Why aren’t you a saint?
Story In a small country village in Sicily, there were two brothers, renowned members of the local Mafia.
They were mean, bad and very rich.
No one had a good word to say about them. Indeed, everyone seemed to have a story about how they had either been cheated or maligned by the brothers.
One day, one of the brothers, Giovanni died.
The surviving brother, Luigi - with a rare touch of conscience felt that something nice should be said about his brother Giovanni at the funeral.
So he went to the local vicar and said:
I know that folk in the village hate us, you don’t know the half of what we have been up to. However, I want you to say something nice about at his funeral.
I want you to say that Giovanni was a saint when you preach at his funeral.
If you agree to do that, ‘ll show my gratitude by giving 100,000 Euros towards the repair of the church. And here’s the cheque for the amount.
If you don’t, youll be in big trouble with me!
The vicar thought about it for a minute, agreed and cashed the cheque for 100 thousand Euro.
Word soon got out about the deal. And a week later, the whole village turned out for the funeral, because everyone wondered what the vicar would say.
After the opening hymns had been sung and the readings had been read, the vicar climbed up into the pulpit and delivered his sermon.
Eyeing Luigi, sitting in the front row, the
vicar said how evil the pair of them had been.
He went on to say how Giovanni had cheated, not only in business but on his wife, how he had lied and how had had no concern for anyone but himself.
In fact he went on to say what a downright scoundrel Giovanni had been.
After ten minutes of preaching in this vein, the vicar, being a man of his word, ended his sermon by simply saying
"But compared to his brother, Luigi - Giovanni was a saint.
Have you ever thought what the term “saint” means?
Did you realise that St. Paul uses the term “saint” a lot in his letters. For example in Romans 1:7 we read:
“To all who in Rome, who are loved by God and called to be saints, Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
What did he mean by the term “Saint?”
Imagine, if you would, that St. Paul the apostle had addressed one of his epistles to you.
Imagine that, instead of writing to the Romans, he had written to Dymchurch (Old Romney/Ivychurch ).
“Dymchurchians”( Romneyans /Ivychurchians ) 1:7 would have read
“To all who in Dymchurch (Old Romney Ivychurch) , who are loved by God and called to be saints,
Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So what is a saint?
Well, the term “saint” has a number of meanings.
1. Someone who is long suffering is called a saint. I am sure you have heard the expression; “She was a saint to put up with him so long. “
2. Others see it as the church’s Victoria Cross – for people who have done something special. St Thomas a Beckett who was martyred for his faith.
3. But Saint is a biblical term. The Oxford
Illustrated Dictionary gives the biblical
definition of the term “saint” as being
One of God’s chosen people,
A member of the Christian church.
A saint is someone who is a Christian.
The etymology of the word “Saint” derives from the word “sanctified” – that is set apart for God.
This morning’s epistle reading from Romans 6 goes to the heart of Christian living.
St Paul writes: “ do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires”.
What is the effect of sin in our lives.
St Paul in our epistle reading answers it directly and contrasts it with God’s gift to us.
Paul writes:
23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23)
The Christian message is not simply about becoming a Christian. Or put in more theological terms – it is not simply about salvation – though of course salvation is vitally important.
It is more. It is also about the process of sanctification. That is that we consecrate our lives to the will of God
And interestingly the word “sanctification” has the same derivation as the word “saint”.
In other words, we need to become more Christlike.
For sanctification speaks of our wills becoming conformed to the will of God
As Christians God calls us to live differently.
St Paul put the matter like this:
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Rom 6:12-14)
We are not to live our lives in fear of judgement because Jesus has dealt with the penalty of our sin on the Cross.
Rather we are called to live holy lives because we love God and so we will not want to do what God hates. And God hates sin!
It is the motivation that is so important!
When Jesus was asked by one of the Pharisees the question: “Teacher which commandment in the law is the greatest?” he replied:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Many people think that Jesus invented these two commandments but he didn’t.
You can find them in the Old Testament.
The first is found in the book of Deuteronomy
“Hear O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength." (Deut 6: 4- 5)
and the second is found in our first reading from the book of Leviticus
“ Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 19:18)
Jesus’ genius was in linking the two commandments together as the sum total of the Law of God.
St. Paul also that “love is the fulfilment of the law”. (Rom 8:10b).
Love isn’t about rule keeping – it is a motivation for the way we are to live our lives.
If we love God, we will hate sin – because the one we love hates sin in our lives too.
The challenge of our epistle reading today is that we need as Christian to WORK on the sin in our lives - NOT because of fear of losing our salvation but because as St Paul puts it
“......count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.”(Rom 6:11-12)
As Christians we are called to live a new way of life. Quite a challenge. Amen
