Today we celebrate the saints of the church—those we have known personally and those we have known from the stories that have come to us through time. Most of us have clear ideas about what it takes to be a saint. One of the preschool children announced in our discussion on Wednesday that saints are nice. The thoughts of those of us who are a few years older might not leap immediately to niceness as a cardinal virtue. We are likely to think of spiritual athletes who have shown enormous faith under difficult circumstances. We are likely to think of people who have done things we don’t want to do, in the name of God and for the love of God. We are likely to think of people whose example has always seemed far beyond our own ability to follow. We are likely to think of people whom we see as being worthy of God’s blessings, those people we see as having somehow earned God’s blessing.
Listen again to the words in today’s gospel portion:
Blessed are the poor.
Blessed are those who mourn.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Blessed are the merciful.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.
This list of blessings—the Beatitudes—doesn’t describe the ways we must live in order to be blessed—although it’s an excellent description of Jesus and his life. This list of blessings is not contingent on our behavior. Jesus spoke of the present, not of the future. He spoke of what is, not of what should be.
Sainthood is not about us. It’s about God. It’s about God and God’s relationship with us that calls us into relationship with God. Sainthood is not about being without flaw or blemish. Sainthood is about brokenness. It’s about being aware of our shadows and our shames, our fears and our failures. It’s about being aware of the gifts we’ve received and being thankful to the one who gives those gifts. It’s about an honest willingness to be made whole—to be made holy. Sainthood is not about our own goodness but about our willingness to be open to God’s goodness—our willingness to bring all that we are and all that we hope and all that we fear into the healing presence of God’s love. Sainthood is about our willingness to let go of those things we hold onto and open ourselves to transformation. Sainthood is about keeping our faces turned toward God, trusting in God’s wisdom to call us to do those things that are right for our lives and trusting in God’s grace to give us strength and guidance to do what we are called to do.
I’d like you to think back over your own lives for a few moments. If we’d known then what we know now, most of us wouldn’t have taken the first step. We would have stopped back in the 6th grade, where it felt relatively safe and comfortable. As we look back over those years, even through the difficult patches, we can see how God blesses us, no matter what is going on in our lives.
Every year on this day I find myself saying, “Never forget—never,
ever forget—before Jesus teaches us, he reminds us that we are blessed.”
I say it every year and will probably say it for years to come because it is
bedrock for us. God's blessing is the beginning of our life together.
No matter what is going on in our lives, no matter how much pain there might
be, we have God’s blessing. We don’t have to earn it. We can’t
earn it. This blessing is not the result of living according to Jesus’
teaching. It’s not a result of living in all those conditions we’ve
just heard listed: poverty of spirit, mourning, meekness. It’s the result
of God’s overwhelmingly extravagant grace. Blessing is the beginning,
the starting place. Everything else in our lives begins there.
Our sainthood begins with the knowledge of this blessing. Our sainthood. Sainthood isn’t about being martyred in the arena like the early Christians or being burned at the stake like Cranmer or suffering the difficulties that Christians throughout the world are experiencing because of their faith. Sainthood isn’t about the discomfort we feel when we ask someone to stop telling a joke we find offensive or come to the defense of someone who is being abused. It’s not even about caring for those whom the world has rejected, as Mother Teresa did. Those things have occurred in the lives of saints, but they are not the stuff that creates sainthood.
Sainthood is all about focus. Sainthood is about keeping one’s face turned toward God. Sainthood is about living in the knowledge of blessing. Sainthood is about living in thanksgiving and seeking out the one who blesses each of us. Sainthood is about struggling the best we can to meet the challenges each of us faces every day. Sainthood is about resting from the struggle in the knowledge that God who loves us beyond all measure is also seeking each one of us.
And we who live in the midst of blessing are all called to be saints.
Thanks be to God.