Sinners and Saints

Father John’s All Saints sermon from Sunday challenged us to consider what it means to be a saint and what it means to be a sinner.  He said the good news is that we are all saints…the bad news is that we are all sinners too. 

Fr. John noted that in some churches/denominations saints are very important, serving as intermediaries for us in our prayers to God.  But he noted that Paul indicated that we are all saints when he addresses “them who are sanctified in Christ” at the church of Corinth as saints.

Similarly, a standard Anglican hymn reinforces Paul’s perspective that we are all saints of God:

        I Sing a Song of the Saints of God

        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.

Fr. John made the point that when we are sinners, we are not bad people, just people who have lost our focus.  When we are saints, our focus is on God.  When we are sinners, our focus is on something else.   We have been reading about the Israelites who too often lose their focus, but we are subject to the very same thing.  We too often let things of the world come between us and God.  And Fr. John noted that it can even be things that are otherwise good.  If we spend too much time with our jobs, this can pull our focus from God…this can even be the case with our families if we are not careful. 

To keep this focus, we must help each other.  Fr. John noted that we will have a baptismal ceremony next week and that the congregation will vow to support the candidate for baptism in their life in Christ.  We are all in this together and should take this responsibility seriously… if we can help one another focus on God, then we can all be Saints of God.     

posted by m white