Earlier in this worship service, we remembered those persons related to this congregation who died during the last 12 months, and we also remembered others whose living helped shape who we are. It is appropriate that we remember them, and thank God for their lives and for what we received through them.

Each year as I prepare for this service, I am aware that not all the persons we remember are persons we want to use as role models. There are those who made a mess of their lives. There are those who caused us harm and who did more tearing down than building up. But I am also aware these negative role models can be used by the amazing grace of God to help bring out the best in us. God can use even these negative role models to help us learn what not to do and how not to live.

However, today I want us to focus on those who have been a positive influence in our lives. Each of us have our own memories of persons who have helped us discover that we are loved by God—persons who have been role models for us, demonstrating in their living what it is to love God and neighbor. Each of us have our debts to persons who have helped us grow in faith, who have helped us grow and mature in our understanding of the faith. They have not only helped us learn how to talk the talk of faith, they have helped us walk the walk.

Paul saw clearly some of the debt that was Timothy’s. In the passage we read today, Paul wrote: "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that first lived in your grandmother, Lois and in your mother, Eunice, and now I am sure lives in you."

None of us are self-made persons. Each of us is indebted to others who have helped bring out the best in us. Who are they in your life? As I mention a few who have been mentors, role models, enablers in my life, try to identify in your own mind some of the persons who have helped you in your faith journey, who have helped you move toward living as God intends.

There was my grandmother singing "Blessed Assurance" as she did her chores, and my mother being there for me with her fierce motherly love and her devout prayers. There was my grandfather, demonstrating in his own quiet way that strength and gentleness go together, that kindness and firm convictions are compatible. There was my father, taking stands for what he believed was right and being one of the most fair and just men I have ever known. And in both my parents and grandparents, day after day, I saw a demonstration that helpfulness is not something one does every once in awhile, but that helpfulness is really a way of life. In their living and in their conversations, I learned that God is not an idea or a theory, but a living Reality and Mystery at work in life.

There was Ms. Grace and Glenn Johnson and Mrs. Ater and Randal Butler who taught me about God’s grace in Sunday School and demonstrated that grace in their Monday through Saturday relationship with me. Rev. Ray McGrew took me under his wing and let me make mistakes in the church. Rev. Ennis Hill became my primary role model for being a pastor and for preaching. There was the man we called "Brownie," who lived a simple but profound faith and influenced me more than he ever knew.

Bob Breihan, Carlyle Marney, Albert Outler, Schubert Ogdon, John Deschner, Van Harvey, Bill Power, Tom Oden, and others introduced me to the riches of theology and responsible biblical scholarship. Darryl Gray, Ted Richardson, Barcus Moore, and Don Redmond were generous mentors as I began to try to be a pastor. And there have been more laity than I can mention whose caring and faithfulness has enriched my life and encouraged me in my faith journey.

As I have gone through this fragmentary list of just a very few of the persons who have helped bring out the best in me, whom have you thought of? Who are the persons in your life who have helped bring out the best in you?

Early in this worship service, we remembered persons related to this congregation who have died in the last 12 months. It is appropriate that we remember them, and thank God for them and for what we received through them. But the purpose of All Saints Sunday is more than a day for us to remember friends and family who have recently died. All Saints Sunday is a day for more than remembering those persons to whom we are indebted. All Saints Sunday is for remembering and thanking God for all saints across the centuries. It is a time for us to remember just how great and deep our debt is to all those who have gone before us. For example, my debt is not just to my parents and grandparents who, although dead for years, continue to help bring out the best in me. My debt is also to all those whose living helped bring out the best in my parents and grandparents. And my debt is not just to them but to all the persons who helped bring out the best in those who helped bring out the best in my parents and grandparents—and so on, all the way back to Abraham and Sarah and to the ancestors of Abraham and Sarah.

All Saints Sunday is a day of profound remembrance. And it is a day of profound gratitude that stretches back across generations and back across the centuries. But the purpose of this day is even more than one of profound remembrance and gratitude. It is also a day for remembering our responsibility to and for others.

As we face whatever we must face in regard to our family, our work, our community, the world at large, we are to remember that we, too, are to reach out to others just as Paul reached out to Timothy. We who have received so much from the heritage of our faith and from persons we have known within this heritage, we are to share what we have received. Just as others have influenced us for good, so we are to influence others.

How do we do that? Those who have influenced me did not do it by intensely focusing on me and trying to pressure me into being the person they were convinced I ought to be. In fact, those who tried to do this did not influence me the way they thought. The more they tried to pressure and manipulate me, the more I resisted. We are the wrong kind of influence when we are so focused on influencing others we end up trying to manipulate them.

Those who have been the greatest influence in my life were an influence because of the way they lived their lives more than because of how hard they tried to shape the way I lived mine. I would not be surprised to learn that this is true in your experience also.

For example, Brownie, the foreman I lived with for three months as we camped under the stars and worked together clearing the back trails in the mountains, was an influence because of who he was as a man—a faithful man, a caring man, a simple but profound man. Or what made Albert Outler such an influence in my life was not just his great knowledge and teaching skill; it was that he cared about me as a person; he took an interest in me, and when I was having so many questions about the faith and about life, I saw him tremble as we prayed together. If Brownie or Dr. Outler had been asked if they were positive influences in my life, they would probably have said, "I hope so," but I was not their life’s work or even a major project for either of these men. They lived each day trying to be their best selves, trying as best they could to love God and neighbor, and in the process, they cared about me, and their living has been a profound influence on my life. I think this is the way it works. We are to live, trying to be our best selves by striving to love God with all that we are and our neighbors as ourselves. We are to put this striving into action; we are to express it in the way we talk and in what we choose to do and in what we decide not to do. And when we live as our best selves, somehow by the grace of God—probably without us knowing it—we influence others, just as others have influenced us.

 

God, we give you thanks for each of the persons we have known and for the many thousands we have never known whose living has helped bring out the best in us. God, help us live as you intend us to live so that our living can be used by you as a positive influence in the lives of others. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, as we participate in this service of Holy Communion, we remember those persons dear to us who have died this past year. We thank you for their lives and for all the good memories we enjoy; we are grateful for all they said and did that inspires us to live better lives. And thank you for the wisdom and strength that comes to us through the painful memories. God, for all the ways your grace was at work through them, we give you thanks.

Thank you for each of these persons who have been part of this church family:

[read the names of each]

(After each name is read, the congregation responds:

"For ______ thanks be to God.")

God, there are others who have died whose lives have touched us deeply. Hear our prayers of gratitude for these persons we now silently name in our hearts.

(pause)

For the gift of their lives and for all the ways your grace continues to come us through them, we are grateful.

As we gather in Holy Communion with Christ, may we also be aware of our communion with these and all those who have died in the faith. This we pray in Jesus name. Amen.