We sure have had the day’s recently, haven’t we? 24 inches of snow in just a couple of days, and a lot of it is gone now. And I’m sure that a few years from now I will remember this October storm having 30, maybe 36 inches of snow. Those days will get even greater as time goes on!!

But what kind of day is this? In some countries this day is the Day of the Dead, relatives spend long hours at the graves of their relatives. We don’t call this the Day of the Dead but All Saints Day. What kind of day is this?

First of all it is a sad day. How many names did we read today? A lot!! Maybe we read the name of your spouse or parents, grandparents or friends. You miss them. They were the folks that gave you joy and happiness, you spent many hours together finding out what life is like, what things are important. You laughed and cried and joked and fought together. And now they are gone. This is a sad day, quite a few tears are shed inwardly or outwardly. You learned the faith from them, they taught you how to be a better person, they gave you Jesus.

Our text from Hebrews 12 says that we are running a race “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses”. In the context of the book of Hebrews the writer is telling us about the great heroes of faith from the previous chapter. These were the folks that remained true to their God even in the most difficult of trials and the hardest of temptations. And we can add to these witnesses many others who make us stronger in the faith, whose life and faith blesses ours.

Every year we add to the list of those from this congregation who went from us to heaven. This year we added nine folks who went from the church militant to the church triumphant – Bernice Buethe, Vern Hendrickson, Millie Johnson, Vi Moench, Ora Rostad, Oscar Selzer, Jo Stoddard, Sharon VanDorn and Florence Wier. I miss them. This is a sad day.

But this day is more than tears and sadness – we can have enough of that outside of the church. But in the church, in this place, this is a day of faith and confidence and confession. This is the greatest of days. This is the day when we applaud our great Savior, Jesus Christ, for defeating death and bringing to His people, to OUR people, life.

What kind of day is this? This is a day of faith!! Jesus has defeated the enemy of death. He triumphed on Easter morning and gives to His people life. In the epistle lesson for today from Revelation 7 the question is asked about the saints – “Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes – who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘these are they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” (Verses 13-14). I hope that this is like a celebration of Easter for you. Like it says in the Bible, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:55-57)

When the French think of Charles De Gaulle they think of him as one of their greatest statesmen and military leaders. What is not so widely known is that he and his wife Evonne had a handicapped child. They loved their daughter immensely. And even with all the affairs of the state Charles would make sure that he and Evonne had time together with their daughter almost every day. But their daughter died early in life and they had a private graveside service for her. After the priest had given the benediction everyone left except for Charles and Evonne De Gaulle. Evonne didn’t want to leave her daughter. But Charles gently touched her arm and said, “Come, Evonne. Did you not hear the blessing of the priest? She is now like the others.”

This is the day of absolute faith in our God that makes all things whole and complete and right in heaven. It says in the Revelation, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4) Listen to this word of triumph in the Old Testament, “On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever.” (Isaiah 25:7-8a)

When the writer of Hebrews gives his word he tells us that we run this race of life and faith with perseverance. “Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” (12:2) We have faith in what He has done – giving the completion of our life in heaven, and also how He has done it – through the confidence we have in Jesus Christ. The Bible warns us and then gives us hope all in the words of one verse of Scripture, “Nothing impure will ever enter it {heaven}, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” (Revelation 21:27) The saints have found their names named by the holder of that book, and so will we, on that great day of our entering our blessed eternity!!

What a crazy day this is!! We can have tears and joy. We miss them and have confidence in their joyous eternity. And we live with an unbending confidence in our Savior. And this can be one of the most compelling days of our life. We are listed among the saints?? Really?? Frank, you’re a saint? Stephen, you’re a saint? Lois, you’re a saint? Me, a saint? Come on!! It can’t be. Saint Peter, sure. Saint Paul, no doubt. We’re getting close to celebrating Saint Nick’s Day. Now he’s a real saint – he gives toys away for free!! Even a Saint Bernard is more of a saint than most of us.

But you’re a saint. (Most of you, that is!!) We’re saints, living saints, because of the work of Jesus Christ. Washed white in the blood of the Lamb. Sticking our tongue and our fist out at death. Hearing our names read from the Book of Life. Saints, everyone. And that compels us to live up to such a high calling!! The text says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run perseverance the race marked out for us.” And then it says, “Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1b, 3)

This is a day when we are compelled to live as saints. Sin is not going to trip us up, we will not be deceived by its lies. We will not become discouraged or weary in this ongoing race. I imagine most people, in the eyes of those who are living, get better after they die. At one funeral the preacher was going on and one about what a great guy the deceased was. He was much better in death than he was in life!! As the widow heard more and more about the deceased she grew a little worried. She turned to one of her kids and said, “Go up there and see if that is your father in the casket.”

We are compelled to live up to such a high calling. But living as saints comes in the most practical and earthy ways. Being a saint is when you spend extra time with someone who needs your ear and your heart and your prayers. Being a saint is doing something before you are even asked. When the pediatrician spends time with the parents and the child both professionally and personally we see them living as a saint. When the teacher takes the time to know the lives of their students they are living as a saint. Saints are ordinary people, sometimes very plain, doing wonderful things because they are called to be a saint in this world.

Someday our names will be listed among those read on this day. We’ll be a saint in heaven. But until that day of our eternity there, we need to live our days as saints here. We have an amazingly high calling in life now.

Some years ago Dennis Campbell was in England and he bought his father a pipe, for Christmas. Dennis’ daughter, just a young girl, Margaret, was with him when he bought it. They were both thrilled to have gotten it for him. When they saw Dennis’s father a few weeks before Christmas, Margaret said to him, “Grandpa, we are going to give you a pipe for Christmas.” Now Dennis Campbell was horrified that she had let the surprise out before Christmas morning. “Margaret, you should not have told Grandpa what we were going to give him for a present. It was supposed to be a surprise!” But she responded, “Don’t worry, Dad, by Christmas, Grandpa will forget.”

Sometimes that is our trouble. We listen but we forget too quickly. Don’t forget what kind of day this is. This is a sad day – our hearts hurt with our losses. But this is the day when we hear of Christ and His victory and His promises and His blessings to all those whose names are in His Book of Life. And this is our day. We have a calling to live our faith, to give a strong witness to the faith that we hold – for the next generations. We want to give them something that they can’t easily forget!! Amen!!