All Saints? Are You Sure?
All Saints Sunday ~ Matthew 5:1-12
November 2, 2008 ~ Kenwood UMC
Has anyone ever told you that you were a saint? Maybe when you’ve done something really good for them that’s gotten them out of a jam? I said it just this week to my neighbor Jeff. It happened this way. Sara Pugh, a woman seeking ordination in the United Methodist Church in Virginia, was staying with our family on Tuesday night. She was in town for interviews on Tuesday and Wednesday, and had borrowed a friend’s car to get here. On Tuesday evening, she accidentally left the parking lights on, since she was unfamiliar with the car. So, of course, when she went to start the car on Wednesday morning, it was as dead as anything.
So, I pulled out the jumper cables and pulled my car around, and proceeded to follow the directions on the cables to jump the car. Positive connection, positive connection, negative connection, grounding. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So she called AAA and was told someone would be there in about an hour…and just about that time Jeff came out of his house. He came over and assessed the situation and asked if he could try.
Now my neighbor Jeff is a Battalion Chief in the Hanover Fire Department—he makes us all feel very safe around fourth of July fireworks. So, he pulled his truck around and got out his cables and connected them…positive, positive, negative, negative….wait a minute, I thought, no grounding. I shrugged to myself and said, well, he’s a fireman, if he starts a fire he can put it out.
Sure enough, with a couple of revs of his engine Sara’s car started right up. And I said, Jeff, you are a saint, thank you so much!
Now, what did I mean by that, calling him a saint? We use the word like that, almost in a joking way, but I think it’s actually a truer meaning than when we use saint to talk about some extraordinary Christian example like Mother Teresa or Saint Paul. They seem inaccessible, extraordinary to us. But are saints really inaccessible, rare, extraordinary people?
Not if you listen to Jesus. Jesus says we will be blessed—we will be saintly—when we are meek, when we show mercy, when we are poor in spirit, when we are mournful. That is NOT what we usually think of when we think of being blessed—it’s the opposite. And if being a saint is really, in Jesus’ understanding, being all these things he describes, well, then there are many more saints out there than we think.
You see, Jesus never says that to be a saint you have to be extraordinary, or perfect, or do some huge thing for this world. No, to be a saint you just have to follow him—meekly, peacefully, in your own corner of the world.
That’s what Jeff was doing on Weds morning. Nothing extraordinary. But he could have just as easily watched from behind his curtains and let AAA come, and we would have never known the difference. But he didn’t—he reached out. He went out of his way to lend a hand. He was a saint for us in that time and place.
I’d like to invite you to stop and think about how many people have been that helping hand when you needed them. How many people have reached out to you in Christian love and concern when you were in a tough place? They are saints—all of them. Being a saint is nothing more than being a Christian. Only I would say that being a saint is just a bit more than being a Christian in your heart—it’s being a Christian in the way you live your life.
On this all Saints Sunday, we celebrate the saints who have touched our lives. We remember two of our Kenwood members who this year have gone to live with the saints eternal. And we are reminded that being a saint is not something extraordinary or rare—it’s something we all have been to someone at some point. And when we live as Christians, Christians who care abut others, who seek peace, who show mercy-when we live as Jesus invites us to live, we will be blessed—we will be blessed to be saints of God.
And this community needs saints. It needs the kind of saints who will give a few hours next Saturday morning to winterize some homes for Mission to Hanover. It needs the kind of saints who will bring food for ACES the first Sunday of the month. It needs the kind of saints who will serve at the Fall Festival to raise money for a little girl with a daunting illness. It needs saints who will listen, saints who will embrace, saints who will reach out. God has called us to be saints at this time and in this place. Why? So we can share with others that they are blessed, and help them to know the transforming love of Christ.
So don’t think about being a saint as being someone who is unreachable or untouchable. Think about it as being real, as practicing your faith in small, ordinary ways—ways that may not seem like much, but hold enormous power to transform lives and hearts.
Amen.
