. And I will sing: “For all the saints, who from their labors rest, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.” It is always a huge annual reminder to me of God’s faithfulness.