Traditionally, All Saints Day has had a couple of meanings. In the old days there was All Saints Day, which celebrated those Christians who had been singled out as exceptionally “saints” of the church—your Mother Theresa types, that sort of thing—followed the next day by “All Souls Day” when the rest of the departed of the church was honored—your regular Christians. But, biblically speaking, “saint” is a word that is most often used to connote a regular, faithful Christian.
All Saints Day is a reminder that we are a people who believe in the resurrection of the dead and that those who have gone before us are part of the “great cloud of witnesses,” waiting for the day of when death is defeated forever and earth and heaven are one. Just like those saints who have gone before us, our lives can have eternal significance, our work in the present has eternal implications; we have a place in the coming Kingdom of God and a role in making it a reality in the present.
On All Saints Day, we celebrate that those saints who have gone before us, whether we hold them in our conscious memory as loved ones or whether they are not yet known to us, will all be known in the Kingdom and their work and life celebrated in the light of God’s new creation. We will join together with them in this new reality, unimpeded by death in any form, and become part of God’s glorious future; a new heavens and a new earth, with new bodies for new work, new worship, and new life. In the interim, we still deal with death and the pain of loss, but we do so knowing that it isn’t the last word. We celebrate today because we know that great cloud of witnesses has come before us and we build on their legacy.
So, on this All Saints Day, I invite you to offer a special prayer for a person or persons who is now part of the great cloud of witnesses, awaiting the resurrection at the last day. Thank God for their influence in your life, thank God for those whose influence you may not even realize. And (because of resurrection we can be this bold), pray for those who will come after you and build on the work you are doing today for Christ and the Kingdom. Let us be saints who share the legacy of saints!