All Saints                  John 11:32-44                November 5, 2006

                               “Messy Saints”

 

I want to let you in on a secret.  I’ve always been intimidated by the saints.  I grew up with the image of these super-holy people who not only dedicated their lives to God, but also, faced persecution, torture and death with courage and joyous expectation. 

 

There were the obvious saints, like Peter who legend claims insisted on being crucified upside down because he was not worthy to die like His Lord.  There was Stephen, the Church’s first martyr, who asked God to forgive those who were stoning him to death.

 

During the great persecutions of the early centuries there was Perpetua who was beaten, thrown before a mad bull and then beheaded, Julian who was placed in a leather bag with scorpians and then thrown into the sea, and a hundreds (perhaps thousands) of other men, women and children who were burned at the stake, thrown to lions or otherwise gruesomely killed.

 

All Saints Day was even created because there were so many unknown faithful Christians who died for the faith that the Church felt that there needed to be a general remembrance of them. 

 

Later, the during inquisition and then in the decades leading up to the Reformation  religious people died because they disagreed with some of the Church’s teachings.  Even Luther who died of natural causes suffered persecution.  As Christianity spread to uncivilized parts of the world, missionaries and converts often face death.

 

And unfortunately, even today Christians are sometimes called upon to decide whether to stand up for their faith and die or deny Christ.

 

All of these stories of brave and faithful martyrs were inspiring, but also terribly daunting.

 

I always knew that I was not martyr material.  In fact, I go to pieces at the prospect of even the little scary events we all have to deal with throughout our lives.  I always felt guilty and a bit ashamed of this.  I even questioned at times if my timidity might somehow disqualify me for heaven.

 

If we read Scripture carefully though we find a much more human picture of those we most revere.  The Biblical saints were real people who felt, said and did things that don’t seem very saintly.  They were messy saints who lived lives much like ours and reacted to events much as we often do.

 

The disciples did nothing to earn the title “Saint”.  They consistently failed to understand or accept what they were taught about discipleship and Jesus’ mission, fell asleep when He most needed their support, fled the scene when the guards came for Jesus, and denied Him when confronted.  In the scene just prior to our Gospel when Jesus hears that Lazarus is ill and tells the disciples he is going to him, the disciples immediate response is to hold back because of the danger they would face in Judea.  Only Thomas has the courage to follow at first.

 

When Jesus gets near the village Martha hears of his coming and goes out to meet Him.  It is not hard though to hear a bit of an edge to her greeting, even when it is followed by a statement of faith that Jesus can still work a miracle.

 

In our Gospel for today, the characteristics of messy saints are a bit more subtle.  The love Mary had for Jesus is well known.  It was she who insisted on sitting at his feet and listening to Him teach while poor Martha prepared a meal.  It was Mary who later violated social rules by coming into the room where Jesus and His disciples were eating and washed His feet with expensive perfume and dried them with her hair.

 

Yet, when Jesus came Mary held back.  She didn’t run out with Martha to greet Jesus.  Might this have been an act of passive aggressive anger?  When she was called out, her first words sound more like an accusation than a greeting.

 

There are important lessons in this story.  It could be noted that Jesus never kept anyone from dying, but He bring some, like Lazarus, back to life.  This stands as an important testimony of what Jesus’ can do for us.  There is also an obvious message about keeping hope alive even when reality points elsewhere.

 

But, the big lesson for today, I think, is to value the messiness of these saints.  Instead of laying on ourselves or others the burden of some kind of ideal response to suffering and death, we need to recognize that Jesus loves us and declares us saints right in the midst of our messiest humanity. 

 

In fact, the most gracious thing we can do for ourselves or others is to recognize that sainthood is not something we earn or achieve.  Sainthood is a gift.  Sainthood is given to us in our baptisms.  Thus, all who are baptized are saints.

 

The word we translate from the Greek as “saint” is more literally, “holy”.  From early in the Old Testament things and people became holy by being set apart and coming into contact with God.  Relating back to last Sunday’s sermon, we remember that Jesus upset the whole holiness system in which only the high priest could enter the holy of holies and be in God’s presence.  He made it possible for all believers to be in God’s presence and thus all believers have been made holy or made saints.

 

Truly “All Saints” is a holiday that we can all celebrate, because we are all saints through Christ. 

 

We do though use this day to particularly recognize those in our community and family who have joined the saints of every time and place.  Jim Lyons and James Bitting surely would have laughed at being called saints, not because either was bad, but because each knew how human he was.  Both Jim’s gave of themselves in various ways that can stand as examples to us.  James Bitting was active in service here at St. Paul’s and Jim Lyons gave of his gifts even before he started worshipping regularly and then became a true evangelist.

 

But, their families can tell you that each man was a messy saint.  Each had quirks and weaknesses.  Each committed his share of sins.  None of that matters though because each was made holy in baptism and set apart to be a saint.  This enhances the good that each man did because it gave their acts holy motivation.  So St. Jim and St. James we lift you up not just because you were good men, but because as messy saints you give us confidence in claiming and living out our own sainthood.

 

We have the strange duty today also of adding two names to our list of saints to be remembered this All Saints Sunday:  Marge and Neva.  Both died Friday afternoon after the service was set.  We won’t wait a whole year though to recognize these saints.

 

I’m sure that later today during the viewings and tomorrow at the funerals we will hear many of stories of the saintliness of these women.  But, I’m sure also that each member of their families can also name experiences that showed them to be messy saints as well.  And this is good.

 

Knowing that, like Mary and Martha and like the disciples, these four members of our community and family were real human beings, complete with some degree of messiness, can help each of us better accept the gift of sainthood.  Hopefully then, freed from the inner need to live out some perfect but impossible ideal of sainthood, we can respond to God’s great gift of baptismal holiness from a place of gratitude and love.  Amen