This coming Sunday is the celebration of All Saints. The celebration of All Saints dates back to the early days of Christianity. The church father Tertullian once said that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” That was certainly the case as Christianity grew with many of the leaders of Christian Church losing their lives to persecution. As these leaders died, their death anniversaries were often held as feast days. By the 4th Century AD, however, there were so many of these saints that people started losing track of which days to celebrate. Around this time, the combination “All Saints” Sunday began to be held, largely to not miss out on honoring minor saints.
There is maybe a lesson in that for us as Christians today, well past the 4th Century AD. Do we celebrate the “minor saints” around us? The Reformation clarified that when we “saints,” that we are not simply talking about those whose faith has given them fame among us in the house of God, but that we are celebrating all those who have faith – because it is that faith that makes us saints. While we endeavor in this sinful world, we are simultaneously sinners, but also saints – and that is a big deal. Also notably, many saints have been among us and have passed from our world quietly, without much ado at their passing. Are we celebrating their faith?
The Reformation also made it clear to us that we are not to celebrate the works of the saints as much as we are to celebrate the faith that created their works. We are to imitate faith rather than imitate works. If we believe that the faith is the fountainhead of the works, it would be silly to get that backwards.
After all, that other Reformation idea comes into play here: the confession that we make that everything is centered in Jesus. Our sainthood is not about our work, it is about His. And because it is about His work that He has included us all in by grace, we know that we are saints – all of us.