We celebrate All Saints’ Day this Sunday. I don’t know about you, but I feel a desperate need in these fragile times to be in the company of holy women and holy men. For saints, even in the midst of darkness, have a way of reminding us that God’s light will not be extinguished but continues to shine in the lives of faithful folk around the world.
One of my favorite reflections on saints is from the writer Frederick Buechner in his book Wishful Thinking:
“In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.
Many people think of saints as plaster saints, men and women of such paralyzing virtue that they never thought a nasty thought or did an evil deed their whole lives long. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterizing themselves that way. On the contrary, no less a saint than Saint Paul wrote to Timothy, ‘I am foremost among sinners’ ( l Timothy 1:15).
In other words, the feet of saints are as much of clay as everybody else's, and their sainthood consists less of what they have done than of what God has for some reason chosen to do through them. When you consider that Saint Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven devils, that Saint Augustine prayed, ‘Give me chastity and continence, but not now,’ that Saint Francis started out as a high-living young dude in downtown Assisi, and that Saint Simeon Stylites spent years on top of a sixty-foot pillar, you figure that maybe there's nobody God can't use as a means of grace, including even ourselves.
The Holy Spirit has been called ‘the Lord, the giver of life’ and, drawing their power from that source, saints are essentially life-givers. To be with them is to become more alive.”
In the short time I have been at Holy Trinity, it has become abundantly clear to me that in this church I am in the midst of many, many life-giving saints. Thank you for inviting me into your beloved community. I look forward to many years ahead in our shared journey with and toward God.
Blessings, Pastor Luther