Called to Be Saints
What a week it’s been. Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey and New York in ways that eerily resembled the movie The Day After Tomorrow. We’ve all seen the images of suffering, devastation, grief, and anguish. I was speaking with a man at the Church Fair yesterday who told me he was here because his business in New Jersey had been destroyed in the storm and his home had no power or heat so he came to his place on the Cape. Many of you have lived in New Jersey and New York and have relatives and friends who are still there trying to cope. On Wednesday night the pain was pushed away for a little while by children dressed up in different costumes from princesses to firefighters and super heroes running up to our front door hoping for candy and a word from the Lord. Okay, most didn’t ask for the latter. It brought back memories of when our boys were young. One of the questions kids ask at Halloween is: “Who are you going to be?”
November 4, 2012
1 Corinthians 1:2-3, 10-17, Called to Be Saints
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
Called to Be Saints from BBC Staff on Vimeo.
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That is a question for more than Trick or Treaters. Who are you going to be? When a storm turns life upside down, who are you going to be? Are you going to be a looter, a line cutter, a complainer? Are you going to be assisting other people, staying positive, helping to fix problems and making things better?
This week we’ll finally have a presidential election, the most expensive one in our nation’s history, one in which each candidate and his party and superpacs will spend over one billion dollars, most of it, seemingly on negative, divisive ads. No matter who has won on Wednesday morning, every American will need to answer the question, “Who are you going to be?” Are you going to continue to be partisan, negative, and divisive? Will you work to cooperate, solve problems, and make things better in our nation?
Natural disasters and presidential elections have at least one thing in common; they reveal and bring out the best and the worst in people. In good times and in bad, for Christians, one thing doesn’t change and that’s who we’re called to be. We’re called to be saints. If we or someone we love is struggling with Alzheimer’s, or grieving, or trying to keep food on our table and a roof over our head, we’re still called to be saints. This is what Paul tells the church in Corinth when he writes them:
“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1:2-3
“Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each says, ‘I belong to Paul,” or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.”
In the New Testament, ‘saints’ translates the Greek term for ‘holy ones’ and it simply refers to Christians in distinction from nonbelievers. This past week in the midst of all that was going on, some Christian churches observed All Saints Day. It’s a time to remember all the people who lived the faith before us, whether many centuries ago or those who told us the stories of Jesus when we were young, or those who died in the last year. We do not walk the spiritual path alone; rather we follow the footprints and the shadows of the saints who walked before us and with us.
When we use the word, “saint,” many of us probably think of people like St. Francis of Assisi or Mother Teresa or perhaps you think of the Roman Catholic Church. We often associate the word “saint” with the Hall of Famers of the faith who were almost otherworldly in their impact and holiness. One thing that’s fascinating about Scripture is the way the Bible so honestly tells the story of the Saints, honestly admitting their shortcomings and the infidelities in their walk with God. Surely this biblical honesty is meant to give us courage and hope in our own day.[1] Being called to be saints isn’t just for a few super-Christians who are like Superman or Wonder Woman; we’re all called to be saints in our own circumstances.
Of all the churches we read about in the New Testament, perhaps none presents a more vivid picture of the trials, mistakes, and sins of people than the church in Corinth, but that congregation wasn’t unique. Every church is composed of broken, hurting, people united by our common need for spiritual transformation. The New Testament spends a great deal of time calling people to be accountable for their behavior and to accept responsibility for their actions because until we accept responsibility for our sin and failures, rather than blaming other people or our circumstances, we won’t truly see our need for Jesus and we won’t receive the power of the Holy Spirit who enables us to change and grow. Part of being a saint is accepting responsibility for our life, our choices, our attitude, our behavior. On the other hand, the failure to accept responsibility is the oldest sin in the world. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the snake. Lots of people are still blaming the snake, which means anyone or anything else other than looking in the mirror.
Because of human sinfulness, the Apostle Paul writes the churches he planted frequently telling them to be united around Jesus, not around any human leader and warning against divisions and quarreling. Wherever human beings are in relationship, there’s going to be conflict. This can happen especially when people are living under the stress of a disease or illness, or financial pressure, or where people simply have strongly held opposing opinions. It shouldn’t surprise us that nations with significantly different cultures, histories, religions, languages, and values have difficulty resolving differences, when we know from our own experience how hard it is to overcome disagreements in our own country or within a marriage, or between parents and children, or within a church where the people have a great deal in common. We’re at a critical point as a nation because of human sinfulness, partisanship, divisions and quarrelling that we must get beyond.
A man named Emo Philips used to tell this story:
In conversation with a person I had recently met, I asked,
“Are you Protestant or Catholic?” My new acquaintance replied, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me too! What franchise?” He answered, “Baptist.”
“Me too!” I said, “Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”
“Northern Baptist,” he replied. “Me too!” I shouted. We continued to go back and forth. Finally I asked, “Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1879 or Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912?” He replied, “Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist, Great Lakes Region, Council of 1912.” I replied, “Die, heretic!”
In today’s scripture from 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, Paul is urging the people to be the saints they’re called to be. The saints in the church were dividing themselves into factions, some supporting one leader, others associating with another. Paul describes this situation as ludicrous. He asks in a negative, rhetorical way, “Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” The obvious answer is, “No.” The church is saved and sustained only in the name of Jesus. The people of the New Testament were no different in their struggles than we are. Yet in the midst of our personal challenges and the call to be a faithful spiritual community, God calls us to live as saints who are focused on Jesus and the cross and who strive to love God and our neighbors.
It takes courage to try and be a saint. In Graham Greene’s novel The Power and the Glory, the main character is a seedy, alcoholic Catholic priest who after months as a fugitive is finally caught by the revolutionary Mexican government and condemned to be shot. On the evening before his execution, he sits in his cell with a flask of brandy to keep his courage up and thinks back over what seems to him the dingy failure of his life. Greene writes, “Tears poured down his face. He was not at the moment afraid of damnation – even the fear of pain was in the background. He felt only an immense disappointment because he had to go to God empty-handed, with nothing done at all. It seemed to him at that moment it would have been quite easy to be a saint. It would only have needed a little self-restraint, and a little courage. He felt like someone who had missed happiness by seconds at an appointed place. He knew now that at the end there was only one thing that counted – to be a saint.”
We don’t want to wait until we are moments from death to see the value of God’s invitation to be saints. A little self-restraint to rein ourselves in, a little courage and faith to act as Jesus want us to, and a little love shared with others go a long way. We won’t be close to being saints if our faith is not founded on and supported by Jesus and the cross and the self-sacrificing love and grace it represents. At one dinner last month, Greg, Jill and I were talking about the War of 1812 because Greg’s history class was learning about it. The flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner in 1814 is now at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington D.C. The original flag measured 42 feet by 30 feet. It was the immense size of the flag that allowed Key to see it from his position following a night of cannon and gunfire.
The means by which a flag that large could fly on a pole 189 feet in the air is on display at Fort McHenry on Baltimore’s inner harbor. There in one of the barracks are two oak timbers, 8 foot by 8 foot, joined as a cross. National Park Service personnel discovered this cross-shaped support near the entrance to Fort McHenry in 1958 buried 9 feet in the ground. Not only did the cross piece help rangers locate the original site from which the Star Spangled banner flew, it answered the mystery of how such a large flag could fly in stormy weather without snapping the pole. This unseen cross provided a firm foundation for the symbol of our national unity in the midst of the fire of conflict.
The saints of early church struggled to be saints, but they united around Jesus and the cross. In the same way, Paul says, the cross of Christ provides the foundation by which our faith is rooted and supported, especially in stormy times. The cross reminds us of God’s love, grace, forgiveness and mercy to us all. As we remember the saints who went before us, we can be inspired by their faithfulness and courage and learn from their frailties. As we contemplate the challenges we face personally and as a nation, we do well to remember for those of us who are Christians, at the end there’s only one thing that counts– to be a saint.