What Can We Believe about Ourselves?
Sermon
What Can We Believe?
Second Lesson Cycle A Proper 23 through Thanksgiving
Object:
When we put together the collection of things that we can believe, we need to ask a question about the person in the middle of the inquiry. What can we believe about ourselves? We don't often ask that question but it is a very important one. Some people are oppressed by low self-esteem. Others are led astray by exaggerated images of themselves. It is important to get a realistic understanding of who we are -- and of who we can be. The Bible has something to say on the subject that may surprise you. Are you ready? Hold on to your hat. The Bible says you were created and called to be saints. In fact, in the eyes of God, that is who you are.
Most of us want to start kicking and screaming when we hear that suggestion. Most of us don't think we ever could be saints even if we wanted to -- and we don't. The Bible does tell us that is our heritage. Since this is All Saints' Day, let's ask what the Bible means by that.
Who are the saints of God? When we think of saints, we usually think of the apostles and martyrs from the past whose stone statues greet us in church yards or stand in alcoves around the walls of great cathedrals, gazing through sightless eyes at the people who come to worship. But when we read the biblical stories of the people represented by those statues, we learn that they were not images carved in stone at all. They were real people, people like us in every way, warts and all, who had made a discovery that brought them to life in a new way and set them to growing and serving and being all that they were created to be.
In the Bible, the word, "saint" simply means a person of faith. The great people of faith in the Hebrew scriptures were called saints. In the New Testament, the followers of Jesus were called saints.
If you have read their stories from the Bible, you know that the people in those stories were very much like us. Adam and Eve had the first dysfunctional family. Jacob, whose name was eventually changed to Israel, was a real shyster. He was always trying to get the best of someone. David, the great hero of the Hebrew scriptures, had his human failings, lots of them. Peter, the right hand man of Jesus, was always doing or saying the wrong thing. And Paul had a monumental ego. They were like us.
Yet, they had found their way into a special kind of relationship with God that enabled God to make their lives new and to use them to change the world. What did God do? God enabled them to trust and to love. And that made them saints. Living daily in an open relationship with a living God brought them to life in a new way and put a growing edge on their stories. It turned their lives into adventures and caused them to be people who were always becoming more than they had been in the past.
Think about those people who first became Christians on the Day of Pentecost. A few of them, the disciples and a few others, had some history of a previous relationship with Jesus, maybe for three years, more or less. Most of them had only heard of Jesus. Or maybe they had seen him and heard him teach back home in Galilee or in the temple in Jerusalem. Even those who liked what he said must have known he was a controversial person. After all, he had been crucified by the leaders of their people. Some of them may have even seen it happen.
However, on the Day of Pentecost, there was among the people gathered in Jerusalem a spreading circle of realization that Jesus actually had been sent from God to save them to a new life of faith and love. They realized the God who sent Jesus was still present and at work among them to forgive, to liberate, and to enable them to trust and love. The realization started with those who had known Jesus the longest: the disciples. Then it spread throughout the city. It spread among the people who had come from all over the ancient world to worship on the Jewish feast Day of Passover and who would be returning to all parts of the world to tell what they had experienced. By bedtime, several thousand people had become believers.
It is not likely that many of them went to bed early. Can you imagine how they felt? They must have been caught up in the excitement of a new beginning. The Bible says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles'teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). They must have been eager to learn all they could about their new faith and to experience it as deeply as they could through fellowship and worship. They must have known they would soon be scattered in a big world that would not understand them. They must have known they would have to experience their interactions with the risen Christ through their interactions with life, and they would need to know how to recognize what God would be doing in their lives. They must have known they would be called to live lives and take actions that could be dangerous and costly. After all, Jesus was crucified. They needed to learn all they could while they were together.
Their lives of discipleship, and the adventure of living out of a relationship with the living God, did indeed keep them growing. Years later, an older teacher named John wrote to them, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in them purify themselves, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:1-3).
John was talking to people who had lived lives shaped by a relationship with God. They had lived that kind of life for many years, under very difficult circumstances. One thing they had been given that they could hang on to was the knowledge that they were children of God. They had received a gift because God loved them. But God's love had continued to work within them and to help them grow in their ability to love. Yes, that's what it's all about. It's about learning to love as God loves -- and God makes that happen. Those who hold on to the hope that they will someday be able to love as God loves will keep on working at growing toward it.
That is the shape of the lives of the saints of God. Those people represented by the stone statues we see in cathedrals were real, down-to-earth people in whose lives something very special and exciting happened.
When we think about the great saints of the past, we may wonder, why aren't there any saints today? The answer is, there are. Can you think of any people living today who might be thought of as saints? When we ask, we immediately begin to think of people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta or maybe Martin Luther King Jr. or some other heroes of the faith who stand head and shoulders above the rest of us.
Let me suggest that you look somewhere else. Remember, the saints were real, ordinary people who had entered into a relationship of faith and love with God. Look around you right now. Do you see anyone in this room who fits that description? Do you see some? Look more closely. Do you fit that description? Most of us want to "go into orbit" when someone suggests that we can be saints. For one thing, many of us are not at all sure we want to be what the word "saint" suggests to us, someone who is perfect, someone carved out of stone. For another thing, we know ourselves too well. We know that we fall short of being what we ought to be. We are really not sure we want to be expected to live up to any high expectations.
But look again. Most of your families are no bigger messes than Adam's was. Most of you are no more crooked than Jacob or compromised than David or klutzey than Peter or arrogant than Paul. Yes, you are human -- but that is one of the qualifications for a saint. Surprise!
There is another qualification. Do you have faith in God? Most of us have neglected our faith and not done much about it except to go to church now and then. But you do have faith in God, don't you? You did make a profession of faith in God at some time in the past, didn't you? And you haven't taken it back, have you? And you are here today for some reason or another. Do you have faith in God, at least a little bit? Jesus said that, if we have faith even as big as a tiny mustard seed, we can do great things.
It is important for you to believe in God. But it is also important -- really important -- for you to know that God believes in you. Most of us get our images of ourselves from the images of us that others hold. Most of us who have learned to believe in ourselves were able to begin believing in ourselves because someone else believed in us, someone important -- like our parents, a brother or sister, a friend, or a spouse. Later, our images of ourselves may have been either reinforced or damaged by our encounters with life. If some experience in life damages our images of ourselves, it is knowing that someone important still believes in us that can help us to recover our belief in ourselves. Those people who believe in us are important. But there is one who believes in us who is the most important one of all. It is God. In the eyes of God, you are a beloved daughter or son, one born to love, one born to be a saint. And God keeps believing in you no matter what life does to you.
What would it take to make you want to claim that heritage? No, we are not talking about the heritage of someone who goes around acting like he is better than other people. The biblical saints didn't act that way. We are talking about someone who at least wants to be able to live in love in all his or her relationships, and maybe someone who would be willing to be used by God to make the world a better place. You may have to wait until you get disillusioned with all of the other little prizes you are scrambling after. But when you finally decide to claim it, the heritage of a saint is there for you.
When you do, you will want to give some attention to rediscovering the heritage that is there for you, the shape of the better life that God is offering you, the things the Bible tells you about the love God has for you, and what God is doing in your life and in your world to make that life possible for you. The best place to do that is in the learning experiences and the worship services and the fellowship of your church… in the fellowship of the saints. Yes, your church. It can do for you what the disciples' fellowship did for those early converts on the Day of Pentecost.
Learn well because, sooner or later, you are going to have to move out and live a different kind of life in a world that does not understand. Sooner or later you are going to feel compelled to try to make a difference in the world that the world really doesn't want to have made. It can be difficult. It can be demanding.
But you don't have to do it alone. The God in whose eyes you are a beloved son or daughter, the God who believes that you can actually be a saint, the God who believes in you is always with you. God is not the only one who is always here believing in you. All of the saints of the past are here with you and pulling for you. They really aren't dead, you know. When they died, they went to be with God. God is here with us -- and so are they. We may not have statues of the saints from the past standing in alcoves around our sanctuary, but we don't need them. The real saints are here; Jacob, David, Peter, Paul, and also some others whom you have known, people who loved you and believed in you and wanted what is best for you. Can you name them? They understand your humanity. Oh, yes they do. But they are still believing in you, pulling for you, and hoping that you will choose the heritage of the saints and make the most of it. They, like God, are promising to be here with you as you give it your best try.
In the book of Hebrews, there is a place where the author talks about the presence of the saints. He says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith..." (Hebrews 12:1-2a). Amen.
Most of us want to start kicking and screaming when we hear that suggestion. Most of us don't think we ever could be saints even if we wanted to -- and we don't. The Bible does tell us that is our heritage. Since this is All Saints' Day, let's ask what the Bible means by that.
Who are the saints of God? When we think of saints, we usually think of the apostles and martyrs from the past whose stone statues greet us in church yards or stand in alcoves around the walls of great cathedrals, gazing through sightless eyes at the people who come to worship. But when we read the biblical stories of the people represented by those statues, we learn that they were not images carved in stone at all. They were real people, people like us in every way, warts and all, who had made a discovery that brought them to life in a new way and set them to growing and serving and being all that they were created to be.
In the Bible, the word, "saint" simply means a person of faith. The great people of faith in the Hebrew scriptures were called saints. In the New Testament, the followers of Jesus were called saints.
If you have read their stories from the Bible, you know that the people in those stories were very much like us. Adam and Eve had the first dysfunctional family. Jacob, whose name was eventually changed to Israel, was a real shyster. He was always trying to get the best of someone. David, the great hero of the Hebrew scriptures, had his human failings, lots of them. Peter, the right hand man of Jesus, was always doing or saying the wrong thing. And Paul had a monumental ego. They were like us.
Yet, they had found their way into a special kind of relationship with God that enabled God to make their lives new and to use them to change the world. What did God do? God enabled them to trust and to love. And that made them saints. Living daily in an open relationship with a living God brought them to life in a new way and put a growing edge on their stories. It turned their lives into adventures and caused them to be people who were always becoming more than they had been in the past.
Think about those people who first became Christians on the Day of Pentecost. A few of them, the disciples and a few others, had some history of a previous relationship with Jesus, maybe for three years, more or less. Most of them had only heard of Jesus. Or maybe they had seen him and heard him teach back home in Galilee or in the temple in Jerusalem. Even those who liked what he said must have known he was a controversial person. After all, he had been crucified by the leaders of their people. Some of them may have even seen it happen.
However, on the Day of Pentecost, there was among the people gathered in Jerusalem a spreading circle of realization that Jesus actually had been sent from God to save them to a new life of faith and love. They realized the God who sent Jesus was still present and at work among them to forgive, to liberate, and to enable them to trust and love. The realization started with those who had known Jesus the longest: the disciples. Then it spread throughout the city. It spread among the people who had come from all over the ancient world to worship on the Jewish feast Day of Passover and who would be returning to all parts of the world to tell what they had experienced. By bedtime, several thousand people had become believers.
It is not likely that many of them went to bed early. Can you imagine how they felt? They must have been caught up in the excitement of a new beginning. The Bible says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles'teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). They must have been eager to learn all they could about their new faith and to experience it as deeply as they could through fellowship and worship. They must have known they would soon be scattered in a big world that would not understand them. They must have known they would have to experience their interactions with the risen Christ through their interactions with life, and they would need to know how to recognize what God would be doing in their lives. They must have known they would be called to live lives and take actions that could be dangerous and costly. After all, Jesus was crucified. They needed to learn all they could while they were together.
Their lives of discipleship, and the adventure of living out of a relationship with the living God, did indeed keep them growing. Years later, an older teacher named John wrote to them, "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in them purify themselves, just as he is pure" (1 John 3:1-3).
John was talking to people who had lived lives shaped by a relationship with God. They had lived that kind of life for many years, under very difficult circumstances. One thing they had been given that they could hang on to was the knowledge that they were children of God. They had received a gift because God loved them. But God's love had continued to work within them and to help them grow in their ability to love. Yes, that's what it's all about. It's about learning to love as God loves -- and God makes that happen. Those who hold on to the hope that they will someday be able to love as God loves will keep on working at growing toward it.
That is the shape of the lives of the saints of God. Those people represented by the stone statues we see in cathedrals were real, down-to-earth people in whose lives something very special and exciting happened.
When we think about the great saints of the past, we may wonder, why aren't there any saints today? The answer is, there are. Can you think of any people living today who might be thought of as saints? When we ask, we immediately begin to think of people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta or maybe Martin Luther King Jr. or some other heroes of the faith who stand head and shoulders above the rest of us.
Let me suggest that you look somewhere else. Remember, the saints were real, ordinary people who had entered into a relationship of faith and love with God. Look around you right now. Do you see anyone in this room who fits that description? Do you see some? Look more closely. Do you fit that description? Most of us want to "go into orbit" when someone suggests that we can be saints. For one thing, many of us are not at all sure we want to be what the word "saint" suggests to us, someone who is perfect, someone carved out of stone. For another thing, we know ourselves too well. We know that we fall short of being what we ought to be. We are really not sure we want to be expected to live up to any high expectations.
But look again. Most of your families are no bigger messes than Adam's was. Most of you are no more crooked than Jacob or compromised than David or klutzey than Peter or arrogant than Paul. Yes, you are human -- but that is one of the qualifications for a saint. Surprise!
There is another qualification. Do you have faith in God? Most of us have neglected our faith and not done much about it except to go to church now and then. But you do have faith in God, don't you? You did make a profession of faith in God at some time in the past, didn't you? And you haven't taken it back, have you? And you are here today for some reason or another. Do you have faith in God, at least a little bit? Jesus said that, if we have faith even as big as a tiny mustard seed, we can do great things.
It is important for you to believe in God. But it is also important -- really important -- for you to know that God believes in you. Most of us get our images of ourselves from the images of us that others hold. Most of us who have learned to believe in ourselves were able to begin believing in ourselves because someone else believed in us, someone important -- like our parents, a brother or sister, a friend, or a spouse. Later, our images of ourselves may have been either reinforced or damaged by our encounters with life. If some experience in life damages our images of ourselves, it is knowing that someone important still believes in us that can help us to recover our belief in ourselves. Those people who believe in us are important. But there is one who believes in us who is the most important one of all. It is God. In the eyes of God, you are a beloved daughter or son, one born to love, one born to be a saint. And God keeps believing in you no matter what life does to you.
What would it take to make you want to claim that heritage? No, we are not talking about the heritage of someone who goes around acting like he is better than other people. The biblical saints didn't act that way. We are talking about someone who at least wants to be able to live in love in all his or her relationships, and maybe someone who would be willing to be used by God to make the world a better place. You may have to wait until you get disillusioned with all of the other little prizes you are scrambling after. But when you finally decide to claim it, the heritage of a saint is there for you.
When you do, you will want to give some attention to rediscovering the heritage that is there for you, the shape of the better life that God is offering you, the things the Bible tells you about the love God has for you, and what God is doing in your life and in your world to make that life possible for you. The best place to do that is in the learning experiences and the worship services and the fellowship of your church… in the fellowship of the saints. Yes, your church. It can do for you what the disciples' fellowship did for those early converts on the Day of Pentecost.
Learn well because, sooner or later, you are going to have to move out and live a different kind of life in a world that does not understand. Sooner or later you are going to feel compelled to try to make a difference in the world that the world really doesn't want to have made. It can be difficult. It can be demanding.
But you don't have to do it alone. The God in whose eyes you are a beloved son or daughter, the God who believes that you can actually be a saint, the God who believes in you is always with you. God is not the only one who is always here believing in you. All of the saints of the past are here with you and pulling for you. They really aren't dead, you know. When they died, they went to be with God. God is here with us -- and so are they. We may not have statues of the saints from the past standing in alcoves around our sanctuary, but we don't need them. The real saints are here; Jacob, David, Peter, Paul, and also some others whom you have known, people who loved you and believed in you and wanted what is best for you. Can you name them? They understand your humanity. Oh, yes they do. But they are still believing in you, pulling for you, and hoping that you will choose the heritage of the saints and make the most of it. They, like God, are promising to be here with you as you give it your best try.
In the book of Hebrews, there is a place where the author talks about the presence of the saints. He says: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith..." (Hebrews 12:1-2a). Amen.
