Far More Than Carboard Cutouts: A Homily for All Saints' Day

 Preached at All Saints, Collingwood, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, 2 November, 2025.  Readings for this Sunday:

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31

And [God] has put all things under [Christ’s] feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Eph 11:23)

Some of you may recall that during the pandemic, there was a mini church fad where cardboard cutouts or framed pictures of parishioners were placed in pews as a way of symbolically gathering.   Seeing your friends and neighbours on a Zoom screen was one thing, but the cutouts and photos were a way of reminding us that the people of God are meant to be together.   This ideal of being together is why our collect for the Feast of All Saints speaks of being “knit together in one Holy Church, the mystical Body of your Son”.

I was reminded of these Covid cutouts recently because I saw a news story (alas, I didn’t bookmark the site and now can’t find it) of how some churches in the US that serve largely immigrant communities are placing cardboard cutouts in their pews to represent parishioners afraid to attend Mass for fear of being detained in ICE deportation raids.    

Besides these symbolic steps, other churches are offering practical ones, such as delivering food to parishioners in hiding and afraid to go outdoors, or paying the rent of those whose wageearners have been detained and deported.    Some US Roman Catholic bishops have excused their parishioners of their obligation to attend Mass if they fear that their safety is at risk.

Today as we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, these examples along with our scripture readings remind us that we are called to a particular (the old Prayer Book/King James word is “peculiar”) people whose common life and actions are guided by the values of the Kingdom of God.     Often we think of saints as exemplary figures, inspirational heroes of the faith like the ones we celebrate during Lent Madness.   But sainthood is a vocation for the many, and not just for the few.  As I lilke to remind you each Sunday, we are all saints in that we are loved and guided by God into a certain way of life.

In our gospel reading from Luke, Jesus has just called his twelve disciples, like a boss in a heist movie choosing his gang, but they aren’t alone.  Jesus and the twelve are surrounded by crowds ofpeople from all over the place, some seeking healing and some seeking miracles, so Jesus is speaking to them.  Our gospel reading begins with the phrase “Jesus looked up at his disciples” (Lk 6:20) but are his disciples limited to the original 12?  The repeated use of the second person plural (“Blessed are you” X 4), which one commentator says is akin to the Southern US “all y’all”, seems to address a much wider audience than just the original twelve disciples.    Likewise, the phrase “I say to you that listen” seems to include anyone who is present, including us, we who are hearing this gospel now.

If what Jesus goes on to say sounds familiar, it is because it is very similar to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel (Mt 5-7).   Luke’s version is sometimes called “The Sermon on the Plain” because it begins with Jesus standing “on a level place” (Lk 6.17).   In this sermon describes a coming age when God will bring about a reversal of roles, so that those currently on top will change places with those kept down, a promise of new hope for the opporessed that is in line with Mary’s Song, the Magificat, at the start of the gospel (Lk 16.19-31).   The idea of a new age, a time when God’s justice and goodness will be fully visible on earth, is a thruline from the prophets to Jesus’ preaching (see Lk 4:16-30).

It’s important to note that while Jesus is talking about things to come, he’s also talking about things to do in the present.  The second part of our gospel uses imperative verbs, commands for those who would follow Jesus:  “Love”, “do good”, “bless”, “pray”, “offer”, and “give”.   What’s remarkable about these commands is that Jesus is directing these good actions towards enemies who are hostile and vicious to the followers of Jesus.    So the final line, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31) is about something that is far more than just “I’ll be nice to you if you’re nice to me”, it’s more “be nice to those who would harm you”.

All this got me thinking, what would this gospel say to a congregation whose members were being snatched off the street and deported to horrific places?   I mean, by now we’ve all seen the videos of heavily armed, masked men wrestling people to the ground and pushing them into vehicles.   We’ve all seen angry and outraged crowds gathered around these arrests, cell phone cameras out and shouting “shame!”, even at the risk of getting tear gassed.  When your friends from church are in hiding or abducted, how can you. bless and pray for the ones doing the abducting?   How do your turn the other cheek with your neighbour is in detention at a secret location without charges?

These are difficult questions, but I think that All Saints Day and its readings offer some resources for the people of God in stressful and uncertain times.   The first, as we’ve noted, is that Jesus’ words impose a particular ethic upon God’s people,  not to doormats or passive victims, but to witness to and give grace where there is no grace to be seen or on offer.   The church as a community of saints, or as Paul says the “mystical body” of Jesus on earth, is to be a community of love, even at times when it seems that love is being overpowered by hate.   The church can and must resist hate, but it must do so out of the gospel command to love.

The second point is that the church’s commitment to love is grounded in our faith that Jesus is our ultimate authority and has our ultimate allegiance.  As Paul says in our second lesson, God has put Jesus “far above all (earthly) rule and authority and power and dominion” (Eph 1.20-23).    For the original believers in the church of Ephesus, this message would have placed Jesus far above Caesar and his claims to be divine and all powerful, and that message must have been profoundly liberating.  For us and for any church today,  especially one whose members are being persecuted or arrested, that same liberation is offered through our allegiance to Christ.   The trap some Chrisitans fall into is to condemn the regimes they don’t like as ungodly but approve of the ones they approve of as having the mandate of heaven.   As Christians we are called to pray for those in power on earth while giving Jesus our ultimate loyalty and allegiance,

On All Saints Day, we recall with joy and gratitude that through God’s love and inheritance we are all called to be saints, people beloved of God.  Being a saint means following Jesus as best we can, and being a community that resists evil and oppression through our bonds of love and through our loyalty to Jesus.   As saints we form the body of Christ across the ages, and while individual saints can be arrested, deported, the body of Christ will endure, will thrive, and will be a blessing for the world.