Songs in Season
Carla Waterman, Advent Liturgist
I did not grow up in a liturgical church; feast day hymns were not wired cyclically into my soul. But one of these hymns found an early and permanent residence in the depths of my being through unusual circumstances. My thirty-three-year-old pastor contracted and succumbed to an aggressive cancer when I was a young teenager. We, his congregation, watched him die over the course of a few short months. During the last weeks of his life he preached through the Apostle's Creed, and we sang "For All the Saints" every Sunday. He died after preaching “the forgiveness of sins.” By immersing us in “For All the Saints,” we were strengthened to proclaim the rest of the story in song.
1 For all the saints who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
I am a seven verser when it comes to this hymn. Perhaps the man who penned these words, Bishop William W. How (1864), developed his rich Christian imagination as he served among the poor in London and Yorkshire. He was keenly aware of the struggle, rest and triumph, that marks our Christian pilgrimage from the waters of baptism until Christ’s triumphant claiming of the whole creation.
If we are going to appreciate the richness of saints’ rest with and in Christ (Revelation 14:13) we need to acknowledge the struggle in which we presently engage. The picture that gets painted in stanzas 2-5 is an honest portrayal of our needs as we follow Jesus, our light shining in the darkness.
2 Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
3 Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor's crown of gold!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Drawing from the psalms, we are pointed to Jesus as our rock, fortress and might. And while I am aware that military imagery can (and has gone) quickly go off the rails as a Christian paradigm, it is hard to find other imagery for the struggle, the fight that is as times the only way to describe our human experience. We fight our anxiety and fear; we struggle against indifference and injustice. We fight for truth amid an onslot of lies.
As we follow Jesus we are led to the most encouraging of verses:
And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong"
The best part of this hymn is the centrality of Christ who unites all things. We confess Christ before the world, and we join those who rest in Christ in a one-ness of fellowship that brings comfort and strength in the long struggle of life.
Stanza 4 breaks into the midst of the strife, and as we find ourselves with all the saints in Christ. The central position of this verse expresses the full reality of this present moment—all of us, resting and struggling, all one in Christ because all belong to Christ. In the struggle. In the rest.
4 Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
And one day, in heaven and on earth, the King of glory will appear, when all the saints will “triumphant rise in bright array”
6 But lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
This hymn ends with breath-taking beauty. The saints rise to meet their glorious Lord, and, in the last verse, all of us stream into the gates of pearl, singing our praise to the Trinity.
7From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
For All the Saints not just a long hymn, it’s a phenomenal story! All Saints is certainly a day to remember those who have gone before, but it is equally a day to remember that we who struggle are still a vital part of this great story we share with our loved ones. The distant triumph song still hangs in the air. May we have ears to hear.
