Psalm 149, Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10,13-14, Revelation 7:2-4,9-17, Matthew 5:1-12
What Is A Saint? (Feats of All Saints)
Last Tuesday was the Feast of All Saints, which we are observing this Sunday. It is our first observance of this feast here at Saint Athanasius Anglican Church, and it is my fervent hope that we shall observe it for many years into the future.
Did you know that there is at least one web-site devoted to the Feast of All Saints? It’s found at feastofsaints.com. Go there and have a look around some time. You’ll find some edifying things there. In one of the pages of that web site that discusses the meaning of the word saint, we find these words:
“Many people upon hearing this curious word "saint" cringe. To them, saints are one-dimensional, sometimes even vaguely creepy people who are uncomfortable to be around. They have one track minds and are other than human. They exist on a different plane where they have no real appreciation of how ordinary folk live.
Saints are rigid creatures who don’t know the agonies and eccentricities of life. Those who feel this way about sainthood are likely to say, with a hint of disdain – and pride – "I’m NO saint!"
Then there are people who think the saints exist in a type of rosy glow. They exude sentiment from holy cards and would be quite at home with sweet Hallmark greetings. To this audience the saints are always kind and gentle and never have a rotten thought. Supermen, but elevated even higher, the saints are miraculous figures whose feet never really touched the ground.
People who have this image probably also think of our Lord in rosy glows – eerily androgynous, with stylized features and a perfect complexion. This is the Jesus whom Dorothy Sayers describes … as someone whom we have declared and "certified ’meek and mild’…a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies." [http://feastofsaints.com/whatsaint.htm]
May I suggest to you on this, our first observance of All Saints, that one of the most complete profiles of the kind of person who is a saint is found in the words of the Gospel appointed for this feast day: The Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Those beatitudes begin and end with this phrase: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And in the closing words of this section of Jesus’ sermon, Jesus says “12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, …”
For centuries, the lectionaries of the Church have looked to the Beatitudes as an appropriate reading from the Gospels for this feast day are pointing to something important about saints. This may seem odd, for Jesus doesn’t use the word “saint” in this passage. Nevertheless, I think it is the saints who are the subject of Jesus’ words here. Why?
First of all saints are, by and large, not at all famous. To be sure, there are those whom we own as Saints – Saint Athanasius, for example, or St. Paul, or any of the Apostles – who are rightly famous. But, when we look at what they are famous for, it is something that I do not think any of us would chose for our selves or for our families. For the Apostles, their sainthood is invariably connected with their suffering for the gospel, for their martyrdom. And, a great many of the saints whose names are known to us have just that feature in their spiritual resumes: they suffered greatly for the name of Christ or for the sake of the gospel.
That is why I think Jesus is talking about these kinds of people in the beatitudes: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The roster of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11 contains much of the same thing: “Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.”
Many commentators on this passage of Hebrews try to identify who the author had in mind as he penned these verses of Hebrews. There is a legend that the Prophet Isaiah was martyred by being sawn into two pieces. But the Author of Hebrews doesn’t give their names, and I think this is for the same reason that Jesus does not speak in terms of individuals, but of characteristics of otherwise unknown saints.
The truth of the matter seems to be this: that the vast majority of saints, the vast majority of those of whom Jesus was speaking in the Beatitudes, the vast majority of those whom the Author of Hebrews was speaking about – the vast majority of such folks are – to us – anonymous. In the Old Testament reading from Ecclesiasticus, we find him speaking of the saints of earlier times with these words:
9 And there are some, of whom there is no memorial: who are perished, as if they had never been: and are become as if they had never been born, and their children with them.
10 But these were men of mercy, whose godly deeds have not failed: 11 Good things continue with their seed, 12 Their posterity are a holy inheritance, and their seed hath stood in the covenants. 13 And their children for their sakes remain for ever: their seed and their glory shall not be forsaken. “
This seems to be one reason for designating one feast day in the Church and naming it All Saints, in order to remember – at least in principle – that those saints whose names we know are only a small fraction of those who are properly designated by this term. Matthew Brown, in a meditation on the saints, said this:
“It is the glory of the Church that it cannot name all the saints. It is the glory of the Church that it cannot remember all the saints. It is the glory of Christ that we cannot count all the saints.”
Here, then, are four reasons why this feast of All Saints is so valuable for each of us.
First of all, if we feel small, obscure, and insignificant, we may take courage from the saints who went before us. They were small, and obscure, and – from the world’s point of view – utterly insignificant. But, where are they now? And, whose company do they keep now? They are in the presence of the Creator of all flesh and the Father of all Spirits. If you feel as they did, you’re in good company, the company of the saints. They made it to heaven. So will you.
Second, if we feel despondent, discouraged, or beset, we can take courage from the saints who went before us. They faced trials and temptations, they were discouraged and beset. You’re in good company, the company of the saints. They made it to heaven. So will you.
Third, if we feel utterly inadequate for what lies before us – whether it is martyrdom, or boredom – we can find motivation from the saints before us. Remember those of whom Sirach spoke: so forgotten that it would seem that the world is no different than it would be if they had never been born. Or, remember those of whom the Author of Hebrews speaks, whom the world esteemed as nothing and treated as nothing. Or remember those of whom Jesus spoke in the Beatitudes, those who were poor in spirit. You’re in good company, the company of the saints. They made it to heaven. So will you.
Fourth, if we feel fearful of the future, we can take courage from the saints who went before us. When I was a small boy, my father used to say something that would infuriate me. He would say this when I was feeling angry and frustrated because I was not getting my way with something. He would say “Son, in 20 years, it won’t mean anything.” Now there was wisdom in that, and even as a boy I could see it. And, because I was still a boy, it would just make me more angry, for I knew that in 20 years, whatever it was that was vexing me would, in fact, not matter at all.
But, there is a higher and more glorious wisdom than this. When we are fearful of the future – the immediate future – we should think of the saints in heaven. Do we face anything that many of them have faced? And, what do those trials look like from there perspective now? Their viewpoint from heaven is the one that will last, not the viewpoint we have down here at the moment.
Those whom we personally know, those family and friends who are now in heaven, are probably some of the most important saints in our lives. For these saints are not the plaster variety that one finds in churches, or painted on the sides of votive candles in the HEB supermarket. These we know personally are the saints that had flesh and blood which we ourselves have seen and touched. They had voices which we heard. They spoke words which we remember. And they are now in heaven. They finished their race. They made it across the finish line – some of them staggered across it, perhaps one or two of them were dragged across – but there they are now, among that great cloud of witnesses who behold us from heaven as we are still on the course.
Author Charles Allen tells a story from World War II: As the war drew to a close, the Allied armies gathered up many hungry orphans. They were placed in camps where they were well-fed. But, in spite of the excellent care they received, they slept poorly. They seemed nervous and afraid. Eventually, someone was able to discern the source of their anxiety and he proposed a solution. Each child was given a piece of bread to hold after he was put to bed. They children were told that this bread was not for eating. It was to be held, not eaten. And, the children who received it went to sleep and slept soundly.
You see, they had been hungry often enough, and severely enough, that they feared about the future. But, the piece of bread which they took to their beds at night assured them that they would have food to eat the next day. That guarantee gave them a restful, contented sleep. [This Illustration is from Quintin Morrow at sermoncentral.com, via Warner Pidgeon].
The saints are, for us, like that piece of bread. And it is the saints we personally know that give us the greatest assurance when we are anxious about the future.
God grant that we may grow in our trust of Him and in our confidence in His Son Jesus Christ, because of the faithfulness He displayed to those saints whom we know and remember this day. And, as we pray each Sunday in the Prayers of the People, may the example of God’s grace and favor toward them assure us that we shall one day join them through the same divine faithfulness which makes them blessed for ever.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
