All Saints Day Is Not A Hollow Comfort

All Saints Day is, in many ways, the kind of church festival that means insurmountably more for those who are separated from loved ones by the dividing curtain of death. It’s a day to recall all the saints who have gone before us, as well as those to come.  We even read the names of our dead in the Divine Service.

But let’s be certain of one thing. Today is not a day for the hollow talk of the funeral home. “He was such a nice man,” “She was always so good to us.” In our grief, in the face of death, we are prone to such false pretenses, but they’re all bull!  He or she was a wretched sinner to the core.  And if our focus this day centers on such hollow talk of meaningless chatter then we’ve reduced All Saints day to a comfortless remembrance filled with the hopeless desperation of loss.

Although the temptation will be to focus on our loved ones, All Saints Day is intended to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, that we might not grow weary or fainthearted (Heb 12:2-3).  We remember the Saints who have gone before us and we read the names of our dead during the Divine Service, but not for an empty remembrance of the dead, rather in confident trust in the forgiveness won on Calvary by the lamb who was slain.

The focus is on Christ. For in Christ, we are free to mourn this day for loved ones lost, because our God doesn’t give empty comfort. He gives the assurance of our salvation and the salvation of all the Saints. Christ’s death for the Saints. Christ’s life for the Saints. For those who have died in Christ, for those Saints yet to come, and for us.

For me, as I recall a particular Saint of God dear to my heart, my mother, it drives me to fix my eyes on the one whom she confessed before the world, who was her rock, fortress, and might, who was her slain lamb and mine.

1. For all the saints who from their labors rest,

Who Thee by faith before the world confess,

Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
  Alleluia! Alleluia!

2. Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;

Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;

Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.  
Alleluia! Alleluia!

3. Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor's crown of gold.
  Alleluia! Alleluia!

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine,

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
  Alleluia! Alleluia!

5. And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
  Alleluia! Alleluia!

6. But, lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day;

The saints triumphant rise in bright array;

The King of Glory passes on His way.  
Alleluia! Alleluia!

7. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,  
Alleluia! Alleluia!

8. The golden evening brightens in the west;

Soon, soon, to faithful warriors cometh rest.
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest.
  Alleluia! Alleluia!

LSB 677