Sermon Notes — November 2, 2025
Ephesians 1:11-23
“All Saint’s Sunday”
Rev. Dr. Mary Beth Bernheisel
November 2, 2025
Today is All Saints’ Sunday, so by show of hands, how many saints do we have with us here today? Anyone? Saints?
(Wait for it)
I’m going to need all of you to raise your hands…because…all of you are saints! You may ask yourself, “Aren’t we United Methodist? Do we believe in saints?” And the answer is Yes, and No. In the sense that our Catholic brothers and sisters designate certain individuals as saints, no. Although we Protestants do often “borrow” the saints when it’s convenient. We hold our blessing of the animals in conjunction with the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi because Francis is the patron saint of animals. And we all know who Saint Patrick is, and most of us observe Saint Patrick’s Day in one form or another. The first church that I served held a corned beef and cabbage dinner on Saint Patrick’s Day. Some people wear green. Some celebrate in other lively ways.
The Greek word for “saints” is
Hagioi
It appears 61 times in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul is responsible for almost every use of the word hagioi in the New Testament, and every time he uses it he is speaking of saints in the plural. He is talking about Christians as a group.
His letter to the churches in Rome is addressed to
All God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints (Romans 1:7).
If you keep reading his letters, you’re going to keep running into the word. Some translations use the phrase “holy people” rather than saints, or “God’s people.”
What we don’t see in the New Testament is the singular word “saint.” Nowhere in scripture is a single person set apart and identified as a saint. Anywhere the word is used, it refers to the people who make up the body of Christ – the saints. And so, because we are the body of Christ, God’s holy people, we are the saints.
So all the saints, raise your hand.
Very good.
Will you pray with me and for me?
Paul’s letters address a variety of topics – there are as many topics as there are churches. Several of the letters, including this one, give careful attention to the topic of unity in the church. And Paul is particularly concerned about the unity between Jews and Gentiles – Gentiles is another saying “people who are not Jews.” Paul begs the Jews and Gentiles to recognize that they are united together in Christ. Whatever their beliefs and practices were before they chose to follow Jesus, they are now unified in Christ.
Here’s an example. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul tells the Jews and the Gentiles in the church at Ephesus that,
He (Christ) is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall… that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:14-18)
Paul’s goal is to convince the Jews and the Gentiles that Christ has brought them together and joined them together. They are a new humanity. His words to them are based in one time and in one place. But on All Saints’ Day we look to the unity that Christ promises us across time and across space.
There’s a story Canadian Baptist preacher John Gladstone tells about another young preacher who was in the habit of staying after the Sunday evening service to offer the Sacrament of Holy Communion to any who wanted to stick around. One evening the number of people who stayed behind was so abysmally low that he considered not even offering the Sacrament. He did it anyway, and as he was in the middle of the Great Thanksgiving, he read aloud the words that said,
Therefore, with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name.
These days, in our own liturgy, the words go like this
And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.
The young preacher went back and read it again
Therefore, with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name.
And then he prayed
God forgive me, I did not realize that I was in such company.
All Saints Day helps us remember this glorious gift – that we remain connected to all of God’s saints – all of God’s holy people – both those on earth and those who have gone before us to heaven and now sit at Christ’s heavenly banquet – we are all connected. Neither time nor distance can defeat the power of Christ to bring together all of his people – all who have ever lived, all who live now, all who will ever live in the time to come.
We are bound together by the inheritance that we share – the inheritance of salvation that was bought by Christ on our behalf and given to us as a free gift.
And that’s the thing about being saints, you see. We aren’t saints because we have done anything magnificent or glorious in our lives. We aren’t saints because we are great heroes of the faith. We aren’t saints because our lives are exemplary.
We are saints because Christ has made it so – Christ offered us the gift of eternal life and we have received it. That doesn’t mean that we won't make mistakes. It doesn’t mean that we won’t ever be wrong. What it does mean is that Christ has passed his righteousness on to us as in inheritance so that we can live out that righteousness in our own faithful, and sometimes meager and sometimes broken, ways.
Of course I can’t help thinking about my own dad today. The sale of his house was final last Friday and his birthday is next Thursday. If you asked me about the saints in my life I would quickly and easily name my grandmother and my grandfather. It’s going to take some time to get used to the idea of my dad as a saint. He was the neighborhood curmudgeon, although over the years he was able to endear himself to most of his neighbors. He was the epitome of “get off my lawn” “cranky old man.” We disagreed on almost everything politically, and I was obviously on the correct side of every argument, so he was wrong a lot of the time.
But he had redeeming qualities as well. He was the most generous person I have ever known, he wouldn’t pay a penny more for anything than what he thought it was worth, but to friends and family and friends who were like family, to his neighbors and to people in crisis, his gifts were lavish, sometimes almost embarrassingly so.
In the end, though, his life, like your life and like my life, was not measured by a balance sheet of good versus bad, and sin versus virtue. He heard the gospel, as Paul says in verse 13, and believed it, and he placed his hope in it. He knew he didn’t deserve heaven, but could only hope for it because of the gift of salvation offered to him by Jesus. And so on this All Saints’ Day I trust that I am connected to him across time and space, as I am connected to all the saints, as you are connected to all the saints, because of our shared inheritance of salvation in Christ.
At the end of the service today we are going to sing one of my very favorite hymns, “For All the Saints.” In case you are not familiar with it, we’re only going to sing two verses, and I will thank you ahead of time for indulging me. The first verse says,
For all the saints, who from their labors rest;
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed;
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
The lyrics are a bit archaic. They were written a few years ago…in 1864. But it is a song of thanksgiving for all those who have gone before and now rest from their labors.
But what about us? What about those of us who are still in the game? Hold that question and we’ll come back to it.
In verse 11 of the text that Jim read for us, Paul tells us that,
in Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of [Christ]
We are United Methodist. We are free will people, so if the word “destined,” or the word “predestined” in older translations, or even “elected” feels a bit icky, then you’re in good company – those aren’t words that we free will people use. But Lutheran preacher Mark Tranvick reminds us that being chosen by God – or destined, or elected – doesn’t mean that we are saved and others are not. It means that we have been chosen to bless the rest of the world. The election or choosing is not for our own sake, but for the sake of sharing the good news of God’s love with others.
And that is the work of the saints that remain here to carry on the legacy of those who have gone on ahead of us in glory. Robert Dunham reminds us that
The world is ruled by powers hostile to the redemptive power of love and forgiveness…and so God chose saints to carry God’s power into the struggle against all the powers of the world that stand in opposition to God’s love.
And that is where we stand today. We stand as the saints who remain, the saints chosen by God for the sake of the world so that the world will know that the power of love is stronger than hate, so the world will know that because Jesus died and rose again, death no longer has power over us, so that the world will know that God’s power of reconciliation can bridge even the widest gaps between us.
Friends, we are bound together – we’re bound together here on earth and we are bound with all the company of heaven – bound together in the life and death of Jesus Christ across time and space. So as you come to share this meal, remember that you are sitting at the table with all the saints. Christ invites you to share this meal with him, with them, and with each other forever and ever.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.