All the Saints at Rest

This week the Christian Church celebrated All Saints Day. Part of the Sabbath principle that we have seen today required Israel to love their neighbors by giving them rest, forgiving their debts, and setting them free. And many times Sabbath keeping meant have great feasts that included children, neighbors, friends, and even strangers. This Eucharist is the fulfillment of those Sabbath Feasts. Here, we sit down every week to rest in the presence of God. We sing, because this meal is a celebration, a feast. And we pass bread and wine to one another because we are one body, one family, and we serve each other as a token of our love for one another. This means that our celebration here is one of the most important ways we keep the Sabbath and obey the Fourth Commandment. Here we rest in the provision of God in Christ, and we serve one another with that same provision, that same joy, that same rest. But we are not the only ones celebrating this communion. The communion that we share here also includes that great cloud of witness throughout the world and in heaven. The writer of Hebrews says that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witness. We are seated at this table in the heavenly places with Adam and Eve and Able and Abraham and Deborah and Gideon and Ruth and David and Ezekiel and Peter and Mary and Athanasius and Augustine and Gregory the Great and John Huss and Martin Bucer and George Whitefield and John Wesley and J. Gresham Machen are in that cloud of witnesses, those who have already entered their final Sabbath rest, and they are rejoicing with us, cheering us on. Every Sunday is All Saints Day, every Eucharist is the celebration of this one loaf, this one body, the one baptism, the one death and resurrection, the one God and Father of us all, and the one Holy Spirit that binds us together. Therefore come and rejoice, come and rest: this is the Sabbath.