All Saint's Day 2025

All Saints Day celebrates the living love of God that transcends death, honoring both those who have passed and the living saints around us. Through the story of Lazarus, we see that Jesus meets us in our pain and calls us out of our own graves of despair, wounds, and broken relationships. This holy day reminds us that faith doesn't end at the grave but walks right through it. We're called to remove our grave clothes of fear and hopelessness, recognizing the saints who have influenced our spiritual journeys. The best way to honor the saints is to become living saints ourselves, carrying forward their light through acts of kindness, peace, and generosity.

Transcript

All right, church, if you have your Bibles this morning, I'm going to invite you to open up to the Book of John, chapter 11, verses 32 through 44. This is in the New Testament. It's the last of the four Gospels, and we're starting in chapter 11. If you don't have your Bibles with you this morning, that's absolutely fine. We'll have the word of God on the screen for us today.

You can follow along that way as well. Friends, hear now the word of the Lord for us. When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Where have you laid him?

He asked. Come and see, Lord, they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, see how he loved him. But some of them said, could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from d. Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, he said. But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he's been there for four days. Then Jesus said, did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God? So they took away the stone.

Then Jesus looked up and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me. When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go.

Friends, we got to celebrate Halloween a couple nights ago, right? Anybody hand out tons of candy to all kinds of, like, weird goblin and ghoul dressed kids, right? Like, a lot of them dress up as vampires and all these scary dead things. This morning here in church, we celebrate a church holiday called All Saints Day. Did you know this?

Some yes, some no. All Saints Day is a day that's set aside as a holy day in the church, as an opportunity to give thanks for those who have gone before us in the faith. It's a day to celebrate what we as United Methodists call the tradition of the church. And in these traditions, our shared history in the lives of church mothers and fathers Here they have given to us this faith that we practice right here in this church. We didn't just jump from the New Testament to today, right?

We are here standing on the shoulders of theologians, martyrs, televangelists, writers, bishops, pastors, Sunday school teachers, grandparents, and friends that helped us come to the faith in Jesus that we now profess. In the United Methodist tradition, All Saints Day is a time to remember and to give thanks for those who have gone before us. How many of you remember your Sunday school teachers that impacted you in your life? Or your teachers in school who taught you more than just about science and math, but also taught you what it was like to be a follower of Jesus in everyday life? Or how many of you remember your grandparents or your great grandparents that dragged you to church in a small town somewhere that you really didn't even want to go to?

All Saints Day is a day in the life of the church where we set aside time to remember our faith, that it should never just be our own. It's a day where we recognize those who've helped us along our faith journey, those who are not just gone, but also those who are still alive.

So this great cloud of witnesses that's talked about in Hebrews, we'll talk about that here in a little while. But it's not just the ancient forefathers of our faith that have gone on before us, but it's also historical figures like the apostles, the early church leaders, and personal saints. You ever heard that phrase before? Personal saints? These are family members, friends, mentors who've influenced us on our spiritual journeys.

I fully believe that those people are also a part of the great cloud of witnesses. And this today, this holy day, this holiday, it's a day that traces its history all the way back to John Wesley. As a matter of fact, John Wesley, who was the founder of the Methodist movement, he actually enjoyed All Saints Day in a way that many of us don't really appreciate today. In a journal entry from the year 19, or, sorry, 1767, on November 1st, Wesley calls all Saints Day, a festival I truly love, on the same day. But a year later, in 1788, he writes, I always find this day a comfortable day.

And then another year later, in 1789, he calls it a day that I peculiarly love. So today, as we join Christians around the world who pause to remember those who have gone on before us. And while thankfully no one in our congregation has been lost this year, many among us in this room have felt the sting of loss within our families, within our friends, groups, among our colleagues at work. And we know what the loss of loved ones feels like. So this day meets us tenderly and reminds us that in God's story, death is not the end.

One quiet afternoon, a little girl and her grandmother walked hand in hand through the cemetery, stopping at the familiar stone that marked grandpa's resting place. The girl looked at the fresh flowers they had just placed, and after a moment of thought, she asked softly, grandma, why do we put flowers on graves? The grandmother stood still, her gaze lingering on the beautiful blooms. And then she knelt down to her granddaughter and said, because we believe something still grows here. In that tender reply, the little girl sensed that grief and hope can share the same soil.

And for us as believers in Jesus, that's what All Saints Day is about. It's not about death. It's not about just loss. And it's not just about remembering names on a list. It's about what still grows.

Friends, there are churches all over the world today that will be reading off lists of the numbers. Sorry, the names of people who have passed away from last November 1st to this November 1st, a list of names. I want to share this with you. We have not one name of a church member who's been lost this year.

The memory of All Saints Day. For us, it's that we're not focusing on death, but instead All Saints Day for us continues to blossom in our memory about the legacy that we leave behind and in the quiet faith that life mystically still goes on beyond death. All Saints Day isn't a funeral for the dead. It's a celebration of the living love of God that never does die. So this morning, let's look a little bit deeper at the story of Lazarus and what it can show us about a God who brings life out of death.

So as we dive in this morning, I want to look at John, chapter 11, verse 32. It's a simple, single scripture. Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus comes to Bethany, Lazarus is dead. He's already gone.

His sisters are heartbroken. Right? The Jewish mourners have come in and they celebrate this kind of ritualistic mourning together. They're all wearing black clothes. They're covering their faces, they're weeping out loud.

And scripture gives us, in these following moments, the shortest verse in all of the Bible. In John 11:35, it says, Jesus wept. And that verse, as short as it is, it reveals so much. It tells us something profound about God. Jesus doesn't skip over grief.

He steps into it. He doesn't Tell Mary to cheer up or then quote a scripture at her. He stands there with her in the middle of heartbreak, and Jesus begins to let his own tears fall. That's the kind of savior that we have in Jesus Christ. We have a God that meets us in our pain, one who isn't afraid to share his tears with the world.

We celebrate the son of God who cries the tomb.

When I do hospital visits, it's usually for smaller things. Surgeries, birth of children, or to go pray over folks as they have routine procedures done. But there are times that I have prayed with families who have faced death together. Going to the hospital is a part of my job. And when I was younger, I used to hate that part of my job.

What. What do I say to families who are literally potentially losing lives? There's not a single thing that I believe that I can say to bring healing in those moments.

But today, going to the hospital is one of my favorite parts of my job. Don't get me wrong, there's always a tremendous emotional strain for me when I go to the hospital. But as I've grown older, I have come to love these moments more and more often when I visit people in the hospital, we share some of the scariest moments of their lives. But we also get an opportunity to break into laughter at the stories that we share or the potential ridiculousness of Alan Wallace in a gown and a bright blue hospital hat on.

I fully believe that no matter what the outcome of the hospital room visit is, no matter if it's we're facing, facing death or not, there should be nothing for us to fear. The story of Lazarus begins with heartbreak, right? With heartbreak, with fear, with loss. But that's not where the story ends. Because faith never ends at the grave.

It walks right through it. The beauty of the Christian faith is that it doesn't skip over the tomb. It comes out the other side. The hope that we find in the story of Lazarus is that even in the moments where we might feel abandoned by Christ, left alone in the hard moments of death, there is a promise of life in Jesus. As an avid gardening nerd, which I think many of you know, I always look to seeds as the perfect example of our faith.

Every single year, when I plant those whatever seeds they are in the midst of dirt and lay it promptly on my wife's favorite kitchen table to let them grow, I cannot stop thinking about the fact that I will receive life out of something that was dead. Seeds only come to maturity when the plant dies, right? Last night we had our very first Freeze. I have so many green plants that are outside today. We're waiting to see what that looks like this afternoon.

My wife and I had some trees removed from our property a few weeks ago. And come to find out underneath one of these beautiful trees, in the shade of that tree grew a tomato plant. A wild, random tomato plant. And last night, as I was harvesting what were probably some of the last of my passion flowers to make tea, I looked over and saw that tomato plant and thought, dang, I should have dug that up and saved it just to see what kind of tomatoes it would grow. So, fingers crossed, when I get home, there's still a tomato plant.

That's not like.

In time, those seeds that are buried spring into life again. The seed has to be buried before it can rise. And that's the same that we have with resurrection faith, the belief that even what looks like it's been lost can come back. And that brings us to what's next in the story. Because Jesus doesn't just cry at the tomb.

He speaks into the tomb, right? In John, chapter 11, verse 43B through 44, it says this. You can follow along. Jesus called in a loud voice, lazarus, come out. The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, take off the grave clothes and let him go.

I often try to put myself in that moment. Can you picture yourself in that moment watching a dead man get up out of the grave and walk out? The stillness of the crowd gasping, right? Death still sealed up in the tombs around Lazarus own tomb. And then the voice of Jesus breaking the silence come out.

And then he just does, right? He just comes out of the grave, still wrapped up in his cloths, probably a little blinded after being four days in the dark.

Dead also. Yeah. But I believe that God still offers us resurrection today. God keeps calling us out of our graves. And sometimes these are literal graves, and sometimes these are graves that we've kept ourselves locked up in.

Maybe our grave isn't death. Maybe it's a wound that won't heal. A relationship that feels too far gone, a part of your heart that's gone numb from disappointment. But church, hear me. The same voice that called Lazarus out of the tomb is still calling us.

God is still saying, come out. Still calling us to live again, to hope again, to continue on in our belief. I believe that God never meets us at a tomb without also pointing us to resurrection. Have you ever heard the old saying, the same sun that sets also rises? You ever heard that it's a simple reminder that the endings are never the whole story.

Just as the sun dips below the horizon in Oklahoma, we have some of the most beautiful sunsets.

But it doesn't go forever. In just a few hours, there will be fresh, light, warmth.

I want to remind you that the sunset for us also looks a lot like the seasons of loss. The uncertainty of the sunset carries with it a promise of something different, something new the next morning. Often what feels like a farewell may simply be a pause before something new starts in God's rhythm. The setting sun is not a conclusion. It's a prelude to resurrection.

Every sunset may look like an ending, but every morning proves that God still brings light out of darkness. So maybe today, instead of dwelling on what's dead, we could start listening for the God who still calls us to rise. And that's where the saints of the church come in. Because they show us what it looks like to have that kind of hope of a life beyond this one. I mentioned it earlier, but you can follow along.

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 1, through the first half of verse 2, it says this. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith church. Every All Saints day, I imagine this cloud of witnesses that scripture talks about. The saints who have gone before us are cheering us on from the balcony of heaven.

We may not see them, but their faith still echoes through in our own lives. This day that we focus on those who have gone before us should serve as a reminder that the race isn't over. The faith they carried is the same faith that we carry today. Their love, their courage, their witness. It lives around us and it lives within us.

And the calling that our forebearers answered is the same call on our lives today. We're not called to simply remember the saints. We're called to become saints, to live the kind of life that those who lived before us lived. To live a life of faith that outlives our bodies. The best way to honor the saints is to keep their love alive in the way that we live.

There's an African proverb that says, as long as someone remembers your name, you never truly die. In the church, we remember not only the names like John Wesley or Francis Asbury, James Cone, Nelson Mandela or other prominent Methodists. We also remember the faith that they carried, the prayers that they prayed, the love that they shared, the light that they lived, the hope that they spoke about in the Jesus that they embodied to the world.

We carry that light forward. And every time we choose, kindness over cruelty, peace over violence, generosity over greed, we're keeping that same faith alive. So today isn't strictly for mourning, although oftentimes in All Saints Day, there is some of that that happens.

Today for us is a day of movement, a day to rise, to step forward with purpose, shoulder to shoulder with those who have gone before us, to march on, not just in sorrow, but also in hope. Not alone, but surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who remind us that resurrection is real and our journey here is worth that resurrection.

When Lazarus comes out of the tomb, Jesus says, take off the grave clothes and let him go. That's what resurrection looks like for us. Us as God's people, being unbound from fear, unbound from despair, unbound from hopelessness. And I think that's what God is still doing in our lives in this moment. God is still bringing us to a deeper faith.

He's unbinding us from the things that hold us back. And he's setting us free to live joyfully, to live fully, and to live a life of courage. So today, on this All Saints Day, I don't want us to be people who stand in the shadow of those who've gone before us just because we're sad. It's not about mourning. We stand today in the light of resurrection that God promised them and promises us today.

We don't dwell on those who've gone. We celebrate the love that remains. We don't look back in sorrow. We look forward in hope.

Friends, the grave is never the last word for the saints. It's where the song of our promised eternity begins. So as we close today and we prepare for communion, I want to invite you, as we come forward for communion, to something special. I want to give all of us an opportunity to light a candle. Not just for those who've died, but for the living saints around you, those that still make a difference in your life.

If there's somebody in this room, somebody in your neighborhood, somebody at your work that exemplifies Jesus to you, I want you to light a candle for them.

And when you light your candle, it's important to remember that you are God's living saint now. The light of Christ should shine in you and shine through you to those around you.

As a reminder, the saints of the church aren't just behind us. They're also beside us and they're also within us.

So, church, we have to let our light shine. Let's pray.