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.
What a
great day in the life of the Church! We get to sing some of our favorite
hymns, we remember some truly wonderful people, we baptize two children
into the Communion of Saints, we wear Easter and Christmas vestments,
and we have Evensong this afternoon. It is as if we are living out that
wonderful vision recalled in Revelation, that vision of John of a countless
multitude representing every nation, tribe, people, and language worshipping
and praising God, singing with angels in a place of great beauty and
safety and welcome. What a great day for the Church!
Moreover,
All Saints’ Sunday is a celebration of all saints—not just
the really, really extraordinary saints—but all saints, named
and unnamed, the St. Jacks and St. Jills who strived to live by their
faith in Jesus Christ and practice love toward the relatives and neighbors
God had given them. It’s a funny bunch, these saints, but you
have to have a sense of humor to recognize it and also to use a little
imagination in appreciating them. Saints can take decidedly different
forms, such as a voice known simply as “Information Please.”
Paul
Villard tells of a time when his family had one of the first telephones
in their neighborhood. It was in a polished oak case fastened to the
wall on a lower stair landing. Its shiny receiver hung on the side of
the box with the telephone number on it: 1-0-7.
When
Villard was too short to reach the telephone, he used to listen while
his mother talked into it. Once she lifted him up to speak to his father,
who was away on business. For a child of his time, it was like magic!
Then
one day he discovered that somewhere inside this wonderful device lived
an amazing person: her name was “Information please” and
there was nothing she did not know!
Villard’s
mother could dial and ask for anybody’s number—and she would
give it. When their clock ran down, “Information Please”
could supply the correct time. He writes this:
My first
personal experience with this Genie-in-the-Receiver came one day while
my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself in the basement
I whacked my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there
didn’t seem to be much use in crying because no one was home
to offer sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my throbbing
finger, finally arriving at the stairway. And I remembered the telephone!
Quickly
I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing.
Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver and held it to my ear. “Information
please.” There was a click or two, and then a small, clear voice
spoke into my ear, “Information.”
“I
hurt my finger,” he wailed. The tears came, now that he had
an audience. “Isn’t your mother home?” “Nobody’s
home but me.” “Are you bleeding?” “No, I hit
it with a hammer and it hurts.” “Can you open the icebox?”
she asked. He could. “Then chip off a little piece of ice and
hold it on your finger. Be careful using the ice pick. You’ll
be all right,”….she told him with assurance.
“After
that,” Villard writes, “I called Information Please for
everything. I asked for help with geography and she told me where
Philadelphia was and the Orinoco, the romantic river I was going to
explore when I grew up. She helped me with arithmetic and told me
that a pet chipmunk I caught in the park would eat fruit and nuts.
And
then there was the time that Petey, my pet canary, died. I called
Information Please. She listened and said the usual things grownups
say to soothe a child. But I was not to be consoled. Why was it birds
should sing so beautifully and bring joy to whole families, only to
end up a heap of feathers, legs up, on the bottom of a cage? She must
have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly: “Paul, always
remember that there are other worlds to sing in.” She must have
had that vision of Revelation in mind.
In a few minutes we will be welcoming Anna Kristina Meyer and Douglas
Arthur Peterson, Jr. into the Communion of Saints. Saint Anna. Saint
Douglas. It has a nice ring to it. And yet, we might ask, what have
they done to deserve those titles? We could as well ask what have they
done to deserve Baptism? Maybe it has something to do not so much with
what they’ve done or haven’t done but the company they keep.
In this instance, the company they keep are family and friends who love
them and pray for them and offer them to God for God’s blessing.
And the company they keep are all the rest of us who join with their
parents and godparents in promising to be a community of safekeeping
and nurture and acceptance, that place where in the words of the Marriage
service children can grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord.
But we’re
also joined by a far greater company when we join our voices with angels
and archangels and all the company of Heaven forever singing to proclaim
the glory of God and of the Lamb. And so, finally, it is the company
that they keep and we keep with Jesus that will afford us that blessing
of this world to sing in, always remembering from Information Please
that there are other worlds to sing in as well.
From
earth’s wide bounds,
from ocean’s farthest coast,
thru gates of pearl streams
in the countless host,
singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Alleluia. Alleluia.
