This is an All Saints Day sermon from 1987. The sermon includes several references, including a very interesting story about a woman that I’ve never heard about before.
The person in this sermon is Louise Degrafenried, and the story seems like an improbable one, but I did some searching online, and found that Louise is indeed a real person, and the situation was real. Apparently, she did an interview with Guideposts magazine in October of 1984, and I found a picture of the cover and the first portion of the article, so I’ve included those images below the sermon. The Degrafenried story was also featured in A Christian Justice for the Common Good, published in 2016. There is also a reference to a poem by Gerhard Frost, called “Going On”, and I found that this poem was published in a (now out of print) book called Blessed is the Ordinary, so I’ve linked to a scan of the book from archive.org. Google OCR was used to obtain a transcription of the text of the sermon. I also made a screenshot of the specific poem. The poem is underneath the Guideposts article. There is also a reference to the stained-glass windows in St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Wausau, which were apparently purchased in 1910 for $10,000. Using the U.S. Inflation Calculator, that amount equates to about $310,000 in 2023 dollars.
The Givers’ Arena - All Saints Day - 11/1/1987
THE GIVERS’ ARENA (All Saints-Stewardship) 11/1/87 “Blest are the single-hearted for they shall see God. Mt.5:8,9 Blest too the peacemakers; they shall be called children of God.” These are your words, sanctify us in truth. Your word is truth. Amen.
WHO ARE THE SAINTS? Some people would Some people would say ‘A pro-football team’. Others would say a deceased relative. Some would say a character from the Bible. Still others would say a saint is someone venerated in the history of the Church. Today is All Saints’ Day–a feast day of the Church. It has been for over 1500 years a day when the martyrs have been remembered with thanks. Over the years it has become a time to remember all the dead, and especially for us those members of our congregation who have died in the past year.
But getting back to my question, just what is a saint? In the Roman Church a process has been developed by which some persons are beatified, declared to be saints. Beatification means ‘declaring blessed, holy’. But we hear in the sermon on the mount that Jesus calls all of his own faithful ones ‘Blessed’. And in a moment we will all confess that we believe in the ‘communion of the saints’. It’s God’s intention that we be surrounded by lots of saints today—living breathing saints in the pew with us, and a host of saints who have gone before us, who are in the Church Triumphant and who cheer us on in faith.
Practically speaking a saint is a baptized Christian who has made a commitment and who lives each day toward fulfilling that commitment. Not that we ‘earn’ our salvation. We cannot ‘pay back’ God for what Christ has done for us. The commitment of saints is a response to what God has done. God has made a commitment to us—as believers, we make commitment to serve God.
I’ve picked out just two of the beatitudes to illustrate how we as saints live in the ‘givers arena of all the saints. First is the statement: “Blest are the single-hearted for they shall see God”. The Church is built upon the single-hearted commitment of believers: The martyrs, who died for the faith, the witnesses who kept sharing the faith in all circumstances, the believers who offer their time and treasure to give the Church its life. We are surrounded by one example of single-heartedness. Many people compliment us on the beautiful windows of our sanctuary. I am told that they were purchased by the women of the church for $10,000 in 1910 when the sanctuary was built. Today that is a lot of money, but back then it was a fortune. That gift to our congregation must have involved a lot of sacrifice, a lot of commitment, a lot of commitment, a lot of single-heartedness – and the testimony of those windows has reached many thousands of people. worship in the ‘givers’ arena’, surrounded by such testimony of those who have gone before us.
That story of sacrifice is repeated many times in the history of our church. Many of our ancestors came to this country out of economic need. But even as they were building homes they were building churches, and making sacrifices in order that those churches could survive and grow and reach out. They, too are a part of that giver’s arena in which we worship and serve.
The verse that follows this one about single-heartedness says: blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. I love this true story about one such peacemaker named Louise Degrafinried. She is poor, elderly, black and lives off the beaten path in Mason, Tennessee. One morning she and her husband were surprised by an escaped convict at their door with a loaded gun. He pushed them against the wall and yelled, ‘Don’t make me dill you’. Louise, a 73 year old grandmother, looked him in the eye and said “Young man, I’m a Christian lady. I don’t believe in no violence. Put that gun down and sit down. I don’t allow no violence here.” Surprisingly, he did as she said and answered, “I’m so hungry, I haven’t had nothing to eat for three days.” So Louise fixed him a big breakfast and her husband got him some dry socks. After she set the table with some bacon and eggs and toast amd milk and coffee–Louise sat down by him and took his hand and said, ‘Young man, let’s give thanks that you came here and that you’re safe. She prayed with him and asked him if he’d like to say something too. He didn’t say anything so Louise told him just to say “Jesus wept.” Then they ate breakfast. (She said she asked him to say Jesus wept because he didn’t have any church background, and she wanted him to start simple). While they ate, Louise kept touching his hand and she could see him trembling. She said, ‘Young man, I love you and God loves you. Jesus died for you because he loves you so much. The man said ‘You sound like my grandmother – she’s dead.’ And tears started down his cheeks. About that time they heard police cars coming down the road. He said ‘They gonna kill me when they get here’. Louise said, ‘Nobody’s gonna get hurt. You done wrong, but God loves you.” She and her husband took him by the arms and walked him to the door. She said, ‘You let me do all the talking. When the police got out of their cars she told them to but their guns away. Then she and Nathan walked the young man to the car. He was handcuffed and taken back to prison.
There’s more to the story. Two of the other escaped convicts went to another house, into the backyard where some people were barbequing. The man ran into the house and came out with a gun. He was shot and killed and his wife taken hostage.
When Louise Degrafinreid was asked if she was frightened she said, “No, I knew God was with me, that God had send that young man to me for a reason. I knew God would lead me in the right direction.” We can say with Jesus: “Bless you, Louise.” She is one of those giving, singlehearted, peacemaking saints who cheer us on in our faith. She is our example in taking some risks, in responding wholeheartedly to our calling.
Let me close with a few words from a poem by Gerhard Frost. It is a good one for All Saints Day, called: ‘GOING ON’ Yes, we do honor those who have taught us to face forward by going on. We honor those who have given so much by being givers ourselves. We honor God, the prime giver, by giving in response to his great love for us.
May God inspire us to commitment, to life in the givers’ arena, so that we might know the joy and peace and single-heartedness of the blessed ones. May God bless us together with all who have gone before us in faith. AMEN. THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR …..AMEN.