November 2, 2025

Sermon Transcript

Let us now sing the praises of famous men, our ancestors in their generations. Some of them have left behind a name, so that others declare their praise. (Ecclesiasticus 44:1, 8)

If you are not in a hurry, and walk around the interior of Grace Church, you might take the time to read the memorial plaques inscribed on the walls, or fastened to the pews, or etched on the stained glass windows. Some are easy to read. For others, you’ll need binoculars. One stone plaque in the northwest corner of the nave tells the story of a man named Moses Rogers. Sacred to the Memory of Moses Rogers, reads the big, bold headline. Moses Rogers was, in fact, one of the founding members of Grace Church. From the plaque we learn that he was born in 1750, and died at age 75, in November of 1825.

If you read between the lines, the rest of the tablet suggests what must have been a lifetime of considerable heartache. Moses Rogers lost his wife, Sarah, in 1816, and lived his last nine years without her. In 1793, Moses and Sarah lost their eleven-year old daughter, Hester. We don’t know the cause, but it was likely some dread disease that with modern medicine, today’s children would shrug off easily. Or with proper vaccinations, they would not even catch it at all. We can imagine that their grief was intolerable. How did Moses and Sarah press through it? Perhaps knowing that their younger daughter, 5-year old Julia Ann, needed them. Sadly, 21 years later, they would lose Julia Ann too, who was by then 26 years old, and the wife of Francis B. Winthrop. Again, we don’t know the cause, but my guess would be she died in childbirth. Such were the times. The concluding lines of the plaque indicate that their bodies are all entombed in the family vault at the cemetery of Trinity Church.

So today we sing the praises of famous men, and famous women, too. Today, we sing the praises of Moses Rogers, who founded a church, and wrestled on till life was ended, exactly two-hundred years ago this month. He is one of the many saints of Grace Church. What better day than All Saints’ Sunday to remember him? In fact, we’ve lit a candle and placed some flowers beside his plaque. I hope you’ll visit and read it before being on your way. But today, we remember more than Moses Rogers. The writer of Ecclesiasticus, thought to be named Sirach, reminds us that the multitude of saints includes many who left behind no memorial: Of others there is no memory; they have perished as though they had never existed; they have become as though they had never been born, they and their children after them. In other words, not even with the world’s most powerful pair of binoculars will you find their names in the annals of history. But Sirach writes that these also were people of compassion whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten.

Not forgotten by whom? Well, we like to think that we have not forgotten them. Today we’ve printed a long list of names. These are departed loved ones and friends who were people of compassion. Their righteous deeds touched us, even though the world took little or no note of them. They live in our memory. We light candles for them, and we say, “we remember you.” Surprisingly, Moses Rogers’ descendants remember him. This past summer, we had a visitor at the parish house who turned out to be the great, great, great, great grandson of Moses and Sarah Rogers. The visit inspired me to do a Google search on Moses Rogers, and I was stunned by how much I could learn about both him and Sarah. I’d seen the plaque a hundred times, and apart from thinking that not too many people are named Moses anymore, took no further note of it. But he and Sarah were leading citizens of New York City. They did many wonderful things. They had three other children beyond those mentioned on the tablet. What they did to launch Grace Church was extraordinary. Who knew? His descendants knew. The internet knew. Human memory can be an impressive thing.

Today, however, we are not here to celebrate human memory. Even we forget. Eventually, the world takes little note of who we were or what we did. So our message today has to be larger than, “we remember.” Rather, we are here to proclaim that God remembers. In some cultures today is known as “the day of the dead.” In fact, this week we had people sending us names, asking that they be included on our list for the day of the dead. I was taken aback every time I heard the phrase. Mind you, now, I wasn’t angry, just disappointed. If this is the day of the dead, then we should all just pack up and go home. We of all people are most to be pitied. But today is not the day of the dead. Today is the day of resurrection. Every Sunday is a day of resurrection, but especially so today. We light candles today for those on the list not to say that we remember our beloved dead, but to celebrate that all are alive to God in the Communion of Saints. God remembers them. God thinks us into existence and remembers us. We live, and move, and have our being in the mind and memory of God. The question is, will the memory of you cause God to smile or frown? If you are sacred to God’s memory, then you have the blessing of life evermore. If God thinks of you and smiles, chances are you’re a saint, even if you feebly struggle. If God thinks of you and frowns, well, you’re something else. I don’t know what, but it isn’t a saint.

Which will it be for you: saint, or something else? It’s always easy to follow what one of our hymns today calls “the sinful throng.” Last summer my family and I were on one of our driving vacations, and onto the radio came a song by the Australian band, AC/DC. The song is entitled, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” and I have to admit, it is a rocking, rolling, rollicking piece with a fun tune. That evening I wanted to hear the song again, so in our hotel room I called it up on my phone. What I found was a video of AC/DC performing the song in concert in a vast stadium. I looked, and beheld a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. They jumped and swayed as if one. They pumped their arms and shouted the refrain in unison and with unbridled glee: “dirty deeds done dirt cheap.” The lead singer had a call-and-response going with the audience. He would growl: “dirty deeds,” and the sinful throng would shout back, “DONE DIRT CHEAP.” Yes, they were just having fun, and yes, I am overthinking it. But I do wonder about the interplay between what we sing and what we believe, and then, consequently, what we believe and what we do. Do you have problems in life that you can’t solve? Just hire a hit man who will do the dirty deed, cheap.

On the same driving trip I saw another invitation to celebrate a lawless life, and give into our base instincts. It was a billboard for a law firm, and the headline read: Just Because You Did It Doesn’t Mean You’re Guilty. Of course, the implication is that even if you did the crime, you shouldn’t have to do the time. You can and should get away with it. Just hire the right lawyer. Do you feel it these days – this race to the bottom of morality? Actually, I don’t think our day is any more sinful than previous generations. The temptation to follow the sinful throng is always there, dressed up differently in each and every age. The saints of God are simply those who struggle to resist the voice leading them astray. The saints of God are those who listen for the voice of God and run toward it. Thanks to Jesus, we can be confident that the gate of heaven will open, and God will greet us with a smile.

If the world pressures us to conspire with dirty deeds done dirt cheap, the saints strive to do loving deeds often at great cost. How do they do it? Are we talking about personal grit and determination? Do we mean will power and tapping into some goodness in ourselves to help ourselves? No, it is not by own strength that we grow into the full stature of Christ, but by the grace of God. By the power of the Spirit, you and I have the presence of Jesus available to us at every minute of every day. Also, we have the Communion of Saints to assist us. Remember, we are all alive to God. Heaven is not a place where you rest in peace. The saints in light are not glorified sloths hanging from the clouds. The Communion of Saints is an active, living, helping, purposeful fellowship with members on both sides of eternity. We pray for those who have died. They pray for us. We belong to Christ. They belong to Christ. The Lamb in the midst of the throne is their shepherd. He is our shepherd too. Do you have problems in life that you can’t solve? You can call on the Communion of Saints. You can call on Jesus.

We are all part of the church, which is the resurrected Body of Christ. Indeed, if we have been buried with him in baptism, much more surely will we be raised with him resurrection. Throughout the Epistles St. Paul draws parallels between baptism, death, and resurrection, all of which make All Saints’ Day a perfect occasion for baptism. Jesus guides the saints in light to springs of living water. He brings us today to the waters of baptism. Also, he brings us today to his table, to share in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, by which we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Indeed, we are knit together in one communion and fellowship through the mystical body of Christ our Lord, who strengthens us to do his will, and works within us that which is well pleasing in his sight.

If All Saints’ Sunday is the perfect occasion for baptism and the Eucharist, it is also the perfect occasion for kicking off our Annual Campaign. Surely, you saw that one coming? I can’t imagine that you didn’t, given the pledge brochures that are set before you in the pews. Besides, the connection between sainthood and giving shouldn’t be too much of a stretch. The saints of God give of themselves to build up and strengthen the church. Moses and Sarah Rogers gave of themselves, despite all of their heartache and loss, to establish and build up Grace Church. Today we join hands with them, and out of gratitude to God for all the blessings of this life, follow their godly example. Indeed, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses like them, who urge us to run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith.

Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Recently, I saw online a nostalgic video of classic television commercials that people of a certain age might remember. One of the ads dates from 1969, and aired nationally for 14 years. It featured a 12-year old boy named Anthony, who lived with his large Italian family in Boston’s north end. The commercial begins with Anthony’s mother screeching his name twice from a second-floor window of their tenement apartment. We then see Anthony running through the tangle of urban streets and people in response to his mother’s voice. The narrator of the commercial explains how on most days, Anthony will take his time going home. “But not today,” says the narrator, as Anthony races through the streets. “Today is Wednesday, and as every family in the north end will tell you, Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day.” The commercial ends with Anthony’s running up the stairs to his apartment, to be greeted by his smiling mother, and his family who has prepared the feast.

When I saw the old commercial, I thought of today. Today is not Prince Spaghetti Day. Neither is it the Day of the Dead. But it is All Saints’ Sunday. It is the day of resurrection. And it is Pledge Sunday. It is a day to run with perseverance the race that is set before us.

The saints in light are those who hear the voice of the Lord and run toward it. They enter the gate of heaven, and receive the smile of God. For there the Lord has ordained the blessing: life for evermore.