Creekside Church Sermon of November 8, 1998 "The Anatomy of an Ordinary Saint" Luke 6:20-31	Rev. David Bibbee
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Some names sound better than others. Today we are going to consider the family to which we belong and the name it bears. Each year the church hosts a spiritual family reunion when we remember our relatives and reflect upon what it means to carry the family name. We bear the name, Christian, but there is another.

We call the church a communion of saints, but I doubt that many here would feel comfortable being called a saint. Saints are mega-Christians, the extraordinary heroes and sheroes of the faith whose witness led to martyrdom and whose great holiness and charity changed lives. These are the SAINTS, and then there are saints like you and me, people dedicated to Jesus, daily doing his bidding, not in the spotlight, but quietly and faithfully living practical applied sainthood.

Saints by this definition are ordinary folks in ordinary places doing un-ordinary work. Today's gospel lesson is Luke's version of the beatitudes. Unlike Matthew who places this sermon on the mount, Luke puts Jesus on level ground, not at the National Cathedral, but on the corner of Main and Vine where the people live in perplexity and pain. Luke makes the point throughout his gospel that God's favor is not with just a chosen few. It is universal; for Jew and Gentile, for the great multitude from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon.

The blessed are the poor, the hungry, the crying and despised...not exactly a state we are told we should strive for. Acquisition and accumulation is supposed to be the goal. But the ordinary saints who have founded their faith upon Jesus know that not every want is a need. Those who live by, "What would Jesus do?" know that they own nothing, but have everything. They are blessed with unencumbered lives in this world because they belong to a kingdom not of this world. The blessing is for all the saints, not some. With this in mind, let me draw the anatomy of a saint and look at those saintly qualities we can embody in this communion of saints.

First of all, saints recognize there are no insignificant acts. Little kindness', simple acts of caring done out of a love of Christ and concern for others can make a big impact. Tell me, how would we describe the kingdom of heaven? It would take the special effects genius of Steven Spielberg to simply suggest it. But how did Jesus describe it? "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, the smallest of seeds that grows to the greatest of shrubs." Not too impressive.

How are his saints to live in the world? "We're not asked to single-handedly reform capitalism or stop global warming. "Be a little leaven in a lump of dough," he said. "Let your life be a little light on a lamp stand." Saints worked for the coming kingdom one deed at a time, a cup of cold water here, a prayer by a hospital bed there.

A senator has just written a book about overlooked heroes. One story is about a man who for years has made a living shining shoes in a large eastern hospital. He gets a meager $2 per shine plus tips, but he doesn't keep the tips. He saves them for the children's ward at the hospital. Over the span of years he has given in excess of $40,000. By society's standards he is poor. By saintly standards he is blessed.

Two weeks ago when I was feeling very sad over my daughter, Lisa, someone dropped off a tin of homemade candy. Inside the card was written two little words that brought a smile and lifted my heavy heart just a little. It read, "Chocolate heals." I'm not sure about chocolate's medicinal properties. I do know what God does through little, often unnoticed acts from the saints of the church.

Saints know that no caring is wasted. They also know that saints aren't always saintly. Saints are human. If you don't believe me, read your Bible. Meet Jacob the con artist, King David the adulterer, Saint Peter the denier, Saint Thomas the doubter, and Saint Paul the persecutor. Someone put it like this: "A saint is a dead sinner revised and edited."

A man who knew Francis deSales, upon hearing he was a saint said, "I'm delighted to hear that Monsieur deSales is a saint. He was fond of saying indelicate things and cheated at cards. In other respects he was a perfect gentleman." While people heaped praise upon the holiness of saints, the saints themselves had a far more humble estimate. Saint Paul called himself the chief of sinners. The irony is, the closer one comes to God, the further from God one can feel. Struck with the awareness of who God is and who we are, we know we are far from good. "Go away from me Lord, I'm a sinful man."

Every saint is a home to a sinner, and blessed are those who know it and are dependent upon God's grace. Saints stumble, but with grace, get up and carry on. There is a new song by Bob Carlisle which tells of a troubled man who asks a priest what the life of faith is like. Listen closely to the words. (We Fall Down" CD). Saints are just sinners who fall down and get up.

A saint is also someone who knows how to preach. Not all preachers are saints, but all saints are preachers. A saint's sermon is the witness of his or her life. I've heard lots of sermons in my life. Except for a title or two, a few good stories and some noteworthy points now and then, I've forgotten the rest. The greatest sermons, I haven't heard...I've seen. They are the sermons I saw growing up in my little home church. There, the saints embodied what they espoused. I am not "the" preacher here. I'm one of many. Our lives are sermons. Do they bore people silly, or is there a inviting quality that draws them closer to the Lord. I love how Saint Francis said it: "Preach without ceasing, and when necessary, use words."

In the Egyptian desert there lived holy men called the Desert Fathers. A woman stricken with cancer made a grueling trek to find a man with a reputation as a saint and healer named Abba Longinus. As she was traveling she came upon Longinus himself, collecting firewood. "Holy Father, could you tell me where the servant of God named Abba Longinus lives?" Longinus said, "Why do you want to see that old fraud? Do not see him. He will only do you harm. What is your trouble?" She told her story, he gave her his blessing and sent her home. "Go now. God will surely make you whole again. That Longinus fellow would have been of no help to you at all." So the woman left strong in the faith that she had been healed, which she was. And many years when she died she was still unaware that it was Longinus that had healed her.

Knowing from whom all blessings flow, saints know how to keep themselves in perspective. The good they do is not to draw attention to themselves. Jesus emphasized humility among his disciples who were concerned with rank and recognition. The word humility is related to humus, which is dirt, earth. Knowing themselves in God's eyes, saints bend low-meek and humble. They serve much and covet no credit. A man from my previous pastorate on several occasions gave me checks for one or two thousand dollars. "So and so needs some help. Give this to them and say it is from the church," he would say. Saints work behind the scenes and see to it that ministry happens.

We could suggest other attributes of the common saints, but let me mention one more. Saints know they are indebted to those who went before them. We wouldn't know what Christianity is if there weren't saints who modeled it for us.

We owe our spiritual ancestors a great debt. This truth is expressed in an inscription at Dallas University: "We have all warmed ourselves before fires we did not build, and drunk from wells we did not dig." One of the reasons we feel alone and adrift in making major decisions or contending with the troubles and trials of life is because we have cut ourselves off from our roots. There are no self-made Christians. They aren't born. They're manufactured. You are a Christian today because of saints from yesterday and yesteryear-saints in the Bible stories, the saints of history, the saints who taught you, "Jesus loves me this I know", and later wrapped you in a towel and loving arms when you were baptized...saints who were as clay-footed and human as we are, but hungered for the holy and taught us to walk with God.

There was an Indian tribe that lived by a river with a current so strong no one could cross it without being swept downstream and drowned. One day their village was attacked by another tribe. Outnumbered and with their backs to the river, the only escape was to cross it. They gathered the very young and old and placed them on the shoulders of the strong ones who waded into the treacherous water. What they discovered was that the added weight on their shoulders kept their feet secure and enabled them to safely reach the other side.

We weren't born Christian. We were made, carried along on the shoulders of strong, steadfast ordinary saints who showed the big importance of little deeds, who had clay feet, who taught us to preach with our lives and remain connected to those who blazed a path for us to follow.

I hope this will help you more comfortably claim your name, saint. Saints are what we are called to be, for as someone said, "If it is our secret purpose to become saints, it is God's un-secret purpose to make us saints."

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