"For All the Saints"    Cicero United Methodist Church     Jack Keating

November 4, 2007                  All Saints Sunday                Text: Luke 6:20-36

There is this old story - perhaps it's a joke - maybe something like it really happened at one time, we don't really know. It's an old story about two brothers who lived in a particular small town where they were involved in corruption, deceit and every other manner of vice you might think of. It was even rumored that they were affiliated with some very famous organized crime families as well. Whatever the case might be, both of the brothers accumulated much wealth through their dishonest means.

There was little grief in the town then when the older brother died. But his younger brother, wanting to honor his elder sibling, went all out in planning the funeral. The problem he came upon however, was finding a minister willing to do the service, given that neither of them had ever graced the steps of a church. Knowing that one of the local churches was in the midst of a capital campaign for some much needed repairs, the younger brother called on the minister.

"Reverend," he said, "I know that my brother and I have never attended your church, as a matter of fact we never attended any church. I also know that you've probably heard a lot of things about my brother and I, this being a small town and all, but I'd like you to do my brother's funeral. And if you'll say he was a saint, I'll write you a check for $50,000. That'll go a long way toward fixing up the church."

After some thought, the pastor agreed to have the service. The pastor, however, also had a condition. The $50,000 had to be paid in advance. And so it was.

On the day of the funeral, the church was crowded. Curiosity brought dozens of people in, who were actually not there to honor the rich man, but to see what the minister would actually say. The remainder of the crowd was made up of mobsters and women the brothers associated with.

The service began with the usual hymns, scriptures and prayers - and then the homily began. The minister began slowly, but then step by step launched into a litany of the horrible things the rich man had done, how he had been selfish, greedy, corrupt, caring about no one but himself, carousing with women, drinking excessively, and on and on.

The younger brother, sitting in the front pew, was getting pretty hot under the collar about how the minister was not fulfilling his promise, but during the service there was not much he could do about it. He could only wait and hope that the minister would keep his end of the bargain. Finally, after about ten minutes of outlining in great detail the dead man's flaws, the minister concluded his sermon in a booming voice proclaiming:

"Yes, my friend, this man was a no-good dirty, rotten scoundrel! But, compared to his brother, he was a saint!"

When people think of the saints, they most often think of people like Paul, or James, or John, and the other apostles; or they think of people like St. Francis of Assisi, or Saint Rose, or St. Ignatius of Loyola.

In short they think of people that the church has long declared to be saints - those people whose faith and vision and moral integrity has been thoroughly examined and widely known; those normally long dead folk whom have been judged to have advanced the cause of Christ notably in this world; those people deemed to be worthy of imitation and of praise by both church bureaucrats and popular opinion.

Today is All Saints Day - a feast day that has been celebrated for hundreds of years within the church, particularly within the Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches, but in many others as well. But often not much is said about the Saints and All Saints Day: except to explain that the night before, the night of witches and devils and other things that we should not pay attention to, received its name because it is on the Eve of All Hallows Day, of All Saints Day.

That neglect of the Saints in our tradition is really a pity in a way because it can make the whole idea of sainthood and of the communion of the saints, inaccessible to us, -- especially when you couple that neglect with the popular idea of what a saint is - namely someone who is only a little less than perfect, someone who has been a spiritual overachiever as it were.

It is true that those that the universal church has declared - after much examination and debate, to be saints are saints. But - when you get right down to it - these wonderful people are only bright examples of something that is very common - namely bright examples of a deep and abiding faith in Christ Jesus, a faith that is issued forth in action.

They are the people upon whom the fickle finger of public attention has descended, and while normally deserving of the attention they have and are receiving, so are many, many more people, people both dead and people still alive. And that's why I greeted you the way I did this morning when I said "Good Morning Saints!"

The word saint derives from the Latin word Sanctus, which we translate as the word "holy". And in the Bible, in this morning's reading from the Letter to the Ephesians, and in all of Paul's letters, the word - sanctus- the word saint - is applied without further distinction to the company of those who believe in Jesus Christ and who strive to live faithfully according to his teachings and example. In a few minutes we'll pause to name those in our fellowship who have joined the saints triumphant in the last 12 months and I hope you will take note again of how Paul refers to the saints:

Listen again to the first 2 verses of Paul's letter to the Ephesians - where Paul tells them who is writing and to whom it is that he is writing.....

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus And are faithful in Christ Jesus - grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Listen as well to how Paul addresses the Roman church....

"Paul, as servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle ... to all God's beloved in Rome, who are called saints. Grace and peace to you... "

And the church in Corinth ....

"Paul, called to be apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ... "

Saints you see are all around us, - people who are holy - people who are set apart from the rest of the world because they believe in Jesus Christ and seek to live faithfully as he has shown them.

In the Bible, in our faith, saints are normal people, normal people who differ from most others in this world, not because of the degree of their perfection, but because of the degree of their faith and how, because of their faith and how they live it, they are able to draw others to give praise to God and inspire them to want to believe in and follow the Christ who they believe in.

We are saints you see ... we are called to be saints. A saint is someone who is set apart for their faith. A saint is someone whose life is dedicated to the worship of God and the doing of God's will. A saint is someone who inspires in us the desire to know and follow Jesus Christ.

So think about it for a minute now - does it not make sense that we who are called to be saints - should pause once a year in our public worship to think about who the saints of God really are and to thank God for them? Does it not make sense as well to pause perhaps once a month -or even once a day- in our private worship, and give thanks to God for all the saints especially for those saints whom have touched our lives and showed us something of Christ's love, something of God's glory?

What we admire in them, after all, is part of what we are called to imitate, part of what we hope God will work through us, part of what God calls us to be and to embody and to live out.

A saint is a person who is an example of faithfulness; a person who, because of their faith in Christ, shows forth something of His light in their lives.

Now think about it for a minute or two more - think of the saints - think not about the famous ones - like Saint Paul, or Saint John or Saint Francis, but think of those saints who have touched your lives, of those who inspired in you a deeper faith in God, of those who have made you want to bless the God they believe in, of those whose love and testimony have awakened something in your soul.....

I can think of two men and a woman immediately who stirred me to faith.

One was a lady named Miss Armstrong who led the children's church program at the Episcopal Church in Waterbury, Connecticut where I first experienced Jesus Christ. Miss Armstrong, although never married or a mother, raised a generation or three of young Christians in her first grade Sunday School class, which she taught well into her 87^th year. Today, I am sure she is with the saints triumphant in heaven looking down on her "kids" and watching as they have grown and matured in their faith through God's grace.

Another was a man named Arthur Carlson, a leader in my Boy Scout troop. When marital problems began unraveling the marriage of my parents, Mr. Carlson was the guiding factor in this young man's life. And, although not preaching to me about Jesus Christ, he did model for me a Christ-like way of loving and supporting that I have tried many times to offer as a pastor to other saints of the church of Jesus Christ.

Who are you thinking of?

    I also think of an Episcopal Priest named Harry Knisely, a loving, gentle man who welcomed the gifts and graces of all of God's children and invited me, for the first time into a pulpit to share my experience of the faith with others.  Harry is retired now and living out west where he is, I am sure, still serving God in the same compassionate way he did when he knew me to be a new Christian and a struggling teenager.

Close your eyes for a minute, if you would and think for a few minutes about those saints who have touched your life.

Maybe you're thinking now about Mother Teresa, whose example from another part of the world has touched us even here. One who may well end up being named the kind of saint that we normally think of when we hear that word?

Or maybe you're thinking about a teacher in your past who first showed you what the love of Christ was like, who prayed for you when you were intent on challenging them and showed you a flexibility and an openness that you did not expect, but secretly hoped to see?

Maybe you're thinking about a person sitting very near to you this morning.... a fellow saint in the body of Christ?

Who do you think of? Open your eyes and remember the name or names of those saints you want to give thanks for, of those whose faith has inspired you to faith, of those whose dedication to God and showing God's love has warmed your hearts. Now in a few minutes when we name those saints who have gone before us this year, and allow time for you to name your saints, I invite you to lift those names up either from your hearts or using the words from your lips.

I read recently about a man who was being honored as his city's leading citizen. Called on to tell the story of his life, he said, "Friends and neighbors, when I first came here 30 years ago, I walked into your town on a muddy dirt road with only the suit on my back, the shoes on my feet and all my earthly possessions wrapped in a red bandana tied to a stick, which I carried over my shoulder. Today I'm the Chairman of the Board at the bank.-I own hotels, apartment buildings, office buildings and three companies with branches in 49 cities and I'm on the boards of all the leading clubs. Yes, friends, your city has been very good to me."

After the banquet a youngster approached the successful man and asked, ·Sir, could you tell me what you had wrapped in that red bandana when you walked into this town 30 years ago?' The man said, "I think, son, it was a half a million dollars in cash and about $900,000 in government bonds."

Well most of us don't know any saints with those kinds of tools at their disposal. But they none-the-Iess serve as God calls them to serve and because of them ... our lives and faith journeys have been transformed. And because of them we are more fully blessed.

Bless God for those who seem to you to be blessed, - those whom you believe are indeed set apart by God and made holy because they have encouraged you to live towards your high calling as the children of God.....

Blessed be God day by day. Amen.