With all the angst that has gone on in the past few weeks and with an election coming in just a few days it is probably a good time to celebrate All Saints Day. Before I explain why I have such a sentiment, let me first explain a little of what this day remembers, besides all of the saints. There is some debate, not necessarily about the origin of this day but who it is that we mean when refer to all of the saints that we remember. The Catholic and Orthodox Church have a process whereby they declare people to be saints. The most recent for the Roman Catholic Church were the seven whom Pope Francis added on October 14th of this year. Probably the most famous among these being Oscar Romero – or at least he was famous at Santa Clara because he hung out with Jesuits. In more Protestant circles the term saints is often given a more generous reading and often incorporates all believers. In practicality, what such a definition means is that you and I are saints. Now maybe it is because I know myself a little too well or because I am naturally a bit skeptical about human nature, I have tended to shy away from this more liberal interpretation and tend to think of saints as the sort of varsity team of the Christian faith. That is they are the ones who live and have lived a life that reflects more of the glory of God. Their light shines a little brighter. You are probably getting tired of me quoting from The Mountain of Silence, that is the book we are studying in Sunday School, but I’m not, so here it goes again. In the book the main character Fr. Maximos states, “The presence of saints among us provides a living testimony to the efficacy of the Gospel.” That is the definition I am going to go with. Saints are humans who are a little more filled with the Glory of God than the rest of us. They are the ones who are in the Christian Hall of Fame and they testify that God is real and can change our lives.
So with that out of the way, let me explain why I think it is so important to not only remember the Saints but also why it might not do us any harm to return the saints to a place of honor in our society. I realize that the next part of my sermon may come off a bit like a grumpy old man rant, but I still stand by it. The issue that I think we need to spend a little time thinking about and questioning is who we look up to these days. If you judge by the supermarket checkout line it is celebrities, British royalty and reality TV stars. If you judge by much of the clothing people wear you might say that it is professional athletes. But whoever it is, it is not the saints. Now I realize that some of the fascination with these aforementioned people is not because we want to emulate them. People often pay attention to celebrities for the same reason they slow down for car wrecks and people often wear the jersey of athletes because they really enjoy watching sports. But as the old expression goes – if you hang out in a barbershop long enough you will eventually get a haircut. I can’t help thinking that when we are not looking to people whom we should truly emulate we are deteriorating our society.
W. H. Auden in his poem For the Time Being gives the following dystopian vision of the future, which sounds a little like ours. He says, “Whole cosmogonies will be created out of some forgotten personal resentment, complete epics written in private languages, the daubs of schoolchildren ranked above the greatest masterpieces. Idealism will be replaced by Materialism. Life after death will be an eternal dinner party where all the guests are 20 years old. . . . Justice will be replaced by Pity as the cardinal human virtue.” It goes on for a while, but I think you get the gist. A world where we emulate and look up to the JV team is a world where we experience things like the senseless tragedy we saw in Pittsburgh this past week. Where as Auden says, “Whole cosmogonies [were] created out of some forgotten personal resentment.” Why would someone scream, “All Jews must die”? Because such a person either forgot or did not know that most basic of truths that we are all created in the image of God. Again, going back to Fr. Maximos and his description of the saint. He says the Saint, “Is that person in whose heart there is room for everybody.” He continues his explanation with a discussion of Saint Isaac, a seventh century Saint who was actually from Qatar – who would have thought. But he says that Saint Isaac, “Teaches that perfect love is shown by a person who prays even for demons and sheds tears at the thought that there are beings that are separated from God.” That is what the saints call us to, to love and serve all of God’s creation. Yes certainly they are wonderful and amazing individuals but at the most basic they show us a heart that has room for everybody. What would our world look like if people spent more time in contemplation of this and less time enthralled with a world that rewards the exclusion and hatred of this group or that.
I was reading someone recently discussing the rise of the internet and the great sorting that it has done in our society. In the early idealistic days it was thought that the internet would draw all of humanity together, but instead people have discovered that it is now much easier to connect to groups that view the world just as we do. The Pittsburgh shooter most likely had an online group who agreed that the Jews were really conspiring against him. A group that told him that the heart did not have room for certain other groups. And I realize this is all a bit depressing, but a world that casts its eyes downward rather than to those who have reached up to heaven is a depressing place. However, it does not have to be like this, so let’s end with some sunshine. Let’s review the story of one of the great saints and the next time we are feeling angry or mistreated let’s think about the saints who reacted with love to a world so often filled with hate. Since we are the Church of England let’s go with one near and dear to Anglicans, the first British Martyr and Saint – Alban. The story goes like this:
Alban lived in Roman Britain and as best we can surmise was a soldier and followed the pagan religion of Rome. One day he met a Christian priest fleeing from persecutors and sheltered him in his house for a number of days. While staying with Alban this priest prayed and "kept watch" day and night. Alban was so impressed with the priest's faith and piety that at some point in his stay he converted to Christianity. Well, eventually some of the Roman leadership learned that Alban was sheltering the priest. The official gave orders for Roman soldiers to make a search of Alban's house. As they came to the house, Alban put on the priest's cloak and clothing and presented himself to the soldiers in place of his guest, saying that he was actually the priest.
He was brought before the judge, who according to the Venerable Bede happened to be standing at the altar, offering sacrifices to pagan gods. By this time his true identity had been discovered and when the judge heard that Alban had offered himself up in place of the priest, he became enraged that Alban would shelter a person who, according to him, "despised and blasphemed the gods," and as Alban had given himself up in the Christian's place, Alban was sentenced to endure all the punishments that were to be inflicted upon the priest unless he would comply with the pagan rites of their religion. Alban refused, and declared, "I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things."
The enraged judge ordered Alban scourged, thinking that a whipping would shake the constancy of his heart, but Alban bore these torments patiently and according to the accounts joyfully. When the judge realized that the tortures would not shake his faith, he ordered for Alban to be beheaded. The place of his beheading is the location of St Alban’s Cathedral a little north of London. Alban did not have to do what he did. He could have given up the priest, he could have recanted his faith, but he had a heart that fully loved God and as a result fully loved humanity. May we look to inspiration to Saints like Alban so that we may God’s both now and forevermore.