What good is a saint?

A Sermon preached on All Saints Sunday, Nov. 6^th 2016 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Daniel 7: 1 – 3, 15 – 18, Ephesians 1: 11 – 23 Luke 6: 30 – 31

As we celebrate the Feast of All Saints today, are there actually any saints in the Bible? Yes and no, is the – as so often – less than clear answer. Those saints mentioned by name in scripture, St. Peter, Paul etc., are not identified as saints. They are Jesus’ companions, the apostles and disciples, his mother and father.  And most of the big Saints, with a capital “S,” St. Francis, St. Teresa of Avila, our own St. Augustine, are not in the Bible, because they lived and died later. We revere them and celebrate their lives because they are the heroes and heroines of our faith. They made their mark in the world. They left a legacy of holiness that outlasted their lifetimes. And more often than not, they died for their faith. Then we have those we often refer to as “saints” with a small “s,” as in she is a real saint. These are often people of heroically long-suffering patience or rigidly upright moral conduct. I have heard these two models for sainthood referred to as either “dying violently or living joylessly.” I do not aspire to either, and while Jesus does often warn his followers about persecution, neither model would seem to fulfill Jesus’ hope for us that we might have life and have it abundantly. 

And yet, the word saint is found in the Bible. We heard it a couple of times today. In the extract from Daniel it is hidden as the Greek word hagoi has been translated as “the holy ones,” as in:  “But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever – for ever and ever." (Daniel 7:18) In Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians however, the same word has been translated as saints: “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints” (Ephesians 1:15) and “I pray .. you may know … what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.” (1:18) So clearly there are saints and they are going to inherit the kingdom. 

In fact Paul uses the word saints quite a lot – quite a few of his letters begin with some phrase like “from Paul to the saints or to those called to be saints in Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae, or Philippi. They are, to use some of the other phrases, those faithful in Christ, loved by God, sanctified in Christ Jesus. For Paul, saints were simply the people of the churches, made special and holy, set apart simply by virtue of their faith in Jesus. How do you become a saint? Well, he tells the Ephesians, you hear the word of truth, the gospel, you believe in Christ, and you marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. (1:13) That makes all of you saints, well done! And as today is All Saints’ Day, it is your day.

But, how do we live as saints? This is where today’s gospel reading comes in. Jesus does not use the word “saint”, but he does talks about those who are blessed, and those for whom only woes await. And it is those who are blessed who will receive the kingdom of God, that glorious inheritance that as we heard in Daniel and Ephesians is promised to the holy ones, or saints. Looking at Jesus’ instructions, however, it sounds like living either dangerously or joylessly is the recipe after all …. Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry. Blessed are you who weep. Blessed are you when people hate you. (Luke 6:20-22) 

Jesus certainly also meant the physically poor and hungry. The Gospel of Luke that we have been using for most of this church year is explicit about Jesus’ love and care for the poor and the outcasts. He heals them, he eats with them, he is clear about society’s responsibility to change those rules and structures that keep them poor. But that is not the only meaning. He promises the kingdom to those who are not satisfied with their current, comfortable existence, to those who hunger and thirst for more, to those who recognize the poverty of just material success. To those who are starving for meaning in their lives. To those who hunger for community and who thirst for hope. 

These are the people who are open to Jesus’ Good News, these are the people who want the world to change, and these are the people who long for God’s kingdom of justice, abundance, love, and righteousness. Saints are people who choose Jesus and want to follow him and his example wherever it takes them.  We have an incredibly vivid portrait of where following Jesus takes us in our gospel lesson from Luke today. Look at the first sentence: “Jesus looked up at his disciples.” What does that imply? In order for Jesus to look up at his disciples, he had to be at a level below them. He is not standing up on a rock above a crowd of people to preach to them, and certainly not in a pulpit. Jesus was down on the ground as he taught this most central of his messages. He was crouching or kneeling in the dirt. Like Jesus, saints are never above or better or anywhere else than the people they serve. 

I suppose the reason the whole cult of Saints (capital “C”) developed – and by the time of the Reformation had become very complex and a distraction – is that following and imitating Jesus – the Son of God – seems like a very tall order. It seems easier to follow and imitate human heroines and heroes, people who are at least a little like us. Our Church did not throw out saints completely.  We retained many of the saints’ days, we kept the Feast of All Saints, and we even have a thick book of saints (Holy Women, Holy Men).  I think that is a good thing. I like to have concrete examples of what being a Christian is about, I like to remember their particular witness, their special gift. But it is also the result of a mistake. Sure Jesus wants us to follow him and his example, but he does not expect perfection. Most of the Saints are not. Look at them. Bad tempered. Unwashed. Uncomfortable. Unreliable. Unlike you and me of course.

What Jesus wants, and what makes us saints, is an acknowledgment of our imperfection, both of our own and of the world and a recognition of the need for change and transformation, our own and the world’s. To put it very simply: Jesus promises the kingdom of God to those who know they are not complete without it. Amen.