Saints and Sinners
November 2, 2014
I have been preoccupied this week with the ever growing
- morphing - fluid story of ex- CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi. What appeared last Friday to be a leave of
absence due to personal circumstances precipitated by the death of his father is
now is a salacious, seedy, deviant, sexual story that keeps on growing and
growing – by Saturday afternoon; three woman had come forward to police about
abuse and violence at the hands of Ghomeshi.
For here he was – at the height of his career – CBC’s front man – his own
show, interviewing the top athletes, entertainers, politicians, and the cover face of prestigious
awards ceremonies like the Giller’s – hobnobbing with the rich and the famous –
and underneath the façade of this likeable, easy going authentic, humble man lurks
– this deviant sexual being – or at least that is the implications of the media
stories at this time – for nothing has been proven or disproven – everything is
speculation – and all information is not verified at this time. I am not sure what all this attention to
this matter says about us with this preoccupation that we have on this one man’s
fall from grace – his moving in our minds from saint to sinner – but there is
something compelling about this story that is keeping it front and centre in
the media for the last 7 days. One commentator this
week on CBC was remarking on how because we allow Jian in our homes and cars
for two hours each morning and see him hosting some of Canada’s top awards
shows we think we know him, that he is our friend and yet when his image
becomes tainted we realized that we do not know him at all but we are still so
disappointed in him, we feel he has let us down personally.
The
way we look at a person can shift quickly when we discover something about that
person that we did not know before – especially if it is sexual deviancy. People fall from pedestals – all the time –
how many political scandals have there been in the past few months? What about our sports stars, our
entertainment icons – how many times do we turn on the news or open a newspaper
to witness their shame as the headlines– and we all know that my profession is certainly
not immune - I think when one of my colleagues crosses those lines it is especially
hurtful - we breach a sacred trust, and when our baggage and personal demons
come out to play it is often devastating to the congregations that we serve.
But
you know – and this is the hard piece – our bad behaviour does not define who
we are, our screw ups, our mess ups, the times in our lives when we do not live
the golden rule and focus solely on our selfish wants and desires – you know –
when the seven deadly sins – lust, pridefulness, arrogance, sloth, gluttony,
hate ---are a part of our everyday life – those moments, or weeks or months or
even split seconds when decisions that are made are stupid, selfish, or
downright – should I say the word – sinful….. we have all been there. We have all had times of transgressions both in
little ways and in big ways - from that mean little word you utter for that
hurt someone’s feelings or the plot that you hatched to kill your cheating
spouse – all wickedness of various different degrees – and you know that
sliding scale – the meter where we place our sins into that says that cheating
on your taxes is not as bad as extorting your business partner – that is a
human invention and does have any biblical support, and not something that
comes from God. And if you really study
the biblical support in this matter of sin, you come realize from story after
story after story, first off, that the human capacity to hurt others, to live
selfishly and to ignore our Creator is enormous and that God recognizes this
human capacity for sin, and what God really is about is forgiveness. Most judgement comes from humans which brings
us back full circle to God.
So, you may be asking yourself, if we are all culpable
in this sin game, what makes a saint – as this is the day that we celebrate All
Saints Sunday – I suspect that like myself we may have a bit of a distorted
sense of what a saint is – .
If you ask the average Christian what that means, they will probably tell you
that we remember and honor holy and extraordinary people who have gone before
us — most likely leaving behind them a trail of miracles and amazing acts
of self-sacrifice, suffering, heroism and the like. And there is of course the “official”
saints – St. Paul, St. Mary, St. Peter and who can forget St. James – it is who
we named our church after of course – but at one time he was a real life human
being and for him at least – his sainthood comes from his connection to Jesus
and the way that the lived his life after Jesus was gone – I am not sure which James
– the church is named afterur church after – James ‘son’ of Zebedee who asks
Jesus to sit on the right hand side after death – or James the Just who was the
brother of Jesus, either way sainthood was earned because of he knew Jesus
personally.
And then we see the saints in the Revelations reading
dressed in white surrounding the throne – and they will hunger and thirst no
more and every tear will be wiped from their eye….people who have died and
through their life fought the good fight for God and Jesus and so are rewarded
according to the writer of Revelation, with white robes and no tears.
But this is a narrow
definition of sainthood which undermines and excludes all the rest of us that
did not walk with Jesus, or suffer under persecution of the early church. What I believe was the original intention of
“All Saints" was to honour more than just those of stellar reputation and close
association to Jesus. A couple of
thousand years ago being a follower of Jesus was not a easy thing to do. The early church, having survived over 300
years of persecution, and they wanted to remember and celebrate those
Christians who had remained faithful in spite of the fear, the hostility and
the very real danger of living and expressing their faith. So they allocated a
special day to honor all those who had endured and persevered during those
violent times.
My hunch is that the
vast majority of these believers were ordinary folks who were probably scared
out of their wits, but hung in there because of their faith. And these were the ‘saints’ – these ordinary people
who were able to remain faithful in times of trouble and persecution. Who kept their devotion to God in times of
trouble.
I think we need to step back and recognized that really
more times than not and I would gather to guess that all the saints that we
hold before us, as pretty amazing and wonderful people where human beings with
flaws and failing just like the rest of us.
I think if funeral preparation has taught me anything is that it is
ordinary human beings that are the saints –the stories that I hear from loved
ones so often tell about lives that are lived that touch and support others,
often in the simplest and smallest of ways….lives which so many would feel
would be unremarkable had a huge impact in the world.
For instance…
Eileen Tackaberry, who lived all her life in Lion’s
Head, she was shy simple woman who was not really involved in the community –
she had 8 children and when the kids were growing up, they had friends who
needed a safe place for a while, and so she opened up her home and her oven and
fed these kids safety and support and caring and amazing pie….a saint.
And speaking of food, there was Vivian Kerr-Taylor of
Blind River, formerly of country Clare in Ireland, strong capable woman who immigrated
to Canada with her brood in tow, forged a place for them in Northern Ontario
and in the small plot of land that surrounded her little house, she grew a
garden like no one else, she loved fiercely – a saint.
And Bob Robertson, he was in Walkerton at the time of
the tainted water and had meal at a restaurant and drank the water, he
contracted colon cancer. He was farmer,
lived in Derby township, cared for cows and home and family – and he cared
about others, and lived integrally and his word was his bond… a saint.
Pretty much every single one of the people that I have
had the honour to get to know through preparing funeral and memorial services
have lives filled with moments of sainthood…
Ye, we are all sinners, but more often than not –it is saintliness
that is remembered, and missed and grieved…and I imagine that everyone that we
lit a candle for this morning, Bob and Jack and Stephen and Willis and Jeffery –
they too saints….and to take this one step further – us too – this amazing
combination of saint and sinner…
Blessed are
those who mourn says Jesus, blessed are poor, blessed are the meek, these are
not traits that we normally attribute to ‘saints’ This is what it is to be
human and in spite of our sinfulness or maybe because of our sinfulness Jesus
calls us blessed. We are blessed as
sinner and saint.
Blessedness is something that God gives to us, not
something that we earn through our actions, not something that the world always
recognizes. Likewise with All Saints – not everyone who died actually lived a
wonderful life, but we celebrate their memory today anyway, and more
importantly, celebrate the eternal life that they now enjoy, that awaits us
also – because God says so, not because we’re so saintly.
Let’s think about that word “blessed” for a
moment. The Greek word, makarios, is often translated as “happy”
or “fortunate.”… When have you felt most happy or fortunate in life? When have you felt most blessed?”[1]
Was it in times of meekness, mourning, when you were
feeling poor in spirit or where hungering of thirsting for righteousness? I suspect not – for when we think about it –
certainly as a culture we do not think that meekness and mourning and thirsting
for righteousness as strong and dominant ways of being in the world that we
expect to be blessed. But Jesus says –
let’s look at that again – let go of what the world sees as right and correct
and focus on what God sees as right and good and true.
So what does it mean to be blessed – what does it feel
like to be blessed? Times in my life
when I have felt blessed are when someone I value looks at me – really looks at
me and says that they value me, that what I have contributed has been important
and I am worth something. Being blessed can feel like accompaniment, that you
are never alone, that someone is with you, is on your side – it could be
another person or it could be God who cares enough about you that where ever
you go, whatever you do – you don’t do it alone.
Being blessed allows you to feel that you can rise
above your circumstances even when they are really challenging and that your
circumstance do not define you, nor do your sins, or your failings or your
limitations or even bad choices you made in your past.
Being blessed feels like you have worth, not because of what you do, or what you have
done, or who your parents are or what your job is or how big your house is or
your bank account either –
Being blessed means that you have value and worth just
because you are you and you deserve to be blessed. You are a beloved child of God blessed in
your meekness and mourning and poverty of spirit, blessed in your truth.
When
we live a blessed life, something in us shifts and we begin to see the world
with a different focus – no longer are we seeing the world through the filter
of our desires and longing, through our brokenness and pain – instead the life
lived in blessing sees the other and sees in the face of the other – a glimpse
of their creator, a glimpse of God – sees another as a blessed and beloved
child of God.
We see each other as the saints that we are – beloved children of
God
Jesus
says blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek and blessed are those
who mourn, the peacemakers and the pure of heart – blessed are you – holy are
you – God’s beloved child. Amen.
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