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Home , Patron saint, Saint Anne

GOOD SHEPHERD LUTHERAN Gaithersburg, Maryland

The – Who Are They?

The Saints – Who Are They and Why are They Important? The First of Four Sessions The Fourteenth Sunday after -- September 13, 2020 (Series A)

I. Saints and Thunderstorms A few Lutherans, maybe more, know the story. The date was June, 1505. was a law student at the university of Erfurt and was returning to school after visiting a few days with his family in Mansfield. Suddenly, about four miles from his destination, a violently powerful thunderstorm enveloped him. A strong bolt of lightening struck very near to Luther. Some say he was thrown from his horse. No matter, he was terrified. He believed that had unleashed the heavens in this terrifying storm to take his life. He cried out: “Help me Anne. I will become a .” The late Yale University Church Historian, Dr. Roland Bainton, remarked that “God kept his vows and Luther kept his.”1 After the event, Luther would remark on several occasions that he did not really want to become a monk. He already had both The Chancel of Church his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He was in the school of law at Erfurt, and doing very well. And as Luther’s life turns out, this vow or oath turned out well for Luther. And as Lutherans and Protestants see it today, the Reformation movement was nothing less than God’s “shaking things out in the Church.”

II. The Story Raises Questions The first and obvious one is why did Luther call on Saint Anne? This one is easy. In Luther’s time, and until today, Saint Anne is the of Miners, and Luther’s father was a miner. He owned one copper mine and managed still another. There was, no doubt, a small shrine or statue of Saint Anne in Luther’s home. He had seen it often, to be sure.2 The second question may be a bit more difficult to answer. If Luther’s frightened

1. Cornelia Domer, Martin Luther’s Travel Guide, Berlinica Publishing LLC, Berlin and New York:2016, p. 119. There are several accounts of this moment in Luther’s life.

2. While on the subject, Saint Anne is not alone the patron of miners, but a host of other things, too. Among other things, of which there are many, Saint Anne is said to be the patron saint of sailors and a protector from storms. In this latter case, Luther may have been “spot on” when he called upon Saint Anne! He may have known well his list of saintly patrons.

The Saints: Who Are They? Session 1 Rev. 2 Page 1 intercession to Saint Anne worked for Luther and for the Church ultimately, why do Lutherans not pray more frequently to the saints, or at least to Saint Anne? As the Reformation developed, the Reformers were less comfortable with the practice. As it grew, more and more believed the power for delivery from suffering or personal difficultly rested in the hands of the saints, not in the hands of God, of perhaps that the saints could influence God to move into directions of grace that in the end would not be grace at all. It is one thing to pray to God, but it is quite another to believe that our prayers, whether they be those of the saints on earth or the saints in heaven, can actually pull the heavenly strings of change. The point of this story about the thunderstorm: it was not Saint Anne who changed the weather, but God. Ronald Bainton’s observation applies: “God kept His promise, and Luther kept his.” On July 15, 1505, Luther threw a party for his friends. He gave away his law books and his brown law beret. He partied with his friends one last time. The next day he entered the Augustinian in Erfurt. It was, and still is, just down the street from the University.

III. Who Was Saint Anne We have mentioned already that Saint Anne was the patron saint of Miners. Some suggest, probably not among Luther’s friends, that this was the only saint he knew. That’s not likely. Luther began his schooling at a very young age, and most of those schools were church-related. He most likely knew a about the saints. He likely knew that Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, who was the mother of our Lord. She is among the earliest of the saints of the Church, although she is not mentioned in the New Testament! At least, the canonical books of the New Testament do not mention the mother of Mary. is etymologically the same name as Anna. Although Anna Saint Anne received little attention in the until the late , With Child, Mary dedications to Saint Anne came as early as the 6th century in the Eastern Church. Saint Anne’s Church in Jerusalem was built during the middle of the 12th century by the Crusaders. It is built over the ruins of an earlier Byzantine Basilica. The edifices are adjacent to the ruins of the two Pools of Bethsaida. The statue of Saint Anne and her child, Mary, is in the undercroft of this building, an area which is believed to have been the living area for Saint Anne.3 In , Anna is also recognized as a highly spiritual person and as the mother of Mary. Though her husband, Imran, is mentioned in the , Anna is not.4 Late in life she concieved, but her husband died prior to the child’s birth. She expected a son, and vowed to dedicate

3. It should also be noted that Justinian, the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (Rome East), built a church in in Saint Anne’s honor in 550 CE.

4 Hannah (Anna) is mentioned in the Quaran only as “The wife Imran.”

The Saints: Who Are They? Session 1 Rev. 2 Page 2 him to service in the . However, Anna delivered a girl, Mary. She realized that her daughter was God’s gift to her.

IV. What Makes a Saint? Saints are not peculiar to . The spiritual characteristics of “saintliness” are widespread in the religions of the world., as we shall see, and as has been hinted above in the brief comments about Islam and their recognition of Anna, the mother of Mary, as a “highly spiritual woman.” The English language may be unique in having a word for such people. That word is “Saint.” It comes from the Latin root, “Sanctus,” which is to say “Holy.” It becomes an adjective, modifying a noun, such as the “Holy” Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem. Or, it can be “Holy” Matthew, or using the Latin root, “Saint” Matthew. The liturgical anthem “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus” becomes “Holy, Holy Holy.” “Saint” becomes a title which means “This is a holy person,” worthy of our . The late Rev. Dr. Eric Gritsch, our special friend at , while talking about the saints as the gathered people of God liked to say: “A group of baptized folks gathered to see a football game in not the Church. They are simply a group baptized people who are watching a football game. A group of baptized people gathered to do caring things in the community is not the Church, but only a group of baptized people gathered to do caring things. It is only the Church when it is a gathering of baptized people, gathered by the call of the Spirit to be about the things of the . This gathering can be called a gathering of the Church.” Long before “Church” meant a “building”, it meant a “gathering of the people of God,” It was the people God “called out and set apart to be his people.” Here the Greek word is “ecclesia,” Church means God’s called out and set apart people, gathered to do the work of the Gospel. God’s people are people “called to be saints.”5 Listen to Saint Paul in I Corinthians 1:1-2 who addresses his letter to the “church of God which is in Corinth, to them that are sanctified in , called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.”6 As Christians, all are “Called to be saints.” Again, Saint Paul writes to the Philippians: “Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons; Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father, and from Jesus Christ.”7 All who are called in Christ Jesus to be saints, or all the Baptized, are considered saints by the grace of God in our baptismal coevnant. What’s a saint, about whom it can be said that they are “holy unto God by the grace of God? Luther liked to say that we are at the same time “Justus et pecatur,” We are at the same time “justified and sinners.” Living in Christ Jesus we have God’s justifying grace and yet we are sinners. Saint Paul says it well: “For I do not do the good I want to

5. “Called to be saints” – Romans 1:5, I Corinthians 1:2.

6. I Corinthians 1:1-2.

7. Philippians 1:1-2.

The Saints: Who Are They? Session 1 Rev. 2 Page 3 do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.” 8 We are all struggling to be faithful, and living in God’s grace, we are made God’s holy people; that is to say, God’s holy people, God’s saints.

V. But Then, There are Others From early on in the Christian community and even before, there were those who were examples of a Christ-like care for one another. In our contemporary times, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of these people. All who came in contact with him felt they had met a genuinely caring and sensitive person who seemed to have prophetic vision. He appeared to have a genuine “extra measure of Godliness.” From the beginning, there were those across the Church from whom the same experience was shared. So, “SAINT” took on a new meaning. Many of the earliest saints in the Christian community were selected simply by acclamation across the Church. There are the “Simeons,” the Annas,” and all of the primary players in the New Testament and even in the Old Testament. It seemed appropriate to use the title “saint” when naming the disciples and the . Their and the Holy Family sacrifices in and for the Gospel are huge and obvious. They are worthy Rembrandt - 1631 of our veneration. They inspire and challenge us. has been called the “First Christian ,” stoned to death for his confession of Jesus Christ as Lord. Not only did he die painfully, but he died praying for those who were stoning him, much like his Lord Jesus. Many believer that this was the beginning of the conversion of a Pharisee named . Does this mean that we should all go out and be stoned? (No pun intended!) No, but it helps us understand what it means to be faithful when the world is filled with telling us something else. There are costs for all of us in discipleship. There continue to be . We learned a new date last week: April 9, 1945. And there were then and are now thousands in our various military “fire fights,” Further evidence is in our own streets as we struggle with the cost of justice for all of us. Again, we hear the writer of Hebrews:. 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,9 let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:1-2

8. Romans 7:19.

9. “So a great cloud of witnesses:” – The writer of Hebrews, long attributed to Saint Paul, has spent the entire Chapter 11 cataloging the Old Testament people who believed in and trusted God and were blessed for it. This is the “Great cloud of witnesses” who pray for and watch over the work of the Gospel and its disciples now. The Church has taught that many of us have parents and grandparents now in that cloud, watching and praying.

The Saints: Who Are They? Session 1 Rev. 2 Page 4 VI. Where We Go from Here September 20 Saints Among - – The Lutheran Churches – The Roman - The Eastern Orthodox Churches September 27 Saints Among Other Protestant Denominations – The United Methodist Churches – The Reformed Churches – The Baptist and Evangelical Churches October 4 Saints Among Some Others - – The Church of the Latter Day Saints – Other Non Christian Bodies – Islam

Other Topics in Planning: The Book of Isaiah - A Historical Study, Lifting Significant Passages

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