“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.”
I highlight this verse from our Revelation reading because it describes every preacher’s dream. We preachers love preaching to a great multitude. We like it when sanctuaries are filled. We look forward to Christmas Eve and Sunday Easter services.
No wonder the author of the Book of Revelation describes that great heavenly scene of worship as a “great multitude.” Crowd size is important to preachers.
Maybe this is how I will start to responding to people when they ask me how many were at church. I’ll just say, “there was a great multitude” and let them figure out what that means.
All Saints’ Sunday is a day for us to remember that the worship attendance doesn’t just include the people who are in the pews. It also includes the great multitude that no one can count. They are all crying out with a loud voice saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
This great multitude is not limited to COVID19 guidelines. No, this crowd is one that goes beyond the pews of a sanctuary and includes all the company of heaven.
This is why you haven’t heard me use the language that our church is “closed.” Our church is never closed even though our building has been closed for several months. The word, “church” doesn’t refer to the building where we meet. The word, “church” refers to the assembly of God’s people which is not dependent on whether we have a building or not. Building or no building we are always the church.
It helps for a church to have a building where we can sit together in padded pews, where we can listen to inspiring music, where we can drink coffee or punch with our friends, but it’s not a deal breaker in what it means for us to be the church. In theological language, the church is the communion of saints in which God’s people are knit together in a web of relationships that crosses the boundaries of life, death, time, and eternity.
And especially on this Sunday each year, All Saints, we are reminded of this true perspective of what it means when we say that we are the church. We are God’s people who just so happen to meet in a building or worship online or meet in someone’s home.
There is a beautiful mystery within this definition of what it means to be the church. The church includes all the saints of God including those who are alive now and those who have gone before us and who are now singing their alleluias around the very throne of God in heaven.
The church is so much more than a building that sits along South College Street. The church is the people of God both past and present offering themselves as the visible expression of God’s healing love for our community and world.
I could preach about this more mystical definition of the church all day long but I also want to focus on what this means for us in how we live out our faith on a daily basis. How can All Saints Sunday lead us to have a deeper faith? What does it mean for you and me to be part of the great multitude of saints?
To help us think about these questions, ask yourself who are the people in your life who have guided you in your faith? They may no longer be living or maybe you haven’t seen them for the past several years, but their spiritual influence and guidance remain with you to this day. Who do you think about when you are struggling with an important decision in your life?
A couple of years ago, I was asked to do a funeral here in Athens of a man who was a member of our church many years ago. He had moved out west several decades ago. At one point, he lived in Chicago.
During the funeral service, I invited people to share a thought or a memory about him. One of the people who shared was from Chicago and he had traveled to Athens to be at the service. He shared how he attended the adult Sunday School class where Louis taught while living in Chicago. He said how everyone who attended grew in their faith because of that Sunday School class.
Saints can be Sunday School teachers, people in your small group, a parent or grandparent, or that confirmation mentor who met with you when you were preparing to join the church.
This past June, I was reading about someone who made national news because of that great multitude of saints. His name is Robert W. Lee, the 4th great nephew of Robert E. Lee, the famous southern general from the Civil War.
Robert W. Lee was in the news because he had recently resigned from his church in North Carolina because of backlash he received for his comments denouncing racism and his support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Here is what he shared at an awards show that disappointed the members of his church and led him to resign. “My name is Robert LeeIV; I am a descendent of Robert E. Lee, the Civl War general whose statue was at the center of violence in Charlottesville. We have made my ancestor an idol of white supremacy, racism and hate. As a pastor it is my moral duty to speak out against racism, America’s original sin. Today, I call on all of us with privilege and power to answer God’s call to confront racism and white supremacy head-on.”
During one of his interviews following his resignation, he explained why he decided to take this courageous stand. He said that it was because of his confirmation mentor when he was a youth preparing to join the church. His mentor’s name was Bertha Hamilton, who happened to be a person of color.
During the confirmation process, Bertha challenged him one day to take down the confederate flag that he had on his bedroom wall. Bertha said to him, “If you are called to be a follower of Jesus, this flag is incompatible with that calling.”
He said that he was taken aback by her courage to challenge him on this issue. This was the prophetic voice that he needed to hear.
This is why he said in an interview this past June, “I’m also reminded that I have to speak up and speak out in God’s name and in the name of my family to protect what little dignity we have left and to possibly redeem the situation for our family so that, going forward, they can say there was a Lee who stood up for what’s right instead of standing up for the wrong side of history,” he said.
Robert W. Lee is now a prophetic voice against racial injustice because of saints like his confirmation mentor.
So when we light these candles on All Saints Sundays, we are remembering these loved ones who have been examples of what it means to follow in the way of Jesus. The multitude of saints surround us at all times whether they are still with us in person or even if they are now surrounding God’s heavenly throne. They continue to remind us of who we are and who we are called to be.
We are part of a multitude of saints who shape and guide us in our faith. This is what All Saints’ Sunday helps us to celebrate. Together, we are all part of God’s great big family.
This is why we celebrate All Saints’ Sunday, to be reminded that our church building may be closed but not the church, never the church. Some of our saints are watching this service online. Some have gone on to be with the Lord as represented by the candles on the altar. Some have maybe moved away and we haven’t seen them for a long time. Some we might see on a regular basis.
This great multitude of saints past and present who are cheering us on and who serve as great examples for us of what it means to be followers of Jesus.
How many people are in worship today? You really can’t put a number on that, especially on All Saints’ Sunday. Let’s just say that it’s a “great multitude.” Hallelujah!
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