All the Saints

Today is November 1st, All Saints Day.  Christians have observed this day for centuries, perhaps since the first millennia.  (Before 1,000 AD).  It is a day to remember the Christian faithful who have died, or fallen asleep, and now await the day of resurrection.   We often associate saints with people like Mother Theresa, Francis of Assisi, and Augustine.  And they are.  The Apostles of Jesus, early Christian martyrs, and desert monks are Saints, whose devotion to Christ accounts for the spread of Christianity in the first 500 years.  There are hundreds of saints, whose lives of very public faith, witness, and service demonstrate Christ to the world.  Roman Catholicism venerates saints, prays to saints, and celebrates saints throughout the Christian year. 

But, sainthood is not an unattainable condition merited to only the most devoted practitioners of Christianity.  Saints are not perfect people, or those who attained some special place because of their virtue.  Beyond the martyrs and holy ones who led exemplary lives, saints include all baptized Christians.  Saints live ordinary lives of faith and doubt.  Saints go to the bathroom and house the homeless.  Saints worship God weekly, pray daily, and eat at McDonalds.  Saints follow Jesus and follow the Chicago Cubs.

In my life, my parents and my pastors and Sunday School teachers were my saints.  They guided me, taught me, loved me, and called me into a life of Christian faith.  Bernie Gigliotti was one of the first people to encourage me to think about becoming an ordained pastor.  I still see him sitting on the pew in the narthex of Our Saviour Lutheran in Utica, NY.  I still receive meaningful counsel and inspiration from the compilation of Daily Readings from Luther's Writings given to me as a gift from Pastor Bill Preuss at a church assembly in 1994---two years before I graduated from college and seven years before I would be ordained.  I believe that assembly, filled with the saints, inspired me to serve the church as a pastor and evangelist. 

My wife and sons show their devotion to Christ every week as they share their gifts with the faith community.  My friends who gather around the table every Sunday, hungry for God to speak and give life to them, embody the life of ordinary saints.  We drink beer together.  We care about and for one another.  We struggle with each other.  We encourage each other.  We pray for each other and for the world.  We hope for things to get better and strive to be part of that hard healing work.  We feed hungry neighbors.  We grow food.  We accompany people through hard decisions, through illness, through seasons of suffering.  We try to live in community, to serve our neighbors, and to do things that matter. 

Martin Luther had this to say about ordinary saints:  "You say that the sins which we commit everyday offend God, and therefore we are not saints.  To this I reply;  Mother love is stronger than the filth and scabbiness on a child, and so the love of God toward us is stronger than the dirt that clings to us."   

If you're reading this, you are probably a saint who has inspired me in some way.  So, thank you.  You have shown the love of Christ to me and to others.  You are blessed.