Thinking About the Saints

Over the past few weeks, I've often found myself thinking about All Saints' Sunday, in which we will recognize and remember the saints of our own families and our greater church family. Used in the context of Christianity, the term "saint" carries significant weight. Some of our Bibles read, "The Gospel according to Saint Matthew," or see churches named "St. Andrews Presbyterian." What we must realize is that we are all saints. A quick search of the Bible reveals over fifty references to a "saint" or "saints," and it is clear that the writers were often speaking of laypeople like you and me. Romans 1:7 reveals this, as it is written in the greeting, "To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints." This idea is further expanded in the hymn "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" by Lesbia Scott:

I sing a song of the saints of God,

Patient and brave and true,

Who toiled and fought and lived and died

For the Lord they loved and knew.

And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,

And one was a shepherdess on the green:

They were all of them saints of God, 

and I mean, God helping, to be one too.

Kay Wood Haley, at the organ.

Many of you know that Ashley and I have been undergoing the arduous process of buying our first home. We've been reminded of the saints in our own lives during this time, whether it was my grandparents who had the foresight to put stock in my name when I was born, so that when the time was right it could be used for a down payment; or our mothers taking time out of their already hectic schedules to come down and help us pack up our apartment. These saints, both living and past, have taken Christ's example as their own, showing charity and love in their thoughts and actions. So on this All Saints' Day, let us recall those saints both living and dead, who have so shaped our lives and those of others through their work and witness.

They lived not only in ages past,

There are hundreds of thousands still;

The world is bright with the joyous saints

Who love to do Jesus' will.

You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,

In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea,

For the saints of God are just folk like me,

And I mean to be one too.

Amen.

A whole mess of saints...