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Sermon Notes 1 “Being Saints” Luke 6:20-31 Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Virginia Beach, VA All Saints Sunday November 3, 2013 The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 6th Chapter: 20 Then [Jesus] looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22 "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23 Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25 "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. 27 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. The Gospel of our Lord. A.DeBenedetto 1 2 So, what is a saint? Who is a saint? I remember at a young age being fascinated by the capital “S” saints in the Roman Catholic Church. Those beautiful icons of Peter, Paul, Mary, and even Jesus with glowing gold leaf circles around their heads; always in some dignified posture of doing great things, of being great people. Even as a kid I wanted to be like the capital “S” saints. I didn’t know at a young age that there was a whole process of becoming a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church. But, of course there is. Here is a useful and easy to understand excerpt from the people at How Stuff Works: The process by which someone becomes a saint is called canonization. The Catholic church has canonized around 3,000 people -- the exact number is unknown because not all saints were officially canonized. According to the church, the pope does not make someone a saint -- the designation of sainthood only recognizes what God has already done. For centuries, saints were chosen through public opinion. In the 10th century, Pope John XV developed an official canonization process. Canonization has been revised in the past 1,000 years, most recently by Pope John Paul II in 1983. Pope John Paul II, who canonized some 300 people, made several procedural changes to the canonization process… The process of becoming a Catholic saint is lengthy, often taking decades or centuries to complete. The canonization process has been in the news off A.DeBenedetto 2 3 and on over the past few years, primarily because of the movement to make Mother Teresa a saint. Soon after her death in 1997, Mother Teresa's followers began pressing the Vatican to waive the rule that prevents the process of canonization from beginning until five years after a candidate's death. This rule has traditionally been used to allow for a more objective look at a person's life and achievements. In 1999, the pope did waive the five-year rule, allowing the canonization process to begin. She was beatified in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, the third step in becoming a Saint. She needs one more miracle credited to her in order to become a Saint. Now, the Lutheran church is a little different in the sense that Martin Luther viewed all living Christians as lowercase “s” saints because of what Scripture puts forth and what we can be read regarding the practice of the early Church. The faithful who are in heaven are also saints. According to Lutheran writings found in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession we can honor and learn from the saints both living and deceased. Pastor Richard Bucher summarizes the idea by writing: “The threefold honor is to thank God for the mercy and gifts He manifested in the saints, to be encouraged by the forgiveness A.DeBenedetto 3 4 they received through Christ when they fell (e.g., Peter's denials), to imitate their faith and virtues.” As we can see, Luther’s view of sainthood was much broader, but still inclusive of the Roman Catholic Saints. So, can Lutherans honor saints? Sure. However, what we emphasize is not the people and their merits, but how God worked through them to do amazing things and be amazing examples of the faith. Praying to saints is not something Lutherans do either; Christ alone is our mediator with God. Do people still pray to St. Anthony to find their keys? They probably do and maybe even with some success. But, are the saints good luck charms? What do you think? No, they are role models of faith and a way of living in the faith because it’s hard to live the faith. Christians have a tough job. We are called to live into the in-breaking kingdom, to raise holy heaven wherever we are. All that stuff that Jesus challenged his A.DeBenedetto 4 5 disciples and Apostles with he challenges us with too. Have you read the Gospels? Have you really thought about all the difficult things the disciples were called to do? Go, teach, preach, and baptize. What kind of faith must have that journey taken? To live the Christian faith requires courage, patience, gentleness, wisdom, graciousness, longsuffering, mercy, generosity, persistence and love—in short, “sainthood” is holiness of heart and life. Saints are examples of people who live or have lived their lives well. I’d like you to take a moment and think about who is or has been a saint for you in your lifetime. Who is or has been that person who embodies the faith with courage, with patience, with gentleness, with wisdom, with graciousness, with longsuffering, with mercy, with generosity, persistence and love?? These are a lot of attributes. Maybe you know and admire someone with even just a couple of these. A.DeBenedetto 5 6 There are many attributes; it takes a whole lifetime to be good at these things with God’s grace. But, I’d like to talk about courage today as the first one we need. Another word for courage is bravery. Are you a brave person? Most of us struggle with bravery and courage because we are paralyzed by fear. This last Wednesday we began the Leadership Wednesdays series in the Fellowship Hall at 6:00PM. We had nearly 20 people attend and they really enjoyed the moving words of Pastor Bill Hybels. His message began and was filled with the wisdom of a short verse and prayer in the book of Joshua Chapter one and verse six. It’s a verse that are the words of God to a new leader: Joshua. Joshua was to take over for the great Moses. He had some pretty big shoes to fill didn’t he?! Joshua was to lead God’s people into a new land, into new horizons that most definitely included enemies and hardships. He knew there would be collateral damage, naysayers, lost life, A.DeBenedetto 6 7 and even more fun things to look forward to. He was afraid. Wouldn’t you be? And to that fear God spoke to Joshua’s heart and soul directly. He said: Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." If you think about it God modeled these words by how he sent Jesus. God was not afraid to enter our world. He was strong and courageous. He was not discouraged, even when his Son was put to death. You know the old saying, “When life gives you lemons…make lemonade.” If there is anyone who can make lemonade out of lemons its God, right? What God has done is come into your life and not only say, “I forgive you”, but he also says you can have the inheritance of His very own Son. His Son was raised to eternal life and you can have that too. You are adopted into His holy family. He has taken all the bad lemons of our lives A.DeBenedetto 7 8 and given us lemonade. He has given us His son so that we can be his own sons and daughters. We are God’s own sons and daughters who receive everything Jesus Christ himself received. Where courage comes in is when we need to believe that we are indeed God’s own sons and daughters who have been made eligible to receive Christ’s own inheritance. But, here’s the problem for a lot of folks: if you and I are saints, made holy by God, adopted sons and daughters of God, and able to receive Jesus Christ’s own inheritance…why do we feel so human? Why do we still feel broken and full of holes? Why do we keep having to come back to church every week because we feel like we’re empty or worse, we feel like garbage? It takes courage to believe what God says about you and me.
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