All Saints Sunday: 5 November 2006
Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11
The fifth of November being the first Sunday after All Saints Day is celebrated by some as All Saints Sunday. and several of our readings reflect on what a saint is. Starting with the the Writing for today, we find several things about saints. First, if you desire to serve the Lord, prepare to be tested. (Ecc. 2:1) Why is it that God tests his saints? Partly because he wants us to be truly saints. As we are told in verse 4, the value of gold is determined by the fire, and the value of men in the oven of suffering. This is a theme repeated in the Tanakh, that as silver and gold are tried and refined, so God tries and refines us through suffering. Even Yeshua himself learns obedience through suffering according to the New Tesatament. In other words, we are tried, not so much to test us, but so as to strengthen us and make us truly into saints.
As we go through the saints of the Tanahk, we note that many of their lives were marked by suffuring, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Josehph, Job, but most especially the prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah among them suffered at the hands of men. St. Paul himself talks about how God's grace is made perfect in our weekness. In other words, through suffering we learn to lean on the Lord and not on ourselves, to truly seek him and to allow him to work through us.
Those who are true saints who have left writings for us have a consistant message. They do not see themselves as saints, they see their sins and know the necesity of God to forgive them, and to transform our lives. The reading from Ephesians especially (Ephesians 1: 3-14) reminds us that being a saint is not something we do ourselves but something that God gives to us through his Holy Spirit.
Now I would remind you that in some circles that there is some false teaching going on. It goes something like this. "I'm just a poor sinner. If I sin, it will be OK because God understands that I am a sinner." This is a theology that leads the church to be powerless today. Please not that many of the Epistles of the New Testament are adressed to the Saints at such and such a location, they are not adressed to the sinners in Corinth, etc, but to the saints.
How does one become a saint. Paul explains in I Corinthians 6:9-11: Surely you know the wicked will not possess God's Kindom...people who are immoral etc. will not possess God's Kingdom. Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin, you have been deidicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lrod Jeuss Christ and by the Spirit of our God. In other words, once we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and are baptised into the church, we are no longer sinners, but saints, washed clean by the blood of the lamb, which is why All Saints Sunday (or All Saints Day) is one of the four days which we reserve for Baptism at Benim Avraham.
So you have done so but still sin. Confess it to the Lord. If your sin is habitual, then confess it to a priest or spiritual director who can help line you up. Each morning as you get up, remind yourself that you are a saint and need to live a saintly life or you put Jesus and the church to shame. Ask the Lord to fill you with his Holy Spirit and set you free and make you a true saint, a holy member of the body of Christ, and he will do it. Saints of God, let us arise.
The fifth of November being the first Sunday after All Saints Day is celebrated by some as All Saints Sunday. and several of our readings reflect on what a saint is. Starting with the the Writing for today, we find several things about saints. First, if you desire to serve the Lord, prepare to be tested. (Ecc. 2:1) Why is it that God tests his saints? Partly because he wants us to be truly saints. As we are told in verse 4, the value of gold is determined by the fire, and the value of men in the oven of suffering. This is a theme repeated in the Tanakh, that as silver and gold are tried and refined, so God tries and refines us through suffering. Even Yeshua himself learns obedience through suffering according to the New Tesatament. In other words, we are tried, not so much to test us, but so as to strengthen us and make us truly into saints.
As we go through the saints of the Tanahk, we note that many of their lives were marked by suffuring, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, Josehph, Job, but most especially the prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah among them suffered at the hands of men. St. Paul himself talks about how God's grace is made perfect in our weekness. In other words, through suffering we learn to lean on the Lord and not on ourselves, to truly seek him and to allow him to work through us.
Those who are true saints who have left writings for us have a consistant message. They do not see themselves as saints, they see their sins and know the necesity of God to forgive them, and to transform our lives. The reading from Ephesians especially (Ephesians 1: 3-14) reminds us that being a saint is not something we do ourselves but something that God gives to us through his Holy Spirit.
Now I would remind you that in some circles that there is some false teaching going on. It goes something like this. "I'm just a poor sinner. If I sin, it will be OK because God understands that I am a sinner." This is a theology that leads the church to be powerless today. Please not that many of the Epistles of the New Testament are adressed to the Saints at such and such a location, they are not adressed to the sinners in Corinth, etc, but to the saints.
How does one become a saint. Paul explains in I Corinthians 6:9-11: Surely you know the wicked will not possess God's Kindom...people who are immoral etc. will not possess God's Kingdom. Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin, you have been deidicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lrod Jeuss Christ and by the Spirit of our God. In other words, once we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and are baptised into the church, we are no longer sinners, but saints, washed clean by the blood of the lamb, which is why All Saints Sunday (or All Saints Day) is one of the four days which we reserve for Baptism at Benim Avraham.
So you have done so but still sin. Confess it to the Lord. If your sin is habitual, then confess it to a priest or spiritual director who can help line you up. Each morning as you get up, remind yourself that you are a saint and need to live a saintly life or you put Jesus and the church to shame. Ask the Lord to fill you with his Holy Spirit and set you free and make you a true saint, a holy member of the body of Christ, and he will do it. Saints of God, let us arise.
posted by The Synod of Saint Timothy at 22:37
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