A Great Cloud of Witnesses - All Saints Day

Read Hebrews 12: 1-3

In many churches, the first Sunday of November is celebrated as All Saints Day or All Saints Sunday and it’s a day for the church to remember all those men and women of faith who have gone before us. This kind of celebration can be traced back to the year 270 AD when there was a commemoration of All Martyrs, and in the year 411 AD there was a call for a general commemoration of All Confessors. Unlike a martyr who died for their faith, a confessor was a man or woman who was persecuted for their faith but didn’t die. So the idea that we set aside a day to remember those men and women who, for the sake of Christ and the church, have sacrificed and given so much is almost as ancient as the church itself. Every year when I think about all saints day I wrestle with this question, what is a saint?

Is a saint someone who has lived such an extraordinary life of faith that they are truly one in a million? Are saints people like Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II? Is a saint those unique individuals who have led countless numbers of people to Christ and increased the faith in millions, like Billy Graham? If we go back to the NT, when the word saint is first used it is not to describe those who are extraordinary, it is used to describe all those who trust in and believe in Jesus. Paul often uses the word saint to refer to the believers in a particular city, like the saints in Ephesus, or the saints in Corinth. The word saint comes from the word Sanctus which means holy, so we could say that a saint is a holy person, but do we think of ourselves as holy?

A survey conducted by the Barna Group a few years ago reported that most Americans do not consider themselves to be holy. While 3 out of 4 people believed that it is possible for someone to become holy, only half of the adult population said they even knew someone they considered to be holy. So while Paul considered all believers to be saints – holy men and women, we have a hard time thinking of ourselves that way, but maybe that’s because we have the wrong idea of what a saint looks like. Here’s a story of what I think a saint looks like:

The great pianist and composer Ignace Paderewski was performing at a high society concert in America. A young mother brought her young son in hopes the he would be encouraged to work harder at his piano lessons. While she was talking with her friends the young boy became bored and focused on the beautiful grand piano on the stage. The boy slipped away from his mother, headed for the piano where he immediately sat down and began to play of all things - Chopsticks! The audience turned its attention to the boy and soon an uproar began in the hall. People from all over the auditorium began to cry out, “Who brought that child to the concert?” “Where is his mother?” “Get that boy out of here!” Paderewski was waiting behind the curtains to come on stage when he heard the uproar and he quickly assessed the situation, walked out on stage and without a word of introduction he stooped over behind the boy, reached around both sides of him and began to improvise a counter melody to harmonize with and enhance Chopsticks. As the two of them played together, Paderewski kept whispering in the boy's ear: Keep going. You’re doing great. Don’t stop. Keep it up! You’re OK. Keep going.

While there is no evidence that this is a true story, I think this defines the life of a saint well because saints are those who are willing to embrace others and help bring them life. Saints are those whose faith and love help others experience all the joy and fullness of life that God has to offer. Saints are those who inspire us to keep going in our faith when we want to give up. They are those who love us when we don’t know where we are going, encourage us to take steps of faith and try new things when we are filled with doubt and insecurities, and they are the ones who show us the love and power and life of Jesus. William Barclay said a saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God – and they make it easier by surrounding us and lifting us up in many different ways.

Willard and Irene Isley are saints. They reached around and welcomed a student associate pastor into their home where they loved him, fed him and cared for him during a year of ministry and it was their faith and commitment to God and the church which helped to inspired that student to see that the life of a pastor really was not that bad, in fact, maybe it was the life and work that God was calling him to embrace. Bill Dickey and his wife are saints because they loved their church enough to say it was time to close their doors and merge with another congregation that had a vision of what it meant to be the people of God. They loved the children and grandchildren of their congregation enough to see that they needed to join with another church where vital life and ministry was taking place. Margaret Lauver is a saint because every time the minister came to visit her – she prayed for him. She didn’t say she would pray for him, she prayed for him and with him, and at 98 years old, her faith and trust in God continues to bless those around her. Saints aren’t extraordinary people – they are very ordinary people who simply reach around others to help bring the music of life and faith into their lives. They provide support and encouragement to those who may want to give up or give in.

What is important for us to remember about saints today is that even when their walk of faith is finished in this world, their lives continue on with God and their influence continues on in our lives. Hebrews 12:1 says since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses and those witnesses aren’t just those who are physically present with us today, they are all those who lives of faith continue to inspire us to walk more faithfully with God. It is the lives of all the saints whose words of love and faith whisper through the ages to tell us to keep going.

But you know, there is another saint in that story of Paderewski, the saint is not just the great pianist who stepped in to redeem a bad situation and save a young boy and his mother from embarrassment and shame, the saint is also the little boy. Being a saint isn’t about living an ideal or perfect life, it’s about perseverance. Being a saint means we just keep going, and we keep striving, and we keep walking with God.

The little boy in this story wasn’t perfect. He knew he shouldn’t be on the stage, or anywhere near that piano. He knew he shouldn’t be playing chopsticks, and yet when Paderewski arrives and begins to play the counter melody, the boy doesn’t run away. He could have turned and bolted off the stage and out the door in shame, but he didn’t, he kept going and most likely he kept making mistakes. Being holy doesn’t mean being perfect, it does mean we keep going. We will make mistakes in life. We will fail miserably and we are going to want to run away, away from God and away from others, but the music of faith is made when we are willing to keep going. The joy and the fullness and the abundance of life and faith are found when we keep going.

Look back at Hebrews 12 and notice how it begins – therefore. That word ties Hebrews 12 directly to the passage we find before it and what we find in Hebrews 11 is what many people call the role call of the saints. In Hebrews 11 the author goes through all the men and women of faith who had come before them and in essence says, look because we are surrounded by all these saints, this great cloud of witnesses – we can keep going. But if you look at the list of saints – they were not perfect, in fact, they were pretty ordinary people who had their successes and failures in life.

Noah – yes he built the ark and saved the animals, but later on he got drunk and failed God. Abraham was the father of faith but he failed God many times during his life. Gideon tested God several times before he was faithful and did what God asked, and David failed miserably after he became the king of Israel. Rahab is even listed as a prostitute. What all these men and women show us is that the key to faith isn’t perfection but perseverance. We will go through ups and downs in life, we will succeed and we will fail miserably, but we become saints by persevering. A saint isn’t someone who is perfect a saint is someone who doesn’t give up on God, and doesn’t give up on themselves. I don’t think I can say it enough, a saint isn’t someone who is perfect a saint is simply someone who doesn’t give up on God, and doesn’t give up on themselves.

This All Saints Sunday let’s change our perception of what a saint looks like and realize that it’s not about being perfect, it’s not about being exceptional, it’s not about being extraordinary, being a saint simply means being willing to keep going. We give thanks for all those saints who have surround us today and all those who have embraced us with their faith and love, Drawing upon their faith and trust in God, let us strive to be saints by not giving up in our own walk with Jesus. Together with all the saints who have gone before us, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Let us consider Jesus, who endured such opposition from sinful men so that we may not grow weary or lose heart.