Saints alive in my life
“Saints alive!” is an expression I became familiar with during my growing up years, spoken most often by folks of my grandparents’ generation. It was their “go to” expletive when something happened that was extraordinary, surprising or unexplainable. For some reason, these words came to mind in recent days as we at St. John’s, like so many churches, celebrated All Saints Sunday and took time to honor those saints in our midst whose lives on Earth had come to an end during the past year.
While mention of the word saint conjures up images of those who have died, and in particular of those who were able to do miraculous things when they were living, almost all references to saints in Scripture speak of living people of faith who were rather ordinary and quite flawed. Scripture is full of saints alive, as are our faith communities, and we are challenged to be among them. The definition of a saint that I resonate with most is one I learned from my longtime colleague in ministry — Rev. Dr. John Touchberry. John used to say, “A saint is anyone who makes it easier for us to believe in God.” By that definition, do you qualify as a saint? Do others look at you and the way you live out your faith and find reason to believe in God, to have hope?
Martin Luther famously declared that we are all simultaneously saints and sinners. We make mistakes and bad choices. We stumble and lose our way. We get it wrong much of the time, yet still we are loved by a God whose mercy and grace are always available to us. Most often we lose our way when we forget that being faithful — being saint-like — is less about privilege and more about responsibility; less about power and recognition and more about being a servant.
When, in chapter 23 of Matthew’s gospel, we encounter Jesus critiquing the religious leaders of his day and warning them of dire consequences should they fail to change their ways, it is not because their teaching is errant or their zeal for the Jewish law lacking. It is because they have lost their focus and forgotten about the very people God had called them to shepherd and serve. Jesus’ words to them are clear: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this familiar warning speaks volumes: “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply
be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”
The lives of saints count
for plenty, not because they are perfect but because they are lived faithfully with a deep awareness of their need of God. As I think about the saints alive in my life, what they all exude is a humility
that is not spoken but displayed in acts of service and compassion. Their humility is not of the “wretched worm am I” variety: that is, it is not about thinking less of self, but rather about thinking
of self less. And these living saints recognize the value of being in community. They recognize that no one can make it in this world alone. There is no such thing as a solitary saint, just as there is
no such thing as a solitary Christian . . . or member of any faith tradition, for that matter. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “A great man is always willing to be little.” May we dare to be small so that the greatness of the God who created us will shine brightly in our lives each day.