CORINTH

-Sermon Notes-

 

“All Saint’s Sunday-Knowing Our Why”

(Psalm 133, Matthew 5:13-20)

 

     All Saint’s Sunday has been around for a spell.  In fact, May 13, 609 AD was the first time Saints were celebrated as Pope Boniface dedicated the Pantheon in Rome.  Over the years, noting Christian martyrs has morphed into celebrating folks who have been canonized (Catholic church) and more recently, a time to remember people who have demonstrated God’s love to us in special ways, particularly those no longer with us.

     Are you a saint?  Would you like to be?  Of course you/we would.  But why?  What is our reason?  As social commentator Michael Jr. suggests, it’s important to know our why, what motivates us.  So, what motivates us to be saintly?

     Our Matthew passage includes familiar words from Jesus.  Jesus tells us we are the “light of the world,” and encourages us to do good deeds so people will see them, and do what?  Praise our Father in heaven.  There it is, our WHY.  We share God’s love, we desire to be saints to others in order to point people toward relationship with God.  Sharing God’s love and grace with others is how we let the light of Christ shine through us, opening the door to relationship with the Holy One.

      Later in today’s reading we find Jesus declaring that whoever follows the commandments as detailed in the Law and the Prophets (which Jesus summarized with “love God, love neighbor”) will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (being called great in the kingdom seems like a passage to sainthood!)

      Our psalm reading from David, one of 15 ascent psalms, was often sung as pilgrims made their way to the temple in Jerusalem (which was a city on a hill.)  In these words, we find the psalmist celebrating their unity as a people.  Being saintly, offering love and care to one another, promotes not division, but unity.  In the psalm David describes unity as “very good and pleasant,” like precious oil (very valuable) and like the dew in Hermon (an arid region, where moisture was celebrated mightily.)

     Today we are lighting candles as we name saints no longer with us.  Yet the best way to honor our saints is to live in a way that honors their legacies and examples.  By being agents of God’s love, grace and care, we become saints in the lives of others.  May it be so!