All Saints Day 2009

Today is the day many churches celebrate All Saints Day. It’s a tradition that goes back to the soxth century and it began as a day to remember and honor those who had been martyred or killed because they held tightly to their faith in Jesus Christ. For the first 500 years of Christianity there were severe persecutions by the Roman government and many people were killed for the faith and the stories of these faithful men and women inspired others and their lives and their faith were remembered and celebrated. Through the years, All Saint’s Day has become a day where we not only remember those saints from the ancient past, but it’s also a day for us to give thanks and remember all those men and women of faith who have died in the past year. Just as we heard Paul in his letter to the Corinthians gives thanks for the men and women of faith who encouraged and blessed him, so should we thank God for those who have gone before us because it has been God’s grace flowing through them that has encouraged and inspired us. God kept them strong until the end and today we know that they stand blameless before Christ Jesus in the fullness of God’s glory.

The first time I remember celebrating All Saints Day was my first year as a pastor in Altoona. It was the tradition in that church to read the names of all the church members who died in the previous year and ring a bell after each name. Just a week or so before that Sunday my own Grandmother had died and so as we prepared for that All Saint’s Day, I began to ask myself that all important question… what does it men to be a saint? What’s interesting is that I ask myself that question each year as All Saints Day approaches. I always thought about saints as those men and women who lived extraordinary lives of faith long ago. They were the people who persevered through great hardships and endured horrible persecution in an effort to remain faithful to Jesus. I always thought about saints as those people who are referred to in Hebrews 11:33-39a.
While these people certainly are saints, is this what it means to be a saint? Are saints only those extraordinary men and women of faith, or is a saint something else.

When we look at how the Bible defines a saint, we see something very different. When Paul’s writes to the churches in Ephesus, Philippi, and Colossae, he addresses each letter to the saints and the faithful brothers and sisters in each city or region. For Paul, saints weren’t those who were living extraordinary lives of faith – they were the people who simply believed in Jesus as the Christ. Saints were those who trusted in Jesus for forgiveness, salvation and new life. They were the men and women who walked day after day trusting in the power of God’s Holy Spirit to help them and to change them. Perhaps it is Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that best explains what it means to be a saint. In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul says, to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other translations say, those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints, so a great definition of being a saint is someone who is sanctified in Christ Jesus and calls on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So if a saint is someone who is sanctified in Christ Jesus, what does it mean to be sanctified? Sanctification means to be purified from sin, or to be washed clean, but let’s be clear that we do not purify ourselves. On our own we can not wipe away our sin or wash ourselves clean, that’s why Paul says that we are sanctified in Christ Jesus. Sanctification is a process where we trust God to forgive us or cleanse us from our sin, and then trust the Holy Spirit to free us from the bondage to sin so that we can live a new God-centered life. I think sanctification is best symbolized in baptism. We go under into the waters of baptism and are washed clean. Paul talks about sanctification as this process of cleansing in 1 Cor. 6:11. What Paul says so clearly here is that we are washed clean and forgiven not because of anything we have done, but because of what Jesus has done for us, it is Jesus who forgives us, so it is Jesus who sanctifies or cleanses us.

1 John 1:7 says the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. It is the blood of Jesus shed on the cross that forgives us because it is the death of Jesus that God accepts on our behalf.
You see, our sin separates us from God and the Bible says the wages of sin is death, but instead of demanding our death, God accepts the death of Jesus for us and so it is Jesus blood shed on the cross that forgives us and begins this process of sanctification, but sanctification isn’t just being cleansed or forgiven – it also involves living a new life. Go back to baptism, we are cleansed and forgiven in those waters, but then we come up out of those waters to live a new life. We don’t become clean just so we can go out and get dirty again – we are cleansed so we can live a new life and that new life is only made possible through the grace and power of God.

Too often when we think of God’s grace we only think about the forgiveness that is ours through Jesus and we forget that God’s grace also equips us to live a new life of faith right here and now. While it is the blood of Jesus that forgives us, it is the resurrection of Jesus that tells us that we can go forth in power to live a new life. The waters of baptism wash us clean, but we then rise up to live a new and holy life. Forgiveness and new life have always gone hand in hand. In Lev. 11:44 God says sanctify yourselves and be holy. Forgiveness leads to new life. Sanctification is the first step, but then we have to go on and be holy. Now being holy doesn’t mean being perfect, but it does mean going forth to live a life that is centered on and draws upon the grace of Jesus Christ and the power of God.

1 Peter 1:13-16. Again we are called here to be holy, and we see that this holy life is a life of discipline, obedience and action, but the holiness doesn’t come from within. Holiness doesn’t come from just trying harder; it grows and develops in us as we allow the grace of God to work within us. Holiness comes when we trust God’s grace to help us become all that we want to be and all that God wants us to be. Again, too often we only think of God’s grace as the love that forgives, but God’s grace is also the power that changes. It’s God’s grace that gives us the power to overcome anxiety and addiction, doubt and despair, hopelessness and heartache. God’s grace is a powerful force that will change our lives and lead is in a new direction if we will allow it to.
One of the most beloved songs of the church is Amazing Grace and I don’t know about you, but when I sing it I tend to think about just the first part of that first verse. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I think about God’s grace just in terms of forgiveness and salvation, but the song goes on to talk a lot about the transformation that takes place in our lives when we allow God’s grace to have its way in us. It is God’s grace that opens our blind eyes so that we can see the truth of who we are and how we are living and who God wants us to be. It’s God’s grace that leads us through dangers, toils and snares and gives us the strength to not just face our problems but to overcome them It’s God’s grace that gives us patience as we wait for problems to be resolved and it’s God’s grace that will lead us home, and that’s not just the home in heaven that God prepared for us through Jesus Christ, it’s a home – or a life of faith that can be lived today and tomorrow and the next day. God’s grace isn’t just here to forgive us; it is here to change us, to sanctify us and help us live a new Christ-centered life.

So a saint isn’t someone who is extraordinary, a saint is someone who allows God’s grace to help them look more and more like Jesus. A saint is someone who asks for God’s amazing grace to cleanse them, and then accepts God’s grace to change them. A saint isn’t someone who has super powers or a superior faith, but someone who simply calls on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That’s really all that is needed for sainthood today, all we need to do is call on the name of Jesus Christ and trust in the power of God’s grace to cleanse us and help us live a holy life.

And that’s what communion is all about. We don’t gather at this table trusting in our own ability to cleanse ourselves from sin, and we don’t gather here because we are so good at living a holy life, We gather here specifically because we know that we can’t. As saints, we gather here to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and ask God to forgive us and as saints we ask God for the grace to strengthen us. This is a meal of the saints, not just because we are gathered here with all the saints who have gone before us, but because it is through the bread and the cup that God’s amazing grace forgives us and then empowers us. So let us come to the table and with all the saints around the throne and let us call upon the name of the Lord, our Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ.