Feast of All Saints
Sunday 2 November 2025
©Suzanne Grimmett
All Saints is a Feast where we are really aware of the dead…aware that we worship here surrounded by all the saints and angels. We may be reminded on this day of our part in the holy catholic and apostolic faith, recalling those luminaries who have revealed the presence of Christ through their prophetic voice, inspired teaching or holy living. But we are also reminded that we are called to be part of the communion of saints, a communion that gathers across the veil that separates this life and the next.
But today we are also celebrating baptisms. In this sacrament of life, we may wonder about the appropriateness this day of so much focus on the dead. Matilda and Arthur are just setting out on the great adventure that will be their lives, surrounded by the love of family and friends. Today they will be received also into the family of God- a communion where they will be held in love and life by the God who knew them before they were born. So this is about life, but the mystery of baptism is that it is also about death. Paul writes in the letter to the Romans that;
Therefore we have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:4,5)
It is easy to forget when we only use a small amount of water to baptise, that the central image of baptism is death. In full immersion baptisms, (which I am very grateful I do not have to attempt with babies!) we catch a glimpse of this as the person goes under the water before being raised to their first breath of new life. Whatever amount of water is used, this is at the heart of the rite of baptism. We are reminded that the God who loved us into life wrapped the fullness of divinity into human flesh, journeying with us through the humility of one small life to carry all creation through mortal life, beyond death to resurrection. In baptism we are joined to this story of God’s faithfulness to us. This is the fullness of our hope- that immortality is not premised on any strength of our own but that we, in our fragile humanity, depend upon the God who has gone before us to prepare the way through death to resurrection.
Andrew McGowan notes that ‘in an age which is often sceptical about matters religious, it seems there is still widespread belief in some form of afterlife or persistence of the identity of the soul.’ To believe that we somehow ‘drift on after we die’ as many do, without giving such understanding any real form or shape, is an expression of simply wishful thinking rather than religious faith.[1]
It was the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation this past week, a turbulent time in the life of the Church bringing many necessary reforms. However, in the cultural change of the time it also brought with it a sense of our Christian journey as being somehow individual…that we individually lay claim to Christ’s salvation, a move which inevitably risks making it, once again, all about us. Yes, there is the unique self that is us- a unique self that baptism celebrates. (As we anoint Matilda and Arthur shortly in the part often called the Christening, we are marking them as Christ’s own which at the same time invites and blesses them to become their truest self- the best Matilda and Arthur they can be! A Matilda and an Arthur who has never been seen before and never will be again in quite the same way)
However, the paradox is that this unique self only is fully liberated to become itself in the reality of communion- of family, of the Church, with and in the Divine mystery – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are not an isolated physical being trying to find their way to a communal spiritual experience, we are already a spiritual being held in relationship, having a physical experience.
What we celebrate on this All Saints Day is this communion of saints, seen and unseen, known and unknown, of which we are a part…a community which holds us together across time and space, including those we love and those we really struggle to like, those with whom we agree, and those we would argue with on almost every point given the chance. The communion of Saints is a gift of God and not ours to decide who belongs and who does not.
Of course, most of us don’t look and sound like saints. Most of us fall short by even our own standards. When we read this section of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Plain from Luke’s Gospel today, we catch a glimpse of just how high the bar for holiness really is; Love your enemies, do good to those who curse you. Except that this is not a formula for personal righteousness or correct beliefs- this is Jesus, God with skin on, showing us the way. Jesus came down from the mountain and addresses the crowds on the plain, moving amongst the poor, the marginalised, the suffering and the lonely with hope and healing. Jesus shows us that being in communion with all the saints is not about believing the right things but showing up as he did amongst the poor and suffering, the hungry and grieving. We may begin to understand this when we do show up, we discover our own need for transformation is greater than those we would minister to, and that we walk away blessed by them. If we are fortunate, we begin to discover where we are poor or need healing…and have the humility to receive mercy and allow ourselves to be drawn into communion with others and with the Christ who beckons us to come and follow.
Our baptism begins our journey on the way of Christ. It is a journey that takes us on the downward path, away from individual glory and towards the joy of a life shared with others, growing in faith and our true identity in Christ. All Saints is not about a heavenly destination about a way taken in company with others. The words of the blessings and the woes give us what feels like an impossibly high standard, but perhaps that only emphasizes our need for one another. As we come empty handed together before God, we discover that mercy meets us and gathers us with all our shortcomings and frailties. In the communion of all the messy saints of the past and perhaps even messier ones of the present, we discover that God’s grace is sufficient for us each day. May we have the courage to travel this way together. +
[1] Andrew McGowan, Andrew’s Version https://substack.com/@abmcg/note/c-170674350?r=chywz&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web