November 4, 2007

Sermon: "For All the Saints"

Scripture: Ephesians 1: 11-23

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

On All Saints' Sunday, the focus tends to be on faithful souls in heaven. Today we have remembered our loved ones by reading their names and tolling the bell, as well as lighting candles. This emphasis on the afterlife and gives us comfort as we remember. But that should not prevent us from seeing the saints who are alive and working among us today.

When Pope John Paul II died two years ago, over a million people filed past his plain cedar coffin to pay their respects. About four million flooded into Rome to attend his funeral or to watch the service on giant video screens placed across the city. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people -- maybe even billions of people -- watched the funeral on television.

In Rome, a cry began to spread through the crowd, "Santo subito -- santo subito." The phrase also appeared on hand-painted signs held up by worshipers at the funeral.

Santo subito: Saitnhood immediately

The fans of John Paul II want the Vatican to cut through its normal red tape and pronounce the pope a saint right away.
He's clearly a saint, they say. So let's make it official.

According to Time magazine (April 3, 2007), the new pope, Benedict XVI, has moved as quickly as possible to get his predecessor into the ranks of the holy ones. He started by waiving the normal five-year waiting period to begin the process, an exemption that had previously been granted to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Although there are still a number of steps to take, it looks like John Paul II is on the fast track to sainthood -- the fastest in history.  Some are anticipating that the pope will be made a saint by the year 2010, just 5 years after his death.

Today is All Saints' Sunday, the day each year we turn our focus to the saints of the church, those great role models for faithful discipleship who now enjoy everlasting life with God.

But why is it that people tend to focus on saints in heaven? Take a look at the Bible, and you see that the emphasis is on the saints who are living right here on earth.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes, "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints" (1:15). Whenever Paul speaks of saints, he is talking about members of the church ? an ekklesia, a group of people who've been chosen by God and set apart to do his work in the world. Saints are holy people, according to Paul, but their holiness doesn't come from achieving some kind of moral perfection. Instead, they have a holiness that comes from being marked as God's people. God "chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world," insists Paul, "to be holy and blameless before him in love" (v. 4).

God chose us and set us apart -- this is such an important insight into saintliness. We know that God is holy because he is set apart from the world, and different from everything that he has created. Follow that logic, and you discover that we Christians are holy because God has set us apart from the world, and given us a mission that's different from other earthly assignments. To be holy is not necessarily to be better than other people. Just different. Paul says that we're saints because we are "in Christ Jesus," with a mission to produce a "harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:1, 11).

Santo subito -- sainthood immediately. The challenge for us is to live a santo subito life, among saints who are at work in the church and the world. One of the keys to our Christian identity is that we are holy people, serving a holy Lord.

Let us look at three SaintSigns this morning: faith in our Lord, love toward all the saints, and a spirit of wisdom and revelation

Paul gives us some clues in Ephesians, a letter that stresses the holiness of God's people. "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints," he writes, "and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers" (v. 15).

SaintSign 1: Faith in the Lord Jesus. What does it mean to have faith in the Lord Jesus? This means trusting that Jesus is the way to God, but at the same time taking seriously that this way to God is a lifetime journey. Researcher Diana Butler Bass reports that at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church in Seattle, newcomers are invited to take part in a program called "The WAY," a process that is not a quick membership class, but is instead a full year of mentoring and Christian formation. The goal is to help people come into a living relationship with Jesus that takes over the very center of their life. That's what saints do, plain and simple -- they follow Jesus on the way to God. They are on a journey of faith; a journey that is never ending.

SaintSign 2: Love toward all the saints. First you must have the quality of love and secondly the quality of love -- faith and love -- two ingredients that are present in a person who has been chosen by God and set apart to do his work in the world.

In the first days of the church, the saints were part of a community of love and concern, one in which love was demonstrated by acts of practical service. One of the first things the early Christians did was to organize a diaconate to make certain that widows and the needy got some relief (Acts 6:1-7).

"Contribute to the needs of the saints," wrote Paul to the Romans; "extend hospitality to strangers" (Romans 12:13). Widows in the Christian community were commended for showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, and helping the afflicted (1 Timothy 5:10). Paul spearheaded a collection for the church in Jerusalem, and described it as a special "ministry to the saints" (2 Corinthians 8:4). Today, as in the earliest days of the church, love needs to be more than a word, more than an emotion -- it needs to be an act of practical service.

SaintSign 3: A spirit of wisdom and revelation. That's the third quality of sainthood -- a quality we can enjoy right here, right now, immediately. "I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul continues, "the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power" (vv. 17-19). People who are saints in this life assume that God is always ahead of them, not stuck behind them, and they are constantly seeking to learn what God is revealing to them, continually on a journey.

A generation ago, entertainer Gracie Allen said, "Never put a period where God has placed a comma."  There's a lot of truth in that statement because it reminds us that God is leading us into a future of new wisdom, new revelations, new understandings, new insights. Don't put a period where God has placed a comma -- saints take this seriously as they look for new revelations every day.

This spirit of wisdom and revelation knows the hope to which God has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of his power. We don't have to die and go to heaven before we can have this wisdom -- we can have it in this world, santo subito.

All we need are: Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Love toward all the Saints, and  a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Before sainthood can be granted to John Paul II, the church will have a trial-like procedure, with a lawyer arguing against the canonization -- this is where the expression "Devil's Advocate" comes from. Medical doctors will also have to testify that the healings are true miracles, unrelated to any scientific intervention. One postmortem miracle is needed for beatification, the first step toward sainthood, and a second is required for canonization. Then, and only then, will the Roman Catholic Church bestow the designation of "saint."

But maybe this is way too complicated. The saints Paul's talking about are in a different category. These saints have faith in the Lord Jesus, love toward all the saints, and a spirit of wisdom and revelation. 
Consider yourself santo subito - among the saints!

Let us break bread together and let us drink wine together, as the living saints of God, and followers of Jesus Christ, on our Christian journey through life....

Sources:
Bass, Diana Butler. Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco,  2006.
Israely, Jeff. "John Paul II: How fast to sainthood?" Time, April 3, 2007, time.com.