Remember, Renew and Receive, Rededicate
Grant that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts, we may show forth in our lives. In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
All Saints Sunday is such a special Sunday in the church. It’s one of the seven principle feast days. There are a lot of things that happen in this service: we remember, we renew and receive, and we rededicate. I’d like to spend a few moments with you this morning exploring these different aspects of the service, starting with we remember.
We remember and give thanks for the saints in our lives: past, present, and yet to come. I invite you to think about some of the people in your life—not just the ancient famous ones—but the everyday saints in our lives who have helped shape us, mentor us, and model for us what it is to live a faithful and meaningful life. Saints come in all different shapes and sizes and vocations. William Stringfellow described saints as “those men and women who relish the event of life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away.”1 To give it away.
Following this sermon, we will renew our baptismal vows and joyfully receive five infants into the household of God. The newest saints in the church are about to be blessed, have water sprinkled on them and I’m sure they will make joyful noises in response! I want you to listen carefully and prayerfully as we renew our baptismal vows. They’re important. We’re not just saying words. We’re making a commitment to follow the way of Christ. Lewis Weil and Charles Price wrote that “Baptism is not an insurance policy for salvation but rather a commitment to a radical lifestyle that’s different from that of the world.”2 What we commit to matters. It gives our lives meaning and makes a difference.
Today we rededicate ourselves to showing forth in our lives the vows that we’re about to make. Meditate on this one: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons? Loving your neighbor as yourself? It’s not just about vows. It’s a way of life and living as followers of Christ. As we rededicate ourselves, today’s gospel lesson gives us a pretty good roadmap. The reading is commonly known as the Sermon on the Plain. Just to put it in context, Jesus has come from praying on the top of the mountain in Luke’s gospel. He then calls his disciples that go down to this level place that’s filled not just with his newly minted disciples, but people who have gathered from all the surrounding regions: rich, poor, diverse in every way. But what unifies the people is that they’ve come to be healed. They believe that if they can just touch this man Jesus or be touched by him, they will be healed and made whole. Isn’t that something we all long for at different points in our lives? And we know that healing and wholeness come in many different forms.
Jesus gives a pretty pointed sermon—you may have noticed! Barbara Brown Taylor calls it the Beatitudes and the woeitudes.3 There’s a little something for each one of us in it. Jesus gives whole new meaning to the adage that sermons are designed to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. His first concern is for the poor, the hungry, those who weep. As we think and pray about his teaching: what does it mean for us? What does it mean in our time, in our context, to faithfully follow Christ?
We don’t have to look very far to know the needs that are right in front of us. You’ve seen the news. You’ve read the papers. We’re at a critical juncture right now with people who have lost their jobs or been furloughed, and with people who’ve lost their SNAP benefits—their food stamps. It’s the beginning of the month. People shouldn’t have to decide whether they should pay their rent, buy medicine, or feed their children. Not in the Kingdom of God.
What are we called to do? How do we faithfully respond? Well, the Dean announced at the beginning of the service that one thing that the Cathedral is doing is to partner with an organization called the Shared Food Network, which works with community faith organizations around our region. In our case, we will ensure that three hundred families will each have a month’s worth of groceries.
The SNAP benefits impact at a minimum forty-two million people. Forty-two million Americans—that’s one in eight. And of the recipients, thirty-nine percent of them are children, twenty percent are elderly, and ten percent are disabled.4 Our food banks are seriously stretched, and this is not just a Washington regional issue. It extends across the country. People are hungry, and they’re frightened. And if this situation weren’t dire enough, the Administration has stopped funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistant programs, which together provided one billion dollars of support for food banks annually.
This is tough. How do we respond? How do we serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves? Join with us. Support your local food banks. The Capital Area Food Bank in our region could use your support. Some people are able to write a check. Others can donate food. Others can volunteer. There are so many ways to serve and to stand side by side with those who are suffering.
For those of you who are struggling, my message for you is we see you. We care about you. You’re our neighbors. And with God’s help, together we will meet this moment of critical need, feeding the hungry, loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Words attributed to St. Teresa of Avila capture it this way: Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. We can do this together with God’s help. Jesus calls us to do to others as you would have them do to you.
I leave you with the prayer that I shared earlier. It is part of our Chorister’s Prayer. “Grant that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts and what we believe in our hearts, we may show forth in our lives.” Let it be so for you and for me. Amen.
1William Stringfellow quoted in sermon by F. Dean Lueking, “Saints in the Making,” Christian Century (October 21, 1998, Volume 115, Issue #28). https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-03/saints-making
2 Louis Weil and Charles Price, Liturgy for Living, (Harrisburg, PA, Morehouse Publishing, 2000), 69.
3 Barbara Brown Taylor, “God’s Ferris Wheel,” Home by Another Way, (Boston, Massachusetts, Cowley Publications, 1999), 53.
4 Mariana Alfaro, “Stressed food banks brace for SNAP stoppage: ‘We cannot meet the gap,’” Washington Post, October 30, 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/10/30/food-banks-snap-loss-hunger-crisis/