For all the saints, who from their labors rest, we give you thanks this day O God. For all those dear people who loved us, who told us stories of Jesus, who lived the faith before us and exemplified the path of discipleship, we give you thanks. Lord help us so to live that others might profit by our example. Give us grace to live faithfully in our time and place, to live the Christian life in such a way that others might see our lives and want to follow you because they see some of your light reflected in us. Lord give us the strength we need to serve you all our days, to be faithful, in all matters great and small and to love you not only with our hearts but with our hands. Amen
I don't feel like a saint! Those of you who know me even a bit
would probably agree that I'm not a saint. I could easily enumerate
for you all the ways in which I am not a saint-I have a quite
a temper. I can be quite a procrastinator. I lack patience. See
it's easy to come up with all kinds of reasons not to sanctify
myself.
Tell me, do you feel like a saint? For a moment let those special qualities that would preclude your sainthood bubble to the surface. Ah ha-I'm not the only one! You know Martin Luther who popped the bubble on the practice of specially canonizing saints said we're all; we're all saints and sinners at the same time. Now I know the sinner part is probably easy to come up with--we just did it. But let's for today concentrate on the fact that we are all saints. I can almost feel you squirm in your seats when I say that. But it's true. The church is the "saints," those ordinary people who have been called by Jesus Christ to live sanctified lives, lives that are so caught up in the plans of God that they are called saints. Today is All Saints Day when our church gives thanks for all the saints, even for us.
Our gospel lesson today is the beatitudes.
We're probably much more used to hearing the series of blessings
from the gospel of Matthew. In Matthew they are part of collection
of teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount. Luke beatitudes
are distinctly different both in content and locale. In Luke's
gospel Jesus has been up on the mountain, away from the crowds
praying. But then he calls his disciples and they all go down
the mountain to a level place where Jesus and the disciples are
joined by crowds of people from Judea, Jerusalem and the coast
of Tyre and Sidon. Down in the valley, in the level and lowly
places that's where the people live. So this sermon is for the
disciples and for the crowds, for everyone. This sermon is for
those on the level place, those who make their way down in the
valley, the little, the ordinary people who go about their lives
in ordinary places in ordinary ways.
I know, when you hear the word "saint" you're only too
quick to think of Francis of Assisi giving up his cloak to a beggar
only to be out begging himself, or Mother Theresa leading her
band of nuns to care for the lowest outcasts of India. But I want
you to think today in a more mundane, ordinary sense of saint.
I'm talking about you.
When asked to define saint, the famous preacher Thomas Long said that a saint is someone whose life manages to be more than a "cranny through which the infinite peeps." The saint is someone who somehow manages to live in two worlds. The saint's faith has enabled him or her to release some of the tight grip by which most people hold on to this world and then is paradoxically able to receive this world as a gift. An eye on the infinite, the saint manages to be thoroughly involved in the finite. The saint manages to chart his or her life by the stars but walks on thoroughly solid earth." In my experience, saints are best known through seemingly small, earthly gestures, deeds of love and mercy made all the more holy because they are so earthly. Over the years as I have talked with women about people who have been important to them a consistent figure keeps appearing; a babysitter who the children love, a neighbor who would cheerfully watch the children in a pinch, a relative who offered help just when they were needed. The tasks seem so mundane, so ordinary yet they are the stuff that saints are made of.
Who in the midst of the indignity of a hospital stay has not appreciated that individual who extended him or herself beyond just professional assistance to genuine personal encounter? We're always so ready to see ourselves as sinners rather that saints. Sitting in the library my eye was caught by an article in a magazine that began "Teachers are more interesting and inspiring than they think, according to those who ought to know their pupils. A new study has found that 83 per cent of primary and 64 per cent of secondary teachers were rated more interesting by pupils than they rated themselves."
Who of you has had a mentor-someone to show you the ropes in a new job situation or help you make wise decisions about career opportunities; to, in small and big ways, give encouragement, help, advice and criticism. Harry Victorson died this year. He was my field work supervisor for ministry. He was of the "old school" so it wasn't long before we grew beyond the particulars of his teachings but he had his eye on the infinite. He knew how to navigate the perils of congregational life with love and gentleness and respect-a saint. We're all saints!
Our minds can not extend very far today, this All Saints Day, without recalling all those who in the course of their regular duties lost their lives; police, firefighters, military personnel, postal workers. On this All Saints Day, I give thanks to God for the saints, all of them, including you. It is no small achievement-whether one is in a boardroom, or a hardware store, or a kitchen--to live like a saint. Amid the cares of everyday life, somehow to keep your eyes fixed on the things of God, to reach out in compassion to others, to testify to God's promised kingdom in the middle of our kingdoms and their demands-this is no small spiritual achievement.
These are frightening times. Daniel, in our
first lesson this morning, writes to assure those who are afraid
in his time that God's kingdom reigns over all the principalities
and powers of this earth and all the saints will receive the kingdom
forever and ever.
I hope that here on Sundays you receive the gifts you need to
keep at it. I hope that you receive the encouragement, the equipment;
the grace needed to keep on keeping on. You are the only word
from the Lord that many folk will ever hear. So go ahead, be God's
word in a troubled, hurting, confused world. Speak that word;
embody that word in all that you do. All you Saints.
Amen.