For All The Saints

November 4, 2007   All Saints Sunday C

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18       Psalm 149

Ephesians 1:11-21     St. Luke 6:20-31

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 rumored 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 honor 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 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 me, 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 honor 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 sermon 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. In short they think of those people that the church has long declared to be saints - those people whose faith and vision and moral integrity has been thoroughly examined and widely known; those normally long dead people who have been judged to have advanced the cause of Jesus Christ notably in this world; those people who have been deemed to be worthy of imitation and of praise by both church bureaucrats and popular opinion.

Today is All Saint's Sunday, 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.

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 the universal church has declared, after much examination and debate, to be saints are saints. But, when we get down to it, these wonderful people 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 people 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 people,  people both dead and still alive.

The word Saint derives from the word Sanctus - which we translate as "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 addresses both the Roman church.

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle... to all God's beloved inRome, 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, and 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 they live it, draw others to give praise to God and inspire them to want to believe in and follow the Christ whom they believe in all follow.

We are all 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.

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 live.

Give thanks 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. Give thanks to God for all the saints!