All Saints, All the Time

The feast of All Saints is still several days away, but already the festal playlist is looping nonstop in my head.

Yesterday morning it was “For All the Saints.” Today it was “Sing with All the Saints in Glory” (to the tune MISSISSIPPI, not HYMN TO JOY, by the way). “Jerusalem, My Happy Home” and “Behold a Host Arrayed in White” have received ample playtime on the mental airwaves as well. I'm listening to WCEG…All Saints, all the time.

I found a new old one last night as I wandered through my hymnal looking for eucharistic hymns appropriate to the day. J. K. Wilhelm Loehe, the nineteenth-century German pastor, penned the text of “Wide Open Stand the Gates,” which the Lutheran Service Book sets to JERUSALEM, DU HOCHGEBAUTE STADT, a tune also used for another hymn appropriate to the day (“Jerusalem, O City Fair and High”).

Loehe’s text echoes Revelation 7, the first reading appointed for All Saints:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

"Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!"

Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?"

I answered, "Sir, you know."

And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,

"they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

The hymn also calls to mind the words of our liturgy:

Therefore with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Your glorious Name, evermore praising you and saying:

Holy, holy, holy Lord God of power and might:
Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.
Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed are You, Lord of heaven and earth, for You have had mercy on those whom You created and sent Your only-begotten Son into our flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior. With repentant joy we receive the salvation accomplished for us by the all-availing sacrifice of His body and His blood on the cross.

Gathered in the name and the remembrance of Jesus, we beg You, O Lord, to forgive, renew, and strengthen us with Your Word and Spirit. Grant us faithfully to eat His body and drink His blood as He bids us do in His own testament. Gather us together, we pray, from the ends of the earth to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which has no end. Graciously receive our prayers; deliver and preserve us. To You alone, O Father, be all glory, honor, and worship, with the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

We will formally celebrate All Saints this Sunday, and I’m guaranteed to have the festal soundtrack playing nonstop in my head until then—at the least. But the wonderful thing about our worship is that it makes every Sunday an All Saints Sunday as we weekly join our praises together with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven and pray for the divine gathering of Christians from the ends of the earth to celebrate with all the faithful the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, which has no end.

It may not be WCEG, but it’s All Saints, all the time.

Wide Open Stand the Gates
Text: J. K. Wilhelm Loehe, 1808-72; tr. Herman G Stuempfle, Jr.
Tune: JERUSALEM, DU HOCHGEBAUTE STADT

Wide open stand the gates adorned with pearl,
While round God’s golden throne
The choirs of saints in endless circles curl,
And joyous praise the Son!
They watch him now descending
To visit waiting earth.
The Lord of Life unending
Brings dying hope new birth!

He speaks the Word the bread and wine to bless:
“This is My flesh and blood!”
He bids us eat and drink with thankfulness
This gift of holy food.
All human thought must falter—
Our God stoops low to heal,
Now present on the altar,
For us both host and meal!

The cherubim, their faces veiled from light,
While saints in wonder kneel,
Sing praise to Him whose face with glory bright
No earthly masks conceal.
This sacrament God gives us
Binds us in unity,
Joins earth with heaven beyond us,
Time with eternity.