REMEMBERING OUR SAINTS
Sunday Worship Sermon

NOVEMBER 1, 2009 - “One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he [Jesus] answered them [the other religious leaders] well he asked him [Jesus], ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’” (Mark 12:28)

“When Jesus saw that he [the scribe] had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the Kingdom of God’ and no one dared ask him [Jesus] any questions.” (Mark 12:34)

Today is All Saints Day, a time to remember the saints in our lives. Saints are all those, past and present, who have impacted our lives in positive ways. These are people who have upheld us, who have been there for us, and who have helped make us what we are today. Later in the service we will have an opportunity to honor the saints in our lives by lifting up their names.

Through our reading today from Mark’s Gospel, we learn some things about saints.

We learn first that saints uphold the truth and in doing so the community as a whole. Jesus was being questioned by the religious leaders of the day. His questioners were being hostile toward Jesus and challenging him at every turn. Then one of the religious leaders, a scribe came nearby and saw that Jesus was providing good answers to the religious leader’s questions. He saw the point Jesus was trying to make and asked Jesus a question that cut through the hated debate, “Which commandment is the first of all?” After Jesus answered, the scribe repeated Jesus’ answer in his own words. He saw the truth in what Jesus was saying, and had the courage to uphold Jesus risking the ridicule of his fellow religious leaders. And this had the effect of helping the whole community. The closing verse of today’s passage reads, “after that no one dared ask him [Jesus] any questions.” The saints in our lives uphold the truth and in doing so uphold the community as a whole.

Second, saints remember who God is and who they are. When the scribe ask Jesus the question “Which commandment is first of all,” Jesus responded “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one; you shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this; you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (12: 30-31).

As we already have said, the scribe took this truth that Jesus had spoken, put it into his own words, and repeated it back to Jesus and the religious leaders. He upheld the ancient truth of his community, that there is one true God, and that we are God’s people. And the scribe upheld what God has commanded: that his people shall love him with all their being, and love one another. Saints aren’t perfect. Saints remain sinners. Sin is a part of all humanity. This scribe was not perfect. But as the scribe did that day, the saints in our lives remember who God is, claim their inheritance as God’s people, and strive to love God and love their neighbor.

Third, saints hold God’s commandment to love over the rituals of the church. In verse 33 of today’s reading, the scribe tells us that the commandment to love God and neighbor “is much more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Burnt offerings and sacrifices had been central to the religious life of the Israelites. Sometimes in their enthusiasm for these practices, love got lost. We don’t have burnt offerings and sacrifices anymore but we do have religious practices and this passage is a warning to us as well. All our endeavors must be grounded in love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says, “If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” In other words, if in the course of what we do we lose love then we lose God. God is love.

Saints understand that our thoughts, words, and actions need to be rooted in love. The Old Testament prophets knew this.

Hosea 6:6 reads, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Isaiah 1:12-17 reads, “When you come to appear before me who asked this of you this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing me meaningless offerings. Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon Festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

And Micah 6:6-8 reads, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

In our best efforts to make Hero’s Club a great after school program, to finish all tasks for our mission project on time, to preach a good sermon, to put on a great Lord’s Acre, to wrap and pack shoe boxes for Operations Christmas Child, or to do whatever it is that we are engaged in – we must never lose sight of the fact that we are to be doing these things out of the love of God and neighbor. Our saints understand that.

And they understand a fourth thing as well: that as holy as one might become in their walk of faith we always have something more that God has to teach us. And the very things God has yet to teach us are more than likely things that feel outside of our comfort zone. Verse 34 of today’s Gospel reading says, “When Jesus saw that he [the scribe] had answered wisely, he [Jesus] said to him, ‘You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” In other words, the scribe had things yet to learn from God.

“Seekers” is a popular term in Evangelism circles. These are the unchurched, many with no religious upbringing that have come to the point in their lives where they are seeking greater meaning. Those of us in the church need to be careful not to feel superior to those that we label “seekers.” These are the very ones to which Christ would be drawn. And when it comes right down to it, we are all seekers; no of us should ever be feeling as though we’ve made it and have nothing else to learn, no more steps in our faith journey to take. The saints in our lives happily continue to seek after God and grow in faith.

1) Saints uphold the truth and uphold others, 2) saints remember who God is and who they are, 3) saints hold love to be first and strive to act out of love in all they do, and 4) saints continue to learn and grow in faith. On this All Saints Day we are thankful for all the saints in our lives, those that have died and those still alive with us. And we too hope that someone else will look upon us as a saint; that we too will be an inspiration to another in their faith journey. With our desire and God’s help it will be so.

Amen.

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