For All the Saints
Some years ago I pulled myself away from my family to lead the Christmas day service at church. It was my turn on our clergy rotation. The services the night before were fabulous, glorious with overflowing crowds, full orchestra and choirs, and high ceremonial. But Christmas day was different: a simple service with no music in the small chapel, mostly for those who were physically unable to make the Christmas eve extravaganza. I'm sad now to say that I was resentful to have to leave our small children on Christmas morning for what felt was a superfluous service.
It was as I expected when I arrived: just a handful of older people were gathered. I put on my clergy-face and plowed forward in the service. I got to the place in the liturgy where it says, "With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven we laud and magnify thy holy Name..." when I looked up to the back wall where the Columbarium was and like in a flash I remembered the many people/friends (including sweet Susan Hawman who died the week before!) that I had buried over the years. I remembered the baby born with a genetic disorder, and later driving Jeremy to the mortuary with the dead baby in his arms, and the faces of all the others whose funerals I presided over came rushing at me. Suddenly I realized that we were not alone. We weren't just a motley crew of broken people hobbling along on Christmas morning; we were actually joining the ongoing chorus of worshippers in heaven who continually and gloriously praise God. Those who live in the praise of God! There were hundreds, thousands of us there that Christmas morning in the small chapel and at that moment I was overwhelmed and stopped the service for a minute to collect myself…
I'll never forget that as the day I discovered "The Communion of Saints," and how the veil that separates us and them is extremely thin. Today, whenever I reach that place in our Anglican liturgy, I remember that what we are doing is far more important than just what "we" are doing. We are joining in what God is doing and what the people who surround him in heaven and on earth are doing.
Christianity is not about me. Not really. It's about God and God inviting you and me to join him in his glorious plan to redeem all of creation. And it all begins when we join our voices with angels and all the company of heaven in the only things that matter for eternity.