Sermon for All Saints Sunday
The Saints In Our Lives
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
On this All Saints Sunday, when we are remembering all the saints in our lives, we will close our service singing the wonderful hymn, one we sing every All Saints Sunday, “For All the Saints” –
For all the saints who from their labors rest, who you by faith before the world confessed, your name, O Jesus, be forever blest, Alleluia! Alleluia!
I love this hymn. But I must confess to you that it gets harder and harder each year for me to sing it. After more than 45 years as a Lutheran pastor I just do not want to bury any more of my friends.
Now I know, funerals, well, we pastors, we just cannot avoid funerals. Nor would we want to. Funerals give us a chance publicly to talk about what is REALLY important in our lives – family and friends and faith. And God’s continued love for us all.
That said, for me, funerals do get harder and harder each year.
And this year is no exception.
Today we are remembering our friend and fellow Mt. Olive member, John-David Webster. John-David died without living family members and I sure wish his LA Police friends had been more helpful near the end of JD’s life. Mt. Olive was his family. Gary Halvorson, who knew JD only through Mt. Olive, Gary took on being his Power of Attorney. And then, when JD was homeless and nearly out on the streets, the Solheim Lutheran Home took JD in and gave him a wonderful last year + of life.
Mt. Olive loved JD and JD loved Mt. Olive back. He served on our Congregation Council, chaired one of our intern’s supervisory committees, attended Bible study, helped with worship and ushering and security and sang with our 9am and 11am singers when we had them and much more. Mt. Olive was JD’s home, and his ashes are now scattered on our property. JD is home now with God and home here at Mt. Olive.
One of my favorite JD memories is his fondness for riding the bus. He had to take 3 different buses to get from his home in Inglewood to Mt. Olive and he made each bus ride an outreach opportunity. Proudly wearing his ELCA pin, JD would talk with strangers on the bus about Mt. Olive, how wonderful Mt. Olive is and how they should join us for worship. I know John Lobitz, Gary and others often helped him get to church and get home after worship also. JD just loved to talk about Mt. Olive, his faith and Jesus to anyone and everyone. And I haven’t even mentioned his wonderful musical talents.
As I said, it gets harder and harder each year.
Today we are also remembering four other Mt. Olive saints who have died in 2020 and thus far in 2021 – Lois “Loyce” Snyder Jahsmann, Miriam Graham Rogers, Lenore Rebeschini, and Gail Willhardt. I knew and cared about each of them – Loyce the loveable character, Miriam the Mary & Martha, Lenore the long-distance runner and Gail the artist. I wish I had time to tell you more about each of these wonderful women.
Today we also remember those nearly too many to count who have died of COVID-19 since the start of this pandemic – nearly 750,000 in the USA and nearly 5 million around the world. If hearing those numbers does not make you nearly weep, well ….
And they are all saints in the eyes of God, all loved by God. And we are here only because of all the saints who have gone before us.
We Lutherans honor at least three groups of saints:
- Saints who are famous Christians from the past whose lives we can emulate. In this group are saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, like St. Francis and Mother Teresa, and others like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Others are our more personal saints, those who have influenced our lives and the lives of others, and now rest with Jesus – our parents, dear friends and many others. People like JD, Loyce, Miriam, Lenore, and Gail.
- And, for us Lutherans, there is a third group of saints: those who live and work and worship around us, with all of our good and bad points, strengths and weaknesses. Saints with names like Magda and Charlie and Wally, Darci and June. We, too, you and I, are saints of God for others and for one another.
What about your life? Who are the saints, living and dead, who have influenced you, especially in your life of faith? They may be famous people you admire or a parent, grandparent, other relative, friend, pastor, Sunday Church School teacher or youth advisor.
Take a few moments to think again of the saints in your life. Not just those who are no longer with us. Think of ALL of the saints in your life – those living and those no longer here in this earth. Think of them. Say a quick prayer of thanksgiving for their influence on your life.
I hope you will not mind hearing again a story I have previously shared with you.
Some years ago, I had a privilege of accompanying then ELCA Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson on an ecumenical journey, Presiding Bishop Anderson’s first visit with the Roman Catholic Pope in Rome, the Orthodox Patriarch in Istanbul, and the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury in London. As you can imagine, it was an amazing trip.
While we were in Rome our delegation visited the Catecombe San Calisto outside of the city. There 300,000 people, including early Christians and Christian martyrs from the first to the fourth century, had been buried in now-empty crypts carved out of volcanic rock on four underground levels, each level with rows and rows of tombs stretching high up the wall. Nearly half the tombs were for children.
Surprisingly, it was not a place that was cold or dark or closed-in, but light, even airy, cool, and open. We saw the first use of well-known Christian symbols – the fish, the Chi-Rho, the anchor, the dove. We gathered in one tomb and prayed and sang “The Church’s One Foundation.”
As we prayed and sang, I was struck again with the thought that we, you and I, that we exist today only because of our forebears in the faith, those who have gone before us, known and unknown, who now rest with Jesus Christ. It is said that the Christian faith is always just one generation away from extinction, that, unless we tell others about Jesus, our faith will die. Those who came before us and told us of Jesus, they are the saints in and for our lives. They are the saints in our lives along with all those, living and dead, known and unknown who came before us in the faith. They are those we honor today on this All Saints Sunday.
Today, on this All Saints Sunday, let us honor those who hold that special place in our hearts, those saints in our lives, some famous people whose example we try to emulate in our lives and the many not-so-famous, those we love who are not with us here but are still part of our lives, and those who are with us this day. They are all saints in and for our lives. We are here today because of their lives and faith. On this All Saints Sunday we remember and give thanks for all the saints in our lives.
For all the saints who from their labors rest, who you by faith before the world confessed, your name, O Jesus, be forever blest, Alleluia! Alleluia!
Amen.
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sermon for:
November 7, 2021
