Since I was preaching at a sister congregation (within our circuit) this past Sunday I missed our congregation's celebration of All Saints' Day (one of my favorite Sundays of the year).  Below you will find a newsletter article I wrote for the month of November reflecting on some current events and theological issues related to our communion with God's saints.

 

 

On November 4th our congregation will remember the saints from among us who have gone to their heavenly home, as well as the much larger “company of heaven,” on All Saints’ Day.  God has done great things for us, may His Name be praised in all the earth!  Our guest preacher for that day will be the Rev. Peter Preus from our sister circuit congregation, The Lutheran Church of the Triune God in Brooklyn Center.  He will be preaching in the Divine Service and then leading bible class on the difficult topic of suicide (especially among Christians).

One week later our country will be remembering the veterans of our armed forces who live and work among us and who have served our nation with their lives in ways that are impossible to repay.  According to a Reuters UK story there were 17,754 suicide attempts among U.S. veterans (about 48 per day) in 2010, which is up from 10,888 total attempts in 2009.  Among many service men and women the military is a place of order, clarity of thinking and mission, a way to advance forward in life, and a way to give back to the nation that has given so much to all of its citizens.  Yet, to be put in a position where you may have to kill, or in fact have had to kill, another human being takes a toll on the human psyche.  Imagine the deep wounds of those people who feel they must kill themselves—whether civilians or military people, whether Christian or not. 

November 11 is not only Veterans Day, it is also a minor festival in our church calendar:  St. Martin of Tours.  He grew up as a military kid in the Roman army and himself joined when he was quite young.  At an even earlier age he had gone to the Christian church in Italy against the wishes of his parents, being baptized some years later in his late adolescence.  He became a follower of a strong proponent of the Nicene Creed and himself promoted it in southern France.  Martin founded a monastery and later became bishop of Tours and the surrounding region.  Over one thousand years after his death a little German baby boy was brought to the baptismal font in Eisleben, Germany on November 11 (1483) and given the name “Martin” as his Christian name, a person we know today as Martin Luther.

In between All Saints’ Day and St. Martin’s Day (also Veterans Day) will come election day:  Tuesday, November 6th.  Both amendments to the state constitution which will be on the ballot have had television commercials and billboard advertisements (both pro and con) that have made use of veterans promoting either a “yes” or a “no” vote on the Voter ID amendment and the Marriage amendment.  In some ways this makes sense:  a soldier has added authority when they speak that commands respect.  It is interesting that this must be one of the few presidential elections in our country’s history where neither of the main candidates for the presidency has served in the armed forces of our nation. 

The connection I would like you to ponder is the way in which the saints (and by this I mean, in this context, those who have died in the Christian faith from our congregation and from the wider Christian church) have a voice in the ongoing life of the church (and our own congregation).  G.K. Chesterton, an apologist for Christianity in England in the early 20th century, has an interesting quote in this regard:   “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.”  So this means when faced with challenges to doctrine and practice, to faith and life, contemporary Christians might consider the lives and the writings of faithful Christians of the past.  We might examine the writings of Luther on baptism or the writings about Martin of Tours in his defense of the Nicene Creed to gain insight into issues we face today. 

Within our own congregation we might consider the fidelity of fellow members who are now with Christ in heaven.  I think of people like Clarence Oswald, who was in church with his beloved wife Donna Sunday after Sunday.  I think of people like Ardis Radintz, who insisted that a Lutheran congregation should worship in a Lutheran way and led us in doing this.  I think of people like Herbert Lucht, who may have been absent much of his life from the congregation, but maintained a simple faith in Jesus his Savior.  I think of fellow Christians who commit suicide, who show us the deadly power of the Old Adam within each one of us and who also show us the even stronger power of our baptism into Christ, the New Adam.  Aren’t these things what we would want to foster among all of our members:  ultimate confidence in Christ (sometimes in very quiet and simple ways) and not in ourselves, a clinging to baptism, a joy in coming to the Lord’s house to worship as Lutherans who know why they are Lutherans.  None of these amazing qualities is impossible, we have had them lived out in our midst through the years and they are all (the qualities and the people who displayed them) gifts from God.  May this Lutheran congregation be always faithful to the Word of God, Luther’s Small Catechism (and all the Lutheran Confessions), and even to the lives and the confession of those who have lived among us and now preceded us to our heavenly home.