All Sants' Day: November is one of my favorite months in the Church Calendar. It begins with All Saints’ Day (November 1), one of the greatest and oldest Christian celebrations. In Eastern Churches dating back as early as the fourth century a day was set aside to celebrate and give thanks for the lives of Christian Martyrs. May 13 was the official date in Syrian churches, though it was not apparently a fixed date in all Eastern Churches. Greek Orthodox Churches have continued since the time of Saint John Chrysostom (late fourth century) to celebrate All Saints’ Sunday on the first Sunday after Pentecost (when we celebrate Trinity Sunday). An East Syrian liturgy from the same period associates the day with the Friday after Easter Sunday. All three days were known and celebrated variously by the churches in Rome. However, May 13 became the official date for Roman Christians when the Pantheon, the pagan temple in the heart of Rome devoted to all of the pagan gods which had been given as a gift by Emperor Phocas to Pope Boniface IV, was consecrated as a Christian Church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the martyrs on May 13, 609. Twenty-eight wagon loads of martyr’s bones were brought from the catacombs to the church for the consecration service while “Rise up, saints of God, from your dwellings; sanctify this place and bless the people!” and other such antiphons were sung – it was a big day and from that celebration a feast for all martyrs was kept annually. A little over one hundred years later a chapel dedicated by Pope Gregory III to all of the saints – even those that were not martyrs – was consecrated in Saint Peter’s Basilica on November 1. The date of November 1 likely was chosen because it was already the date churches as far north as Ireland were celebrating a similar feast for all saints. About one hundred and fifty years after that Pope Gregory IV ordered universal observance of a festival to All Saints on November 1. (See The Liturgical Year by Adolph Adams for more information.)
This year November 1 falls on a Sunday. At Good Shepherd we will give thanks for the lives of all the saints who have come before us. The readings assigned for All Saints’ Day in the new lectionary (adopted by the Episcopal Church in 2006) provide for three different sets of readings for All Saints’ Day which allows for a bit more thematic variety. This year (Year B) the readings are primarily concerned with the resurrection of the dead. We will hear from both Isaiah and St. John the Divine that God will wipe away every tear, and then we will hear about the tears of our Lord Jesus Christ who wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus before he called Lazarus by name and raised him from the dead.
The raising of Lazarus is not the last word. The resurrection of Christ is not simply the raising up of one man, but new life offered freely by God to all. In our baptism we die to the world and rise to new life in Christ. The sacrament of new birth will be celebrated immediately after the sermon and two more people will not only become Christians, they will become part of the Body of Christ and share in his resurrection. The language of dying and rising isn’t clean and neat. Lazarus had been dead so long that his sister feared opening the tomb would release a stench. When he walked out of the tomb he needed to be unbound from his burial clothes. Christian baptism is likewise a bit messy. A person who is baptized gets wet and is anointed (not just touched but actually anointed) with pungent oil, and since we are baptizing two young children expect it be loud! The rite does not end there. A beeswax candle signifying the light of Christ is given to the new Christian (you should be able to smell the aroma of the beeswax) and then at last he or she is dressed in new white clothes. Maybe it’s not as eye catching as twenty-eight wagon loads of bones, but the elements of the rite mark Baptism as something that is big and, frankly, life changing.
This All Saints’ Day I hope you will join me as I watch, smell, and listen… and then I hope you will join me and the children at our Lord’s Table to eat and drink of the Body and Blood of Christ. It really is a festival for the entire body, and I hope you can be with us.
