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All-Saints-2005
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 30th October 2006
Revd. Matthew Vernon
There are many entertaining tales of behaviour in church.
Some of these are linked to Communion –
• the way people approach the bread and the wine.
There's the time when everyone was receiving Communion.
The priest was distributing the bread along the line of people.
And the chalice, the cup of wine, was following behind.
A woman was in the line.
When the chalice came to her she took it,
• lifted it above her head
• and with the cry "washed in the blood of the lamb!",
• she emptied the wine over her head.
This is what happens when you take the Bible literally –
• as I was saying last week, it's a mistake to do that.
The woman was referring to this morning's Revelation reading.
It's a big mistake to take Revelation literally.
It's a book of bizarre scenes and extraordinary visions.
It only just made it into the Bible at all.
In fact, some churches left it out –
• the Syrian Orthodox church, for example.
The point of the reading today is the opening,
• "there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne".
These are the All Saints that we celebrate today.
And these people are you and me.
As we say each year, today is a day for ordinary saints.
Not the great celebrities: St. Peter and St. Paul, St Nicholas or St. Patrick.
They have their day and their fame.
Today is for the rank and file;
• the unsung heroes,
• ordinary Christians through the centuries and of today –
• you!
I've shown you this book before – Exciting Holiness.
It's packed with holy men and women.
• Aelred; Agnes; Aidan; Alban
• Barnabas; Bartholomew; Bede
Towards the back is a section called "Any Saint: holy men and women".
This includes "Christian rulers";
• "men and women of learning;
• and the beautifully named "Those whose holiness was revealed in marriage and family life."
No famous names for this section.
But many, many people of faith have qualified for that title.
"Those whose holiness was revealed in marriage and family life."
That might have included other categories:
• those whose holiness was revealed through friendship
• those whose holiness was revealed through hospitality and generosity
• those whose holiness was revealed through music, art, words or craft
• those whose holiness was revealed through charitable endeavour.
• those whose holiness was revealed through their work.
Holiness is revealed in many ways,
Holiness is revealed in different ways,
• there's not one, narrow definition.
How is your holiness revealed?
Perhaps through one of the ways I've mentioned.
Perhaps through another way.
Perhaps you're not used to be called holy.
That's partly to do with what we imagine holiness to be.
A man walked into a doctor's office and said, "Doctor, I have this awful headache that never leaves me. Could you give me something for it?"
"Yes," said the doctor, "but I need to check a few things out first. Do you drink much?"
"Drink?" the man said indignantly, "I never touch the stuff."
"How about smoking?"
"I think smoking is disgusting. I've never in my life touch tobacco."
"Well, if I hope you don't mind me asking," said the doctor, "but do you sleep around?"
"Of course not! What do you take me for? I'm in bed every night by ten o'clock."
"Tell me," said the doctor, "is the pain in your head a sharp, shooting kind of pain?"
"Yes it is," said the man.
"I recognise the problem then," said the doctor.
"The trouble with you is your halo's too tight. I recommend you loosen it a bit."
It may seem odd to be called a saint on this All Saints day,
• but that is what you are.
It doesn't mean you have to lead an extraordinary life of faith and discipleship.
It doesn't mean your life needs to pure and morally upright.
In fact it's not about what we do at all.
It's to do with what God does and how God sees us.
We know ourselves too well, don't we, to think of ourselves as holy.
We know our weaknesses.
We know our half-hearted efforts.
We know what goes through our warped minds.
• What we do is bad enough, if people saw half of what goes through our minds…
And religion usually does a good job at reminding of these weaknesses.
It's a shame.
The truth is we don't know ourselves well enough.
We are God's children.
Our deepest value comes from God.
Not from our work or what we do.
Certainly, not from the type of car we drive or how much we earn.
Not from what other people think of us.
Not even from how our holiness is revealed
• or from how "saintly" we are.
Your true value comes from God who loves you more than you can possibly imagine.
It's a deep value that lasts for ever.
If you're not convinced, consider this morning's Gospel reading.
From Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, the famous Beatitudes:
Do you feel unworthy of the title "saint"? Do you feel poor in spirit?
• Jesus says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Do you mourn for missed opportunities to be faithful or loving?
• Jesus says, 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
Do you feel weak and inadequate?
• 'Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
Do you wish the wish the world we a better place but feel helpless in the face of so much that is wrong?
• 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
• 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."
A brief aside.
Mahatma Ghandi was a great admirer of the Sermon on the Mount.
This week I learned he said
• "I should not care if it was proved by someone that the man Jesus never lived, and that what was narrated in the Gospels was a figment of the writer's imagination. For the Sermon on the Mount would still be true for me."
"See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are." (1 John 3.1)
Our being saints comes from God's love for us.
Being a saint is not something we qualify for.
The title "saint" is not an award like being knighted or awarded the Bauhinia Star.
Its no surprise we think it is given the way the church canonizes people:
• looking for evidence of miracles and so on.
Being a saint is not something we have to pass a test to achieve.
Though so much of our lives, from our earliest days in education, is judged by achievement and exams.
God's way is different.
God's love is a given.
a priori as the philosophers say.
A law of nature as the scientists say.
Grace is free –
• not dependent on what we do or how saintly we are.
Michael Ramsey, who was considered saintly by many people,
• had this to say about saints:
"Its not being virtuous that makes a saint:
• the Pharisees were virtuous, and they and their virtues needed conversion.
It is not doing good that makes a saint;
• a saint often does good, but so do many people whom we would never call saints.
It is not the practice of religion which makes a saint.
• I expect you and I are pretty religious, but our religion, like every part of us, needs converting.
No, the saint is one who has a strange nearness to God and makes God real and near to other people."
"makes God real and near to other people."
God who is love.
God who reveals love through us
• All Saints.
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