All Saints Sunday

The Communion of Saints

In our worship together today we are celebrating All Saints’ Day. Officially, of course, All Saints’ Day falls on November 1. But the Prayer Book allows, even encourages, us to celebrate it on the Sunday following.

There are several ways to look at what we celebrate when we celebrate All Saints’ Day. This year I really want to focus on the communion of saints. What we celebrate in worship on All Saints’ Day is the communion of saints.

A book called Holy Women, Holy Men describes the calendar of named saints who we have the option of remembering in the Episcopal Church. It replaces and expands upon earlier books that were titled Lesser Feasts and Fasts. Holy Women, Holy Men reminds us that for centuries Christians have acknowledged and celebrated the “intercommunion of the living and the dead in the Body of Christ.” There’s that word “communion” or “intercommunion.” All Saints’ Day is about the intercommunion in Christ of the living and the dead.

Holy Women, Holy Men also reminds us that church is defined as “the communion of saints, that is, a people made holy through their mutual participation in the mystery of Christ.” We, all of us, are the communion of saints. Or part of the communion of saints.

On All Saints’ Day we do not so much celebrate the saints themselves. They are individual historical figures worthy of remembrance (not, in our tradition, worthy of worship). As individuals they have stories to tell and lessons to teach us. But what we celebrate today is the communion of saints. We celebrate that there is a communion of saints. We celebrate the wonderful mystery of God’s gift of connection, communion, intercommunion. We celebrate the bonds that form the communion of saints.

Focus for a moment on the word community, rather than communion. A community is more than a group, more than a collection. Community is more than a gathering, even a gathering of people with a common interest. Community is formed by shared experience. Community is forged by mutual participation in a common experience. Experience is key. Think about how we use the word “commune.” To commune with nature is more than observing or even appreciating; to commune with nature is to experience nature. It’s all about experience. And community is all about shared experience. The experience that is shared by the communion of saints is the presence of God. We experience the presence of God, because God chooses to commune with us.

Communion, beyond our understanding of community, speaks of the reality of shared experience even across the chasm of death. A shared experience of God’s presence and therefore even a shared experience of one another within the communion of saints. Even across the apparent boundary of death.

This connection among the communion of saints is begun at baptism and cannot be broken by any force on earth. It is strengthened and enriched by participation in the life of the community. Today we baptize Ruby into the communion of saints, into the church. Part of what that means is that she will soon be connected to the experiences of Saint Richard Hooker, of Saint Anskar, and Saint Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky. Their faith, their own experiences of God will become hers as well. Saint Ruby will also come into communion with each of us and we with her. Her joy, her blessing will become our joy and blessing, too.

It is the shared experience of God that unites us and, in fact, makes us holy. I’ve been trying to think of metaphors for the communion of saints. It’s a bit like a power grid you can always plug into. Unlike our physical power grids, this one never goes down. Anywhere, anytime you can plug into the communion of saints and experience the presence of God. Or it’s like an aquifer always flowing with living water. Whenever we participate in the communion of saints, we tap into that living water. Or it’s probably like cloud computing—if I understand cloud computing. Access to God is not limited to any particular time or place or just one unique access device. Just being with one (or more) other members of the Body of Christ creates a communion, linked by the living presence of God.

It is about access. God certainly can and does appear to isolated individuals. But as participants in the communion of all saints, we have guaranteed, universal access to the experience of God’s presence. That’s something to celebrate.