William Willimon, former chaplain at Duke University, tells about the time Carlyle Marney came to his campus. A student asked, "Dr. Marney, would you say a word or two about the resurrection of the dead?" Marney replied, "I will not discuss that with people like you." "Why not?" asked the student. "I don't discuss such matters with anyone under 30." Marney explained, "Look at you, in the prime of life, potent - never have you known honest-to-God failure, betrayal, impotency,

If at the end of the day, we take anything away from today’s celebration of the Feast of All Saints, it is an appreciation that “church matters,” the community matters, the communion of saints matters. Christianity is not a solo activity. Being Christian is not a do-it-yourself project. We are saved not individually but as part of the church. It takes a community to make a Christian, and a community to be Christian.

In the werewolf, as with other classic fictional monsters, we see a kind of “negative image” of the Gospel, what we might become apart from God, apart from salvation in Christ. And we are therefore put in mind of the great gift that we’ve been given by the grace of Christ. Christ has come to restore us to God, so that we might no longer howl at the moon, in frustration or anger, but instead shout praise in love and gratitude to our Maker and Redeemer.

When I think about what is the greatest challenge we Christians face today, it is not the coarseness of mass media, or the infringement of our First Amendment rights, or even Sunday morning soccer games. No, the greatest threat we face in our life with God is not any of these usual suspects; rather it’s our refusal to wrestle with God’s Word.

Jesus asks his disciples, if a slave should be rewarded for just doing what they are told to do. No, of course not. Just so, Jesus says, when believers have done what is expected of us, what God commanded, no matter how difficult or how impactful, we should say, “We are worthless slaves. We have only done what we ought to have done.” You can’t find a more explicitly demeaning and denigrating statement of humanity’s state than that.