Teaching Each Other Grace

“Teaching Each Other Grace” based on Psalm 149 and Ephesians 1:11-23 – An All Saints Sunday Sermon

As people of faith following the seasons of the church year, we are blessed with times of waiting, with Holy Days, and with times for growth and development. For most people, Christmas and Easter are the holiest of Christian holidays, which I think is consistent with the way the seasons of the church year are set up. That said, All Saints Day/Sunday is a Holy Day in the church year, and while it gets less attention than the big holidays, it often feels like the holiest of all to me.

According to the United Methodist Book of Worship, “All Saints is a day of remembrance for the saints, with the New Testament meaning of all Christian people of every time and place. We celebrate the communion of saints as we remember the dead, both of the Church universal and of our local congregations.” I’ll amend so far as to say that I think of saints as those who have lived their love of God and/or God’s creation and thus taught me how to be better at loving – and people who have taught me about God and love have come from more faith traditions than only Christianity.

Today we particularly remember the names of those who have died in the past year, and in doing so we are able to see the impact of their collective witness. In this moment in time, it can feel a little bit shaky to be people of faith deeply committed to love, justice, compassion, inclusion, and humility. We see policies and procedures of death and destruction all around us, and sometimes we struggle to hold on to hope.

But, when we look at the lives of the saints, when we think about how they lived their lives and how they impacted us, I believe we are able to be steadied. Those who came before us lived their faith for good and it mattered. They lived grace. We can do it too. These saints today were extraordinary people who changed the world for the better – but that’s true every year.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, we stand in the midst of the great cloud of witnesses, they taught us, they teach us, and we too can live grace.* (God’s unconditional love.)

Or, as the Psalm says, “God takes pleasure in God’s people.” And so do we. As Paul says, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.” Amen to that.

So, in remembering our saints and giving thanks to God for them, we are reminded that we too are part of a community whose work is to teach each other grace.

And, on that basis, I’ll end today with a poem about death and life.

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention,
how to fall down into the grass,
how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed,
how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

And, if you are willing to take suggestion, may the plan for your wild and precious life being sharing grace like those who have gone on before us?

Amen

Rev. Sara E. Baron 
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady 
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305 
Pronouns: she/her/hers 
http://fumcschenectady.org/ 
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

November 2, 2025