All Saints Sunday is one of those celebrations with a bifocal emphasis. On the one hand, it is an in-house event, a celebration of the community of faith and those who have walked as a part of the community and now have entered into God’s eternity. We give thanks for their lives and witness among us, embracing the unique giftedness they shared as a part of the fellowship. While worship on this day is not a funeral for those who have died since last we celebrated, there are often elements of lament and grief that reside alongside the gratitude and celebration of life and the witness of the community as a whole. This service can be, and often is, an intensely personal one to the congregation that gathers week by week.
On the other hand, All Saints is an opportunity to look beyond the walls of the local congregation and be reminded that, in Christ, we are bound up into a larger fellowship of those who look like us alongside those who do not look like us, sound like us, or gather like us. We can push the horizons wider to see that we are a part of something bigger than we can imagine. On this day, we celebrate the saints who have contributed to our growth, even though we may never have met them. We give thanks for those who have taught us about discipleship even when they spoke a different language or gathered with different traditions. It is another opportunity to unite with the worldwide body of Christ as we worship this day.
Pay attention, then, to the writers of prayers and hymns and songs today. Let the liturgy of the day help find a way to celebrate the diversity of the faith as we worship. Let the unfamiliar rhythms and images suggest an attitude of awe and wonder at the beauty of God’s people. At the same time, lean into familiar practices and rituals of this day. What have you always done as you celebrate the saints of the church? Do those things again! More than that, think about them as you do them. Give space for interpretation. Why this banner? Why that procession? What have these practices meant to the people of your place throughout the years? Who is represented in the furniture and décor of the space where worship happens week after week? Claim your own history even as you grow into the history of the whole church.