All Saints’ Day celebrates the baptized people of God, living and dead, who are the body of Christ. As November heralds the dying of the landscape in many northern regions, the readings and liturgy for this day call us to remember all who have died in Christ and whose baptism is complete. With the scriptures as our compass and the confessions our map, we navigate our own faith journey with “this great multitude… robed in white” surrounding and supporting us (Rev. 7). Each Sunday at the Lord’s table we get a foretaste of this end time reunion as we gather with the faithful of every time and place, trusting that the promises of God will be fulfilled and that all tears will be wiped away in the new Jerusalem. Today as we light candles, we remember and give thanks for this communion of saints.
image: Greek icon of the second coming. 1700s. Sotheby’s: Icons, Russian Pictures and Works of Art. London, 1991, p 155.