Saint Sam and Saint Christy.  Saint Betty and Saint Lou.  Saint Ruby and Saint J.D.  You’ve probably never heard of any of them or found their faces in a stained-glass window somewhere.  But they and countless others are saints indeed.  For according to the Bible, saints are not just those special persons who have been recognized or canonized by the Catholic Church.  Rather, the saints are simply all those who have been set apart for God’s purposes, which means all who follow Jesus Christ.

That’s why the apostle Paul addresses his letter to the Corinthians to all those “sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people” (1 Corinthians 1.2).  It’s why that fisher of men, Peter, tells the believers scattered throughout the Roman provinces that they are a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,” indeed “God’s special possession,” (1 Peter 2.9), picking up a term used centuries before way back in Exodus 19.5 and Psalm 135.4.  

All of which means that if we’ve relegated saints simply to those impressive believers who lived long ago, we’ve missed the whole idea.  For you don’t even have to die to be called a saint; rather, you just have to live for the Lord.

The “poor man’s bishop” understood this, I think.  For before moving to Wakefield, William Walsham How may have had a lofty title—Bishop Suffragan of London—but he was actually the Anglican leader of the slum section of that great city, a position with no social prestige and a rather small salary indeed.  How, in turn, rode the buses rather than a private coach as he lived and worked with those who were his people.  It’s said that he had no purpose in life other than to help those around him, and he even turned down bishop postings in Manchester and Durham paying twice as much in order to stay in the slums.

The many hymns he wrote likewise spoke to common folks, following his belief that a “good hymn should be like a good prayer—simple, real, earnest, and reverent.”  And that was especially true for a song he wrote for All Saints Day in 1864, based upon the affirmation in the Apostles’ Creed about the communion of the saints.  Every time I sing it, in fact, I am almost brought to tears thinking about not just those “who from their labors rest,” but the saints around me right now who, like me, still may “feebly struggle” while those who have gone on glory shine.  For as How reminded us, “yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.”

On this All Saints Day, take a moment to say a prayer of thanksgiving not just for the holy ones who have gone before us into the church triumphant, but for those you know who are serving God still here in the church on earth.  For even when “the strife is fierce and the warfare long,” as Bishop How expressed it, let that distant triumph song yet steal on your ear and rejoice whenever “hearts are brave again and arms are strong.”