Celebrating the Saints

CELEBRATING THE SAINTS

Today we are celebrating the Feast of All Saints.

It is a day when we give thanks to God for all the known and unknown men and women, through whom the light of the love of God has shone brightly throughout the centuries, and whose lives have attracted the admiration of others.

But why celebrate the lives of saints? What is their relevance to us who live at the beginning of the twenty first century?

Let me give you three reasons why we should recall the lives of the saints of God.

Firstly, the saints remind us of our vocation.

lf you look at the opening verses of any of St Paul's letters in the New Testament, you will see that he addresses the Christians living, for instance in Rome, Philippi and Corinth, as 'saints'.

So, if he were to write a letter to us today he would probably begin with the words: 'To the congregation of God's people at ………, called to be saints.’

You see, my friends, sainthood is not reserved to the favoured few of long ago but includes everyone, and that includes you and me. Yes, we are called to be saints.

It was Napoleon who once said that, 'Every soldier carries a Field Marshall's baton in his knapsack' to remind his men of their potential. It could equally well be said that every Christian carries a halo in his or her knapsack to remind them of their potential.

So the saints of God remind us of our vocation.

Secondly, the saints remind us that they were ordinary men and women, like you and me.

You see, there is an awful danger that we think of the saints of God as being men and women born with an extra ingredient called the 'spiritual factor' which enabled them to become the special persons they did.

This is simply not true. Read the lives of any of the saints of God and you will see that they were just ordinary men and women who did extraordinary things.

Take for instance St Peter. What a comfort it is to know that a quick temper and a loss of nerve need not hinder us in our struggle in the Christian life.

And what about St Thomas? He was an honest doubter who did not have all the answers. He reminds us that we need not lose heart in our difficulties in believing.

Then there is St Andrew, with his hands and clothes stinking of fish. He reminds us that whatever we do for a living need not hold us back. I am sure he seldom had clean finger nails!

St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, reminds us that a life cut short in the prime of life, can still be a life which is pleasing to God.

And so we could go on looking at the lives of the various saints of God and see that it was their humanity which was the raw material out of which their sainthood grew.

So the saints of God remind us of our vocation and that they were ordinary men and women, like you and me

Finally, the saints of God remind us that we are never alone in the Christian life.

It is very easy to become disheartened, disenchanted and depressed in the Spiritual life because we feel that we are alone and that no one understands us.

But we are not alone. That is the great truth of the doctrine of the 'communion of saints', which we acknowledge every time we recite the Nicene Creed at the Eucharist.

The unknown writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews uses the image of the sporting arena to encourage us because, 'we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’.

Yes, like the athletes, we are in the race in the in the arena of earth, being cheered along by the saintly spectators, who are now in the nearer presence of God.

Saintly men and women who, from their former experience of life, are able to empathise with our human struggle upon earth, and thereby give us hope and encouragement as they cheer us along.

This concept of the presence of the 'communion of saints' is something that is often lacking in our Anglican places of worship, but is visibly expressed in orthodox churches by icons, and in the Roman Catholic churches by statues. These are visible reminders that we are not alone in our earthly pilgrimage but surrounded by the unseen presence of the 'great cloud of witnesses.'

However, it is verbally acknowledged at every Eucharist when the President says: ‘Therefore with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven, we proclaim your great and glorious name, for ever praising you and saying,

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

Heaven and earth are full of your glory,

Hosanna in the highest.’

Thus our temporal worship on earth is caught up with the eternal worship of heaven.,

So we celebrate the saints of God because they remind us of our vocation, that they were like us ordinary men and women, and that we are never alone, since we are surrounded and cheered along by the unseen 'communion of saints'

And finally, a story.

Two London children were taken up to the city by their father so see some of the sights. After seeing Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace, they found themselves at Piccadilly Circus.

However, it was not the statue of Eros that caught their attention but the flashing colourful lights of the advertisements.

On their way back home, they walked across Blackheath and saw the church of All Saints lit up inside. ln the darkness of the night, the east window was a blaze of colour shining out upon the heath.

One of the little boys asked his father, 'Are they God's advertisements?'

"Yes, they are.' the father replied. 'They are pictures of men and women through whom the light of God's love has shone, and through whom other people have been attracted to God'.

May you, who are called to be 'saints of God' become God's advertisements, through whom the light of God's love may shine and thereby attract other people to God.