At the end of this month, on November 1st, we will celebrate All Saints Sunday. During the service (both services) we will read the names of all of our friends/family who have gone to their eternal home in glory. It is both a somber time and a time of celebrating lives that have touched us. Please let us know of any people you would like to have on our list, so we can include their names on November 1st. So, over the next few weeks, I will be talking about saints ... who they are, why we use that term, and how we can see them in a way that is consistent with God's word.
This past Saturday evening we had a large gathering of folks for the Moonlighter Concert, one of our missions fundraising events. I saw several people I hadn't seen in some time. It was good to greet them and welcome them, even though I confess to wondering "where have they been?" But, in the grace of God who models grace every time He uses me to do any good thing, I hope I expressed a heart of gladness. It truly was good to see the smiles of folks as we shared a night of fellowship, good music and giving!
As I looked out from the sound booth, I thought about Paul's effort to constantly remind the people he loved (the Church) that they were Saints. What did he mean by that term?
The dictionary definition is, "a person acknowledged as holy and virtuous, and being in heaven after death." By this definition, I wonder if sainthood is something that happens after death. Maybe that is why we read the names on All Saints Sunday! But this definition clearly doesn't fit with Paul's concept of Saint.
Paul addresses 1 Corinthians 1:2, "to the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be Saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord ..." Paul puts a lot in a small space. Let's break it down.
Sainthood is a current condition for God's Church. Paul says the people to which he writes "are sanctified!" They are very alive, yet God has sanctified them for His purposes. God calls them and they call on God's name.
Sainthood is a corporate condition. In a world where we revere people being rogue, self-focused and independent (I think we have truly messed up this little word), God seems to revere and require us to be connected to others He calls His Church. Paul is reminding the Corinthians that they are connected to others of different ethnicity, different geography and different governance. Christians in Jerusalem, Rome, Ephesus and Corinth are truly blood-relatives.
Sainthood is a Christ-centered condition. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is 2 Corinthians 4. The people and Church in Corinth are clearly suffering. They struggle against real issues they can see right in front of them every day. Yet they are called to live as Saints, right in the midst of trouble and conflict. Paul says (please read the whole chapter) the people are fragile, broken clay pots, fallen, pressured and dying. Encouraging, isn't it? But Paul rebukes this negative thinking by reminding the people that the centrality of Christ trumps all of these things, because Christ is leading His Saints to victory. We are not crushed, not in despair, not destroyed, not abandoned, and we are not dying a permanent death. We live (and we do life) because Christ lives in and through us!
This week we will talk about living Saints. They aren't the loudest talkers. They aren't those we place on a pedestal because they say what we want to hear, act with brash recklessness, treat others with the disdain we feel, and spout our philosophy to the world. Saints are the ones who have learned to follow Jesus ... submit to God's authority ... depend on the unseen but good things of God ... and rally the troops under the cross of Christ. They are current, corporate and Christ-centered. They belong to Jesus, our Lord and master! Randy
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