All saints - letting God’s light shine through

The Romanian Pastor, Richard Wurmbrand, spent 14 years in prison under the Communist regime just for being a Christian. 4 of those years were spent underground where he was kept in a box. When he was eventually released his son asked him what he’d learned during his time in prison. 

His reply was that in all that time he’d almost forgotten a lot of the Bible, but he knew 3 things for certain; that there is a God, that Jesus is his Son and that love is the best way.

Today in the Church Calendar we commemorate All Saints Day, and for many Richard Wurmbrand would be the epitome of a modern Saint. Often when we think about saints we think of great people from years gone by who appear in stained glass windows, but in God’s eyes all of us are called to be saints...

Today’s readings help to emphasise this responsibility but also of the power of God available to us all through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The reading from Daniel (7:1-3,15-18) is not easy at all - it contains visions which aren’t always easy to understand from short passages but the important part of this reading is that although there may be worldly kingdoms which sometimes will be damaged and imperfect and where bad things will inevitably happen, God remains in control for ever and ever...

The reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (1:11-23) begins by reminding us that saints aren’t saints because of what they’ve done but because of who they are through Jesus. Saints are people who allow the light of Christ to shine through them, people who allow his wisdom and revelations to be shared. 

This passage isn’t a telling off for the Ephesian church, it’s not a series of lessons for them to learn, but rather an encouragement - these were people living as a sometimes shunned and persecuted minority who needed that support... 

Sometimes it’s easy for us to emphasise the things we get wrong rather than celebrating the things that are good and right - as saints we need to know that we are loved. As the psalmist points out (149:4), ‘the Lord takes pleasure in his people.’

St Francis of Assisi was pretty good at offering some challenging comments. 2 of these thoughts were, ‘It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look’. And he also said, ‘While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.’

There are 2 sides to being a saint - first of all to look like our lives have been transformed and secondly to behave like our lives have been transformed by God.... when we lack joy or confidence or hope, when we behave just in the ways everyone else behaves then we’re ignoring the power and love of God and the trust he has in us. 

And to emphasise the sometimes counter cultural nature of our faith the gospel reading (Luke 6:20-31) outlines perfectly what it is and means to be a Christian... 

Here Jesus outlines the marks of his kingdom - the poor inheriting the kingdom of God, the hungry being filled, those who weep having cause for laughter, blessed are those who are excluded, reviled, defamed on account of their commitment to Jesus...

And there is the command to love one another, even our enemies; to do good to those who hate us; to bless those who don’t in the eyes of the world deserve our blessing, to give to everyone who begs from us, to do to others as we would have them do to us... 

These are massively challenging words - words that are as much to us as anyone else as we see people in need, as we meet the homeless people living in our streets... but these are the words and the actions that identify us as the saints of today sharing the gospel of Jesus which is for all people.... 

Being a saint means being God’s holy people. And we are called holy, not because we ourselves are holy or because we’ve done anything to deserve it, but because God is holy and we are associated with Him. God’s holiness becomes our holiness.

And so as we celebrate this day in God’s love we recognise Saints all around us – people through whom the light of God shines. 

There is a story of a child who was being shown around a Church one day, and she looked at 4 stained glass windows. The first stained window was really red, the next window blue, the next window green, and the final window was yellow. The sun had come up in the south and wonderful light was coming through these four windows. 

As this girl admired the windows she was told by the minister that each of the windows represented one of the gospel writers, St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John.

After she was told this she told the minister she knew what a Saint was – she proudly announced, “A saint is somebody that the light shines through.” 

That is what we as Saints are called to do – not to let OUR lights shine, but to let the light of God shine through our lives.

The Saints of today are people who inspire us and lift us up to be better people. They don’t force people to be Christians, but they inspire and they encourage, and they point people to the light of Christ.

There is a famous example of this from the lives of Dr. David Livingston and Henry Stanley. Dr. Livingston was a famous missionary in Africa and he had been there in the heart of Africa and had disappeared into the jungles. 

Henry Stanley went in search of Dr. Livingston after he had long disappeared, and finally, after a lengthy search, he found him and gave us that famous line from history. “Dr. Livingston, I presume?” The two men lived together for three months and some time after that Henry Stanley wrote his memoirs and he said: “Dr. Livingston made me a Christian and he didn’t even know he was doing it.” He inspired me and didn’t even try to.

Saints inspire us to live a life of holiness. They can be quiet and common, plain and ordinary, but they are windows through whom the light of God shines.

So what is a saint? A saint was defined as a person who got killed for Christ in the first three centuries of the church. 

What is a saint? Those people who were religious heroes of the church, had chapels and churches built in honour of them. 

What is a saint? Perhaps our grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends…

What is a saint? You and me ! You and me are the living saints of God. You and me are God’s holy people. And as the saints of today we must take into account the warnings of St Francis of Assisi, not to be gloomy in God’s service, but filled with his love, and not to preach peace whilst not feeling peace towards others in our own hearts.

In short we are challenged to live out the recognition of the words of Richard Wurmbrand – there is a God, Jesus is his Son, and love is the best way…

God, however surprising it may seem, takes enormous pleasure in our company… Recognising God’s power and his love for us, our lives must be an inspiration to one another, and we must seek to let the light of God shine through us to others. AMEN