St. John’s United Church

Called to Be Holy

Always live as God’s holy people should,
because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy.
That’s why the Scriptures say, “I am the holy God, and you must be holy too.”
1 Peter 1:15-16

In his book, Holy Days and Holidays, Edward Deems writes, “The first idea I had of heaven was a great city with spires, and a great many angels, but not one person I knew. Then, one of my little brothers died and then I thought of heaven as a great city, with walls and spires and a little fellow that I knew. Later, a second brother died, then a third and a fourth. Then, one of my friends died and I began to know a little about it. But never until one of my own children went up into the skies did I have any idea as to what heaven was like. Then, the second and the third and the fourth child was taken away from me. And there came a time when I lived more with them and with God than I did here on the earth. So the best view of heaven comes to you and me, when we have loved ones in that city of light.”

The longer we live, the more people we know who dwell in heaven with God. We think of them as “the saints.” We remember them with joy and with sorrow, with hope and with love. And for those who have been especially meaningful to us in this life, we say, “I want to live as they lived.” We live in imitation of the saints who have gone before, who have given us an example to follow. But there is one example that exceeds all human examples – holiness. God calls us to be holy. “You shall be holy for I am holy!”
When the apostle Peter was writing to the churches, this was the reminder he offered up to the people of the church. “You shall be holy for I am holy!” Peter was actually quoting a passage from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus. “Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God who makes you holy.” As the young Christian movement spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, many of the apostles wrote letters to the churches encouraging them to walk in the ways of Jesus. These letters are full of practical advice. But, perhaps, this is the best advice: “Be holy as I am holy!” You see, the young church was in the business of doing two things — winning people to Christ, and making those people holy. Indeed, one might consider the entire process that of “making saints.” Over 2000 years have passed, and this is still the business of the church — making saints.

Now, when we hear the word saint, perhaps we think of football in New Orleans. Or maybe the old TV show made into a movie. Or if you grew up Catholic or Anglican, then, maybe, you think of Saint Francis, or Saint Joan, or Mary or Ignatius or Christopher or Teresa or others among the canonized saints of the church. If you grew up Protestant, maybe all you can conjure up in your mind is good old Saint Nick! But when the writers of
the New Testament letters wrote their letters, they addressed them to the saints — to the churches – to the people who followed Christ.

Over the years, we have confused things, and come to believe that the saints are people who are especially close to God, who have an inside track to heaven, who do miracles in their spare time, who feed birds from their hands, and who die martyrs deaths. But, in fact, the biblical understanding of a saint is one who is called to be holy as God is holy. Through Peter and Moses, God says, “You shall be holy, for I am holy!” in other words, “You shall be my saints.”

This week - on Wednesday November 1, 2006 - the Christian church will celebrate All Saints Day. Most people around here won’t be doing much in the way of celebrating, but the night before, millions of North American children will be trick-or-treating, dressing up in costumes and hoping for a bag full of goodies. Most of us have fond memories of Halloween, but, in recent years, the appropriateness of the holiday has been questioned in some circles. If you’ve been here before at this time of year then you know that I am not one of those Christian preachers who believe that Halloween is the work of the devil. Those who worship the devil may want to own this holiday, but it is not theirs to claim. This is a holiday not about death and darkness, but about life and light. This is a holiday that pokes fun at the devils and demons of our imaginations. This is a holiday that claims aloud in a strident voice that God’s goodness overcomes every kind of evil so that, when we remember the saints who have died, we may do so with the firm conviction that they have indeed gone on to greater things. As the 1864 hymn by William How puts it,

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Next Sunday is Remembrance Sunday. But today is, also, a day for remembering – remembering saints – saints who have gone before us, saints who live and work amongst us, saints who will come after us.

When I was a child, I didn’t spend much time remembering the saints. But I do remember being so excited about going out and trick-or-treating. Images of costumes that didn’t quite fit, reduced vision and streets full of parents accompanying their children to neighbours’ houses resound in my memory. The thing I liked best was the costumes — the dressing up, the pretending to be someone I was not. I remember going as a clown, as a hobo, as an alien, as a monster. One year, my Mom went all out and, with the help of half a dozen cardboard boxes and yards and yards of aluminum foil, I went as a robot. Dressing up, make-believe, being someone you are not — this is part of what the Halloween masquerade is about in our culture today. It is an exercise in imagination. What would it be like to be a monster? What would it be like to be a fairy princess? What would it be like to be superman? (Use examples from Children’s Time) What would it be like to have purple hair?

I believe that the masquerade is healthy. It’s good to exercise our imaginations, to dream of worlds where dragons breath fire and horses have wings, and little green men fly about in shiny spaceships, and Hobbits and Harry Potter are as real as your best friend. Indeed, as children, we learn to confront our fears by doing it first in our imaginations. There is a lot to fear in our world - random violence and terrorism, injustice and oppression, greed and the destruction of God’s world. I grew up in a world that was afraid of nuclear destruction and the specter of communist domination. Today’s young people grow up afraid of AIDs and the proliferation of guns and drugs. I suspect that every generation has its dark fears, its heebie-jeebies, and its worst nightmare. Indeed, the fantasy and role-play of our imaginations help us to deal with our fears and the reality of evil and tragedy throughout our world. We confront our fears in our imaginations every day. And I believe it is far healthier for children to laugh at monsters and witches and devils than to live in unholy fear of them.
Now, if we can imagine the worst that can happen to us, why can’t we imagine the best as well? Remember the call of God in the scripture lesson today, “You shall be holy for I am holy!” Why can we not then “dress up” as Jesus? Why can we not, in the words of an old hymn, “preach like Peter and pray like Paul?” Can we live in imitation of the saints, and, in so doing, become more holy ourselves?

Can you imagine yourself holy, as God is holy? Can you imagine yourself serving as Jesus served? Can you imagine yourself helping to build a world filled with peace and justice? Can you imagine allowing the love of neighbour to conquer the fear of neighbour? Can you imagine a world where all children are cherished? Can you envision a world where all people are fed?

Can you see a world where wars are history, and where God is glorified in all things? And - when this life is done - can you imagine yourself singing God’s praises in heaven with the saints who have gone before?

It is a holy vision of which I speak today, but it is not a new vision. It is the vision of the saints. And it is a vision that will come to pass when all people walk in the light of God’s love, following in the footsteps of Jesus and proclaiming the glory of God with their very lives. It is this vision that the church seeks to create through the work of the saints — the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven.

YOU are the saints - the builders of God’s kingdom. YOU, who seek to be holy as God is holy, YOU are saints! Now, you may say, “I don’t feel much like a saint. I yelled at my wife today. I coveted my neighbour’s car yesterday. I forgot to pray last week. I walked on by the homeless person sleeping in a doorway. I gossiped. I used my power to intimidate. I didn’t speak up when I heard an outright lie. I sinned. I fell short of the high calling. No, God, I don’t feel much like a saint today.” And yet, God still persists in calling his people saints. God seems to know who we are. Do we?

I am one of God’s saints. You are, too! Say that with me. “I am one of God’s saints.” Now say it with conviction. “I am one of God’s saints!” And God says to us, “Be holy, just as I am holy.”

And as we do — as we live lives in imitation of God in Christ, as we seek to be holy, we are making the world a better a place and building the kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven. But more than that, as we live holy lives, God is preparing a place for us in heaven. Saint Paul said in a letter to the saints of Corinth that “eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has the human heart imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” Jesus put it this way, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid. In my father’s house are many rooms. And if it were not so, would I have told you? I go to prepare a place for you and I will come again so that where I am, you may be also (John 14).” We cannot know for sure what it is like there, but I believe it is a place more glorious than you or I have ever seen where death and crying and pain and sickness are no more.

One of the pillars of our faith is the triumph over evil and death. It began with Lucifer defying God and being cast from heaven, Christ rejecting his temptation in the desert, and then, as the originally worded creed said, “Died for our sins, descended into hell, and then rose again.” Being a Christian means recognizing that death is everywhere, but we need not fear it as we have been delivered from it by Christ and our faith in God. Some would suggest that Hallowe’en is, in fact, a celebration of this spiritual triumph – a mocking, if you will, of the occult and a recognition that it is in no way equal to the power of God.

A later custom developed where people would go door-to-door on November 2, requesting small cakes in exchange for the promise of saying prayers for some of the dead relatives of each house. This arose out of the religious belief that the dead were in a state of limbo before they went to heaven (or hell), and that the prayers of the living could influence the outcome. This may have been the precursor to Trick-or-Treat. As a priest once said, “have fun with Hallowe’en. Don’t take it seriously. And, most importantly, remember the solemnity of All Souls and All Saints Day.”

Always live as God’s holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and God is holy. Today, we remember. We remember the saints – yesterday’s saints who had the vision and conviction to build this church, today’s saints who strive to preserve our past and build for our future, tomorrow’s saints who will maintain and adapt it to suit a new era. For generations, light has streamed through these beautiful stained glass windows given in memory of saints now more forgotten than remembered. And yet, the streaming light reminds us that God is here — a light shining in the darkness of our lives.

One of my colleagues likened sainthood to the light we see in stained glass windows. God’s light shining through us, brings beauty into our lives and into our world, into our work and into our play and especially into our church. When we strive to be holy, as God is holy, it is as though we are cleaning the window of our life so that God can be seen more easily. These windows, once cleaned, repaired and backed with new shiny Lexan will allow God’s light to shine even more brightly into this sacred space. And, God willing, our lives will do the same. If we are holy, as God is holy, then the world will see God in us and through us. God’s kingdom will come to us and we will come to God’s kingdom. Be ye holy, O saints of God. Be ye holy, as God is holy. Always live as God’s holy people should, because God is the One who claims us. Amen.

Acknowledgements: Peter Perry (2000); Edward deems; Manfred Von Vulte

A meditation preached by the Rev. Myra Garvin at St. John’s United Church, Brockville
Sunday, October 29, 2006 - Pentecost 21B – Reformation / All Saints Sunday