- ◊·Home
-
...................................
- ◊·About·Us
-
...................................
- ◊·Events/Schedules
-
...................................
- ◊·Sermons
-
...................................
- ◊·Rev·It·Up
-
...................................
- ◊·Our·History
-
...................................
- ◊·Tour·the·Church
-
...................................
- ◊·Our·Members
-
...................................
- ◊·UCC.org
-
...................................
- ◊·StillSpeaking.com
-
...................................
- ◊·Placerville·Camp
-
...................................
- ◊·Other·Links
-
...................................
- ◊·Contact·Us
|
 An
Interpretation
Past Sermons from Pastor Tim...
-
You are a Saint
- Revelations 21: 1-6
- All
Saints Sunday, November 5, 2006
- Lucky for
us, the Bible was written before television, especially before
reality TV, when people still paid a lot of attention to their dreams
and to what they imagined these visions meant.
- Old John of
Patmos relays his vision and he says it well – the home of God is with
the people.
- This
scripture is the designated lectionary passage for All Saints Day. It
is not easy for the mainline Protestant church to preach from the Book
of Revelation. It’s not even all that easy to talk and hear about
saints. But this is a day we remember and celebrate all the saints –
living and dead. The point to the day is to not lose heart. The point
of the day is to remember, so we don’t despair.
- Of all the
Christian holy days, I find this one, in all of its senses, to be the
most assuring. Sure, I like the idea of the great and heroic ones who
have gone on before. I like thinking of the saints beyond, not simply
resting, but waiting for us to join them – they assure us of a future.
And I like thinking of saints as ordinary people like ourselves,
seeking to be faithful and holy here and now.
- A saint
isn’t someone who is better than you are. A saint isn’t someone who is
holier than you are, more perfect than you are. Quite frankly, whether
or not you are a saint is not something you have much control over.
In fact, if you are interested in being a saint, what you have to do,
mainly, is let go, relinquish control……
- Knock,
knock.
- (“Who’s
there?”)
- Control
freak… now you say, “control freak who?”
- Sainthood
is not a matter of personal achievement. You cannot complete a
curriculum to attain it. You cannot jump through enough spiritual
hoops to earn the prize. You cannot pull yourself up to some spiritual
level by your bootstraps, even if those are made of the finest
religious leather. You cannot give up enough sin to get yourself
designated a saint.
- Sainthood
is more about what you don’t do, than what you do. Sainthood is purely
and solely the work of God’s grace in our lives in spite of
everything about us.
- Mitch
Finley said it best:
- The
Christian doctrine of the communion of saints is simple, really.
All it says is that once you buy the farm you still live on the
farm. All it says is that those who have gone before us are still
with us. All it says is that past generations still count and must
be taken into account. In other words, we’re all in this together. All
of us.
- – in
Whispers of Love
- If you want
to be a saint, then stop thinking you’re the only one on this journey.
Stop thinking your life matters only to you. Stop thinking you are not
necessary to the bringing in of the kingdom or the kindom. Stop
thinking you are not saint material.
- It’s not
yours to decide. If God wants you to be a saint, that’s up to God. All
you can do is agree to go along, or not.
- But, what
do we do with this Book of Revelation reading? The book that has
provided basis for many a judgment day Armageddon-type movie, as the
earth is destroyed, mountains crash, people vanish, families are torn
apart, and general chaos reigns. (I remember being strongly urged by
my Sunday School teachers not to read the Book of Revelation, or at
least leave it for last, and then to read it only with the guidance
and assistance from a knowing adult!)
- Our passage
for today skips over most of the chaos and goes right to the pinnacle
– highlighting perhaps some of the best known verses of the book. Here
we have a text which is often read at a funeral service. And the
surprising thing is that in the midst of all this talk about beasts
and dragons and lambs, comes one of the simplest statements of the
good news Jesus was always trying to share. When we think of the good
news, we often understand the phrase to refer to the fact that Christ
died on our behalf.
- However,
since Jesus often spoke of the good news while he was still very much
alive, we have to look another direction to figure out his statement.
For Jesus, the good news was that the kingdom of God was at hand
– near, or right there, already on earth.
- God’s
kingdom wasn’t something Jesus thought we had to wait to experience
until our death – we could – can – experience God’s kingdom right now,
this minute, if we work with God to make it happen. Strangely, in a
book that spends much focus on death and afterlife and endings,
eternal reward or eternal punishment, there is still in the midst of
this passage a claim of what the good news is, in beautiful words:
“See, the home of God is among mortals.”
- Whereas
much of Revelation speaks in future tense, referring to events that
will happen, that have yet to take place, this sentence is very
present tense. The home of God is among mortals.
- I have a
hunch. If you expect to find a Book of death and destruction, you will
probably find it to be so. But if you expect to find a Book of life,
Revelation certainly contains a message of hope and promise that can
shape our lives. God’s home is with us. Not some far away God who only
watches us from a distance, as one popular song suggested. No, our God
lives with us, inside us and beside us, a part of all that we do. A
blessing and a responsibility.
- We don’t
have to wait until some final day to have God right here with us – but
we also can’t put off ushering in God’s kingdom until some later date.
God expects to be welcomed into our lives through our loving actions
right now, today.
- And,
Revelation reminds us that for God, whom all things are possible,
giving us a clean slate is part of the promise. A new beginning. A
second chance, a thousandth chance. A blessing and a responsibility. A
blessing on all the saints – no one in particular, but anyone,
everyone – all ages, all places.
- How
scattered upon all of us those saints are. They come to mind on such a
day as this and we are to remember them. People we have known, loved
or admired. Some of them have made their exit so recently that the
flower, the rose has not withered. People who have encouraged us when
we felt our own lives to be of little worth. A parent, a teacher, a
lover, a friend, even a stranger. Someone who has affirmed our
humanity or the humanity of others, against all the forces of history
that wanted to contradict it.
- There’s a
man named Paul Villard who shares this true account of his life and
the influence of a particular person, in this case, a telephone
operator.
- Remember
those?
- It seems
that when Paul was very young, his family had one of the first
telephones in their neighborhood. He remembers well the polished oak
case fastened to the wall on the lower stair landing. The shiny
receiver hung on the side of the box. The crank. He even remembers
the telephone number, 107. (Isn’t it curious how our telephone number
when we were children seems to always stay with us? )
- When
Villard was too little to reach the telephone, he used to listen when
his mother talked into it. Once she lifted him up to speak to his
father, who was away on business. For a young child, it was like
magic! One day he discovered that somewhere inside this device lived
an amazing person. Her name was “information please” and there was
nothing that she did not know! Villard’s mother could ask for
anybody’s number and she would give it. When the clock ran down,
“information please” could supply the correct time. He writes:
- “My first
experience with this genie-in-the-receiver came one day while my
mother was visiting a neighbor. Amused with a project in the
basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible,
but there didn’t seem to be much use in crying because no one was
home to offer sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my
throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway. Then I remembered
– the telephone!
- Quickly I
ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing.
Climbing up, I unhooked the receiver and held it to my ear.
“Information please”. There was a click or two and then a small,
clear voice spoke into my ear:
-
“Information”
- ‘I hurt my
finger,’ I wailed into the phone. The tears came readily enough, now
that I had an audience.
- “Isn’t your
mother home?”
- ‘Nobody’s
home but me.’
- “Are you
bleeding?”
- ‘No, I hit
it with a hammer and it hurts.’
- “Can you
open the ice box?” she asked. I could.
- “Then chip
off a little piece of ice and hold it on your finger. Be careful
using the ice pick. You’ll be alright,” she said with assurance.
- After that,
Villard writes, I called “Information Please” for everything. I
asked for help with geography and she told me where Philadelphia was.
She helped me with arithmetic and told me that a pet chipmunk I had
caught in the park would eat fruit and nuts. And then there was the
time that Petey, our pet canary, died. I called “Information
Please”. She listened and said the usual things grownups say to
soothe a child. But I was not to be consoled. Why was it that birds
should sing so beautifully and bring joy to whole families, only to
end up a heap of feathers, legs up, on the bottom of a cage? She must
have sensed my deep concern, for she quietly said –
- “Paul,
always remember that there are other worlds to sing in.”
- Villard
comments – in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the
serene
- sense of
security I had when I knew that I could call “Information Please.”
- Many years
later on his way home from college, while waiting at an airport, Paul
Villard picked up the phone and dialed his hometown operator.
Miraculously, he heard the small, clear voice he knew so well say
“Information.”
- “Could you
please tell me how to spell the word fix”’ he asked.
- There was a
long pause. Then came the softly spoken answer. “I guess,” said
“Information Please”, ‘ that your finger must have healed by now.”
- Villard
laughed. ‘So it’s still you! I wonder if you have any idea how much
you meant to me during all that time’ he said into the phone.
- “I
wonder,” she replied, “if you know how much you meant to me. I
never had any children and I used to look forward to your calls.”
- Villard
said he would call again when he was waiting at an airport. “Please
do” she said, “just ask for Sally.” ‘Goodbye Sally” he said, noting
how strange it sounded for Information Please to have a name.
- Three
months later when he called a different voice answered.
“Information.” He asked for Sally, ‘Just say it’s Villard.’
- “Villard,
Sally died about a month ago, but she left a message for you. She
wrote it down. I’ll get it.”
- Villard
comments: I almost knew in advance what it would be. She returned
to the phone and then read from the note: “Tell him I still say there
are other worlds to sing in. He’ll know what I mean.” And he did.
- This woman
was not a martyr or a miracle worker. She was not even one of the
great saints the church calendar honors.
- She was
instead a practical saint who through words of caring brought a kind
of healing to the world she touched. If, as someone has said, saints
are only sinners who keep on trying then we are all called not only to
remember saints of the past but we are called to be practical saints.
We do this in so many varied ways. It can be through our own words of
kindness or acts of mercy.
- It can be
our willingness to take stands for fairness. Or, in supporting cause
we feel are bringing health and wholeness to the lives of others.
- It is
indeed a broken world we live in – a world in which the Bible sounds
like sound bites or lies. But we don’t get off the hook from doing
God’s work because of fear of failure. God’s already got us covered.
- By the way,
another name for Revelation is Apocalypse. The word apocalypse
literally means “the uncovering” – the removing of the veil, the
revealing of mystery. So, saints, take this book off your list of
scary stories. It and you are precious pieces of God’s word for God’s
people.
- Thanks be
to God.
- Amen.
-
-
Sources:
-
Peter Gomes, professor at Harvard
Divinity, Christian Century, 1997.
-
C. Wayne Hilliker, Chalmers Pulpit,
Kingston, Ontario, 2002.
-
Thomas Long, “Preaching in the Middle of
a Saintly Congregation”, Journal for Preachers, Lent 1995.
-
Robin Meyers, Mayflower UCC, OK City,
Day 1 series, November 2006
-
Beth Quick, sermon 5.16.04
-
Barbara Brown Taylor, “A Meditation for
All Saints Day”
-
Kathy Timpany, Central Congreg. Sermon
11.03.02
|
