All Saints Sunday

Albrecht Durer "Adoration"

Today at church was All Saints Sunday. We remember all the members of our church who have moved from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant over the last year. In non-church speak that's all the folks who have died. At our church we sing the hymn "For All the Saints" and after each verse pause as the pastor's take turns reading from the Necrology (Non-church speak: the list of names of the people who have died.) It makes me cry and feel great thanksgiving at the same time. I grew up with hymns in church. Then moved to the more contemporary praise chorus worship. Didn't like the hymns much as a kid. Didn't understand them. As an adolescent and young adult theworld of comtemporary worship music was very very appealing. It was my languarge. Now, though, I have a new appreciation for the complexity of the lyrics of hymns. There is often so much good theology represented in beautiful language. "For All the Saints" is one of the great hymns in my mind. Somehow that hymn makes me feel like the two churches, visible and invisible are connected in one reality at least for a moment.

For All the Saints

1. For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

2. Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
thou Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
thou in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

3. O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
and win with them the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

4. O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

5. And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

6. From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!