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 "FOR ALL THE SAINTS" Isaiah 25:6-9; John 11:32-44; Revelation 21:1-5
Some of you know I haven't been feeling too well this week. And being out for 3 days gave me lots of time to think! And one thing I thought about, oddly enough, was mirrors.
Look at this mirror for a minute. There really isn't anything special about it. Mirrors are not rare and not usually expensive. They're just a piece of glass that's been painted over on the back, and fired with a little silver nitrate and water, and polished up to a shine.
But we seem to have a fascination with mirrors. They can make a room look bigger and lights look brighter. They can show us whether our lipstick is on straight or whether we missed a place shaving. They can show us the newest wrinkle AND add sparkle to a dining table.
But it's not the mirror itself that fascinates us. It's what we see reflected in it. It doesn't matter whether it's ourselves or something else. Mirrors can make almost anything seem worth looking at. Sometimes seeing something reflected back in a mirror helps us to see that thing in a new light. Our memories told us that it looked one way - but mirrors never lie. And there are times we wish they would!
Something else I had time to ponder this week was All Saints Day, which we are celebrating today. Last week in worship, I asked if there were some of you who'd be willing to share a brief story about a saint in your life, and no one came forward with any! I wondered about why that was, and that made me think that maybe it's time to talk about what it means to be a saint.
Maybe we think we've never known anyone perfect enough to be named in the same category with Or maybe we think that a saint has to have been dead for at least 300 years. Or maybe we think of saints as being like angels, and we don't believe in them. It certainly doesn't sound very Presbyterian! But you don't have to be perfect or long dead or even Presbyterian to be a saint. And apparently if you're looking for imperfect people, there's not even a short list.
Friends, we're surrounded with saints. I believe with all my heart that not one of us would be here today if it were not for ordinary, imperfect men and women who served as saints in our lives, and whose deep and profound love for God has brought us to this very moment.
But sometimes we toss that word "saint" around and use it offhandedly to describe just any kind of nice, generous, ordinary person. Nice, generous, ordinary people do things just because it's the right thing to do, and we might say "they were a saint to do that." But they may have a different motivation for their good deeds. . That's where the mirrors come in. It's the thing about mirrors that separates the real saints from garden-variety good men and women.
Just like a mirror, there's usually not anything especially outstanding or compelling about a saint. They have their rough edges. They fall short, just like we do. But true saints have been created by One outside of themselves, and they were created with a holy purpose: to love God with all their heart and soul and mind, and therefore to love their neighbor as themselves. They are ordinary people who have been transformed by divine love. And so when they turn themselves towards God, we don't see much of the actual saint. In their shiny and tempered countenance we see the reflected light of the glory of God.
"Saints are those who aspire to the holiness of the holy God whom they serve. Because the Holy Spirit dwells within them, they too are made holy." (Peter Gomes) They're not saints because of who they are. They're saints because of their willingness to step back and manifest God at work with a dazzling light that is a reflection of God's glory. Mirrors are only as beautiful as that which they reflect. And nothing is more beautiful than the love of God reflected in the eyes and words and actions of someone who bears God's love to us.
Saints are a gift from God. They are undeniable evidences of God's grace at work in our midst. They have been changed utterly by God's love. And in honoring those saints, we are honoring God and finding hope for ourselves to become mirrors as well.
Think now for a minute about those people who are deceased who have been important influences on your life. Can you see how God was working through them? Can you see how, even in spite of the fact that they were all-too-human, they were reflecting God's love? Saints are one of the most marvelous ways that God's love becomes known to us
But those saints are not the only ones. God also seeks to be made known to others through you. Now that they have become part of the great cloud of witnesses, you and I get to take what they so graciously gave to us and share it with others, so that they may know the joy of being called a child of God. In a minute here, I'm going to pause for a brief time of silence. And in that time, I want for you to say your own name silently, preceded by the word "Saint:" like "Saint Roger," "Saint Johnny," "Saint Susan," "Saint Sam." Say your name now to yourself, one, two, or three times. Here we go. ? Did that feel strange? I suspect it did, unless you have a biblical name like Mary or Paul or John, which we're used to hearing along with the word "saint." But actually, it shouldn't feel so strange. God calls each one of us, maybe even the least likely of us, to be a saint. The one who created us // created us to be reflections of God's light and love. May we this day step back and let God's light so shine before others that they may see not us, but the love of the One whom we reflect, and to give God all the praise.
Shortly, I will be reading a list of the names of those who have died in this past year, and lighting a candle in their memory. And I will ask you to do the same - to come forward as you feel led, and light a candle as you speak the name of someone who has been a saint to you: a favorite Sunday School teacher, an aunt or uncle who always made time for you, the pastor who baptized you or signed your first Bible, someone who loved God with their all. I hope that today's sermon has jogged your memories of some of the men and women who have encouraged you in the faith. And I suspect that you have come up with more than one. That's fine. We've got plenty of candles. They helped to kindle the fire of love for God in our hearts; let's light up the room with our thanks.
Amen.
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(after candlelighting:) O God of both the living and the dead, we praise your holy name for all your servants who have finished their course in faith, especially those that we have named here before you today. We pray that, encouraged by their example and strengthened by their fellowship, we may be partakers with them of the inheritance of the saints in light; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
------------------------------------------------------- I am indebted to Peter Gomes for his article "All Sinners, All Saints," published in the Christian Century |
