Rev. Doug Floyd

All Saints Day 2025
Rev. Doug Floyd

In the early fifth century, St. John Chrsysotom delivers a sermon on the holy martyrs. He says,

What can I say, and of what should I speak?
I skip and am driven out of my mind at this great chastity.
I fly and dance and am in the clouds and am as drunk by this spiritual pleasure.
What can I say, and of what should I speak?
Of the strength of the martyrs?
Of the readiness of the city?
Of the zeal of the Queen of Cities?
Of the gathering of the rulers?
Of the shaming of the devil?
Of the defeat of the demons?
Of the goodness of the Church?
Of the strength of the Cross?
Of the miracles of the Crucified One?
Of the glory of the Father?
Of the grace of the Spirit?[1]

He goes on to compare his joy to that of King David when he welcomed the Ark of the Covenant back into the Tabernacle in Jerusalem. He is rejoicing in the holy relics of the martyrs being moved into the Hagia Sophia. Though it seems a little odd to us, it is a recognition that those who followed Christ into death were not abandoned but shine out in glory. As I read about the honoring of these relics, I kept thinking about the Old Testament story of Elisha’s bones in 2 Kings 13.

A man was being buried when a marauding band of Moabites appeared. The body was thrown into the grave of Elisha, and the person immediately came back to life. The early church saw this story as a picture of how even the bones of God’s holy people were full of glory.

Chrysostom delivers many sermons on the martyrs a week after Pentecost, and it appears the Eastern church began celebrating a feast of Holy Martyrs or All Saints a week after Pentecost. And they continue to celebrate All Saints Sunday a week after Pentecost today.

Feasts like this appear throughout the empire on May 13. The Western church formally began recognized this feast in early seventh century. Then, in the early eighth century Pope Gregory III celebrated a feast “of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world” on November 1. From then on, the West has celebrated All Saints Day on November 1.[2]

The Western church considered these saints as people who reached perfection before they died. They developed a process of recognizing saints through a formal canonization process that required that the saint had performed miracles. In some ways, both the Eastern celebration of martyrs, and the Western celebration of saints are forms of celebrating the risen Christ. Saints and saint stories are rehearsing the story of Christ and the work of Christ in His people. In fact, the liturgy reflected the Easter liturgy.

Today is November 2, All Soul’s Day.  This was a day set aside to pray for those believers who are in purgatory. The formal doctrine of purgatory emerged in the 12th century as theologians were grappling with the intermediate state of souls who not perfected before death. The Eastern Orthodox church and the Reformers (including the Anglican church) rejected the doctrine of purgatory.

I lightly explained the Roman Catholic understanding of saints: those who achieved perfection in this life as demonstrated first by a life of holiness. After interviews, the church designates the person a “Servant of God.” Then the church looks for evidence of “heroic virtue.” If approved by Pope, the person is called “Venerable.” Finally, the church looks for at least two verified miracles. If found, the person is recognized formally as a Saint.

This process is very different from the Orthodox and Reformers view of saints. Originally, the Orthodox called martyrs saints. If we read St. John Chrysostom’s sermons on saints, we will see that he refers to them as “friends of God.” I want to come back to this in a moment.

The Reformers, including the Anglicans, follow Paul’s pattern where he refers to believers as saints. Such as, “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.”[3] In sense the people of God are called saints and are becoming saints. But then there is the image of God’s people being perfected. The writer of Jude says, “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24–25, ESV)

We are the righteousness of God in Christ, and we will be presented as righteous, as blameless, and perfect. We are being changed from glory to glory. Joseph Ratzinger spoke of purgatory in his General Audience on January 12, 2011.[4] Drawing upon Catherine of Genoa he suggests purgatory is part of this life as the believer and is sanctified by the work of Christ. This is much closer to the view of the Reformers.

When we say “saint,” we are referring to members of the community of Christ both present and those who have already died. Markus Barth has said something like, “Christ is Christing Us Christward.” Christ is raising us up into the great communion. We are being changed and when we see Him we will be as He is. When I address God’s people, I like to use the word saints to remember of God’s call upon our lives.

We remember those who Christians who were part of our lives and communities as well as those Christians who were martyred and who lived in ages before us. We are all part of one communion.

With this in mind, let me say a few more words about the Orthodox idea of “friends of God.” The chief image often used is Abraham, a friend of God. This is one of my favorite people in Scripture, and if you’ve heard me talk about him in the past, please forgive any repetition.

Abraham is called out by God. “Go ye forth.” Leave behind your world, your father’s house, your people, your land. I will show you the place where you are going. And Abraham goes. Hans Urs Von Balthasar has suggested this is how we might define the experience of God. It is a going forth. Rather than simply an ecstatic experience (which it can be) it is a call to go forth.

If you are here, I would suggest Christ has gathered you. God has called you to Himself. At some point, in childhood or adulthood, you heard the Gospel of Christ and you responded. Dumitru Staniloae says that within the call of God is the grace to respond to that call. You hear the word of Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit you awake to the truth, you respond.

In a land of idols, Abraham is called into communion with the one true God. He follows. He leaves the past behind. To some degree, all of us leave the past behind. It may be painful things we leave behind. Then again it may be success that we leave behind. Paul left behind accolades, reputation, power and embraced struggle, suffering and eventful death to follow Christ.

The disciples hear the call of Jesus and follow. After following him for three years, he prepares them for His coming crucifixion. He says, ““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:12–15, ESV)

Jesus presents an image of friendship that is rooted in love, a love that lays down its life. He calls them to love God by obeying this command and to love one another with a self-sacrificing love.  This is the call Paul gives the disciples at Philippi.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:3–8, ESV)

A friend of God follows Christ in the path of love, in the path of humility. We are becoming friends, shaped in this way of life.

Abraham follows this call. He will be called to rest on the promise of a coming son though he and his wife are barren. Eventually, he sees the child Isaac, a gift of God to him and Sarah. But we know the story, he must be ready to let go of the child. He must let go of the future and trust God. Of course, Isaac is not sacrificed, but Abraham must live as a man without past or future in naked trust.

He must live in the eternal now with the Eternal Now. He is becoming like God who is Present. All moments are eternally present in God. Abraham must live and walk in the present with His God, not grieving for a past or regretting a past that is gone, nor living in hope of something that has not come.

What does he do in the present? Wherever he goes, he builds altars and digs wells. He worships God in all things, at all times, and in all places. He provides waters of blessing to all around him. Abraham bears witness to the one true God through worship and blessing.

The friend of God gives thanks in all things and becomes a source of life to those around them. He cares for his nephew Lot and even gives him the choice land. He rescues Lot and all of Lot’s community when they are in trouble. He cares for the whole community traveling with him: humans and animals. This sounds like sabbath:

““ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” (Deuteronomy 5:12–15, ESV)

Reformers speak of three covenants in Adam’s life: a covenant with God, a covenant with people (starting with Eve), and a covenant with creation (guarding the land and creatures). We see all three covenants taking shape in Abraham’s life. As friend of God, we also follow in the path of trusting God, loving humans and caring for creation.

Finally, we see Abraham showing hospitality to the three visitors. The Angel of God comes to brig judgment to Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham intercedes for the people in this land. But then he must entrust it all to God.

Abraham gives us a picture of a saint, a friend of God. He calls us by name and we follow. At first, following may simply be getting baptized and joining a community of faith. We cultivate the pattern of giving thanks in all things. This life of thanksgiving overflows to the weary world around us. He may call us to serve specific people or even go to specific places. We follow. We learn to hear and obey His voice in the community of God’s people.

All the while we are learning to love. Some people are easy to love. Some are not. We pray for our enemies or at least those who have hurt us or offended us. We want to see them blessed and redeemed.

By His grace we are becoming a people who live in naked faith, that is in the present with no demands. The three young men about to be cast into the fire for not worshipping the king say, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”” (Daniel 3:16–18, ESV)

We follow the call of love, the call to lay down our lives, to love and pray for friends and enemies alike. We are called saints of God and we are becoming saints God. We are friends of God and we are becoming friends of God.

Today we seek to follow in the call of God, we rejoice in all the friends who have gone before us and prepared the way for our steps.

[1] “Homily of St. John Chrysostom on the Relics of the Holy Martyrs” < https://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2011/10/homily-of-st-john-chrysostom-on-relics.html>

[2] See F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford;  New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 42.

[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 1:1.

[4] See “GENERAL AUDIENCE, Paul VI Audience Hall, Wednesday, 12 January 2011”

 < https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html>