Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. –Hebrews 12:1
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God . . “ Ephesians 2:19
“ . . equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ . .”
Ephesians 4:12
Another All Saints Day is upon us, one of the major feasts of the Christian year. Yet, one can be easily excused in this Christian nation of ours for not knowing the significance of the day or even that November 1 has any significance at all beyond the chore of taking down decorations and the chance to get half price off candy corn and miniature Hershey bars. Halloween is of course the eve that ate the holy day and this time of year we are much more prone to think of skeletons, witches and children dressed as movie mass murderers than saints.
Perhaps Halloween is right to get precedence since All Saints is one of the feast days which was deliberately placed on the calendar to supplant a pre-Christian pagan festival. It is a time of year when the early Celts believed the spirits of the dead revisited the earth and bonfires were lit to ward them off. In contrast, the Christian observance of All Saints was a day when the departed saints were commemorated and the communion of living and dead in Christ was welcomed and celebrated.
So, who are the saints? In the Old Testament hesed refers to faithfulness to the covenant with God and those who are faithful are refered to in our English Bibles as “saints.” In the New Testament hagios signifies “dedicated to God” and from this develops the sense “holy” and “saint.” The saints are those living members of the body of Christ in Ephesians and also those in the presence of God - or in heaven – in Hebrews and Revelation.
All of these saints: the Old Testament prophets, the apostles, evangelists and martyrs of scripture and the martyrs and confessors of the early church were seen to be both godly examples of Christian living and intercessors for us before God. Their tombs became sites for worship and pilgrimage and the famous catacombs of Rome were centers of the church not so much for safety from persecution, but for proximity to the relics of the Christian saints buried there. The remains of the saints were venerated for having been instruments of the Holy Spirit during their lives and as reminders of the dedication of the saints’ lives to Christ.
Who are the saints among us today? In one of my favorite devotional books, All Saints, the author Robert Ellsberg says that they are the men and women whose lives and message speak to the spiritual needs of our day. They exhibit heroic sanctity or godliness in their lives that is a light for our own pilgrimage through life. These saints include the ones we read about in scripture and see in the stained glass in church, but they are also those who we read about in the paper or see in the news who preach the gospel by their words and deeds.
Saints were not originally canonized centrally in Rome, but were acclaimed saints by their communities when the people recognized heroic faith. In our lives it is best that we, too, seek to recognize saintliness around us and let those whose lives are closer to us in time and space find a place in the cloud of witnesses who build us up as part of the body of Christ. Is there a teacher, a pastor or friend who has guided you on the Way? She, too, is a saint of God who you can ask for prayers before our Father. Is there a hero or prophet of our day who has inspired you to holiness? Let his life be for you an icon, a window into the Kingdom of God.
Think, too, how you are called to be a holy companion on the way for others. As the hymn I Sing a Song of the Saints of God goes in its own saccharine way, anyone can be a saint (even a priest!). May we all aim to be one, too.
ACE Quiz
Name the author of the following quotes or fragments.
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God .”
A) St. John
B) St. Paul
C) St. Francis
D) Bob Cornner
“ .. simultaneously saint and sinner”
A) The Rev. Al Green
B) St. Paul
C) Martin Luther
D) St. Augustine of Hippo
“Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”
A) Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader
B) Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles
C) Mahatma Gandhi, Indian teacher of non-violence activism
D) Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker founder
Answers: b,c,d
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God . . “ Ephesians 2:19
“ . . equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ . .”
Ephesians 4:12
Another All Saints Day is upon us, one of the major feasts of the Christian year. Yet, one can be easily excused in this Christian nation of ours for not knowing the significance of the day or even that November 1 has any significance at all beyond the chore of taking down decorations and the chance to get half price off candy corn and miniature Hershey bars. Halloween is of course the eve that ate the holy day and this time of year we are much more prone to think of skeletons, witches and children dressed as movie mass murderers than saints.
Perhaps Halloween is right to get precedence since All Saints is one of the feast days which was deliberately placed on the calendar to supplant a pre-Christian pagan festival. It is a time of year when the early Celts believed the spirits of the dead revisited the earth and bonfires were lit to ward them off. In contrast, the Christian observance of All Saints was a day when the departed saints were commemorated and the communion of living and dead in Christ was welcomed and celebrated.
So, who are the saints? In the Old Testament hesed refers to faithfulness to the covenant with God and those who are faithful are refered to in our English Bibles as “saints.” In the New Testament hagios signifies “dedicated to God” and from this develops the sense “holy” and “saint.” The saints are those living members of the body of Christ in Ephesians and also those in the presence of God - or in heaven – in Hebrews and Revelation.
All of these saints: the Old Testament prophets, the apostles, evangelists and martyrs of scripture and the martyrs and confessors of the early church were seen to be both godly examples of Christian living and intercessors for us before God. Their tombs became sites for worship and pilgrimage and the famous catacombs of Rome were centers of the church not so much for safety from persecution, but for proximity to the relics of the Christian saints buried there. The remains of the saints were venerated for having been instruments of the Holy Spirit during their lives and as reminders of the dedication of the saints’ lives to Christ.
Who are the saints among us today? In one of my favorite devotional books, All Saints, the author Robert Ellsberg says that they are the men and women whose lives and message speak to the spiritual needs of our day. They exhibit heroic sanctity or godliness in their lives that is a light for our own pilgrimage through life. These saints include the ones we read about in scripture and see in the stained glass in church, but they are also those who we read about in the paper or see in the news who preach the gospel by their words and deeds.
Saints were not originally canonized centrally in Rome, but were acclaimed saints by their communities when the people recognized heroic faith. In our lives it is best that we, too, seek to recognize saintliness around us and let those whose lives are closer to us in time and space find a place in the cloud of witnesses who build us up as part of the body of Christ. Is there a teacher, a pastor or friend who has guided you on the Way? She, too, is a saint of God who you can ask for prayers before our Father. Is there a hero or prophet of our day who has inspired you to holiness? Let his life be for you an icon, a window into the Kingdom of God.
Think, too, how you are called to be a holy companion on the way for others. As the hymn I Sing a Song of the Saints of God goes in its own saccharine way, anyone can be a saint (even a priest!). May we all aim to be one, too.
ACE Quiz
Name the author of the following quotes or fragments.
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God .”
A) St. John
B) St. Paul
C) St. Francis
D) Bob Cornner
“ .. simultaneously saint and sinner”
A) The Rev. Al Green
B) St. Paul
C) Martin Luther
D) St. Augustine of Hippo
“Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”
A) Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader
B) Jon Bruno, Bishop of Los Angeles
C) Mahatma Gandhi, Indian teacher of non-violence activism
D) Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker founder
Answers: b,c,d
posted by Adult Christian Education of the heart at 2:10 PM
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