Knit together
Sermon for the All Saints’ Day (transferred) (November 6, 2022)
View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: All Saints' Day, Year C
I have moved! All Saints’ Day 2022 was my first Sunday as Priest-in-Charge with St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service is available here.
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Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable 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. Collect for All Saints, The Book of Common Prayer.
Edited Transcript
May only truth be spoken here, and only truth be heard: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I invite you to be seated.
My friends: it is so good for us to be here.
Psalm 149: Hallelujah! Sing to God a new song; sing God's praise in the congregation of the faithful!
I think it is especially fitting and especially good to begin singing a new song on this day, All Saints' Day, when we remember that the congregation of the faithful is not only those of us here in this sacred room, and not only those of us who are joining thanks to our gift of technology and are with us today… But the the congregation of the faithful extends from here and now and the work that we have to do, into time and space. And beyond those, to what is eternal.
As we are gathered here today, in this room and online, across space, people of God are gathered too: praising God in their own communities, at their own tables. Imagine.
And too, as we are here now, people of God have come together to praise God: for centuries, for millennia, and will do so far beyond the time we are here on earth. The body of Christ extends... is so much bigger and more vast than we can even begin to imagine. And yet we are part of it here and now.
And in a new beginning like this it is fitting for us to contemplate that reality. Because we may be here filled with excitement and joy and hope, and I know I am! And yet we also may be bringing into this space, our grief, our anxiety, our fear and uncertainty. The last few years, they have brought us so much uncertainty and so much change. Brought us so much loss and so much grief. And we carry that here with the saints of our hearts: those we love and see no longer.
And the road that stretches out ahead of us: that too brings uncertainty. We may not know where we are going. We do not know what God has in store for us. We do not know what changes will come in the world as we begin to look together toward our new ministry.
So we may be at this point, this new beginning and saying, are we ready? Are we adequate? Are we enough to do the work that God has given us to do? And on All Saints', it is suitable for us to remember that it is not just us who do that work. We do that work, knitted into the mystical Body of Christ.
I just had this image of God as our Grandmother, knitting us together. And she's knitting us together across time and space, and tying us to the loved ones that came before us, tying us to the saints who worshiped in these pews, bonding us and strengthening and leading us, together with the people here behind us (buried in our churchyard) who went before us in faith and gave to us, passed on to us, the gifts that God had given them of faith and truth and hope. That is our mystical inheritance.
Today as we begin anew, we are a row on that blanket. We are here and now, but knitted into what is so much more powerful and vast. So that even if we weep now, beyond time and space we will rejoice. And even if we fear now, we are part of an unshakable body. A body of Love that cannot be moved. The body of Christ holds us and upholds us and encourages us in our ministry together. That, my friends, is where we begin: in this mystical, glorious Body.
And it is our inheritance to carry on the legacy of grace that those saints who came before us gifted to us through the power of God, through their legacy.
Now this morning, we're going to renew our baptismal vows. Our tradition provides for All Saints' Day being one of the Sundays that are particularly fitting for a baptism. Because it is on this day that we might welcome someone in to the body of Christ. That God knits one more person into that fabric, that mystical body that is knit together. It is fitting that we welcome new Christians into the Body on a day that we are contemplating the breadth and width, and depth, and beauty of that Body.
And so today, we are able, we don't have a baptism, but we are able to renew and remember our own vows, our own covenant with God. And that time of your Baptism, whether it was when you were a baby, or more recently—or if it hasn't happened yet, come and talk to me—that time that you were anointed into the inheritance of the saints knitted into Christ. And as we renew those vows, I ask you to allow yourself to be encouraged and fortified for this new chapter of ministry, here at St. James, and extending into and beyond time, and space. Amen.