Called to be a Saint.
Good Morning Friends,
I went to the bank yesterday and the Cubans there asked how the Cuban Pastor did at our Sunday service at the Moorings. The conversation was rather surprising, but then so is God. Luis, who helps me to send wires, said, “I do not like translations. They take too long. I was at a wedding as a child and it was hot and the translations were just extending the problem making me dizzy.” Reliving the event, Luis said, “I told them, I am gonna pass out. I am gonna pass out. But no one listened.” Then he said, “I stood up and fainted.” Responding to Luis, I said that our translation was much better than you could have imagined.
It was like poetry in motion… going here and going there and returning in a rhythm…the cadence of the sawing of a tree until the sermon ended and the tree fell and then was lifted up as a gift to God. But maybe having air conditioning probably helped too. One of the tellers who may very well be in Cuba this weekend, asked me if we believed in saints in our church and I said of course there are as many as the stars in the sky and often as far away…but sometimes much closer. You see we believe that all the Body of believers are Saints. We are to learn from each other but we need a good Guide to connect us. We need a router to empower us. She said she believed in Saints… “In Cuba we have Saint Lazarus and his dogs. I enjoy going there and riding a bike and I do not mind that there is no air conditioning.” I asked her if she believed in Jesus. “Of course,” she said and then added that she believed “in everything,” but some things she liked and others she did not. I told her that for me Saints help to teach us through a unity with God manifested in their lives and history for the purpose of helping those seeking salvation but ultimately need to be guided by Jesus. For that reason, if you are chosen you need to be more than a volunteer, more than a disciple. You need to be more of God if Called to be a Saint.
Scripture: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
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 our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
1 Corinthians 1:2 (NRSV)
The Rich Man and Lazarus
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
Luke 16:19-31 (NIV)
Message: Fall has arrived and there is a coolness in the air as it goes about stealing water from the wet ground very gradually through evaporation and then taking it somewhere else. That is kind of how I look at the connectivity of the Saints, as a cycle of growth and change that channels rivers and flows as part of Holy History. There are several ways to look at saints. The Bible has both men and angels as saints. We have Moses and Abraham and they were and are Saints by virtue of their role in the history of Israel and our faith. Culturally we have St. Valentines and St. Nicholas, but you do not see many churches or hospitals named after them. And then we have St. John, St. Matthew, and St. Luke with lots of hospitals and programs named after them. I think that ultimately being a Saint means something more than a recognition but more so something we are to recognize in ourselves…a kind of a new position in Christ. Of course in the Catholic Church to be canonized you have to be dead and that is something very curious to me, though I understand why, I still like the living proto saints who lift up respect for the poor and peace and purpose as well. I like people who communicate their spirit with Christ’s clearly guiding us to something better. Cardinal Timothy Dolan the Archbishop of New York is one such person. The Networks cut his benediction from the Democratic National Convention. He raised eyebrows when he prayed for Romney. Still he is the kind of the face of Catholicism for the United States. But denominations aside, he is a router and connector that carries in him a spirit that helps to guide others to seek the things of God…seeking them as a priority over the things of the world. That is the essence of being a saint in my mind. The problem is that we need to be more than disciples… we need to be living saints…guided by a living Bible taking a living faith out into the world. The first challenge is though that we are plagued to be our own worst enemy.
Pray we experience the ocean but not sipped through a straw. Pray as we dive into the deep and dissolve into a starry clarity, that spontaneous wet pleasure, that there is order in our swimming even though we appear to be adrift… Pray we know in the wild moments of life a profound peace. Pray we discover both humor and sadness and whispering shouts of stories and saints that have walked and worshiped with words of wondering and woe…. Pray that as God’s Spirit blows our souls here and there that we are melted into the majestic mind of Christ. Pray we discover a window between our hearts that opens up the possibility that our souls will have answers like the stars in the sky. Pray that the bread in our lives is baked with burning tears and our grapes crushed open in a mystery of joy in passing the peace. Pray with a cup overflowing in the perfectly age spirit of wine fermented. Pray that the sobriety that contains our journey might someday break free. Pray in the Presence of the Winemaker and Bread Baker, as the cup breaks and overflows into the ocean deep… as the Bread is broken and caste on the water, that we meet the whole world as a learning community. Pray we become consecrated, holy and godly. Pray we would be one in the Spirit of the Saints in the Body of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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