Everyday Saintliness Made Real

Do you think you are good enough to be one God’s saints? How do you think you'd look dressed up in stained glass? How do you think you'd look as an icon with colors of egg tempra? What do you think? Do you think you have what it takes?

What a strange question! We tend to think of saints as really and obviously holy people; people who meet strict criteria get to be called saints, right? Our sisters and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church have a strict process that moves a person from Beatified to Sainthood, with a few miracles under their saintly belts.

Our process is a little different. To get into our own calendar of Saints is less stringent… no miracles are required but there is a vote in General Convention. We invoke saints in our prayers, we name churches for them, as well as cities, colleges, and hospitals.

Maybe you’ve done what more and more Episcopalians do every Lent? Vote for your favorites saint during Lent Madness… a thirty-two slot bracket (like the NCAA Basketball March Madness) where Episcopalians vote for their favorite saint in daily matchups from the first Thursday in Lent until Wednesday in Holy Week? Last year, Absolom Jones won the Golden Halo, joining others like George Herbert, CS Lewis, Mary Magdalene, Frances Perkins, Charles Wesley, Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Florence Nightingale, Anna Alexander, Martha of Bethany, and Harriet Tubman… who all were winners of their annual contests. Who will win the Golden Halo next Lent? Stay tuned!

Would it surprise you if I told you that the word “saint” appears in the New Testament 62 times and that the Apostle Paul used the term 44 times? You see, in the New Testament, every follower of Jesus is a Saint, or in Greek "hagios", one of the holy ones.

You are one of God's saints. Yes, you!

So, what makes a saint a saint? The Apostle Paul says faith in Jesus and Baptism are the marks of sainthood. He’s not alone. The writer of the Revelation to John in his heavenly vision puts it another way- "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them…’"

We are called saints because of God's continuing presence among his people; it is God who is intimately and fully holy, it is a God who came in the flesh in the person of Jesus, who still dwells with us, His people. That presence permeates the entire community of faith.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said:

God came among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to change the world, to change it from the nightmare it often can be into the dream that God intends. He came to change the world, and we have been baptized into the Triune God and summoned to be disciples and followers of this Jesus and to participate in God’s work, God’s mission of changing and transforming this world. We are the Jesus Movement now….

…We are part of the Jesus Movement, and he has summoned us to make disciples and followers of all nations and transform this world by the power of the Good News, the gospel of Jesus.

What makes God's people holy is His presence in and with us. It’s not our behavior which, truth be told, is often less than perfect, that makes us saints, but it is our living identity as Jesus’ people that makes us saints. It is how learn and do the works of Jesus as his friends and apprentices that makes us saints.

The former slave ship captain John Newton, who wrote the famous hymn "Amazing Grace," brought home in his beloved hymn the reality that it is God's gracious presence in the midst of His humanity that makes sainthood possible.

"Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see."

Left to our own devices, we will eventually disappoint at least our own selves. But with God's loving grace we can grow to be the people God made us to be…to live into the sainthood we have been adopted into!

In today’s reading from the Revelation to John, God's voice thunders from heaven, "See, I am making all things new." God is making a promise to us. 

When I was in high school and college, the movement that was sweeping the Episcopal Church (and many other churches) was the charismatic movement. People were experiencing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including but not limited to speaking in tongues, and ecstatic prayer. Well, I loved going to those churches and prayer meetings and I learned so much. I was energized and inspired by their worship. But, as I have said to some of you before, I made a rotten charismatic. I am just too tightly wound. The truth is that the only time I’ll ever pray with my hands up will probably be during a bank robbery!

I used to feel guilty about this. That maybe I wasn’t holy enough. But a wise woman reassured me that it was okay…that God was not finished with me yet.

We live in a world that often advertises promises of perfection. It turns out that saintliness is much less about perfection than it is about transformation. We who are God's saints on earth are called to allow the holy presence of God be a transforming influence in our life.

The Rev. Dr. James Fenhagen, who was then the Dean of General Seminary, spoke about the Church in American culture. He said that modern Christians tended to have hard crusty exteriors but soft inner cores. The problem is God call us to have a solid core and soft exterior! Historically Christianity has advocated focusing on forming the inner person, engaging in disciplines such as prayer, study of Scripture, spiritual direction, and sacramental living, that shapes who and what we are deep in our souls. This is how transformation happens; that is how we grow as God's saints on earth.

A few years ago, my wife and I joined about four dozen other Episcopalians on a pilgrimage across northern Spain called the Camino de Santiago. We walked this ancient pilgrim way following in the steps of countless Christians—not just on the Camino but in all kinds of ordinary living-- who seek to follow Jesus every day, and to turn this journey into a moving walking prayer. 

What I learned from that pilgrimage is that being a saint, a follower of Jesus, is to be “on the way every day,” learning and doing his work, seeing his face in the people we meet, and joining a countless band of other saints, living and dead, who are walking on the way in prayer, acts of service, and humble worship. So, yes, you have what it takes, because we are, all of us, by grace, saints of God!

Here is the link to the full liturgy at St. John's Clearwater, Florida

Here is the link to the sermon.