The Rev. Keri T. Aubert Isaiah 25:6-9

All Saints Episcopal Church, South Burlington, Vermont Psalm 24

November 1, 2009        John 11:32-44

All Saints Sunday, Year B, RCL           

Welcome you saints!

Welcome Saint ____! Welcome Saint ____! Welcome Saint ____, Saint ____, Saint ____, Saint ____!

Welcome all you saints!

Every person in this room is a saint. Maybe you don’t think of yourself as a saint. If you’re like me, sometimes you do things that aren’t very saintly. But let’s think about what a saint is.

The word saint comes from the Latin word sanctus. Latin is the language originally used by the church. Sanctus simply means holy.

During communion every week, we sing “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might.” That part of the service is called the Sanctus, because in Latin it goes, “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth.”

If saint comes from sanctus, and if sanctus means holy, then saint really just means holy. When I say you’re a saint, then that means you are holy. That doesn’t mean you’re perfect or that you have to try to be perfect. It means that you carry God inside you. You are holy because you carry God inside you. Best of all, you carry God in your own special way.

Even though we’re holy, sometimes we do bad things. Sometimes that makes us feel bad about ourselves. But we are still holy. Here in church we remember that God loves us no matter what. Here in church we remind each other that each of us is holy. This helps us feel strong, and it makes us want to help other people feel strong, too. Even when we’re not in church, if we feel strong, we try to do good things for other people. We are saints, and we act like saints.

Some people do so many good things that they become famous. One famous saint that you’ve all heard of is St. Francis. St. Francis lived about 800 years ago. He grew up in a rich family, but one day he gave away all his money. Then he spent the rest of his life helping poor people and sick people. St. Francis is best known because he loved animals. I know there are a lot of animal lovers here. A few weeks ago, some of us went to the Cathedral to remember St. Francis and to ask God’s blessing on our pets.

St. Francis is a very famous saint. There are other saints in our lives who aren’t so famous. Anyone can be a saint to us. Moms, dads, teachers, friends, grandmothers, grandfathers, children, anyone can be a saint to us. They are holy people who also reminded us that we are holy. They taught us how to be good people and to do good things. They taught us about love. Some of us even think of our pets as being a little bit like saints.

Today is All Saints Day. Today is a special time of remembering saints. We remember famous saints and not-so famous saints. Some of the saints we remember today are alive, but some are dead.

In our gospel story today, Mary and Martha are very sad because their brother Lazarus has died. Lazarus has been buried in a cave. There’s a big rock over the opening to the cave. The sisters have asked their friend Jesus to come and help them. When Jesus gets there, he goes to the cave, and he tells some people to move away the rock. He calls out, “Lazarus, come out.” And Lazarus comes out. It’s a miracle. Lazarus comes back to life and walks out of that cave. His sisters must be very happy to see him.

It’s so hard when people we love die. For some people, losing a pet is almost as hard. We know that our loved ones won’t come back to life. We can feel so sad that we wonder if we will never be happy again. But Jesus tells us that we all live forever with God. Jesus tells us to look for the life around us—in family, in friends, in forests, in mountains, in lakes and oceans. Jesus tells us that we will be okay. Even though we’re very sad, we’ll be okay.

During our intergenerational forum today, we made paper flags that represent people who have been saints to us. I did a couple of flags. Here they are . . . . Would anyone else volunteer to stand up and show us their flag?

We remember saints who have died because remembering keeps them alive in our hearts. Living or dead, we remember saints because we are grateful for the things they did for us. We remember saints as a reminder to ourselves that we are also saints. We remember saints because we can still learn from them.

The most important thing we learn is just how holy we are. We are saints. Thanks be to God.