Prepare to Be a Holy Haunter in the Cloud of Witnesses

All Saints’ Sunday, Cycle A Proper, All Saints, November 1, 2020
Revelation 7:9-17 Psalm 34:1-10
1 John 3:1-3    Matthew 5:1-12

 Lectionary Link

Today, we are in the second day of a three day observance of those who have entered the life to come.  All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day comprise this three day articulation of what the resurrection means for us as Christians as it pertains to the people who have left our lives through their deaths.

In our baptismal theology we believe that everyone becomes a "saint" through Holy Baptism; that is one is born of water and the Holy Spirit.  And the presence of the Holy Spirit within us makes us "saints" who are set apart to do the work and ministry of Christ.

We do not all live out our baptism vows in the exact same way.  We do not all have the same public impact with the witness of our lives.  Most of us remain very local and unknown beyond usual geography and social groups of our lives.  But there are others who become known through their manner of life to a greater audience.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mother Teresa of Calcutta are more widely known than we are.  And what does this mean?  It means that saints are global and regional and saints are locale and particular to our own settings in life.  And that's unavoidable.  Just like in Baseball, the Hall of Fame is unavoidable, in the life of the church,  that some Saints became widely known was and is inevitable.  It is the calling given to some to become well known saintly people as global and historic witnesses who lived out the recommended Christ-like values in special ways.   And we celebrate them in individual feast days and in a grand single day, like today, All Saints' Day.

Why do we do this?  Do we want to elevate and revere people above Jesus?  No, but we want to display a vast gallery of exemplars of what the risen Christ can do in the lives of many different people.  If the Risen Christ did wonderful in St. Mary and St. John and St. Francis, what can the Risen Christ do in us?  Saints do not take away glory and honor from Christ; they only demonstrate the Risen Christ in a variety of personalities so that the appeal of Christ can reach us in accessible ways.

In the Eucharistic preface for All Saints Day, we declare that God has surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses in the lives of the saints.  If you believe in ghosts, I would call this a Holy haunting.  The cloud of witnesses is the atmospherics of the saints.  It's the values of how they lived which are ghostly haunting us to live our very best lives.  Let us live in this cloud with them as it is the atmosphere of the values available to us.  This cloud?   No, not that offsite internet storage place; live in the cloud of the witnesses who are the holy ones who have informed the highest values of our lives.  This is how we understand what we confess in the belief of the communion of saints; we live within the holy haunting  from cloud of witnesses of the ones who have been great in love and justice.

And this gives us a clue about how we should live our lives now; we should live in such a way that we will enter the cloud of witnesses at our deaths, so that we to can become holy haunters of the future generation towards the values of love and justice of Jesus Christ.

What is the Holy Haunting inspiring for us this All Saints' Day?  For one, get out and vote.  Live lives of doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly before God.  If we do this  we might be worthy to join the Cloud of Witnesses someday as Holy Haunters of the people to whom we will leave on this earth.

We believe the saints are in heaven and we want to go there too.  But they are also still a present cloud of witnesses and they haunt us in gentle ways to walk in justice, love and mercy.

And who knows, if we do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in the best way that we can, we too may become Holy Haunters in the Cloud of Witnesses to inspire those who will continue to live after us.

With God's help today, let us all seek to be holy haunters in a future cloud of witnesses, but not yet, we're not done with the work of justice and mercy of Jesus Christ.  Amen.  

Sunday School, All Saints' Day, November 1, 2020

Sunday School, All Saints' Day, November 1, 2020

Sunday School Themes  for All Saints' Sunday

The American version of Halloween is basically an event for children to dress up in costumes and collect candy.  This is a good opportunity for us to re-Christianize a holiday that once included Christianizing a Druid festival for the dead by overlaying it with a resurrection belief in the communion of saints.

Teaching suggestions:

Children understand heroes and superheroes

Children understand sports heroes who get elected to the Hall of Fame because of their excellent performance in sports. 

The church has a hall of fame of important people who lived Christ like lives and they became remembered because of the witness of their lives.  And the church remembers our Hall of Fame heroes of saints.  We do this on All Saints' Day.

The day before All Saints' Day which in older English was called All Hallow's Day, since a Hallowed person is a saintly person, is call All Hallow's Eve, which was shorten to Halloween.

Emphasize the saints as the super-heroes of the church.

Teach also about the day after All Saints' Day, known as All Souls' Day.

You can teach the distinction between the saints who became known throughout the world and the saints who are local to one's life.  If you have time, you can have children bring pictures of faithful departed grandparents, aunts and uncles who have been important in the life of one's family.

If you live in areas with Hispanic population you can make the tie-in with the festive observances of the Day of the Dead.

Remember this is an important time to teach about the resurrection and the communion of saints which is the logical consequence of the resurrection.  We believed that people continue to be alive in God after their deaths and these three days are a celebration of our connection with and communion with the saints.

A Puppet Show about Halloween

Ooh……ohh ooh…Good morning boys and girls.  My name is Mickey the monkey.  How are you today?

Do you know what holiday we just had?

What is it called?

It is called Halloween.

Can you say Halloween?

Do you know what Halloween means?

Does it mean we get dressed in costumes?

Does it mean that we go Trick or Treating?

Yes, it does mean that but I want to tell about how we came to have Halloween.

Are you ready?

Okay….

Can you say, “All Hallow’s Eve”

All Hallow’s Eve.

When people began to say, “All Hallow’s Eve”  it began to sound like Halloween.

If you say All Hallow’s Eve real fast…it can sound like Halloween.

All Hallow’s Eve, All Hallow’s Eve, All Hallow’s Eve,   Halloween!

Do you know what All Hallow’s means?

How many of you know what a super hero is?

Is Batman a superhero?

Is Superman a superhero?

Are Ninja Turtles superheroes?

Are Power Rangers superheroes?

Also we have other kinds of heroes like princesses.

Snow White.  Belle.  Ariel.  Cinderella. Elsa.

And at Halloween we wear costumes of superheroes and princesses.

We also have other heroes like baseball players.  The San Francisco Giants?

And football players?

And we have famous Olympic gymnastics heroes?

But do you know what All Hallow’s means?

It means All Saints.  Can you say All Saints?

Have you heard the word saint?

What church do you go to?  You go to Saint Mary's-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church?

Who was Saint Mary?  St. Mary was a famous hero, and mother of Jesus.  She loved God and she obeyed God.

So saints are heroes.  They are God’s heroes.  They are heroes of our church.  And there are many heroes who did some very nice and kind things.

All Saint’s Day or All Hallow’s Day is the day when we celebrate all of the heroes who loved God in a very special way.

And so the evening before All Saint’s Day is called All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween.

It is the Day before the celebration of God’s famous heroes.

So when you put on your superhero costumes and your princess costumes you can also remember God’s heroes.  And they are called saints.

And you are called to be a hero too.  You are a hero when you are kind and good.

Can you say, Thank you God for Halloween?

Can you say, Thank you God for heroes?

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 1, 2020: All Saints’ Sunday

Gathering Songs:

When the Saints Go Marching In; Onward Christian Soldiers

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: When The Saints Go Marching In

1.      When the saints go marching in, when the saints go marching in.  Lord I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in.

2.      When the girls go marching in…..

3.      When the boys go marching in….

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, you have joined together your chosen people into one family of people who enjoy a special friendship as we are gathered as the body of Christ on earth today; Give us grace so to follow the great heroes in good living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen

Litany of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A Reading from the First letter of John

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People:  Thanks be to God

Let us read together from Psalm 34

1 I will bless the LORD at all times; * his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

2 I will glory in the LORD; * let the humble hear and rejoice.

3 Proclaim with me the greatness of the LORD; * let us exalt his Name together.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Lesson – Fr. Cooke: 

                                       

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory:    I Sing a Song of the Saints of God,  Lesbia Scott, (# 293 blue hymnal)

1-I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew.  And one was a doctor and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green:  they were all of them saints God and I mean, God helping, to be one too.

2-They loved their Lord so dear, so dear, and his love made them strong; and they followed the right,  for Jesus’ sake, the whole of their good lives long.  And one was a soldier and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast: and there’s not any reason no not the least, why I shouldn’t be one too.

3-They lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still, the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will.  You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea, for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of God.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(Children may gather around the altar)

The Celebrant now praises God for the salvation of the world through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as   this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments) 

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Alleluia, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia.

Words of Administration

Communion Song:   I Come With Joy   (Renew! # 195)

1.         I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved, and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.

2.         I come with Christians, far and near to find, as all are fed, the new community of love in Christ’s communion bread.

3.         As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.  The love that made us makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Onward Christian Soldiers (Blue Hymnal # 562)

1.      Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.  Christ the royal master, leads against the foe; forward into battle, see, his banners go.

   Refrain: Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with cross of Jesus going on before.

2.      Onward, then ye people, join our happy throng; blend with ours your voices in the triumph song: glory, laud, and honor, unto Christ the King; this through countless ages we with angels sing.  Refrain

Dismissal

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God! 

Creedal Christians and the Communion of Saints

All Saints’ Sunday, Cycle A Proper, All Saints, November 2, 2014

Revelation 7:9-17 Psalm 34:1-10

1 John 3:1-3    Matthew 5:1-12

Lectionary Link

  I cannot help on All Saints' Sunday but to muse about my own relationship with the saints.   One of the "proverbial" babies thrown out with the bath water for many churches of the Reformation was the veneration and the intercessory efficacy of the saints.  And Anglicanism has had its own varying views, parties and pieties regarding the saints.  The hyper-Calvinists of the Oliver Cromwell time when the Rump Parliament made him Lord Protectorate during the King-less Interregnum take over took down all of the saints' statutes in wood, gold and silver.  Cromwell supposedly wanted to use the silver for currency and he is reported to have said, "Melt down the saints and put them into circulation."  And this has been the metaphor for many a reformer's sermon.  "Melt down the saints and put them into circulation.”  A way of saying get Christians out of the church buildings and work to evangelize the world.

  The strident anti-papists wanted to rid the church of everything which they regarded to be tinged with the so-called post-biblical papal developments, innovations which did not have the clear validation with a Bible verse.  Anything not specified in a certain way in the Bible had to be discarded.

  And so while living in the Bible Belt of the 1950's in America we lived in times of truly closed communions; Baptists and Roman Catholics co-existed but each thought the others were going to end up in the bad place in the afterlife but we still played football, baseball and basketball together because sports was much more unifying than our religious communities.  And isn't that the irony; folks are more unified about sports, food and commercial products than they are in how they practice their faith in Christ.  And how Christian was that?  Is that?

  As a Baptist boy I was a little intrigued that my Catholic friends had those chess figurine saints riding on the dash boards of their cars with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the center and St. Joseph or St. Christopher riding shot gun to the BVM.

  And we thought in those days it was really sissy for men and boys to wear necklace jewelry and yet my Cath'lic boy friends got to wear St. Christopher medals around their necks.  Their moms and grandmothers forced them to do so for saintly protection because if you had 6 or 8 siblings God knows that boys running wild in the neighborhood needed St. Christopher and a host of angels watching over to keep them safe.  And mom had too many babies at home to be on the lookout.

  Both sides had lots of wrong preconceived notions about each other.  We assumed the Catholic worshiped the saints and the statutes like idols because they would bow and genuflect in their church and kiss their St. Christopher medals.   And they were always praying to the Blessed Virgin and the saints and we just wondered, why don't you go straight to the big guy himself, Jesus? 

  Apparently, one had to be really holy or a priest to go directly to Jesus in prayer.  And Jesus couldn't be bothered about all of the trivial things of one's life.  It seems as though Jesus had spent two thousand years learning to delegate certain needs out to specialized saints who became like Santa's elves.  If you lose something, pray to St. Anthony to help you find it.  If you want safety in travel and protection you pray to St. Christopher, who sure enough got de-canonized when scholars proved that he did not exist.  Shock: What happened to all of those prayers to St. Christopher?  Suddenly null and void?  Good Lord deliver us!  And many just ignored the pronouncement and continued to pray to St. Christopher.

  What did many Protestants end up throwing out when they become so stridently anti-papist?  It is one thing to throw out indulgences but it is quite another thing to lose the freedom to think about a fuller meaning and application of a belief in the resurrection.

  Many Protestant churches ceased to be creedal churches and became confessional churches.  Creedal Churches continue to say, “I believe in the Communion of saints.”  And the reason that we confess this is because we actually faithfully visualize outcomes of the resurrection of Christ for the lives of the faithful departed.

  If we believe in the real and true continued existence of people who have died, then do we practice a faith to continue to give those people the courtesy of treating them as still being alive in a different and more profound way?  It is almost like many of the Protestant Reformers suddenly said, "It is just too macabre to think about dead people to adopt any communicative way of interacting with them.  You have to be a little nuts to interact with dead people, so let's just forget about them."  And any remembrance of those who had died began to be treated as though such venerations took away devotion to Christ because one was giving allegiance and prayer time to the faithful departed.  You see how such people painted themselves into a very sad corner: "I believe in the resurrection but I can't really treat my loved ones as still being actually alive in the resurrected life."

  One of the causes of the resistance to the veneration of the saints by the medieval Roman Catholic Church was due to the commercial success of the saints.  Every age and place and time has its P.T. Barnum’s who know how to do some serious fund raising.  A shrine, some relics, statutes, medals and the report of miraculous cures happening can do wonders for fund raising.  And certainly churches of every sort have done shameless promotions to help the coffers.  And the commercialization of the saints and their relics and trinkets has not always been commendable, though if money has gotten to good causes, one could consider that money redeemed through proper use.

  I think that there are other good psychological and sociological reasons for the rise of the cult of the saints and their veneration.  If masculine pronoun was used exclusively for divinity, and women were subjugated and suffering and in their suffering they prayed more and called out to God more than the men who were in control, where does the feminine aspect life get validated?  It got validated in the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary becoming elevated to be the co-redemptrix of the world and she gradually grew in such popularity and seemed to get more hits on her prayer line than Jesus.  So you can see this feminine principle become validated in high places because when women are left powerless in actual social conditions, there is a natural spiritual and psychological correction which occurs which elevates the feminine to some spiritual and heavenly compensation.  In psychological terms the Collective Unconscious will find actual behavioral ways to balance the masculine and feminine aspects, the cosmic yin and yang.  The occurrence of holy women and the spread of their sanctity meant that women saints were included in the cult of saints.  This too was a manifestation of a correcting balance for the feminine aspect in the face of societies being under patriarchal control.  One might note that as women have received education and been empowered in roles in society, there has occurred the diminished devotion to the cult of saints.  The cult of saints existed to proclaim that justice existed in heaven among the holy even though it had not been attained on earth in actual practice between men and women.

  I do believe that the cult of saints became a buffer and mediating group of people who experienced a utopian state of justice in the heavenly world because the world of ordinary people was the world of a mediated existence through pope and priests and monarchs and lords of the manor.  The peasants and the serfs lived lives through the lives of the saints who attained the will of God in heaven because the conditions on earth were so founded upon the master and slave relationship.  You can see the validity of some of the criticism of Karl Marx's notion of religion as the opiate of people.  The rich get richer and the poor get religion; they get to live vicariously in the lives of the hero saints because their own lives were so pitiful.

   There is another sociological factor in the cult of the saints.  I think it has to do with regional identity.  With the Enlightenment and the rise of the national states and the use of vernacular languages, secular regional identities have taken over.  In earlier times, a saint could be a local patron of a parish church or area.  The saint was like a totem pole; a patron saint was part of the interior identity marker that each person in the region had.  So a saint represented a very significant religious, geographical and tribal interior marking in the life of each person.  If you want to understand our modern day parallel, just think about the completely irrational loyalty we have to professional and college sports teams.  People are marked deeply inside with this regional loyalty and identity and such a team totem holds people together for common goals.  This is how the regional and local saint used to function in the lives of people.  You can see how the Enlightenment, the Protestant Reformation and the rise of education, literacy and the national state began to diminish the local and regional identity effect of the local saints.  When an individual person is empowered through education to read and study the Bible in one’s own language and to pray in one’s language, the clergy and the paternalistic authorities lose their powers of mediation.  And the saints lost their prominence too when individuals understood themselves to be gracefully empowered to approach and receive the grace of Christ directly and in an unmediated way.

  So you may think in my musing about the saints, I have been comical or cynical or overly rational even as I mourn the loss of the prominence of spiritual heroes.  Today we spend more time venerating sports heroes who are going into sports halls of fame; we lionize motion picture heroes, popular music heroes and political heroes and the saints get short changed even though their lives witness to things much more valorous than the other hall of famers.

  Today, on All Saints' Sunday, mourn with me the loss of social status of the saints and their wondrous deeds.  Today, let us confess that we stand on the shoulders of some wonderful well-known saints and some very local saints in our lives who have kept this world from being much worse than it could be.

  And let us continue to be Creedal Christians today who give regard to the saints; We believe in the Communion of the Saints.  Why?  Because we believe in the resurrection of the dead, and if we believe in the resurrection why should we treat the departed as though they weren't alive?  Talk to them, ask for their help and pray to them and pray for them because in the wonderful Communion of Saints, we're still in this all together.     Amen.