Don Elder and his 6-year-old granddaughter Sarah Umhauer, both members of Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church, Buffalo, N.Y., were enjoying cider and doughnuts on Reformation Day. Elder said, "Sarah, I wish you didn't have school tomorrow so you could go to church with me and Grandma." Sarah asked, "Why are you going to church tomorrow, Grandpa?" "Because it's All Saints' Day," he replied. "But Grandpa," she said, "we're not saints, we're Lutherans." (1)

I'm not going to speculate on how many Lutherans are saints [or how many United Methodists or how many Presbyterians, etc.]. Today [in many churches] is All Saints' Day. It is a day to celebrate the lives of all those who have served Christ on Earth and now praise him before the eternal throne of God. Of course, by that definition we ar…