Saints come in all shapes and sizes. A few weeks ago we remembered St Francis of Assisi: the son of a wealthy cloth merchant; an idle youth prone to giving expensive banquets, but who after an encounter with Christ, gave his money and even his clothes away and became a wandering beggar...and of course, one of the most inspiring Christians of history. I also think of St John of the Cross who at one point in his life was imprisoned in a cramped, almost lightless room for 9 months and who escaped through a tiny window using knotted strips of sheet and who went on to write the most profound poetry and teaching on the 'dark night of the soul'.
No two saints are the same. But today we don't just think about famous saints of history who inspire us with their lives and their teaching, but also ordinary people of faith. When Paul wrote his letters to the early Christian communities around the Mediterranean, he often wrote to 'to all the saints in Philippi' or 'to the saints who are in Ephesus' or other places. If he was still writing letters today, he might write a letter 'to all the saints at St Ursula's', or 'to all the saints at St Andrew's' – (and it's good to have some of those saints from St Andrew's listening to this service today). For Paul, anyone who is called to follow Christ, is one of the 'saints'. Paul didn't mean by this that they were all perfect - we only have to read about the divisions, quarreling and dubious morality of the church in Corinth or Ephesus to realise that was certainly not the case. As saints in St Ursula's, (and even perhaps, dare I say it, as saints at St Andrew's too), we know that we are certainly not perfect either and there can be divisions and quarreling between us too. Neither are we all the same, but we also come in all shapes and sizes, with different personalities and experiences, from different backgrounds and cultures.
For some people the word 'saint' perhaps evokes a rather boring, colourless character, someone who is 'good' in a very uninteresting way - though of course when we think of people like St Francis or St John of the Cross we realise how far that is from the truth!
So what is a saint like, or called to be like?
A saint is someone who points away from themselves; who has about them a kind of transparency, allowing the light of God's grace to shine through them. This does not mean they are all the same. As I was thinking of this, the image of a stained glass window came to me; each pane of glass may be a different shape and colour but as the light shines through it it is beautiful in its own particular way. So, as saints, we are called to be transparent, to allow God's light and grace to shine through us bringing out the unique shape and colour God has made us.
Perhaps there are some clues to the qualities of a saint in the beatitudes which we heard earlier in our gospel reading. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit...blessed are the meek...blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right....blessed are the merciful....blessed are the pure in heart...blessed are the peacemakers...blessed are those who are persecuted for Christ's sake....' The beatitudes are very radical because they turn things upside down; they express a kind of 'Christian counter-culture' as one writer puts it. It is not the rich, the powerful and successful in the world's terms who are blessed ,but those who know their need of God, who are gentle and humble towards others, those who live out Christ's way of mercy and forgiveness even at great cost to themselves.
These qualities are not always appreciated by the world around us. Friedrich Nietsche, the atheist philosopher, famously hated these words of the Beatitudes, seeing Christianity as commending 'weakness.' His definition of the 'good' was 'all that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man.' His ideal man was the 'superman' the man of power who has eradicated all weakness. The Christian vision is very different and saints are not supermen and women, heroes and heroines, but those who know their own need and poverty and put their hope and trust in God, allowing his grace to work in and through them.
The qualities of the beatitudes, of course, remind of us of Jesus himself. In his transparent humility, in his meekness, mercy and suffering for the sake of others, he reveals the very nature of God. And ultimately we are called to be like him. In our reading from the 1st letter of John we are reminded that we are 'children of God now...what we will be has not yet been revealed...but what we do know is this, when Christ is revealed we will be like him....And all who have this hope in him, purify themselves, just as he is pure.' Our final destiny is to be like Jesus, and this hope should affect us in our daily lives now. We are, each one of us, in the process of being changed to become, in our own unique way, like Jesus. I am reminded of a Christian poster that used to be popular - you may have seen it - with a rather ugly looking animal on it (I can't remember what the animal was!) but the text said 'be patient with me; God has not finished with me yet.' God has not finished with any of us, we are each one of us a work in progress, and, as such we need to be patient with ourselves and with one another.
For we all know how much we fail to reflect the qualities of the beatitudes, the character of Jesus, in our lives. Sometimes we may be tempted to lose heart as we realise how often we fail to live with humility and mercy, and how little we hunger after what is right and good. Sometimes, if we are honest, we hanker instead after the kind of power, assertiveness , self-sufficiency, and control, that Nietzsche commended. But awareness of our failures is another important quality of the saint. The more we grow in our spiritual lives, the more we become aware of all that is in us that gets in the way of God's grace. That's why we constantly need to repent, to turn away from our mistakes and selfishness, and turn back to God's grace and love. Something I read years ago has always stayed with me, that the main difference between a saint and a sinner is that the saint falls, repents and moves on with hope...while the sinner falls and stays down... It's not that we will never make mistakes or fall down – we will, constantly – but the important thing is that we get up again.
St John of the Cross, one of my favourite saints talks of God's grace showing up grime and dirt in us, rather like the sun rays shining through a window. We need to be cleaned up. He says:
'If the sun's rays strike a window, but the window is stained and dirty, the sun cannot shine through it in the same way it would have done if the window were clean and spotless... If the window were perfectly clear the sun's rays would transform it, letting it reflect the light, even though the window preserves its distinct identity...The soul is like this window....'
This brings me back to the image of the stained glass window. Each pane is distinct; a particular shape and colour. For the window as a whole to be striking and beautiful, each individual pane needs to be clean and to reflect the light. But then, of course, all the different coloured panes of glass need to be put together in an overall pattern. One individual pane of glass isn't much on its own, but its beauty comes from being put together with other panes of glass to make a glorious whole.
We are not called to be individual saints on our own. All Saints Day reminds us of the 'communion of saints'. All those who have followed Christ, past and present, are drawn together into a communion which transcends time and space. Those who have lived before us can inspire us and encourage us in the Christian life. In some mysterious way they are still with us – we are one in Christ. We are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We may have our own distinctive and unique role to play but we also need one another. We can learn, be supported and encouraged by the saints of the past, and also the saints of the present, including those in our own church community. . Perhaps we could ponder in what particular ways others in the church reflect God's grace to us...and if we can't see how, perhaps we need to ask God to show us. So that together we can learn more about the big story of God's love for the world and our part within it.
We are reminded today that we are all called to be saints, to reflect something of God's light and love in our own particular way. God is at work to transform us into the image of Christ...and he's not finished with us yet. So we need to be patient with ourselves and with one another, aware of our failures, but constantly repenting and getting up again, allowing the grime and dullness in us to be cleaned away so that the light of his love is revealed more clearly through us. But let us also remember that we are called into the 'communion of saints' as we say in the Creed every week; we can only be saints together. I know it might seem somewhat ironic to be thinking about being 'together' on this first Sunday when we cannot worship together again, but perhaps it's even more important now to remind ourselves of these things. It's together that we learn more of God's grace and purposes; together we can show something of God's love to the community around us; together we can reflect God's light more wonderfully than we can on our own. Let us give thanks for the diverse, multicultural community we are here at St Ursula's (and at St Andrew's too) and rejoice that one day, as we heard in our reading from Revelation, we will all be drawn into 'the great multitude...from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages' standing before the Lamb and worshipping God. This is the true communion of saints of which we are each one a part.
Revd Helen Marshall