Drops of Fullness

Drops of Fullness

The family of God has been filling this world with the faith, hope, and love of Jesus Christ, and will continue to do so until God fills it up forever.

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Q. What is the communion of saints?

A. The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise. (An Outline of the Faith commonly called the Catechism, “The Christian Hope,” Book of Common Prayer, page 862)

As the whole family of God, the living and the dead, we can also say that the communion of saints is the whole family of God, past and present. Paul addressed his letter to the “saints who are in Ephesus,” and in today’s reading gives thanks for their “love toward all the saints,” of which he has heard. The saints of God were not just those who lived in the past and were now dead. Nor are the saints today just those who lived in the past and are now dead. So today I address the saints who are at Saint Monica and Saint James. And little more than a year after hearing of your love toward all the saints, I now know of your love toward all the saints. So, happy All Saints’ Sunday Saints of Saint Monica and Saint James.

The saints of God, past and present, living and dead, were not and are not perfect or fault-free. They loved each other as we love each other, and sometimes hurt each other as we sometimes hurt each other. But they and we have been adopted by the God whom we are emboldened to call our Father. And through the same waters of Holy Baptism, and the same Holy Communion of Jesus Christ’s Eucharistic Body, we and they are living members — limbs and organs — of his Body that transcends whatever barrier we think there is between the saints past and present, living and dead.

So through the bodies of the past and the bodies of the present, Christ Jesus has been filling the empty places of this world, emptied of trust, emptied of hope, emptied of love. As Paul puts it: “He has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

That is hard work, because it sometimes feels like some people keep cutting this world open and letting out the faith, the hope, and the love. But being imperfect, we cannot fill up this world with faith, hope, and love. Only the God who has made us God’s family can fill it up. But this God who has adopted us has also made us partners with them in the filling of all things. Partner, saints, it’s all the same.

I like to walk around this neighborhood where I lived and walked more than 30 years ago. Like many who come to this capital city, in my own small way, I thought of myself as one of God’s “elect” dropping some freedom, justice and peace that would seep out from this capital city. Now I’m back, trying to drop some faith, hope, and love. I’m a different kind of “elect” than I was then, as will we all be.

For the saints who’ve been at it for a long time, for the saints who are just getting started, for those who may be tired, for those who may be nervous: Know that while politics may indeed be a “long game,” the game of sanctification is even longer, and the rewards are “ineffable,” beyond imagning. That’s the game we saints play, drop by drop, filling all things with the Christ with whom we have been filled, until that never-ending day when God fills it up forever.

November 2nd, 2025

All Saints Sunday, Year C

The Rev. David Kendrick