sermon-2012-11-04
Posted on November 24, 2012 by admin No comments
Sermon preached by the Reverend Nicholas Lang
St. Paul’s on the Green, Norwalk, CT
The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost – All Saints (transferred) – November 4, 2012
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier. Amen.
Robert L. Wilken, professor at the University of Virginia, in his essay Remembering the Christian Past writes that “It is easy to get religion; it is something else to hold on to it.” Like dieting, giving up cigarettes, or staying sober, faith in God is not a solitary effort. Christianity is an intergenerational experience. Our challenge is always not simply to keep the faith, but to receive it and to pass it on.
Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints. The communion of saints is a metaphor for how we live together in the community we call the church, an assortment of people from all walks of life who surround each other, support one another, and share the best and worst of times as we walk side by side on this interesting, sometimes exciting, sometimes scary—as it was this past week—, and often mysterious journey of life.
The beauty of this metaphor is that it offers us the truth that none of us is meant to live in isolation. We are all a part of that great cloud of witnesses—the amazing communion of saints—that nurtures and restores us. We are part of a unity of strangers that forms around the God who calls us beyond our past into a challenging and sometimes lonely present. Belief in the communion of saints is a call to immerse ourselves in the holy-making work of living out the promises of our baptismal covenant as so many have done before us.
It is within this communion of saints that we find strength for our journey, hope in the face of despair, and the assurance that whatever we are facing now has been faced before and whatever we do will effect what is to come. The communion of saints is the heritage we have received and the promise we make to others who will follow us in faith.
Episcopalians use the word saint in a biblical way. When we talk about the saints we are not just talking about the famous and not-so-famous departed persons that have earned a special day on the church calendar nor are we only talking about our beloved deceased friends and family who have gone to their reward. Scripture uses the word saint to refer to all the faithful—including all of us here today.
“Sainthood” has nothing to do with merit or entitlement. It is a gift of pure grace, freely given out of God’s enormous love for us in spite of our failures or how unaware we are that we have been so blessed.
Preacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor says that “Once you have linked up with Christ’s body (that would be a bunch of characters like us), you have everything you need to be a saint. You have your identity, your halo, and a choice: to live as who you are or not.”
She says it is like knowing there is a check for a million dollars in the next room with your name on it. The money is yours, but until you claim it and cash it you are as poor as if it never existed. “Our vocation, our calling from that point on,” she says “is to act like saints and exercise our sainthood, practice it, so that we do not lose our God-given capacity to be saints.” Robert L. Wilken, professor at the University of Virginia, in his essay Remembering the Christian Past writes that “It is easy to get religion; it is something else to hold on to it.” Like dieting, giving up cigarettes, or staying sober, faith in God is not a solitary effort. Christianity is an intergenerational experience. Our challenge is always not simply to keep the faith, but to receive it and to pass it on.
Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints. The communion of saints is a metaphor for how we live together in the community we call the church, an assortment of people from all walks of life who surround each other, support one another, and share the best and worst of times as we walk side by side on this interesting, sometimes exciting, sometimes scary—as it was this past week—, and often mysterious journey of life.
The beauty of this metaphor is that it offers us the truth that none of us is meant to live in isolation. We are all a part of that great cloud of witnesses—the amazing communion of saints—that nurtures and restores us. We are part of a unity of strangers that forms around the God who calls us beyond our past into a challenging and sometimes lonely present. Belief in the communion of saints is a call to immerse ourselves in the holy-making work of living out the promises of our baptismal covenant as so many have done before us.
It is within this communion of saints that we find strength for our journey, hope in the face of despair, and the assurance that whatever we are facing now has been faced before and whatever we do will effect what is to come. The communion of saints is the heritage we have received and the promise we make to others who will follow us in faith.
Episcopalians use the word saint in a biblical way. When we talk about the saints we are not just talking about the famous and not-so-famous departed persons that have earned a special day on the church calendar nor are we only talking about our beloved deceased friends and family who have gone to their reward. Scripture uses the word saint to refer to all the faithful—including all of us here today.
“Sainthood” has nothing to do with merit or entitlement. It is a gift of pure grace, freely given out of God’s enormous love for us in spite of our failures or how unaware we are that we have been so blessed.
Preacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor says that “Once you have linked up with Christ’s body (that would be a bunch of characters like us), you have everything you need to be a saint. You have your identity, your halo, and a choice: to live as who you are or not.”
She says it is like knowing there is a check for a million dollars in the next room with your name on it. The money is yours, but until you claim it and cash it you are as poor as if it never existed. “Our vocation, our calling from that point on,” she says “is to act like saints and exercise our sainthood, practice it, so that we do not lose our God-given capacity to be saints.”
The Gospel today preaches those kingdom values that are at the core of the life God wants for us. They are called the Beatitudes—blessed attitudes toward living. They confront us with another vision—the ideal vision God has for us and who we can be. They tell us: “You are loved; live like it. You are redeemed; live like it. You are a saint; live like it. Become what you already are.”
Become what you already are. That is what Nethum, Morgan, James, Trevor, Alex, Matthew, and Joseph—the seven who are being baptized today are here to do and why together with them we will renew our baptismal covenant as we welcome these new saints into this great and awesome communion.
It takes a village to form a saint—a community of caring, loving, supportive people who know the struggle and are living out their baptismal promises as best they can, striving, in their blessedness, to be a blessing to others. Every time we gather in this sacred place, we become the icon of that holy village.
Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, says that the saints are models of greatness who give us a glimpse of the face of God in the center of the human. They give us a taste of the possibilities of greatness in ourselves.
Episcopal priest and author, Lane Denson points us that “we still live in the light of the saints’ legacy. We need the saints for their community of caring and example. We need them for those times when we can only whistle in the dark in fear for what lies ahead both in church and state. And what is more, we need the saints for the truly moral dimension they can add to our lives.” He continues to say that this is the time for servant leaders who care deeply for us and for all. And who are unafraid to be accountable and who do not hide behind the grandeur of their moralistic puffery and religiosity.
The All Saints season commissions us to march with the saints in this historic apostolic fellowship. It dares us to risk error and to know we are forgiven and reconciled. It charges us to proclaim the good news. To walk the talk. It directs us to discern and serve Christ in all persons and for heaven’s sake. And it reminds us of one of the greatest needs of our time: to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being.” These are the promises we will renew today.
Over the past 275 years of our history, thousands and thousands of saints have been brought to the waters of baptism in this faith community. With the saints who came before us, we now go gather around the font where we will get everything we need to be a saint: our identity, our halo, our call to live the life God intended us to live and to be the person God created us to be.