It was December of 1944, and a platoon runner by the name of Paul Kinney was running with a message from his commanding officer to the platoon nearby. It was in the middle of the Ardennes forest in Belgium,
on a day of heavy casualties in that historic event known as the Battle of the Bulge.
As he ran, a bomb exploded in front of him sending him flying, and he lay unconscious, and semi-conscious for time out of mind on the floor of the forest.
Near death, he received the gift of new life from an enemy.
In a random act of kindness, a German soldier rescued him and he spent the rest of the war in a POW hospital.
He has spent his life in the shadow of that experience, half-blind and hearing-impaired,
And very aware that without the mercy of another human being he would be dead.
When I think of the saints we honor on this day, I can't help but remember this man, this anonymous German soldier, who by an act of mercy, saved the life of an enemy.
He is not the only person to do so; but his act has had a particular impact on my life,
because the man he saved is my father.

Today we remember the saints of our tradition,
and at the same time,
we renew the promises we made at baptism.
Those promises form the foundation of the way we live our faith each day - to continue in the apostle's teaching, fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers;
To persevere in resisting evil,
To proclaim by word and example the good news of Christ
To seek and serve Christ in all persons
To strive for justice and peace
The saints we honor through history are the great examples of living out our faith on this earth, and so we remember them this day,
Remembering their faithfulness to God - for no saint was perfect, just as none of us are perfect.
In the catholic church I worked in when I was liturgist at a catholic school, we began each all saints Sunday with a litany of saints - calling out the names of the great saints of the church - asking these saints for their prayers in recognition
that the veil between heaven and earth is very thin…
Saints Mary, Peter, and Paul, pray for us…
Saints Steven, Teresa, and James, pray for us…

Last week we remembered those who have died in our All Souls Observance.
We read name after name of those who have died-
- all of them saints before God, not because they were perfect, or because they led lives of great nobility,
- but because they were baptized into Christ's Body the Church, becoming part of a community of faith.
Not all those names were people from St. James;
but all were connected to St. James through those they left behind.
Jody, Matthew, and Lori, pray for us.
Marion, Carlyn, and Jason…
Pray for us

From the saints of old, whose fame we sing about in "For all the saints" to those whom we knew and sorely miss, to the children in our Sunday School, the list of saints goes on as long as the church endures.,.
For being a saint has less to do with behavior, and more to do with association - in this case association with the One Lord, Jesus Christ, who took upon himself our sins so that we might stand blameless before God in spite of our shortcomings.
And today that connection continues - at the 10:15 service we will baptize 4 infants - one of them the infant of a couple I prepared for marriage two years ago;
- one whose parents were joined in marriage by Art,
- - one the great-granddaughter of a faithful parishioner,
- one the child of a new family to our parish.
- All reflect the sacramental life of St. James, and remind us of the connection we have with one another in this Body of Christ.
For we will be the saints in these children's lives - we will be part of their formation as Christians, for good or ill.

We will either be those people who point the way to Christ through our actions and our words, keeping the promises of our Baptismal Covenant, or we will be those who point away from Christ, putting our own concerns above those of the gospel.
Either way, we will be examples to these who are still young.
I don't know the name of that German Soldier that saved my father's life. Did he make it a point to seek Christ in all persons, to love his neighbor - nay, his enemy - as himself?
I don't know. I do know that he will always be a saint in my book.
Perhaps some day, as we stand in that new heaven and earth, and God wipes away every tear,
I'll have the chance to ask him.
In the mean time, I have an example of unselfish love to live up to -
For he became the hands of Christ to my father,
and called him back to life,
just as Jesus called Lazarus out of death into life,
Just as Jesus calls each person baptized, like Lazarus, from death back to life.
Each person has tasted the living water that only Christ can give - the waters of life.
Most of the time our daily life occurs in such a way that we forget that moment of baptism,
Sometimes we even forget those moments when Christ has indeed called us, through another person, or scripture, or our liturgy.
But every time we gather together to baptize, and to remember those who went before us,
we have the opportunity to remember that calling back to life - that incredible gift of life that God has given us.
For we are all saints - and we are all God's - there is nothing that is ours alone.
God our Father, pray for us
Jesus, Son of God, pray for us
Holy Spirit, pray for us.