All Saints Day

Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is really just the prelude to All Saints Day when we recall and celebrate those who have preceded us in the faith. It is one of the ways we honor our fathers and mothers.  Once in our Allegro Music teachers club, we reviewed who our music teachers had been and who their teachers were.  It was interesting to wonder if Mozart or Beethoven or Bach or someone else had been the instigator of our learning.

In our families we consider our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc., and very quickly develop our physical family tree or genealogy.

This election year we have considered how our country began and what the reasons for pledging the lives and worldly goods to support this fledgling constitutional republic.  Our buildings give silent witness to where their priorities lay.  Most public buildings in Washington, D.C., are adorned with scriptures designed to show our allegiance.

Similarly, our faith has a history as well.  Who was the first person to tell us about Christ?  What began the conversation? Who were our Sunday School teachers and pastors?  Reaching farther back, we would think about those who translated the scriptures into a language we could understand and who created the printing press (Guttenberg) on which the pages were printed and we were able to handle them ourselves and read them for ourselves never having to rely again on someone to interpret the scriptures.  Who were the missionaries who braved the possibility of martyrdom to spread the good news? Who were the apostles and disciples who gave their lives that the faith might continue?  Who were the movers and shakers in the faith?  John Wesley, Martin Luther, and many others.  We are so blessed to have had people whose understanding of their inner purpose outshone their self-centered focus on themselves so astoundingly that they were willing to give their time, talents, and financial resources to pass down the hope for the future.    

And what kind of people are we?  So self-focused we only care about what we get out of it – fame, financial remuneration, power?  Abraham was chosen because God knew what kind of man he was. (Genesis 14:18) He was a man of faith and not only lived in God’s presence but taught his children (Genesis 18:19, Deuteronomy 4:10, 6:7, 11:19).  One has to have a sense of the future and how we and our children fit into that future. Many people think we’re in the final generation, that Christ will come back to rapture his church, or better yet, as King of kings and Lord of lords for a millennial reign so we don’t have to worry about our children.  But what if it takes longer than we think.  

All Saints Day helps us remember our lives are intertwined with others both in the past and in the future.  We have accountability to those who preceded us and responsibility to those who follow.  Our lives are not our own, for our own lusts and desires alone.  What will we leave our posterity?  Will they have faith at all? (Luke 18:8) Or will they be left adrift?  Will they enjoy the benefits of a nation under God, conceived liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Or will they be lorded over by powers, principalities and rulers of the darkness of this present world?  (Ephesians 6:12)

(Cathy Bayert is pastor of Greybull First Baptist Church.)