November

November begins with a celebration of “All Saints” – either on the 1st day of the month or the 1st Sunday of the month.
“Saints” are a fading focus though in much of the Christian tradition, and I wonder how many of us are familiar with the concept of Saint. We Lutherans throw a monkey wrench into things as well, when we talk about every person as a Saint and Sinner.
So, is the first of the month a day to celebrate every one of us or something else?
Yes and no.
Saints have traditionally been exemplary Christians, persons whose sacrifice or service shines through history as an encouragement (judgment?) for us all. If you tour the ancient churches of Europe you see pictures and statues of faithful persons torn to shreds by lions or shot numerous times with arrows or, one of my favorites, a guy carrying his own decapitated head under his arm. Sounds more like Halloween than All Saints! But the idea is to emphasize faithfulness even unto death. What a challenge indeed!
In the Augsburg Confession, one of the key Lutheran theological documents, we claim saints as they strengthen our faithfulness. We do not pray to these saints for extra help, that is the relationship with have with Jesus. But we can indeed be thankful for guides and examples for our actions in life. Such roles can be fulfilled by the faithful deceased, but also faithful Christian folks all around us.
So, we can be Saint and Sinner – at times so faithful we can offer an example, at times needing others to get us back on track. And when we gather at the Communion Rail we remember the Saints above and the Saints at the rail with us, all dependent on the gracious gift of God, all fed by Christ, all led by the Holy Spirit to depart together and continue witnessing in our lives of faith!