All Saints
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
“Does Christianity work?” Is sort of an odd question. When people ask this question it can mean a number of different things depending on the person asking. For some it is about will Christianity get me to heaven when I die. For others it is about will Christianity make a bad person into a good person. For some it is will it make a better society. For others it is about if Christianity can lead people to experience the transcendent. … I think the best way to answer that is to look to the saints.
When we use the word “saint” in the biblical sense, it refers to followers of Jesus Christ- to Christians. When St. Paul speaks about the saints he is referring to members of the church.
But, in another sense it refers to those who have truly turned their entire lives over to the way of Christ, and placed all their hope in God. And God has worked through them in amazing ways. A “saint” in this sense might be more what the author G.K. Chesterton is hinting at when he said,
"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."
Of course, this statement is a bit of an exaggeration, but it does hint at something true.
I suspect that all Christians feel that they have compromised their faith in certain areas. Do we really feel we have turned over every aspect of ourselves to Christ? Is our speech given to him? Our finances? Our sexuality? Our thinking patterns? Our strength and service to the poor? Our time? … Do we forgive, and pray consistently? … We have a tendency to pick and choose which of Christ’s teachings we want to follow. I suspect none of us can claim to be completely faithful to all of Christ’s teachings. This is Chesterton’s point. Very few of us have tried to fully live out the way of Christ without compromising in some ways.
Imagine you are testing a cake recipe. But as you are baking the cake, the recipe is asking for raisins, and you don’t like raisins, so you don’t include them. And maybe you’re trying to cut down on sugar, so you put use the sugar the recipe requires. And you think maybe cinnamon might work well, so you add a bit of cinnamon, but the recipe didn’t ask for that. … When you finish that cake, can you really say if that was a good recipe of not? … You actually haven’t tried the recipe. … The way that most of us live out our Christianity is like changing the recipe. But the saints are those who try their best to stick to the recipe.
That is what G.K. Chesterton is saying,
I suspect that all Christians feel that they have compromised their faith in certain areas. Do we really feel we have turned over every aspect of ourselves to Christ? Is our speech given to him? Our finances? Our sexuality? Our thinking patterns? Our strength and service to the poor? Our time? … Do we forgive, and pray consistently? … We have a tendency to pick and choose which of Christ’s teachings we want to follow. I suspect none of us can claim to be completely faithful to all of Christ’s teachings. This is Chesterton’s point. Very few of us have tried to fully live out the way of Christ without compromising in some ways.
Imagine you are testing a cake recipe. But as you are baking the cake, the recipe is asking for raisins, and you don’t like raisins, so you don’t include them. And maybe you’re trying to cut down on sugar, so you put use the sugar the recipe requires. And you think maybe cinnamon might work well, so you add a bit of cinnamon, but the recipe didn’t ask for that. … When you finish that cake, can you really say if that was a good recipe of not? … You actually haven’t tried the recipe. … The way that most of us live out our Christianity is like changing the recipe. But the saints are those who try their best to stick to the recipe.
That is what G.K. Chesterton is saying,
"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."
We don’t know what we would become if we refused to compromise and completely turned ourselves over to God. … The saints are examples to us of what happens when we do that. In the saints, we see God’s grace manifested in human lives, which then blesses world. They are those who have been willing to be conduits of God’s grace by removing their ego and resistance to God’s ways. The saints are the results of the Christian experiment when the way of Christ is applied to human lives with diligence- without messing with the variables, without messing with the directions Christ gave us.
When I say “recipe” it can sound like I’m talking about following a bunch of rules. So, the metaphor breaks down at that point. What we are talking about is the “way of Christ”. I’m talking about applying his teaching to our lives with wisdom. It is about following a person, and learning from him about how to live, and how to not resist God working in you and through you. This isn’t something we do, though it does include our effort. It is something God does in us when we stop pushing God back.
When we look at the saints, we see people who are reflect God into the world. … I was recently told a story about a children’s sermon. It was in a church that had beautiful stained glass windows, many of them were saints. The priest asked the children, “what is a saint?” The children thought for a while, and one girl pointed to the stained glass windows and said “it’s those people the light shines through”. … The writer and pastor Frederick Beuchner says of the saints that, “Their sainthood consists less of what they have done than of what God has for some reason chosen to do through them”. God works through these people to give us a glimpse of heavenly reality. Sometimes God used them to bring healing and to show miracles. In them we see love and peace and courage that is beyond our understanding. The saints report back to us about the joy of mystical experiences of the vision of God in prayer that is beyond any joy the world can give. They show the courage God can give us to stand up against powerful evil, even when we are faced with death. They show us examples of ways God can use us to transform the world.
So where do we start if we want to become saints? … There was once a couple who were lost and stopped to ask a farmer for directions. The farmer thought for a moment, then said, “well, I can tell you how to get there, but I wouldn’t start from here”. Maybe we feel like that. It’s a lovely dream, but surely I can’t get there from here. Dallas Willard would say that is what the beatitudes are all about. He would say, and I agree, the best way to interpret The Beatitudes is to see them as an expression of the all-embracing love of God. It means that wherever you are, that is a perfect place to start. In the culture Jesus was speaking to the beatitudes outline groups of people who were not considered blessed- the poor, those who were mourning, the meek. The circumstances these people faced was considered evidence that God was not blessing them- they were not in God’s favour. … Jesus changed that and said these people ate indeed blessed- they are loved by God and wherever they are, whatever circumstances they find themselves in, that is a perfectly fine place to start.
There were also many in Jesus’ day who were considered to be blessed because of their favourable circumstances- the wealthy, those whose bellies were full, those whose lives were full of laughter. Jesus warns them that this is not evidence that they are particularly favoured by God. These are just circumstances, so (if you are wealthy) don’t think you are more favoured than the poor.
Jesus turns it all upside down. Wherever you are, and whatever you are going through, God is there with you. You are in a place where you can receive God’s blessing. You are in a perfect place to start the journey to become a saint.
After the beatitudes, Jesus points us to love-
When I say “recipe” it can sound like I’m talking about following a bunch of rules. So, the metaphor breaks down at that point. What we are talking about is the “way of Christ”. I’m talking about applying his teaching to our lives with wisdom. It is about following a person, and learning from him about how to live, and how to not resist God working in you and through you. This isn’t something we do, though it does include our effort. It is something God does in us when we stop pushing God back.
When we look at the saints, we see people who are reflect God into the world. … I was recently told a story about a children’s sermon. It was in a church that had beautiful stained glass windows, many of them were saints. The priest asked the children, “what is a saint?” The children thought for a while, and one girl pointed to the stained glass windows and said “it’s those people the light shines through”. … The writer and pastor Frederick Beuchner says of the saints that, “Their sainthood consists less of what they have done than of what God has for some reason chosen to do through them”. God works through these people to give us a glimpse of heavenly reality. Sometimes God used them to bring healing and to show miracles. In them we see love and peace and courage that is beyond our understanding. The saints report back to us about the joy of mystical experiences of the vision of God in prayer that is beyond any joy the world can give. They show the courage God can give us to stand up against powerful evil, even when we are faced with death. They show us examples of ways God can use us to transform the world.
So where do we start if we want to become saints? … There was once a couple who were lost and stopped to ask a farmer for directions. The farmer thought for a moment, then said, “well, I can tell you how to get there, but I wouldn’t start from here”. Maybe we feel like that. It’s a lovely dream, but surely I can’t get there from here. Dallas Willard would say that is what the beatitudes are all about. He would say, and I agree, the best way to interpret The Beatitudes is to see them as an expression of the all-embracing love of God. It means that wherever you are, that is a perfect place to start. In the culture Jesus was speaking to the beatitudes outline groups of people who were not considered blessed- the poor, those who were mourning, the meek. The circumstances these people faced was considered evidence that God was not blessing them- they were not in God’s favour. … Jesus changed that and said these people ate indeed blessed- they are loved by God and wherever they are, whatever circumstances they find themselves in, that is a perfectly fine place to start.
There were also many in Jesus’ day who were considered to be blessed because of their favourable circumstances- the wealthy, those whose bellies were full, those whose lives were full of laughter. Jesus warns them that this is not evidence that they are particularly favoured by God. These are just circumstances, so (if you are wealthy) don’t think you are more favoured than the poor.
Jesus turns it all upside down. Wherever you are, and whatever you are going through, God is there with you. You are in a place where you can receive God’s blessing. You are in a perfect place to start the journey to become a saint.
After the beatitudes, Jesus points us to love-
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:27-31).
… To love is to work for the good of the beloved. Jesus is calling us to love in a non-reciprocal way. We often love in a way that reciprocates. You are kind to me, so I am kind to you. Jesus is calling us to love in a way that breaks that reciprocity. Be like God in showing kindness even to those who are his enemies. God gives sunshine and food and beating hearts even to his enemies.
If God was the sun, the sunshine would be love. In John’s first letter we read,
If God was the sun, the sunshine would be love. In John’s first letter we read,
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8).
Perhaps, by following the way of Jesus, we can become translucent enough that God’s love can shine through us. That is the calling of the saints. That is actually the calling for all Christians. And that is why Christians can be called “saints”. This is the calling of Jesus on our lives. To be people of the kingdom, is to be in the process of sainthood. There is no other path for us if we want to follow Christ. … We may resist this calling, as Chesterton points out, but that really only hurts us. God wants good for us- that is the definition of love. The best good God could want for us is for us to become saints. … Léon Bloy once said,
“The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”
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