Its getting more and more personal. . .

All Saints' Day has always been somewhat emotional.  Even when the names read off and the bell tolled for strangers it is a poignant moment.  Now that I have been at this place more than 31 years, it is even more touching.  The names read off each year are not the names of strangers but friends and family within the Body of Christ.  I knew them, laughed with them, cried with them, and buried them.  I look at their families still in the pews and remember where they all sat week after week.  With each passing year, I know now more profoundly the meaning of the Psalmist's words, Precious in the Lord's sight is the death of His saints...  It is also made even more significant now that I am the oldest generation of my family and have laid to rest grandparents, parents, in-laws, aunts, and uncles.  The Lord is telling us that we are not just names to Him nor were those whom we loved and with whom we shared the faith.  God knows us all better than we know ourselves and He is moved by the sorrow of death so much that He sent His only-begotten Son to restore us to Him and to the life death cannot overcome.

I fear we spend too little time remembering the saints, giving thanks to God for His mercies toward them, encouraged by the witness of their faith in suffering, and urged on to finish the race so that we may be with them in eternity.  Thanks be to God that He was not content to merely remember their lives and celebrate this memory.  Thanks be to God that He was not content to make His peace with death but took on our enemy as His so that we might be free.  Death is a solemn moment even for the Christian who knows that death is not the end.  It is the gate or door through which we pass with Christ to our own joyful resurrection but death always leaves sorrow, pain, and emptiness in its wake.  For this reason St. Paul urges us not to grieve like those ignorant of the hope within us but recognizes that we still grieve.  Indeed, unresolved grief is one of the most enduring and torturous disorders we suffer in this mortal life.

All Saints' Day is with us once a year but it is glimpsed in every Divine Service.  When we get to the Sanctus, we do not stand there alone to sing.  We are bidden by the Proper Preface every week to join with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.  Hidden in that moment is the promise of what will come when on that day the Father has appointed Christ will come not as baby to a manger but as he victorious Lord to judge the earth and to receive unto Himself all who have died.  He will reach into the dust of the earth, raise up the dead in Christ to new and glorious flesh and with the judgment well done, good and faithful servant He will receive us into everlasting life.  Easter is surely the celebration of this promise but no less All Saints' Day.

There comes the day when you realize that there are more days behind you than before you.  No day in this mortal life is certain but as age brings you closer to the end that waits for all people, the moment we have to remember, give thanks, be encouraged, and be consoled by those who have departed this life in faith is a precious one.  Happy All Saints!