A sermon by Owen Rogers for All Saints Day a day early.
There is an old story – perhaps it is a joke – perhaps something like this really happened at one time, we don’t really know — an old story about two brothers who lived in a particular town where they were involved in corruption, deceit and every manner of vice. It was rumoured that they were affiliated with some very famous organized crime families as well. Whatever the case, both brothers had accumulated much wealth through their dishonest means.
There was little grief in the town when the older brother died. But his younger brother, wanting to honour his elder sibling, went all out in planning the funeral. The problem was finding a minister willing to do the service, given that neither of them had ever graced the steps of a church. Knowing that the one of the local churches was in the midst of a capital campaign for some much needed repairs, the younger brother called upon the minister.
“Reverend,” he said, “I know my brother and I never attended your church, as a matter of fact we never attended any church. I also know that you’ve probably heard a lot of things about my brother and I, this being a small town and all, but I’d like you to do my brother’s funeral. And if you’ll say he was a saint, I’ll write you a check for 50,000 dollars. That’ll go along way to fixing up the church.”
After some thought, the pastor agreed to have the service. The pastor, however, also had a condition. The $50,000 had to be paid in advance. And so it was.
On the day of the funeral, the church was crowded. Curiosity brought dozens of people in, who were certainly not there to honour the rich man, but to see what the minister would actually say. The remainder of the crowd was made up of mobsters and women the brothers associated with.
The service began with the usual scriptures, hymns and prayers – and then the homily began. The minister began slowly, but then step by step launched into a litany of the horrible things the rich man had done, how he had been selfish, greedy, corrupt, caring about no one but himself, carousing with women, drinking excessively, and on and on.
The younger brother, sitting up in the front pew, was getting hot under the collar about how the minister was not fulfilling his promise, but during the service there was not much he could do about it. He could only wait and hope that the minister would keep his end of the bargain. Finally, after about ten minutes of outlining the rich man’s flaws, the minister concluded his sermon in a booming crescendo proclaiming:
“Yes my friends, this man was a no-good, dirty, rotten scoundrel!
But, compared to his brother, he was a saint!”
When people think of the saints, they most often think of people like Paul, or John or James, and the other apostles; or they think of people like St. Francis, St. Teresa, St. Catherine, St. Bernadette, or St. Ignatius of Loyala. Or you may be thinking today of St. Mary of the Cross.
In short we tend to think of those people that the church has long declared to be saints – those people whose faith and vision and moral integrity has been throughly examined and widely known; those normally long dead folk who have been judged to have advanced the cause of Jesus Christ notably in this world; those folk who have been deemed to be worthy of imitation and of praise by both church bureaucrats and popular opinion.
Tomorrow is All Saint’s Day – a feast day that has been celebrated for hundreds of years within the church, particularly within the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches, but in many others as well. But in our tradition – and in many of the traditions arising out of the Protestant Reformation – often not much is said about the Saints and All Saints Day: except to explain that the night before, the night of witches and devils and other things that we should not pay attention to, received it’s name because it is on the Eve of All Hallows Day, of All Saints Day.
That neglect of the Saints in our tradition is a pity in a way because it can make the whole idea of sainthood and of the communion of the saints, inaccessible to us, especially when you couple that neglect with the popular idea of what a saint is – namely someone who is only a little less than perfect – someone who has been a spiritual overachiever as it were.
It is true that those that the universal church, after much examination and debate, has declared to be saints are saints. But, when we get down to it, these wonderful folk are only bright examples of something that is very common. Namely bright examples of a deep and abiding faith in Christ Jesus, a faith that has issued forth in action.
They are folk upon whom the fickle finger of public attention has descended, and while normally deserving of the attention they have and are receiving, so are many, many, more folk, some of whom are dead, and some still alive.
The word Saint derives from the word Sanctus – which we translate as the word “holy”.
And in the Bible – in this morning’s reading from the Letter to the Ephesians, and in all of Paul’s letters – the word ‘sanctus’, the word ‘saint’, is applied without further distinction to the company of those who believe in Christ Jesus and who strive to live faithfully according to his teachings and his example.
Listen to verse one and two of the Letter to the Ephesians – where Paul tells them who is writing and to whom it is that he is writing. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus – grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Listen as well to how Paul addressed the Roman church: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle… to all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints. Grace to you and peace….”
And the church in Corinth: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
Saints are all around us
– people who are holy
– people who are set apart from the rest of the world who are different because they believe in Christ Jesus and seek to live faithfully as he has shown them.
In the bible, in our faith, saints are normal people, normal people who differ from most others in this world, not because of the degree of their moral perfection, but because of the degree of their faith and how, because of their faith and how they live it, they draw others to give praise to God and inspire them to want to believe in and follow the Christ whom they believe in and follow.
We are saints….
We are called to be saints…
A saint is someone who is set apart because of their faith.
A saint is someone whose life is dedicated to the worship of God and the doing of God’s will.
A saint is someone who inspires in us the desire to know and follow Christ Jesus..
Think about it for a minute: does it not make sense that we – who are called to be saints – should pause once a year in our public worship to think about who the saints of God are and to thank God for them?
Does it not also make sense to perhaps pause once a month – or even once a day – in our private worship, and give thanks to God for all the saints and especially for those saints who have touched our lives and showed to us something of Christ’s love, something of God’s glory.
What we admire in them after all is part of what we are called to imitate, part of what we hope God will work through us, part of what God calls us to be and to embody and to live out.
A saint is a person who is an example of faithfulness; a person who, because of their faith in Christ, shows forth something of His light in their lives.
Think about it for a minute or two more. Think of the saints – think not of the famous saints – like Saint Paul or Saint John or Saint Theresa, or Saint Catherine, or Saint Francis but think of the saints who have touched your life, of those who have inspired in you a deeper faith in God, of those who have made you want to bless the God they believe in, of those whose love and whose testimony have awakened something in your soul.
I can think of two men immediately who stirred me to faith.
One was a teacher and visionary who loved the Lord deeply and has inspired three missionary organisations all with a focus on the poor. Actually the one he currently leads is more of a movement than an organisation. A man who knows the Bible and knows that before God a saint is no better than anyone else – we are all simply sinners forgiven and destined for an eternal glory with all others who love and serve God. His name is Viv, and he continues to work to bring the gospel to the poor is the huge cities of the world, knowing that this is very much on God’s heart.
Another was Doug. When I first met Doug he was a rural land valuer and part time Navigator staff. He and I spent a lot of time together and I absorbed a lot from him – his jokes and much more. Such as his heart for God and for making disciples.
Who are you thinking of? Close your eyes for a moment and think about saints who have touched your life and offer thanks to God, for them.
I think of Mary McKillop, whom we have read about in recent weeks and whose example has touched me. She has just been named the kind of saint that we normally think of when we hear that word.
I think of other Navigator staff who first showed me the love of Christ when I was an obnoxious and argumentative university student; who prayed for me when I was finding my feet as a disciple of Christ; who have kept in touch over the years to encourage and keep praying for God’s work in and through me.
I think of some of you. Fellow saints in the body of Christ.
Who do you think of? Call to mind the name or names of those for whom you want to thank God, of those whose faith has inspired you to faith, of those whose dedication to God and to showing God’s love has warmed your heart.
Bless God for those who seem to you to be blessed,
– those like the ones that Jesus calls blessed in the beatitudes we heard today,
– those whom you believe are indeed set apart by God and made holy because they have encouraged you to live towards your high calling as the children of God.
Sources: adapted from Rev. Richard J. Fairchild – Spirit Networks, 2001-2006. Thanks also to David F. Hills (from PRCL-L; Climax/Scotts UMC’s, Climax, MI) for the humorous story.