All Saints Sunday November 4, 2007 “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for all your saints throughout the ages, both great and small – all who have revealed your word in faithfulness and who have enabled the proclamation of your redeeming grace in Jesus the Christ to be passed on from generation to generation. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, inspire us and give us the courage to witness to the Gospel through our own lives, so that it might continue to nurture faith for generations to come. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
For the past several years, I have taken this occasion of All Saints Sunday to focus on the lives and contributions of those members of our congregation who have joined the church triumphant during the past year. That is certainly an appropriate direction to take, as the church pauses to honor all the saints, both great and small, who have enabled through their lives of faith, the Gospel to be realized from generation to generation.
But this morning, I would like to take a somewhat different approach with my message, than I have in previous years. Although we will still uplift in our prayers with thanksgiving the names of our members who have died this past year, I would like to focus on the broader significance of this day for the ongoing life of the church. And in particular, I would like to focus on the significance of the saints to the worship life of the church to this day.
To set the stage for my comments, I would like you to consider this illustration, which William H. Willimon, one of my favorite commentators, included in his commentary on our texts. At the time he wrote this, Dr. Willimon was Dean of the Chapel, and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University.
“I was meeting one night with a group of students in a dormitory. They had asked me to lead them in a discussion of ‘Christian worship.’ At that hour I was greeted by zombie-like stares. I was eager to try to get the students into the subject, so just off the top of my head I asked them, ‘Those of you who’ve seen Christians at worship, what would you say is the strangest thing that you’ve seen? And don’t mention the thing about the man in the white dress – something else.’
An undergraduate spoke up and said ‘I think the weirdest thing is when, at the beginning, in the opening parade…’
‘You mean the processional,’ Dr. Willimon interjected.
‘Yeah – where they bring in that great, big, book.’
Again, Dr. Willimon interjected, ‘You mean the Bible.’
‘Yeah, and they bring it up and put it up on the lectern and you can see the person bringing it in sort of turn toward the clergy and say, “Here, work from this.” That’s weird.’
And I thought,” Dr. Willimon concluded, “thank you for that. That a group of late 20th-century North American people should gather and, just for an hour on Sunday morning, say, ‘Let’s all believe that these ancient Jews knew more than we do. Let’s just try that for an hour, and see where we’ll be.’ That really is strange. [But] that’s not happening everywhere, that a group of modern people, privileged to stand at the summit of human development… gather and submit to these ancient writings…” End quote. [1]
Dr. Willimon then goes on to state how the movement in the church toward “contemporary” worship frightens him. Although I do not agree with all of the assessments that Dr. Willimon makes in his commentary, I do concur with him in the fact that we cannot ignore the message of the saints in years past.
Now I know that Josie believes that I am a person of routine, that I have my own way of doing things, and that I may never change. That may well be true. I am a lot like my father in that regard. However, I also believe that I am open to new ideas, as long as I can see the value in these ideas.
For example, I have found many of the hymns in With One Voice to be very meaningful to me. I not only like the tempo of some of these new hymns, but more importantly, I like the content of the verses. And in selecting the hymns for our worship, I am more concerned about what the hymns proclaim, than how joyful they sound.
And on occasion, I don’t mind following a different liturgy, as we do for our outdoor worship, the woman’s Thank-offering service, Christmas Eve, and a few other times during the year, including worship at Confir-camp. But I still believe that these services need to proclaim God’s Word, the word of the saints, as recorded in the Scriptures, and follow some liturgical format, to be meaningful.
Unfortunately, there is a movement in the church toward contemporary worship that tends to ignore the value of all the saints from ages past. Even in the Lutheran Church today, many of the largest and fastest growing congregations stress that what we need to do is abandon the liturgy, throw the hymnals with their ancient hymns out, and appeal to the desires of contemporary people to feel good when the come to worship.
From what I have read and experienced in regard to the contemporary worship movement, is that the church needs to be more entertaining in worship, if it wants to meet the needs of our modern day society. Large power-point projectors and well orchestrated productions of popular music, designed to uplift the hearts of the “audience” to some vague spirituality seems to be the theme of the day. In many instances, these modern services do not even include the reading of the assigned lessons for the day.
But what are we missing when we abandon the message of the saints? On this, Dr. Willimon is clear. He states, “I was recently at a church of my own denomination, and I came away frightened, thinking, ‘have I seen the future of the church?’ The hymns, which were really more like songs, the anthems, everything had jettisoned the tradition, our language, our metaphors, and our stuff, in favor of something called “contemporary worship.”
And in my humble opinion, what I heard that day, I just don’t think will lift the luggage in the future. As people were singing, and praising some vague thing called “God,” who, as far as I could tell from that service, had never done anything, or said anything in particular, as we were bouncing along in our praising.”
Dr. Willimon concluded, “I wanted to say, ‘You know there are people out there today who just found out that their cancer is not responding to treatment, or who found out that their kids can’t be controlled, or that their marriage won’t survive, and here we are bouncing along, grinning at each other, and praising God.” End quote. [2]
The truth is, the saints of years past, centuries past, do have something to say to us today. They have walked the path of life that we walk, some of them under persecution and duress, yet they walked that path in faith. They trusted in the message of God, handed down by the saints before them. And they trusted that in Jesus the Christ, they found redemption and hope for the future. As Christians, our hope is built, not in the contemporary whims and desires of modern society, not just in our own efforts, but in trusting the witness of those ancient saints who walked the path of faith long ago.
So let us look at our Gospel lesson for this morning. Here, Luke tells us that Jesus pronounced four blessings upon the people who came to faith in him. And I think we need to realize that these are blessings, not commands. Jesus is not saying that this is the way that we need to live our lives of faith, but that God truly cares about those who experience the troubles of life.
Jesus says, blessed are the poor – those who can’t seem to find a way, or have the capacity to make it in this world. To them, Jesus gives hope, for he tells them that they will inherit the kingdom of God, and in so doing, he calls on us his modern disciples to assist and to help alleviate their situation.
Jesus then says, “Blessed are the hungry now, for you will be filled.” Here Jesus is telling us that even if you are so poor that you cannot even obtain the daily nourishment that you need to sustain your life, God sees you as a blessed person in his eyes. You are not to feel hopeless. God offers to those who are hungry a message of hope, and calls on us, as his disciples to bring food to the hungry.
Again Jesus says, “Blessed are those who weep now, for they will laugh.” Here again, this message from ages past addresses the situations of those who have come to suffer the pain and lonely feeling that separation and fatal disease brings upon us to bear. Oh, how I have heard the weeping of so many over the years, and hoped that I could “fix it.” But I couldn’t! Yet God, through the message of his saints, and this message of Jesus, tells us that those who now hurt, will ultimately laugh and find new life, if they remain faithful in the hope of God’s redeeming grace.
And finally, Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you because of your belief in him.” For the time is coming when we will all leap for joy, sing new and great hymns of praise in his very presence.
This is the message that we all need to hear. And it is a message that is often missing in contemporary worship that centers on excitement and praise, even when people may be hurting. To me, the message of the saints is more real. It centers on the frustrations, agonies, and pains of living a life of faith – and offers the hope of the Gospel. It is through the lives of all the saints of God, that we hear this message, those of ages past, and those, who, in our present age, continue to reveal God’s message of hope.
So may we, in our contemporary society, continue to worship God, by immersing ourselves in the lives of all of God’s saints, both those who have died long ago, and those who continue to lift his redeeming Gospel before us in this time. For the message is timeless, as are the redeemed saints of God.
Amen.
[1] Pulpit Resource, October, November, December, 2004, Logos Productions, 2004
[2] Ibid.
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for all your saints throughout the ages, both great and small – all who have revealed your word in faithfulness and who have enabled the proclamation of your redeeming grace in Jesus the Christ to be passed on from generation to generation. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, inspire us and give us the courage to witness to the Gospel through our own lives, so that it might continue to nurture faith for generations to come. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
For the past several years, I have taken this occasion of All Saints Sunday to focus on the lives and contributions of those members of our congregation who have joined the church triumphant during the past year. That is certainly an appropriate direction to take, as the church pauses to honor all the saints, both great and small, who have enabled through their lives of faith, the Gospel to be realized from generation to generation.
But this morning, I would like to take a somewhat different approach with my message, than I have in previous years. Although we will still uplift in thanksgiving the names of our members who have died this past year in our prayers, I would like to focus on the broader significance of this day for the ongoing life of the church. And in particular, I would like to focus on the significance of the saints to the worship life of the church to this day.
To set the stage for my comments, I would like you to consider this illustration, which William H. Willimon, one of my favorite commentators, included in his commentary on our texts. At the time he wrote this, Dr. Willimon was Dean of the Chapel, and Professor of Christian Ministry at Duke University.
“I was meeting one night with a group of students in a dormitory. They had asked me to lead them in a discussion of ‘Christian worship.’ At that hour I was greeted by zombie-like stares. I was eager to try to get the students into the subject, so just off the top of my head I asked them, ‘Those of you who’ve seen Christians at worship, what would you say is the strangest thing that you’ve seen? And don’t mention the thing about the man in the white dress – something else.’
An undergraduate spoke up and said ‘I think the weirdest thing is when, at the beginning, in the opening parade…’
‘You mean the processional,’ Dr. Willimon interjected.
‘Yeah – where they bring in that great, big, book.’
Dr. Willimon again interjected, ‘You mean the Bible.’
‘Yeah, and they bring it up and put it up on the lectern and you can see the person bringing it in sort of turn toward the clergy and say, “Here, work from this.” That’s weird.’
And I thought,” Dr. Willimon concluded, “thank you for that. That a group of late 20th-century North American people should gather and, just for an hour on Sunday morning, say, ‘Let’s all believe that these ancient Jews knew more than we do. Let’s just try that for an hour, and see where we’ll be.’ That really is strange. [But] that’s not happening everywhere, that a group of modern people, privileged to stand at the summit of human development… gather and submit to these ancient writings…” End quote. [1]
Dr. Willimon then goes on to state how the movement in the church toward “contemporary” worship frightens him. Although I do not agree with all of the assessments that Dr. Willimon makes in his commentary, I do concur with him in the fact that we cannot ignore the message of the saints in years past.
Now I know that Josie believes that I am a person of routine, that I have my own way of doing things, and that I may never change. That may well be true. I am a lot like my father in that regard. However, I also believe that I am open to new ideas, as long as I can see the value in these ideas.
For example, I have found many of the hymns in With One Voice to be very meaningful to me. I not only like the tempo of some of these new hymns, but more importantly, I like the content of the verses. And in selecting the hymns for our worship, I am more concerned about what the hymns proclaim, than how joyful they sound.
And on occasion, I don’t mind following a different liturgy, as we do for our outdoor worship, the woman’s Thank-offering service, Christmas Eve, and a few other times during the year, including worship at Confir-camp. But I still believe that these services need to proclaim God’s Word, the word of the saints, as recorded in the Scriptures, and follow some form of liturgical format, to be meaningful.
Unfortunately, there is a movement in the church toward contemporary worship that tends to ignore the value of all the saints from ages past. Even in the Lutheran Church today, many of the largest and fastest growing congregations stress that what we need to do is abandon the liturgy, throw the hymnals with their ancient hymns out, and appeal to the desires of contemporary people to feel good when the come to worship.
But what are we missing when we abandon the message of the former saints? On this, Dr. Willimon is clear. He states, “I was recently at a church of my own denomination, and I came away frightened, thinking, ‘have I seen the future of the church?’ The hymns, which were really more like songs, the anthems, everything had jettisoned the tradition, our language, our metaphors, and our stuff, in favor of something called “contemporary worship.” And in my humble opinion, what I heard that day, I just don’t think will lift the luggage in the future. As people were singing, praising some vague thing called “God,” who, as far as I could tell from that service, had never done anything, or said anything in particular, as we were bouncing along in our praising.”
Dr. Willimon concluded, “I wanted to say, ‘You know there are people out there today who just found out that their cancer is not responding to treatment, or who found out that their kids can’t be controlled, or that their marriage won’t survive, and here we are bouncing along, grinning at each other, and praising God.” End quote. [2]
The truth is, the saints of years past, centuries past, have something to say to us today. They have walked the path of life that we walk, some of them under persecution and duress, yet they walked in faith. They trusted in the message of God. And they trusted that in Jesus the Christ, they found redemption and hope for the future. As Christians, our hope is built, not in the contemporary whims and desires of modern society, but in trusting the witness of those ancient saints who walked the path of faith long ago.
So let us look at our Gospel lesson for this morning. Here, Luke tells us that Jesus pronounced four blessings upon the people who came to faith in him. And I think we need to realize that these are blessings, not commands. Jesus is not saying that this is the way that we need to live our lives of faith, but that God truly cares about those who experience the troubles of life. Blessed are the poor – those who can’t seem to find a way, or have the capacity to make it in this world. To them, Jesus gives hope, for he tells them that they will inherit the kingdom of God, and in so doing, calls on us to assist to help alleviate their situation.
Jesus then says, “Blessed are the hungry now, for you will be filled.” Here Jesus is telling us that even if you are so poor that you cannot even obtain the daily nourishment that you need to sustain your life, God sees you as a blessed person in his eyes. You are not to feel hopeless. God offers to those who are hungry a message of hope, and calls on us, as his disciples to bring food to the hungry.
Again Jesus says, “Blessed are who weep now, for they will laugh.” Here again, this message from ages past addresses the situations of those who have come to suffer the pain and lonely feeling that separation and fatal disease brings upon us to bear. Oh, how I have heard the weeping of so many over the years, and hoped that I could “fix it.” But I couldn’t! Yet God, through the message of his saints, and this message of Jesus, tells us that those who now hurt, will ultimately laugh and find new life, if they remain faithful in the hope of God’s redeeming grace.
And finally, Jesus says, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when
-7-
they exclude you, revile you, and defame you because of your belief in him.” For the time is coming when we will all leap for joy, sing new and great hymns of praise in his very presence.
This is the message that we all need to hear. And it is a message that is often missing in contemporary worship that centers on thanksgiving and praise, even when people may be hurting. To me, the message of the saints is more real. It centers on the frustrations, agonies, and pains of living a life of faith – and offers the hope of the Gospel. And through the lives of all the saints of God, that we hear this message, those of ages past, and those, who, in our present age, continue to reveal God’s message of hope.
So may we, in our contemporary society, continue to worship God, by immersing ourselves in the lives of all of God’s saints, both those who have died long ago, and those who continue to lift his redeeming Gospel before us in this time. For the message is timeless, as are the redeemed saints of God.
Amen.
[1] Pulpit Resource, October, November, December, 2004, Logos Productions, 2004
[2] Ibid.
