- SERMON PREACHED BY
THE MOST REVEREND KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI
PRESIDING BISHOP AND PRIMATE
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
THE SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS
2 NOVEMBER 2008
AT CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
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What apparitions came to your doors
on Friday night? My husband and I saw some interesting costumes
on the street in New York not children, but young men and
women dressed up as rag dolls, elves, story book characters,
a pirate, and some we didn't recognize. Lots of us have forgotten
that those costumed folk are a backhanded way of remembering
the saints. All Hallow's Eve is supposed to anticipate All Saints
Day, even though our cultural celebrations of Halloween have
tended to focus on the least holy rather than the most holy spirits
among us.
So who are the saints? In the church we work with overlapping
definitions and understandings that saints are all the
baptized, that they are the holiest examples of Christ-followers
through the ages, and even more broadly, that the saints are
those who show us God. The catechism reminds us that they are
the whole family of God, living and dead, bound together in Christ.
Episcopalians and other Christians wrestle with how broadly to
understand the family of God, and whether non-Christians are
included, for we can certainly point to holy examples who show
us what God at work in the world looks like people like
the Dalai Lama and Mahatma Gandhi. It seems more fruitful to
remember that Jesus' saving work was and is for the whole world,
and that our baptismal promises are about living holy lives,
together, in community.
But what we are doing here today, in baptizing these six very
small persons, is consciously claiming them as saints of God.
We say they are blessed in the sacrament of baptism, whether
they know it or not. Our job, for new saints of any age, is to
aid them on their journey closer to God. Once we baptize and
anoint them, we will claim them as saints. We affirm that saintliness,
holiness, blessedness is a state of being, rather than a list
of accomplishments. If we can say that a small infant is a saint,
then blessedness cannot really depend on the good deeds she or
he has done. On the other hand, when we see blessedness in the
life of another, then it's a pretty good indication that God
is at work in that person's life, making him or her holy. We
see signs of blessedness in the deeds of a saint.
So, saintliness has to be about both being and doing both
the blessing that is an inner state of being and the way in which
that blessedness is expressed in the work of a life. That's really
what Jesus is talking about in his list of blessed kinds of people:
those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who hunger and thirst
for righteousness, who are meek and merciful and pure in heart.
They are inner states of being that can be expressed in outward
ways. That's actually what we say about sacraments that
they are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace.
Saints are meant to be sacraments of God in human lives
in the very same sense that Jesus is the ultimate sacrament of
God in human flesh.
Look around you at the saints. They include the folks you know
are saintly, and they include some don't like very much.
One of my favorites in our calendar of saints is Jerome. He was
a monk in the fifth century, who translated the Bible into Latin.
He was also a famously grumpy and arrogant fellow who made life
enormously difficult for the people around him. If there's hope
for him, well, then there must be hope for each one of us.
The saints are as varied as the breadth of God's human creation,
and they will be found on all sides of theological debates and
political contests. Indeed, God gives us such varied opponents
as blessings for our own journeys toward holiness. There are
saints among the folk who voted to leave The Episcopal Church.
There are saints among those who have clearly stayed. There are
saints who haven't yet made up their minds. They are saints because
they've been baptized into this fractious Body of Christ, and
there are saints among them whose holiness of life is abundantly
evident. We dishonor them and God when we refuse to see their
blessedness.
Where have you seen a saint this week, other than in a Halloween
costume? And even those in costume may be a reminder that we're
meant to look beyond the surface, to seek the holy in the midst
of the unholy.
I've been reminded of some little remembered saints this week,
and the holiness evident in some mightily unholy circumstances.
Patricia Hunter, who is a Baptist minister in Seattle, wrote
a newspaper column to remind her community about four girls who
died 45 years ago, when the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama was bombed.* In the middle of the civil rights
movement, four young women in Sunday School were murdered by
some who objected to the color of their skin. They were gathering
for prayers after a sermon titled, The Love that Forgives.
We count them among the saints: Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley,
Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins. Blessed are those who
mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
and blessed are the peacemakers.
Fred Morris was in the news this week as well. He served as a
Methodist missionary in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s.** He was
a friend of Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop of Recife, and both
of them were human rights advocates and vocal critics of the
military in Brazil in those years. Morris was kidnapped, tortured,
and then thrown out of Brazil in 1974, primarily for his work
with Dom Helder Camara. A couple of weeks ago, the government
of Brazil formally apologized to him, and gave him a cash settlement
and lifetime pension. Today Fred Morris lives in Panama, where
he teaches children about caring for the earth.
Another saint was responsible for getting Fred Morris deported
rather than disappeared. Richard Brown was a very junior embassy
official in Brazil who had the courage to demand to see Morris
under Geneva Convention rules. He significantly damaged his career
by publicizing the torture and demanding Morris' release.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed
are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter (and
do) all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of Jesus,
for your reward is great in heaven. Yes, the reward of the saints
is great in heaven, and once in a while on this earth there will
be healing and reconciliation when the saints do their work.
Saints are martyrs, living and dead, who are courageous witnesses
to the love of God for all of humanity. Saints are those who
are willing to stand up for what is right, whether it is the
dignity of basic human rights or our duty to care for an increasingly
tortured earth. Saints are peacemakers and peace-bearers, those
who dream and hope for a healed world, and work to make it happen.
Sainthood is not defined by holding particular theological positions
or ecclesiastical positions. It is given in baptism, and it is
evident in works of mercy, justice, and humility. It is not ours
to grant, but it is ours to acknowledge. It is already given,
and yet must be sought the rest of our lives. It is often most
apparent in the midst of strife, and pain, and grief, for that
is where the light of Christ is most urgently needed.
Where will you share that light with the world?
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* Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008337461_hunter01m.html
** Christian Century 4 November 2008, p8