All (are) saints…

 There’s a story about a couple of brothers who had led a gang who had caused all kinds of trouble and raised money through lots of immoral activities. When one of the brothers died, the other went to see the Vicar and asked if he could have a church funeral. 

 

The Vicar paused for a moment and then agreed – the brother then asked the Vicar if he would be prepared to say his deceased brother was a saint. The Vicar paused again and the brother offered £50,000 for the church if he would do it, and so the Vicar eventually said he would. 

 

When the funeral came it began with hymns and readings and prayers and then came the eulogy. The Vicar spoke of how evil the deceased man had been, how he had robbed people, and assaulted people, and how he’d raised money through all kinds of immoral earnings. 

 

The living brother was beginning to get a little uncomfortable thinking the Vicar had lied to him, but as he was thinking that, the Vicar concluded the eulogy with the words, ‘he was a dirty rotten scoundrel, but compared to his brother he was a saint !’

 

The word saint is often used fairly glibly like that – but today we’re called to think about what a saint really is. The joy and inspiration of All Saints Day is to celebrate the great saints of the past whose stories are well known, but it’s also to remember others, those who aren’t as well known and those saints of today – some we might automatically recognise as saints, some perhaps we won’t. 

 

And often among those who we won’t recognise are ourselves, the Christians who are called to be saints of today and who will be responsible for helping to ensure that through our words and our actions, there will be saints of tomorrow. So this festival is about the past, the present and the future. 

 

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 one of the questions that his son asked him was what he’d learned during his time in prison. 

 

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

 

Today for many Richard Wurmbrand would be the epitome of a modern Saint. Often when we think about saints we do think of those great people from centuries ago 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 to stress 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 his love 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.’… God takes pleasure in each one of 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.... 

 

And we’re reminded that we are saints not because of what we’ve done or can ever do, but because of God and what he does and how he loves.   

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. 

 

And that is what we as Saints are called to do – not to let OUR light shine, it will not be bright enough, but to let the light of God shine through our lives.

 

The Saints we often think 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. We are called to be amongst those people. 

 

There is a famous example of this from the lives of Dr. David Livingston and Henry Stanley. Dr.Livingston was a famous missionary in Africaand 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.”

 

I wonder if there are people that we inspire without trying, or are there people that do that for us ? Our lives as saints of today tell a wonderful story of God at work in the world, but we need to know that story as well and we don’t always think about it. But how does God work in our life in good times and in bad… We have a story of faith to tell that will be an inspiration to someone somewhere. 

 

In short, as saints of today, 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… We do that through our words and through our actions. We do that supported by God’s love and inspired by his power. 

 

 

God, however surprising and often even unwarranted it may seem, takes enormous pleasure in our company… 

Recognising His power and his love for us, our lives must be an inspiration to others as we seek to let the light of God shine through us. AMEN