All the “saints” are not among the dead. You became a “saint” by virtue of your baptism.  Even so, we take time out at this time of the year to remember all those saints who have fought the good fight and gone before us. “All Saints Day,” celebrated on November 1, is the church’s equivalent of Memorial Day.  It is a time to give thanks not only for those who have gone before us, but for what God did in their lives and, through them, in our own lives. It is a time when we feel a special closeness with them.

This is an idea captured in a song that we often sing at memorial services: “For All The Saints.”  Its fourth verse runs “O blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine: Alleluia! Alleluia!”

Many of us have lost more than our share of saints, beloved family and friends who have gone on to “shine in glory.”  Remembering them can bring moments of sadness when we think of lives cut short and of our own losses; but that is not what comes to my mind when I read the marvelous description of John’s vision of heaven in this passage from Revelation. Rather what ran through my head as I read it was a chorus of another song, a song of joyous anticipation: “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus, we’ll sing and shout the victory!”

Perhaps there will be come who will be surprised to see us, but there we will be; part of that “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”  I know that we will be there to greet and embrace those whom we have known here who have gone before us. Together we will celebrate the love of our God.

What a wonderful picture John paints: “They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” A day for rejoicing indeed!

So celebrate God’s saints this week.  Remember those in your life who have gone on, especially those who have been instrumental in bringing you to faith and restoring hope. Give thanks in your prayers that God brought them into your life and for their faithfulness in making the love of God real to you.

revclay

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After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.  They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”  I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.  They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

  [NRSV]