When you think of saints, who comes to mind? My daughters have a book about inspiring Christian women. It’s got Biblical characters: Ruth and Mary; classic saints like Monica and Hildegaard; more recently Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman; folk singers, Olympic heroes and reality TV stars I’ve never heard of.
On All Saints day I think of the heroes of the faith, and of my godparents, who prayed for me daily. They are the people who have inspired and loved us. They hold out the possibility that we might be the same for others. Even small actions can make a difference.
Desmond Tutu told the BBC what it was like growing up in South Africa just before the Second World War. In those days, if a black person met a white person coming the other way, the black person would have to step off the pavement and nod their head. As a boy he was used to doing this. But one day when he was with his mother, a white man stepped into the gutter and doffed his hat at them both. ‘Why did he do that?’ he asked. His mother replied ‘He is a man of God’. That man was Trevor Huddleston, bitterly opposed to apartheid, and at that moment Tutu felt his life’s vocation. To follow Jesus and strive for justice.
For in the Bible, the word saints is most often used to address the recipients of a letter. Today Paul would write to the Saints in Garsdon, Corston, the Leigh, Christian Malford, Sutton Benger, Crudwell, Oaksey and Norton. The saints are us. Because we are being made holy by God. God is the hero of the story, he makes his people saints.
As it says in 1 John 3 verse 1: ‘See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.’ Everyone on this planet can be called a child of God because God is the creator. As it says in Acts 17:28 ‘We are all his children.’
But, like the Prodigal Son, we wander from God’s path, we do the things we shouldn’t do, and shy away from what we should. If we come to our senses and return, then our loving heavenly father runs to meet us with open arms. The Prodigal Son was no less the Father’s child when he was rebelliously living it up, nor was he any more the Father’s child when he returned home. But his relationship was different. He was living what he was.
We can return to God because Jesus died for us. In amazing love he gave himself for our sins so we could be forgiven. That’s known as Justification – being put right with God. Forgiven and restored. We are his children, and we are called to live as children of God.
That’s not easy. In the second part of v.1 John describes how the world will not know us. Jesus says something similar in the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:11-12 ‘Blessed are you when people persecute you on my account. Rejoice and be glad for in the same way they persecuted the prophets’. The priorities and values of a Christian will often feel at odds with the culture around you. You will stand out. In many parts of the world Christians are persecuted. You may draw attention, be criticised. May that never be because we have been rude, unintelligible, insensitive or hypocritical. May we always copy the love and grace of Christ. But if we are faithful to him, we shall at times feel dislocated, as if we are not at home here.
That’s because we are not at home. V.2 ‘What we will be has not yet been revealed.’ In the Beatitudes Jesus keeps saying ‘Blessed are you, for you will – see God, inherit the earth, receive the Kingdom.’ When Jesus returns, or when we die, we shall be like Jesus. We shall be glorified. That’s a wonderful promise which transforms life here. Some of you will know my son Jonathan. He has severe cerebral palsy and a kidney transplant. He’s very vulnerable to Covid and the restrictions have been hard. But his faith gives him strength and joy. He regularly tweets, with a hashtag that means a lot: #thankfulnotfearful.
In v.3 ‘All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure’. We have been justified, which means we are forgiven and our relationship with God is put right. One day we shall be glorified – we shall be like Jesus. In the meantime we need to work on becoming sanctified – holy. Living the way that God wants us to.
God wants us to become what we already are. We are his children, let’s live up to our calling. We shall be holy, let’s journey towards it. Become what you are. It can be a struggle, but we have the Holy Spirit to enable us.
Becoming a father is a bit like that. In one sense I became a father as soon as the first child was born. But it took a while to sink in: changing nappies, taking turns in holding the baby, evenings out a thing of the past. The delights and challenges change all the time. Now we’re in the teenage years, and I am still very much learning how to be a father.
We never stop learning to be children of God. Loving as he loves us. The Beatitudes show us how: hunger and thirst for righteousness, make peace, be merciful. Note how none of that is judgemental, there’s not a forbidding legalistic spirit. Christian living is modelled on God’s great love for us.
These three verses from John explain so much of our experience. We are caught up in the love of God. Called to be saints, not in our own power but his. We experience struggle, we strive upwards in the grace of the Holy Spirit against the gravitational pull of sin. Sometimes we feel at odds with the world around, which we are called to love. And we know the hope of Christ, a glory that calls us on and gives strength to persevere.
All of that is summed up in my favourite hymn. For all the Saints. ‘We feebly struggle, they in glory shine, yet all are one, in thee for all are thine. Hallelujah’. Hallelujah.
RevChristopherBryan 