The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Luke.
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, `I am he!’ and, `The time is near!’ Do not go after them.
“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” (Luke 21:5-19)
I think you may have heard this story, but it is one that I use to illustrate one particular kind of saintliness.
A major oil well caught fire. The experts were called in to put out the blaze. The heat was so intense, however, that the company’s fire fighters could not get within a thousand feet of the rig. The management, in desperation, called the local volunteer fire department to help in any way they could.
Half an hour later a decrepit-looking fire truck rolled down the road and came to a screeching halt just fifty feet from the massive wall of flames. The men jumped out of the truck, sprayed one another with water and then went on to put the fire out.
The oil company management were so grateful that they held a ceremony some days later to commend the courage of the local firemen – courage which had gone way beyond the call of duty. – and then an enormous cheque was presented to the chief of the department.
When he was asked by reporters what he planned to do with the cheque, the chief replied: “Well, the first thing I’m going to do is get the brakes fixed on that darn fire engine.”
Those firemen were what you might call unlikely heroes.
Today is the day when we remember the saints. Many of whom also were unlikely heroes.
When we think of saints, we think of people like Paul, or John or James, and the other apostles; or St. Francis, St. Teresa, St. Catherine, St. Bernadette, or St. Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius is a good example of the kind of saint people most often think about when they think of saints.
Most of them became saints almost by accident. Ignatius took a different route.
He was born about the time Columbus came to America. As a teenager he lost both of his parents. He went to work as a page in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and, when he was 20, he became a soldier. He and his friends did some terrible things, in pranks. He was a wild man.
His regiment was called to war, in the course of which, both his legs were severely injured by cannon fire. Lying there, as he underwent a long and painful recovery, he looked back on his past, on the things he had done, and was deeply ashamed.
But he had a vision in which he felt that God forgave him, and he subsequently underwent a profound religious conversion.
After his recovery Ignatius set out on a pilgrimage. He came across a beggar one night, and immediately stripped off his nobleman’s clothes and exchanged them for the beggar’s filthy rags.
Eventually Ignatius took up residence in a hillside cave, spending long hours in prayer and penance. It was out of this experience that he was inspired to found a religious order – an order of men dedicated to Jesus in much the same way the 12 apostles dedicated themselves to Jesus. Ignatius called his order THE COMPANY OF JESUS – or the Jesuits.
Today the order numbers over 20,000 men world-wide. It operates over 50 high schools and nearly 30 universities in the United States alone. For centuries the Jesuits have provided the world with one of the best education systems it has ever seen and increased the goodness in the world by their service to God and to the world.
The spirit of St. Ignatius is summed up in his prayer for generosity:
“Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve as you deserve; to give and not count the cost; to fight and not heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for reward – except to know that I am doing your will.”
In this prayer we also catch the spirit of St. Francis who taught his followers to pray like this:
“ Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love with all my soul.”
It is saints like Francis and Ignatius that the church honours today but you know, remembering the exploits of saints like Ignatius and Francis can get in the way of what a saint really is and blind us to the fact that today’s believers, people like you and me, are today’s saints.
Believe it.
You see, a saint is simply someone who has opened himself or herself to God’s grace; who has recognized their need for God and decided to rely on and trust in God no matter what.
The word SAINT comes from the Latin world SANCTUS which means HOLY – so literally the word saint means HOLY ONE. God commanded the Israelites “Keep yourselves holy, for I am holy.”
In the early church, St. Paul and others called one another the “holy ones” or saints. It applies to the church as a whole, to those who believe in Jesus Christ
Over the years, however, it has come to be used almost exclusively, for those Christians who were martyred, or who lived lives of remarkable holiness.
That’s alright, I suppose, but it tends to divert our attention from the everyday saints who are still among us and still living lives that epitomise Christ.
Saints are people who differ from other people in the world not because they work harder, or accomplish more – but because their lives show more love.
People in the world love their friends,
Saints do their best to love their enemies.
People in the world do good to those who do good to them,
Saints do their best to do good to everyone.
People in the world lend to those who have good credit ratings
Saints lend to bad risks
Saints are different because they work differently to the way the world works. They believe differently to the way the world believes. They see things differently to the way the world sees.
They believe in the work of Jesus:
– the Jesus who says blessed are the hungry and the poor – for they shall be filled.
They believe in the way of Jesus
– the Jesus who says blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh.
They see in the perspective of Jesus
– the Jesus who says blessed are those who are rejected and reviled on account of me – for their reward shall be great in heaven.
A saint is someone who allows God to use them as an instrument of His love.
A saint is someone who doesn’t live for worldly honours, but quietly goes about the work that God has given them to do, however humble that task may be.
I’ll tell you what I mean:
A family of five was enjoying a day at the beach. The children were paddling in the water, and making castles in the sand, when a little old lady appeared. Her gray hair was blowing in the wind and her clothes were dirty and ragged. She was muttering something to herself as she picked up things from the beach and put them into a bag.
The parents called the children over and told them to stay away from that strange old lady. As she passed by where they were sitting, she stooped down every now and then to pick up something, and she smiled at them.
They didn’t smile back.
Some weeks later, when the father complained to a local official about the “weirdos” to be seen on the beaches, he was told that the little old lady they had found so strange had made it her lifelong crusade to pick up bits of glass from the beach so children wouldn’t cut their feet.
Saints pick up the glass that others toss down; they believe in people no one else believes in; they help those that no one cares for.
They share in the Spirit of the One who died for all sinners, and who rose from the dead to give life and forgiveness to all who believe in His Name.
At times like this I remember the story of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, who were thought to have drowned. They were hiding in the church and listening to their own funeral service. They were so moved at all the wonderful things said about themselves that they cried – at their own “funeral.”
Today, we think of all those who have died and whose lives and deaths connected them to our church and this community. I remember eulogies that told of the love in their lives.
How I wish they could have heard what was said about them.
So we remember those who have gone on. We remember with thanks the way they were. And we also acknowledge the saints among us, today, now.
For those who try to follow Christ, in how they love and live in their lives, are the saints of today.
You may have someone in mind.
Keep their names in your heart, and during your prayers today, whisper them, or say them out loud, for all to hear. For that’s what this Sunday is all about. It’s about those who helped the helpless, clothed the naked, fed the hungry, comforted the bereaving, healed the sick with their prayers, visited the lonely, and were present to the dying.
It’s about you and me.
And we give thanks to God for graciously calling us to serve Him, enabling us to glorify His name, and equipping us in His service.
We give thanks to God for His goodness – goodness that can only be shown through those who follow Jesus.
We give thanks to God for all the saints who have served Him in the past and who continue to serve today.
And we give thanks to God for the gift of His Son Jesus the Christ, in whose name we serve.
Amen.