Sunday 29th October 2006ALL SAINTS

Fr Julian Browning

Revelation  7  :  9 – 17 ;  I  John  3  :  1 – 3 ;  Matthew  5  :  1 – 12

From today's Gospel. Bless those who curse you.

Do we have any saints in this congregation? I only ask because we often talk about our saints. He or she is an absolute saint. Or, more darkly, he's not exactly saint-like, or I wouldn't call her a saint. We know what we mean. We mean that these other people are slightly better or slightly worse than our own badly behaved selves.

We are called to be saints. That's the same as saying It's the duty for each of us to be Christ in the world.

Sainthood seems to be about behaviour. But the Feast of All Saints is not about behaviour; it's about belief. The saints of God are those who today and in past ages listen to the sermons of Jesus Christ, the Beatitudes, and understand what he means. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. In that topsy turvy world, where normal human wisdom is turned on its head, the saints feel at home. Better behaviour and a few good deeds will follow, but they don't make you a saint. A saint is a person who does not draw back in disbelief when Jesus says, blessed are you when people hate you ...rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven. For the saints, heaven is a real place.

In the Bible a saint has a much wider application. A saint is one of God's chosen people. The saints, the hasidim, were 'holy ones'. In different translations of the Bible, sometimes we get 'holy ones'; sometimes 'saints'. Sometimes saints mean angels, heavenly beings, or mortals of high spiritual worth. In the New Testament a saint is one of the elect, a member of the Church. The Greek term most frequently used in the New Testament to signify the word 'holy' is hagios, which of course gives us our English word hagiography, the writing of the lives of the saints. 'Holy' is applied to lots of things and lots of people in the New Testament. Those who profess Christ and are sanctified by the Spirit are described either as 'holy' or as 'saints'. It has a fairly wide application. The members of the Christian community at Jerusalem are the 'saints at Jerusalem'.

However, as the early Church began to acquire a history of martyrdoms, the meaning of the word saint began to change. The Church commemorated its martyrs on the anniversary not of their births, but of their deaths, their dies natalis, their birthdays into eternal life. This is the basis for our calendar of saints days in the liturgical year. On these birthdays there would be a eucharist, and that would be seen to be sharing in the same heavenly banquet which the martyrs enjoyed. These must have been incredibly moving occasions. And what began to grow as a result of these saints days celebrations was a sense of solidarity between the living and the dead, because both belonged in Christ. So saints are not an optional extra in the Christian faith. Saints help the church to grow.

We are called to be saints. That's the same as saying It's the duty for each of us to be Christ in the world. As S.Teresa of Avila wrote: Christ has no other hands but your hands to do his work today; no other feet but your feet to guide folk on their way; no other lips but your lips to tell them why he died; no other love but your love to win them to his side. Christ in our life, that's what it's about.

In every saint's life there is a defining moment when they answered God's call. From that point their lives point consistently way from themselves and towards Christ.  St.Matthew called by Christ from the receipt of custom; St.Francis, son of a rich merchant, exchanging his clothes with those of a beggar, and later hearing his Lord's
command to leave everything and follow him; St.Ignatius Loyola, a soldier, reading the Life of Christ while recovering from his wounds after the siege of Pampeluna.  These are actual events in time, when the life of Christ intersects a human life and transforms it completely, so that these saints are living in the kingdom of God right here and now. The other hallmark of a saint's life is perseverance to the end. We are all called to be saints for ever.

In the Creed we do not say, we believe in Saints. We say, we believe in the Communion of Saints. That's a bit different. Communion implies union, activity, connection, communication, movement. The communion of saints is not something static, that House of Lords in the sky again, it is something much more creative. The communion of saints is our communion with the saints, and the communion of all us with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There is one Church, and it naturally includes the saints as well as us. That union strengthens us. On our own we can do nothing. Communion with our fellow pilgrims, alive and dead, brings us closer to Christ. We live in the communion of saints. We die in the communion of saints. We are called to be saints, now more than ever. The divine fire is in us, as it was in the saints before us. The  communion of Saints is the communion, the union between each Christian and Jesus Christ, and so between every Christian, dead or alive, on earth or in heaven. The Communion of Saints is in the Apostles Creed because it is about nothing less than the way we live our lives. The Communion of Saints doesn't show us how useless we are, rather it should show us where our strength lies. 'Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take.' You can be a saint. Any sinner can be a saint. And saints know that sinners are forgiven.