In this month of November, there is much happening in our life as a nation. The run-up to Election Day here in Virginia as well as in other states has received lots of attention in hotly contested campaigns. Election results, which are being closely watched, may well signal what is to come next year in mid-term elections. As we pray for our nation, its people and elected leaders, we pause later this month to observe our national day of Thanksgiving. In the midst of so many things that concern, confuse, and confound us, it is a very good thing to do what that one leper did in the appointed Gospel lesson for Thanksgiving: he returned to give thanks to Jesus for the gift of healing. We, too, are called to return and give thanks. And this not only on one day of the year in late November, but every day becomes an opportunity to return and give thanks to the Lord.

In the midst of all that is going on in the life of our nation, the people of Christ are called to focus on different things. Of course, Christ’s people also live in and participate fully in the life of our nation with things like Election Day and Thanksgiving. But we also understand that as the Body of Christ, we are knit together with fellow believers in a wonderful and mysterious way that transcends not only borders and boundaries, but time itself. The bookend festivals of All Saints and Christ the King in this month of November remind us of this truth. We worship and serve as risen, reigning and returning Lord Jesus Christ who has made us his own. He has done this by cleansing us from our sin through his own suffering and death upon the cross. Together with the whole Church on earth and in heaven, we are all the saints. In confident faith, we look forward to that great and final day when Christ our King will come again to judge the world in righteousness and make all things new.

Thinking about all of these things, I want to share something that I recently read in my own devotions. It speaks to the communion of saints, of which we are a part, by the grace of God. It was written by a Presbyterian minister, John A. Ross, who served as Dean of St. Andrew’s Hall on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

When I stand shoulder to shoulder with Christians, all declaring our common faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, something very deep stirs within me. I feel like a tree out in the great forest, surrounded by other trees all reaching up together from the same ground, all swept by the same wind, all steadily voicing the same ageless sounds that swaying trees have always made. Long long ago, those about to be received into the Church affirmed their faith even as we do now. Wherever people meet in the name of Christ throughout the world, the Apostles’ Creed, like the Lord’s Prayer, is quite in order. This creed joins me to the whole Church up through the centuries and across the continents and seas. It expresses what Jesus Christ means to us all. This is the place where I meet my brothers in the Lord, even though we sometimes draw apart again all too soon. Although the legend is not true that each of the twelve apostles contributed one doctrine to make up the whole Apostles’ Creed, they would undoubtedly all have approved of this common core of faith.

The word “creed” comes from the Latin word, credo, which means “I believe.” When I say the creed I hold my head high, and my voice sounds out, firm and strong. This is indeed what I believe about the one in whom I believe… I don’t mumble the creed with mental reservations or leave out an occasional phrase. I’m always finding new significance for Jesus Christ in every word of it. It contains in outline form the whole message which the Church has to give to the world. It says at one burst what I want to tell everybody everywhere. I’m excited about this. It’s what I believe. It makes sense of the world and it gives meaning to my life. It makes my heart sing and I want to share it all.

I must not shrink from speaking up about things that could save our times from their stumbling futility. There’s no scarcity of bad news about the world these days, but who’s got some good news? Well, I for one, have some! If the creed is right – if I do know the one to whom this world really belongs and know how he intends it to run, and that has made adequate resources available for making the best-dreams-ever come true – I should speak up and say, “This I believe!” Dare I keep still while lives are going to pieces all around me? What sinister enemy so gags me that I can’t faithfully say the name of Jesus or express my trust in him in front of other people? When I join publicly in the creed, I defy that enemy. Really, though, it’s not too hard to speak out in Church where I have the safety of numbers. But does my faith lose its voice outside the Church? The Church is not in the world to be forever talking to itself. Its good news is for the whole world. Its creed is a creed for the whole world. No congregation can be fully sincere in merely reciting it without making some personal effort to pass it along to those unhappy mixed-up people who are all around us. The Apostles’ Creed is a creed for apostles – those whom Christ sends out (as found in For All the Saints: A Prayer Book For and By the Church, Volume II. Delhi, NY: The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, 1995; pp. 997-999).

In Christ our King, together with all the saints, we are those whom Christ sends out in his Name to be light and salt for the world. We have good news of great joy to share with the world – news that makes an eternal difference. This I believe.