If some of you are working ahead, here's my All Saints Sunday sermon. Some
of the examples apply to my personal life and experiences and my present
parish, but with a few changes, you can of course personalize it to fit
you.

Dave Tietz
St. Paul Lutheran Church
Taylor, TX
d_tietz@compuserve.com

Matthew 5:1-12 All Saint's Sunday - November 5, 1995

I remember my Sunday School teacher from when I was in the 2nd grade. Her
name was Mrs. Dale. Her husband, John, was our Sunday School
Superintendent.

The pastor I had in Confirmation was Pastor Donald Gruenberg. I still
remember his patience and perseverance with us.

My Confirmation Sunday School teacher was Mrs. Roy. She was a real saint;
a sincere, dedicated, committed Christian woman who had her share of family
problems and crosses to bear, but she also had a special way of reaching
out to us kids in her Sunday School class.

Mr. and Mrs. Lemmish were our Luther League sponsors in High School. They
never had any children of their own, but they were willing to give of
themselves, and open up their hearts and their home to us high school
students.

Of course, through all this were my parents who always took us to church
and Sunday School week after week. We sat in the fifth or sixth pew from
the front on the left side, all six of us. My parents were involved in the
church and Sunday School and VBS, serving on the Church Council and
committees. As a youngster, I can remember that the only time we ever had
baby-sitters was when my dad had to work late and my mother had a meeting
at church.

There have been others, of course, who helped mold and shape me:
· teachers at the Lutheran college I attended
· professors at the seminary
· older and more experienced pastors who were my mentors, especially those
first few years out of seminary
· my wife and her parents and family
· and many, many others.

These are some of the saints in my life who helped bring me to where I am
today in my faith-journey with God. You will never read about them in any
church history book. There will never be any days of commemoration in the
church calendar set aside to honor and remember them. No, they are just
ordinary folks like you and me, but in the course of seeking to be faithful
followers of Jesus Christ, in striving to love the Lord with all their
heart, soul, strength, and mind, they ended up touching my life in ways
that changed me and had a profound effect on who I am today.

You know, I really can't remember any one thing in particular that they
taught me, but I do remember them. I don't have a very good memory for
names, so for me to remember someone from 30, 40 years ago means they must
have been special to me. Somehow, by their example and witness and
faithfulness to the love and grace of God, they made an indelible mark on
me.
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What about you? Who are the ones you remember? Who are the saints in your
life who brought you to this place today so that here you are in church
this morning to worship and praise God, hear God's word, and celebrate
God's love and grace through the holy sacrament?!

That's what this All Saint's Sunday is about - to set aside a Sunday each
year to remember and to thank God for all those saints down through the
ages, whose names may not be recorded in the church history books, but
whose names are certainly written in the Book of Life, and whose names and
faces are recorded in our hearts and our memories.

Some of them are long gone and long forgotten,
others are more recently departed whom we remember today,
and some of them are still alive and still play a part in our lives.

But the one thing that all these saints have in common is their love for
the Lord, and their willingness to allow the Lord to use them in reaching
out to and ministering to others, allowing the grace, love, compassion, and
generosity of God to shine through them and flow out from them to us and to
those around us.

Like a stained glass window in church depicting the saints of times past,
what makes them a saint is that the light shines through.
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But on this All Saints' Sunday, as we remember the special people in our
lives, the question that we must face is, "Will anyone remember me? Will I
be remembered with fondness and gratitude and thanksgiving on some All
Saints' Day 10, 20, 40 years from now?"

Think about this for a minute: We have encountered lots and lots of people
in our lives - relatives, friends, colleagues, teachers, neighbors - lots
of people. Why is it that some of them stand out in our memories, while so
many others are just there?

I remember my alcoholic uncle and how he used to demean and belittle my
aunt. Sure, I remember him, but certainly not with fondness and gratitude.

I remember my grumpy, old grandfather who never had a kind word or a warm
smile for his impressionable little grandson. All I learned from him was
how to avoid him, and when he died, I attended his funeral out of
obligation, not out of any great love and respect.

What makes the difference in how we remember someone?

One of the keys is found in our Gospel reading for today where Jesus begins
the Sermon of the Mount with the familiar Beatitudes.

Who are the blessed ones?
Who are the ones that Jesus holds up as the example and model for us? What
are those admirable characteristics displayed in Jesus' own life?

Jesus tells us:
· Blessed are the poor in spirit
· Blessed are those who feel the weight of the world's suffering,
· Blessed are the humble,
· Blessed are those who hunger and long for what is right and good,
· Blessed are those who show mercy and compassion,
· Blessed are the ones who are pure in heart, who don't have any room for
bitterness or anger or avarice,
· Blessed are those who work for peace and reconciliation in the home, the
church, the community,
· Blessed are those who are willing to accept the ridicule and derision of
others in order to stand up for what is right and good as a disciple of
Jesus Christ.

The people that I remember, the saints in my life, were people like that!
And I suspect that the people that you remember on this All Saints' Sunday
share those same qualities and characteristics.

And so once again we get back to that question, "Will I be remembered?
Will you be remembered in the years to come? And, how will we be
remembered?"

Doesn't it seem to make sense that if we want to be remembered in the same
way that we remember with gratitude and thanksgiving the saints in our
lives, then we need to be developing those same traits and qualities and
characteristics that Jesus holds out before us today?

We are called to be loving, kind, compassionate, generous, faithful people.
This is the way God created us to be, and when we are anything less than
that, we diminish our own lives, and we diminish the lives of those around
us.

But when we live according to God's will, we end up experiencing life to
it's fullest, and we bring joy and happiness to those around us. And those
are the kind of people that we remember!
---------------------------
In collecting my thoughts for this All Saints' Sunday, I picked up a copy
of our church's 75th Anniversary commemoration booklet. There are some
amazing facts here, and I'm sure that if I could read between the lines,
some real interesting stories, too.

This congregation was organized back in 1914, but the Texas Synod Mission
Board declined to offer funds to help build the first sanctuary because of
the "discouraging experiences" of earlier mission starts in Taylor!

So one of the early members, a Mr. Fritz Fuchs (pronounced "Fox"),
contributed $1,000 to get the ball rolling! What an act of faith! What
would $1,000 back in 1916 be equivalent to today? Maybe $75,000, $100,000
-- possibly more! The congregation ended up building a $9,000 church
building with a congregation of fewer than 100 voting members!

They had to be generous people of vision, faith, commitment, obedience, and
dedication to Jesus Christ to do something like that so many years ago.
They were people who were looking not only at the present, but to the
future as well.

This building that we're in right now was built in the mid 1950's. How
many of you were part of the congregation then? Do you remember how much
it cost? About $250,000 back in 1956 - (over $1,000,000 in today's
dollars) - just when Texas was experiencing one of the worst droughts on
record!

That was when a loaf of bread was 20 cents, for $2.00 you could fill your
gas tank, and you could get a big candy bar for a nickel! You were rich if
you were earning $10,000 a year back then, and yet this congregation paid
off the mortgage in less than 10 years.

These are just some financial statistics, but they are outward evidence of
faith, vision, obedience, dedication, commitment, generosity, a concern for
future generations. This is the heritage that we share here at St. Paul
Lutheran Church! These are the saints that we remember today. And some of
them are still sitting right here among us!

Again I ask the question, What about you? What kind of obituary or eulogy
are you writing for yourself? How will you be remembered?

And please don't say, "When I'm older, then I'll become involved and be
generous and compassionate." No, it's either now or never. The habits of
a lifetime do not change overnight. They are developed and molded every
day of our lives.

(I want to make clear here that I am not saying that if you are a grouchy,
grumbling, stingy ole Scrooge that God doesn't love you and you'll never
make it into heaven. No, fortunately for us, for all of us, God's grace
and forgiveness is extended to everyone who comes to Jesus Christ in faith
and trust.

All I'm asking is, "How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be
remembered in the same way that we remember those special saints in our own
lives? Well then, begin living today in a way that puts into practice what
Jesus teaches, in a way the follows the example of those special people in
our lives.")

Let love, compassion, mercy, peace, humility, generosity, graciousness
characterize your life. Take a serious look at yourself and see if you are
becoming the person you want to be, the person God made you to be. Strive
for the qualities that you admire and respect in others so that you, too,
might be numbered among the saints that we honor and thank God for today.
----------------------------------------
Holy Communion means a lot of different things. The sacrament is like a
diamond that sparkles differently depending on how the light strikes it and
the angle from which you look at it.

One of the sparkling facets of Holy Communion is that it transcends the
boundaries of time, and in this meal we join with the saints of all times
and all places, in heaven and on earth, celebrating the love, grace, and
forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ.

As we Commune this morning, we are joined in a mystical communion with our
loved ones and saints, past and present, in the company of Jesus Christ,
and we anticipate that Final Day when we will be reunited for all eternity
to share this great banquet in the presence of Eternal Light, Joy, and
Peace.

May we sincerely take to heart the Prayer of the Day the we together
prayed:

Almighty God, whose people are knit together in the one holy Church, the
body of Christ our Lord: Grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in
lives of faith and commitment, and to know the inexpressible joys you have
prepared for those who love you; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
forever. Amen