In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When our culture transforms a "holy day" into a "secular holiday," it almost always manages to focus on the wrong side of the equation.
Let me explain what I mean.
The number of shopping days left till Christmas is NOT as important as the 12 day period between the Christmas day miracle and the season of Epiphany.
A huge party, Mardi Gras, on "Fat Tuesday" is NOT as important as the forty days of Lent that follow.
Eating all your Easter Eggs before breakfast on Easter morning is NOT as important as rejoicing over living a resurrection faith on Easter afternoon.
Tonight, many around the world threw themselves a spooky, kooky "Halloween party“ and while the majority of the world would disagree with me, this is NOT as important as is the two Holy Days that we began to celebrate yesterday and will conclude on Tuesday — The Feast of All Saints, and The Feast of All Soul's.
But as we come together this morning, do we understand what the Holy Feast of All Saints is about?
The origin of All Saints dates back to 609 or 610 when Pope Boniface consecrated the pantheon in Rome to the Blessed virgin and all martyrs, the feast which accompanied this dedication has been celebrated ever since.
But it was in the eighth century that All Saints was moved to this date by Pope Gregory III, when he dedicated an oratory in St. Peter's, for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect, who are at rest throughout the world".
This is all interesting information, but what does the Feast itself actually mean to us?
All Saints is the day when we remember and pay tribute to those countless men and women who have been recognised by the church through their actions, and their steadfastness to the faith.
But this itself can cause us a problem, because when we think of the saints, all sorts of images are conjured in the mind.
When I was younger I thought of the saints as spiritual giants who were perfect in every way and had always been very good and pure people.
A number of years ago Mikki and I had the opportunity to visit Assisi, and to visit the Basilica of St Francis, to spend time reading about one of the saints who has inspired me, but as I read about him well I was shocked.
In his younger days he was a rich idle brat, who enjoyed war and its spoils! But after being captured, imprisoned, and disgraced, God took hold of his life, and he repented of his ways and became a humble, Christ centred man who was a gentle example of the faith.
St Francis had a care for churches in dis-repair, and for the poor, and was told by God to ‘go and repair my church, which you see is falling down.’ Later St Francis established the order we now call the Franciscans, who are still active in the world today.
Isn’t it interesting how rose coloured spectacles can blur the truth in front of us, and through the haze we miss the point!
St Francis has and continues to be an inspiration to countless people throughout the centuries, but his beginnings wouldn’t have inspired anyone!
A saint is a woman or man who is used by God, they reflect His work in the world, and the love that he has for each one of us.
I would imagine that none of us here would ever consider ourselves to have a saintly potential, but maybe we need to move away from thinking in those restrictive terms, and instead ask ourselves the question, are we open enough to God to be saints ourselves?
It’s an intriguing question!
Sainthood isn’t about sinlessness; only Christ would fit into that category! It’s wholly about our openness to God. St Francis wasn’t perfect; he wasn’t even very good to begin with, he was a human being, flesh and blood, and subject to temptation, just like we are. A man who became open to God and though this experienced the grace of God in and upon his life.
He is just one example of why we celebrate the feast of All Saints, because through the millennia there have been, and continue to be men and women who are open to God and through that openness have touched the lives of countless others.
We give thanks for the way they enrich our lives, through their actions, and the instruction that they received through Holy Scripture.
Our Gospel reading this morning is a good example of this, it is counter-cultural, and it turns the ‘me-first’ attitude of the present age on its head.
Christ arrives in Bethany after Lazarus’ death, and we see a glimpse into the love that He had for those who walked the earth with him as he wept at the tomb. As we hear the end of the Gospel we see Lazarus raised from the dead, and although we don’t hear more about him, I am sure that his encounter with Christ will have been a pivotal point in his life.
But Christ didn’t just spend time with the disciples and those closest to him. He preached all over the Judean countryside and beyond. Through his words and actions, he inspired people to not only follow him, but he also spent time enabling them to reach their full potential in everything they do.
The most well know of these teachings is the beatitudes, and how just like our observance of Holy Days are, or should be sacrosanct, He teaches that us that heavenly values are not on par with worldly ones, and the way we approach other issues should be counter cultural
Those who are worst off will become blessed, those who are hated and despised in the world will be the ones who rejoice as their reward will be great in heaven.
But to those who already have a full life, a life which compared to the poor would seem to be luxurious; there is a stark warning, a warning to not be complacent and to rest on their laurels.
Christ finishes the beatitudes with one which will likely resonate with many here today, he is telling us not to be discouraged by the things that people say about us, whether that is to our face, or behind our back, because when we follow the path that He has set before us, we will also experience the malice, and hateful attitudes that the saints experienced throughout their earthly lives.
He doesn’t qualify his remark, he doesn’t give any exceptions, He is addressing everyone, because he recognises that everyone has someone who, although they may not be regarded as enemies, they don’t get along with, and even in the face of this opposition, we shouldn’t be disheartened or give up. Instead we should continue to be true to the path that is being laid out for us.
Christ challenged the Disciples as they walked with him, and He in now challenging us; he is throwing down a gauntlet for us, to guide us onto the road to our own personal sainthood.
“Stand up for what is right.”
“Don’t sink to their level.”
“Don’t let them steer you off the path God is guiding you on.”
“Pray for those who abuse you.”
“Get smacked on one cheek, offer the other.”
“Lose your coat? Throw your shirt in as well.”
“Give cheerfully and extravagantly.”
Don’t expect to ever get anything back in return.
If we were to look at the lives of some of the saints celebrated by the church, we would no doubt find some if not all of these qualities in their lives.
But it’s not an easy challenge for any of us, and it’s not meant to be, to live the life of faithfulness to God requires much of us, and in our earthy existence offers very little in return, and that’s how it should be!
Outwitting spooky spirits on Halloween is not essential to Christian discipleship. But remembering the "saints" is. Celebrating our ancestors, our sisters and brothers in the faith, some known, others unknown, some esteemed, others reviled, but all of them lived and died furthering the Christian faith.
That is the "holy day" the church needs to hold up to the world.
Today as we celebrate the saints, we need to let them inspire us to embody all that Jesus Christ teaches us about the kingdom of God. Let today be a day which motivates us to follow in the path of the saint or saints that have and continue to inspire us. But we also need to remember that the saints learnt from Jesus’ teachings, just as we do today.
Christ was so determined to instruct us, that he died on the cross to remind us that we are all valued in the kingdom; we then received the spirit into our lives for a reason. That reason is that God wants each of us to strive to be saints, to have an impact on other’s lives, and to leave a legacy which will inspire the generations that follow us.
We don’t follow this path for earthy reward, to receive the commendation of others; we do all this for, and to the glory of God, just as the countless saints who we celebrate today, and, who have gone before us did.
Amen.
