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All Saints Sunday
November 4, 2007 Sermon by The Rev. Bill Van Oss, Rector
                                                                                       Readings                                                                                    

Our daughter Luisa is 6 years old. The other day I was driving Luisa and one of her school friends to a birthday party. They were both safely buckled in the seat behind me. As you might know, Luisa loves to talk (she takes after her mother).

Anyway, Luisa and her friend were chattering away there in the back seat, talking about whatever happened to fly into their heads, when all at once we passed by a church.

Luisa noticed it and she turned to her little friend and asked, “What church do you go to?” I glanced up in the rear view mirror, and I could see the little girl had a perplexed look. “I don’t go to any church”, the little girl said.

Now Luisa looked perplexed. After a pause to let it soak in, Luisa asked, “Well, then what do you do on Sunday mornings?”

The little girl thought about it and replied, “We just stay at home.”

And now Luisa looked really confused, and she asked, “But, how do you know what you are?”

“How do you know what you are?” Luisa asks that because she knows that her grandparents are Catholic and her Aunt Joyce is Lutheran and she is an Episcopalian.

But her question is much deeper than denomination. “How do you know what you are?” is what this All Saints Day is all about.

Being a part of a church means one belongs to a Christian community. It means being a part of something much bigger than oneself. Belonging to a community of faith is like having a giant, extended family.

This family extends back through the generations – spoken of in our wonderful reading from the Book of Ecclesiasticus: “Let us now sing the praises of famous men (and women), our ancestors in their generations.” These famous ancestors were rulers and counselors, prophets and composers of music, writers and “people who were the pride of their times.”

These are all the saints, those who “have left behind a name so that others declare their praise” says Ecclesiastes – “godly men, and women, whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.”

All the Saints – who from their labors rest. We, believers in this generation, stand in a long line of saints who have gone before us, and we hope to learn from them, to be inspired by their example, to be shaped and formed by the witness of their lives of faith.

“Their name lives on generation after generation” Ecclesiastes tells us. Their name lives on in us, as we strive to follow their example and live the life of faith. We know who and what we are through this community of believers.

I spent some time in our columbarium this week, looking at all the names: Crockett, Westmoreland, James, Stromquist, Baumgarten, Williams, Krossner, Hovis, MacDonald, Sneve, to name just a few. I know some stories behind these names now – “characters”. Stories of how they touched lives in this place.

We will pray for more of our ancestors in the faith during this service, those who have died, those who have gone before them to make them who they are and continue to live on in them. And we will baptize little Ernest John this morning – a beautiful little boy named after his grandfather and great grandfather (Ernest & John). He is the brother of Agnes Margaret, named after her grandmother and great grandmother (Agnes & Margaret). How’s that for symmetry?

“Their names live on generation after generation”, their spirits live on in those who remember and celebrate them. What a wonderful reminder for Ernest and Agnes. Their very names remind them where they have come from, and those who have gone before them make them who they are and continue to live on in them. May we be grateful to All the Saints who help us to know who and what we are.

That’s what All Saints Day is all about – remembering the great “cloud of witnesses” who have gifted us by their examples of living the life of faith and who have touched our lives and helped to make us who we are.

How do you know what you are? Was Luisa’s question to her little friend, and it is our All Saints Day question. How do you know what you are?

The font and the table help us to know – because the font and this table connect us one with another in Christian community - and they connect us with our ancestors in their generations, men and women, who have lived the life of faith and have shown us how to be Christ for one another.



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