called by name (a sermon for All Saints Day)

When we hear the word “saint”, the image that often comes to mind is of a person who is exceptionally good and holy. It seems to be a designation reserved for the very few who have worked hard enough and selflessly enough to be included. We are reminded today, however, that being called “saint” has nothing to do with our good deeds. Instead, we are called saints because God has made us so in the waters of baptism.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

As the introduction to the day states, “All Saints celebrates the baptized people of God, living and dead, who are the body of Christ.” On this day, we rejoice in God’s promises, remembering in worship both the newly baptized and those whose baptismal journey is complete. 

In a culture that so often seeks to avoid death and grief, recognizing death beyond the realm of the funeral service is uncomfortable and unfamiliar. We are quick to push folks through the mourning period and “back to normal” for the sake of our own comfort, disregarding the permanence of grief as something we always carry with us. 

All Saints Day, then, is counter-cultural in that together as the people of God we dwell in the reality of death and grief, holding it alongside the promises of God. We point to the assurance that there will be a day when God will wipe every tear from our eyes, even as we weep now.

One of the central parts of the All Saints Day liturgy is naming aloud those who have died over the past year, along with those who were baptized. In many ways this, too, differs from our culture’s usual practices around grief. Perhaps you’ve had the experience of feeling like you need to tip-toe around those who are grieving, never directly speaking about their grief or about the one who has died lest you upset them further. 

While grief looks different for everyone, I often hear how powerful and comforting it is to hear the deceased’s name spoken aloud. Naming is important because it means that we haven’t forgotten those ones who have died. To speak the names of those who have died is to show their loved ones that we carry the stories and memories of that life along with those who grieve most deeply.

This morning’s list of names also includes remembrances of those who have died from COVID-19, as well as those who have died because of racism. This year has been overwhelming in many ways, and naming these losses alongside those more personal to us and our community invites us to practice empathy and compassion, and to expand our vision of who God notices and cares for.

Often these deaths have been communicated to us as statistics, which makes things seem tidier, more comfortable, and easier to dismiss or dehumanize. We might hear things like, “Well, a thousand deaths isn’t that many compared to the general population,” or, “That’s just what happens when you don’t obey law enforcement.”

Naming, though, forces us to look more closely. It reminds us that these statistics are made up of individuals, cherished and beloved by God, with family and friends, co-workers and neighbors, talents and gifts. Naming makes it so that we cannot so easily forget, cannot simply dismiss these losses that left an empty space in someone’s heart. Each life– Black and brown, old and young, healthy and sick, fat and thin – is precious to God and we honor God by treating them as such. 

The act of naming is also central to the sacrament of baptism. In baptism, we are named “Child of God” and joined to one another in the family of God. It is the promises of baptism we cling to in the midst of grief – promises that we belong to God, and that nothing can separate us from God’s love; promises that God prepares a place for each of us; and promises that forgiveness and new life are ours because of God’s action and not because of anything we do or fail to do. 

It is God, after all, who makes us saints. It is God who calls “blessed” those the world prefers to called “disgraced” and “lowly”: the meek, the peacemakers, the merciful, the persecuted, and those who mourn. All Saints Day highlights the connections we have to God and one another – we are bound together by love across time and space, each of us called God’s own. 

In speaking each name today, we remember what has always been true – that we have been called by name and belong to God in life as well as in death.