Keep looking forward to the light

This is a talk written for an online Advent Service on Sunday 29th November 2020

A couple of weeks ago I was sent the Order of Service / script for this evening. And I noticed one song was called “Keep Hauling”. We heard it sung earlier. I wasn’t familiar with it so Googled it. And I found out it was written by Andrew Cadie and has been performed by the folk group Show of Hands, and by Fisherman’s Friends.

On the face of it, it seems an odd choice for an Advent service. But then there’s the verse I read out before the choir sang

When your guiding star's in cloudy skies
Keep hauling, keep hauling
You'll find your way to the bright sunrise
Keep hauling, boys

You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkNwhbyiA4Y

The song reminded me of a song I first heard in 2009. Just before Methodist ministers are ordained we go on retreat -  a week of preparation for entering ministry. In one session we were played a song sung by the American Gospel Singer Mahalia Jackson.  It’s a song that can trace its roots back to African American Spirituals and the song is variously called "Gospel Plow" , "Hold On" and "Keep Your Hand on the Plow".

The reason it was played to us was to remind us that when we are called to Jesus’ service, we are not to look back. We are to look forward. Just as someone ploughing a field needs to look forward.

Hold on Hold on
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on

Heard the voice of Jesus say
Come unto me, I am the way.
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.
When my way gets dark as night,
I know the lord will be my light,
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.

“Keep your hand on the plow” draws on a verse in Luke’s Gospel, where Jesus reminds us that if we are to follow him we need to keep our eyes on him looking forward not back:

⁶² ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’ Luke 9: 62

Keep hauling and Keep your hand to the plow have the same idea in my view. Keep going. Keep looking forward. It’s tough but all will be well.

This year has been hard for us all in so many ways. And I don’t know about you, these last few weeks have been the hardest. A combination of wet dull days and the nights drawing in have made it so hard. I get quite grumpy about people putting Christmas decorations up early. But this year I do understand why

But for me it is important to make sure Advent is marked. Because Advent tells us so much about our faith. Advent is the season for “keep hauling” and “keep your hand to the plow”. Advent is the time when things somehow can seem hard and hopeless. But it is the time when we look forward in anticipation to the coming of Jesus, the Light of the World.

When my way gets dark as night,
I know the lord will be my light,
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.

Earlier we a reading from that great passage of scripture from Isaiah 9

“The people walking in darkness of seen a great light”.

The foretelling of Christ 700 year saw before his birth. The people of Israel, witnessing the decline of their kingdom, sensing the power of the Babylonians who would soon conquer the land and destroy Jerusalem, those people of Israel walked in darkness. But Isaiah gave them the prophesy of hope.

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

It would be 700 years or so before the child was born. Many generations of Jewish people waited and wondered if the event would happen. And it did.

For us, the child has been born. For us the son has been given. We have that hope already.

We may feel that we are living in a dark time, but we can see the light to guide us. To lead us. To give us hope. We have the hope that Jesus the light of the world brings. Yes, we still have darkness around us. Yes, things will remain hard for us for some time. But keep your eyes on the light.

When love just seems so far away
Keep haulin', keep haulin'
The tide will flood your heart someday
Keep haulin', boys

When your guidin' star's in cloudy skies
Keep haulin', keep haulin'
You'll find your way to the bright sunrise
Keep haulin', boys

Keep hauling! Keep your hand to the plough. Keep you eyes on the light of the world. 

“Start with an earthquake, then build to a climax”

 

Reflection Sunday 29^th November 2020

 

Apparently, the famous film director Cecil B. De Mille was once asked what made a great epic film. His response was “Start with an earthquake, then build to a climax”. This week’s Gospel passage in Mark’s Gospel (Mark 13: 24 - 37) has that flavour.

Normally each year as a minister I can guarantee there will be a debate, sometimes with a small “d” sometimes a big “D”, about Christmas. When should we have the Carol Service? When should we put up the Christmas tree? And so on. And each year I have to point out we have four weeks of Advent first and it’s an important time. Normally I have to accept that come the third Sunday of Advent (or the fourth Sunday if it’s a week before Christmas) we’re ready to start Christmas.

This year of course will be different. At the time of writing we don’t know what we will be allowed to do in terms of Church over the next few weeks. Even if we can worship together in church, we certainly won’t be allowed to have packed out carol services.

This year I know a lot of people are really keen for Christmas to come. People are putting up their Christmas decorations early to cheer themselves up. People are diving straight into Christmas now. And I dare say there will be some Christian people doing that too. I do understand why.

But this part of Mark’s gospel reminds us to begin our anticipation of the birth of Jesus, by waiting for his coming again. This might seem odd but it’s right because we are being placed with those who awaited the birth of the Messiah. They didn’t know when the Messiah would be born. And we are now firmly alongside those who, just after the time of Jesus, were awaiting his second coming.

Of course, our experience of waiting for the coming of God’s promised one at Christmas is quite different from the experience of those who awaited the Messiah. After all, we know what we’re waiting for. We know when the day will arrive when we will celebrate his birth. It is fixed on our calendars. We will count down the days with Advent calendars and Advent candles.

But those living before Jesus’ birth did not know the hour or the day of his arrival, so the faithful lived in a continual state of watchfulness. By anticipating the return of the Son of Man here at the beginning of Advent, we are, or certainly should be, waiting in the same level of anticipation for Christ to come again.

It is hard to do. It requires an expectant watchfulness because we never know when He will appear. This expectant watchfulness requires us to be actively waiting.  What do I mean?

Some waiting is passive. If we’re waiting for a bus or a train say, we are passive in our waiting. It will come at some point - and if we’re fortunate on time! But we just don’t have to do anything. We are passive.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to London to watch the Lord’s Mayor’s Parade. It is well worth doing sometime. We’ve been several times. We’ve got “our” spot, just behind St Paul’s Cathedral. And it is active waiting. There is a sense of excitement that builds and builds as the parade comes closer. And you know it is coming closer because the sound of the parade comes through the streets until suddenly it is there! “Hark! we hear a distant music, and it comes with fuller swell;”

When you’re actively waiting you daren’t leave your spot. You daren’t be doing something else in case you miss the moment. Because you know the event will happen at some point but don’t know when exactly.

It is this that Jesus has in mind when he says to his followers

³³ Be on guard! Be alert^[e]! You do not know when that time will come. Mark 13:33

Or as The Message version puts it

So, keep a sharp lookout, for you don’t know the timetable. 

Jesus clearly does not intend for us to predict when he will return. Rather he is urging us to live our lives as if his return is just around the corner. As if we are standing on our spot behind St Pauls waiting for the Lord Mayor’s Show to arrive! There’s no time to nod off in a waiting room. As Martin Copenhaver puts it “We are to be more like a waiter who is continually busy in serving others and so has no time to sit down and count the tips”

Now, I should say that we must get the balance right. There can be a danger in being so “busy” with church stuff that we forget what our true purpose is which I would say is loving God and loving our neighbour. Some of our busyness can be those things of course, but it is my fervent hope, that once we are through this Covid 19 thing, (and we will get through it) then the Church, the Methodist Church, “our” Church, will take stock. I hope that this time of “being laid aside” (as we say in our Covenant Service) will allow us all to consider what we should really be doing as we wait for Christ.

I’ve mentioned before I’m sure a T shirt I saw years ago with a slogan “Look busy, Jesus is coming”. And that is the danger - we look busy, we are busy, but often we are not being busy in our time of waiting in the ways Christ wants.

Of course, what we must not forget is that Christ has already arrived. And therefore, in our waiting, we need to be attuned to where we see evidence of that.

And this brings us to one of the most important paradoxes in the Gospels. (A paradox being “a self-contradictory statement” – Chambers Dictionary) We have the “already / but not yet” quality of Christ. Already Jesus has come into the world and established how we are drawn into God’s family. But not yet do we live in complete communion with God. Already we see evidence of the kingdom of God in our world and in our own lives, but not yet is it fully established.

It is only with Christ’s coming again that the “not yet” parts be resolved.

In this portion of Mark’s gospel Jesus addresses those who have to live in the time between “already” and “not yet”. By keeping alert and awake, by living our lives in the way Christ who has already come would want us to live, not only will we be prepared to live in the promised realm of God when it comes, but we may experience even now some of what life is like in that realm.

One clergy family decided to let their five-year-old son record the message for their home answering machine. The rehearsals went smoothly: "Mummy and Daddy can't come to the phone right now. If you'll leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they'll get back to you as soon as possible." Then came the test. The father pressed the record button and their son said sweetly, "Mummy and Daddy can't come to the phone right now. If you'll leave your name, phone number, and a brief message, they'll get back to you as soon as Jesus comes."

Sorting out the Fat Sheep

 

Reflection 22^nd November 2020

 

In Hebrew Scripture (what we call the Old Testament for the most part) God (“Yahweh”) is often depicted as the good shepherd who provides for the flock’s every need. It is an image that still resonates for us thousands of years later – even though most of us have never had direct contact with shepherds or sheep. After all, if I asked you which is your favourite Psalm, I’m sure many of you would say Psalm 23 which affirms that even as God’s sheep “walk through the valley of the shadow of death” they need not fear for God is with them as protector and guide.

For many Christians, Jesus assumes the role of the Good Shepherd. As Gail O’Day puts it in her commentary on John’s Gospel

“the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd has a perennial hold on Christian imagination. Some of the most popular pictures of Jesus are those that depict him a shepherd, leading a flock of sheep”.

In ancient Israel, kings were expected to “tend” their subjects justly, especially those who were most vulnerable to abuse: widows, orphans, the poor, the infirm, and displaced. Israel’s past shepherds (kings) neglected such responsibilities as Ezekiel states:

⁴ You have not strengthened the weak or healed those who are ill or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. Ezekiel 34:4

Ezekiel reminds the people that God, the Sovereign Lord says:

¹⁵ I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, ¹⁶ I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

Ezekiel then goes on to say that God will deal with “the fat sheep”, those that bully the weak sheep out of the way and prosper at the expense of the weak. The fat sheep will be subject to God’s justice. However, perhaps what is surprising is the way God will dole out his justice. For God will dole out his justice as a good parent imposes discipline. And how does a good parent impose justice? Not so much by punishment but by teaching what is right and wrong.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to think of Ezekiel as being hell fire and brimstone. I’d expect any teaching on justice by Ezekiel to be harsh. We imagine Ezekiel would say “Vengeance is mine says the Lord”. (Hebrews 10:30) It might be, but not yet, is what Ezekiel is saying.

God means business. God will not let injustice go unanswered. But Ezekiel shows us that God has a way of dealing with injustice that is very different from how we would deal with it. And what is that?

Ezekiel says:

¹⁶ I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

My emphasis on those words. God will destroy the unjust. He will transform them by feeding them justice.

²⁰ Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.

Then God speaks to the “fat sheep” (the fat cats maybe??) directly:

 ²¹ Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, ²² I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.

Isn’t it a bit odd that God will sit down with the unjust “fat sheep” and “feed them justice”? Shouldn’t those who have been treated unjustly be fed? Aren’t God’s priorities wrong?

What are we to make of this?

God wants the whole flock to come to him. He wants all to be fed by his love. His grace. He wants all to know that love – even the fat sheep. That is why God sent his son our Saviour Jesus Christ into the world to call all to himself.

²³ I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.

That is a bitter pill for us to swallow. In our eyes it’s not fair that God is going to sit down with the fat sheep, those who act unjustly, those who exploit, and feed them his justice.

In our eyes we’d prefer the fat sheep to be like the goats in the Parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25: 31 – 46). We’d like them to be punished. We want the fat sheep, the goats, the sinners, to go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life.’ Matthew 25:46

But the passage in Ezekiel says that God offers the disobedient sheep, the fat sheep, the opportunity to be transformed in order to be saved. That is the purpose of Christ coming into the world. As Jesus says in Luke 5:32

³² I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Perhaps a meal of God’s justice will satisfy the hunger the fat sheep never knew they had? Redemption is still possible even for those who pushed with flank and shoulder and butted at all the weak animals. That is what is so amazing about God’s grace. That is what is so hard for us to accept looking through our eyes.

God wants above anything to have all come into his kingdom – provided they have sought forgiveness.

That is not to say we as Christ’s followers should ignore injustice. We must not. We must work to right injustice. We must speak out against it. We must remind the fat sheep of the values of the Kingdom of Heaven. But ultimately it is for God to deal with them.

A mother of eight children was once asked if she had any favourites. "Favourites?" she replied. "Yes, I have favourites. I love the one who is sick until he is well again. I love the one who is in trouble until he is safe again. And I love the one who is farthest away until he comes home." That is what God is like. God is a Divine Parent whose love never stops, a Parent whose love will never give up. You may stop loving God, but God will never stop loving you. You may run away from God, but you will soon find that your legs are too short. You can't get away from God. And that is not a threat, but a promise! God is out on every road where people, like sheep, get themselves lost, earnestly and tenderly seeking them and calling them back home.

Don't be afraid. Be a good and faithful servant

 

Reflection Sunday 15^th November 2020

 

One of the challenges for any preacher when faced with the well-known parables of Jesus is trying to find something fresh to say. Or, even if not fresh, at least not overly familiar.

I’m sure many of us know the Parable of the Talents. The rich man who gave his three servants money (“talents” were money in Jesus’ day) and told them to use the talents. There are several ways to think about this parable.

Traditionally sermons on this parable encourage followers of Jesus to discover and use their gifts and abilities for God’s glory.

Sometimes a sermon on this parable can include thoughts of God’s generosity. Reminding us how God is like the wealthy man in giving to us with great generosity, not least the most precious gift of his son.

A third way is in thinking of the greatest treasure we’ve been given to steward by God. And that I would suggest is the responsibility for being custodians of the Good News of Jesus Christ and of sharing that treasure with others.

(There you are. If during lockdown you’ve felt called to be a local preacher, I’ve just given you three ideas for sermons!)

But I’d like us to think about the parable in a fourth way. And that is to think of the parable as showing us that God does not want us to be ruled by fear.

The parable as we know tells us about three servants or slaves. When the master gives them these vast sums of money two of the three aren’t concerned or frightened at all. They take their talents and make a profit for their master.

Let’s just stop and think about that for a moment. One talent was worth 15 times a year’s salary of a day labourer. Therefore, one servant had 5 x 15 times a salary, another 2 x 15 a salary and the third 1 x 15. I don’t know about you, if I was given responsibility for such sums of money, I’d be frightened. What if I physically lose it? What if the investment choice I make goes wrong? Won’t my Master be angry if I do the wrong thing?

Clearly the Master trusts his servants entirely. He doesn’t tell them what to do with the money. And the first two seem to know their Master well enough that they make their own decisions and as we know get a good return for him. And the Master is pleased with them both:

 ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:21 and 23

But as we know the third servant does not fare so well. He buries the money and the Master punishes the third servant for his inactivity.

You wicked, lazy servant! So, you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Matthew 25: 26 and

³⁰ And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ Matthew 25:30

Why did the servant react in this way? And why is the servant treated in this way?

I feel we have to assume that the third servant sat back and did nothing not so much as out of laziness as out of being afraid to do the wrong thing. Therefore, he sits back and does nothing rather than get it wrong.

For me, Jesus wants his good and faithful servants to be active. And by that I don’t mean in “doing” lots of things. Often we can busy in the wrong ways! We can be active through showing Christ’s love to those we meet. We can be active by praying for others. We are not expected to be faithful servants by sitting back and letting it happen around us. We are not just to sit in the pew on Sunday, or in our armchairs in front of Songs of Praise! We are not to be apathetic.

Of course, I can’t help wondering what would have happened if the first two servants had lost their Master money. Would he have been angry? If this was a story about human relationships he might have been. But this story is a parable of how things are with Jesus. And I feel he forgives us those times when we get it wrong when we have been trying to do the right thing for him. We only have to see the stories of the disciples. On many occasions they get things wrong. But Jesus is not so much angry as exasperated with them. But he understands that they were trying to be good and faithful servants.

That is all Jesus wants from us. To be good and faithful servants. To trust him; not to be afraid of him.  To accept that he will not be angry when we get things wrong as long as we have been serving him to the best of our abilities.

When I was aged around 5 or 6, I had to learn a recitation for a Sunday School anniversary. It’s one of the few bits of poetry I have ever memorised:

A simpleton went into a bank and said with the greatest of ease

“I’d like to draw out fifty pounds in ten shilling notes if you please”

The cashier replied “Ah well, well, well. You must pardon me sir if I grin.

You cannot take anything out, if you haven’t put anything in”

The moral is easy to see. You’ve seen it already no doubt

If you put little into each day, I’m afraid you won’t get a lot out!

It’s hardly Wordsworth or Dylan Thomas! Nevertheless, that piece of doggerel is the perfect illustration for the point I’m making. Not to sit back. Not to be afraid. To take the investment Jesus makes in us and give him the return he desires - Our souls, our lives, our all.

 

Peace and reconciliation

 

Reflection 8^th November 2020 Remembrance Sunday

 

When we were on holiday at Wareham in October, we decided to have a wander around the town. We ended up at the parish church and looking over the low wall to the cemetery, we realised there was quite a large Commonwealth War Graves section. We were intrigued and went to have a look.

Many of the graves were from the late First World War and included a large number of Australians and members of the Tank Corps. Given that even to this day the Tank Corps is based at nearby Bovington, this wasn’t too surprising. But the Australians? We found a sign with all the graves plotted out and it told us there had been a military hospital just outside the town and this explained many of the deaths – including a significant number who died in 1919 of Spanish flu.

But reading the sign we realised that there were graves from the Second World War too. One poignantly “To an unknown British sailor” whose body had been found on the coast close by. But for me two graves said so much. 

Side by side they were for RAF Sergeant Pilot George Nicol killed on 15^th September 1942 aged 22 and German aircrew Feldwebel (Sergeant) Horst Huffsky killed on 24^th April 1944 aged 23.

In life these two young men were enemies, but in death they are laid side by side. They were similar ages. They were someone’s sons, they might have been a brother, they might have been a husband or a father.

I’ve no idea whether Sergeant Nicol or Sergeant Huffsky have descendants still living. I don’t know whether they are remembered by anyone alive now. Though at least today we are calling to mind their names. I am purposely using their names for us to focus our thoughts on as we Remember those who have died in war, whether members of armed forces or civilians.

I know I’ve quoted a saying by Roy T Bennett on several occasions, “The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence; the past is a place of learning, not a place of living.” It is a quote that can be used in many contexts but nowhere is it more appropriate than on Remembrance Sunday.

For me in our acts of Remembrance, we should be seeking to learn from the mistakes of the past so that we don’t repeat them.

This year marked 75^th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Mr Nicol and Mr Huffsky (and millions of other people) did not survive to see the end of that conflict. Would they be alive today had they survived? Who knows? They both would have been very elderly men – just slightly younger than Captain Tom who inspired us all earlier this year with his sponsored walk to mark his 100^th birthday and raise money for NHS.

I must admit that I was slightly relieved that the VE Day and VJ Day commemorations were much lower key than they might have been due to Covid19. That’s not because I do not respect those (such as Captain Tom) who played their part in the Second World War. I do. But because it seems to me there are many in this country who seem determined to think of that period in our history as a time of nostalgia. Some, often those too young to have known the war, think of it as a time when everyone got misty eyed at the sight and sound of Spitfires and we all gathered round the radio to sing “We’ll meet again”. I suspect it wasn’t like that at all.

For me what VE & VJ day should be about is not so much the ending of war, but of the outbreak of peace. When age old enemies have found ways of turning swords in to plough shares. Many women and men of the generation who fought in, or lived through, the Second World War found ways of building bridges. Found ways of putting aside their differences. Found ways of loving their enemies.

This was courageous, for loving our enemies is the hardest thing to do. You may recall that in a Reflection on 3rd September I mentioned a story of Corrie Ten Boom coming to love her enemy; a man who had been a prison guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp were Miss Ten Boom had been a prisoner. I won’t retell the story here, but it is a perfect illustration of the way we as Christians are to be at the forefront of forgiveness and demonstrating love. 

https://notanormalvicar.blogspot.com/2020/09/forgivness-and-reconciliation.html

Going back to Sergeants Nicol and Huffsky for a moment. Through the internet I have found out a small amount about both men. Sergeant Nicol came from just outside Wareham and was killed when his plane crashed during a training flight in Yorkshire. Sergeant Huffsky’s plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire near Wareham. He came from Dresden.

Since the Second World War the bombing of two cities - Coventry and Dresden – has come to symbolise the horrific nature of the bombing campaigns. This is not the place to go over those arguments. But since the war Coventry and Dresden together have promoted peace and reconciliation.  The cities have been twinned since 1959 and when the decision was made to rebuild Dresden’s Frauenkirche cathedral in 2005 (it had lain in ruins during the days of East Germany) the reconciliation team at Coventry Cathedral were closely involved.

Coventry Cathedral is a powerful example of forgiveness and love for our enemies. When the cathedral was destroyed by German bombs on 14/15 November 1940, the Provost, Richard Howard, had the words “Father forgive” chiselled into the ruins of the sanctuary wall. Above these words, on the altar, stands the original Coventry Cross of Nails. In the smoking ruins of the cathedral after the destruction, some medieval carpenter’s nails were salvaged from the beams of the vaulted ceiling. Three of these nails were later bound together in the shape of a cross. Thus, remnants of the destruction were turned into a new sign of Christian hope, showing that the wounds of war were healing.

Since then steps of reconciliation have been taken in various ways around the world in the spirit of the Cross of Nails. More than 200 Crosses of Nails have found a home in places where the people beneath these crosses have chosen to lay aside old differences and live in a spirit of reconciliation.

 

Peace and reconciliation, love of our enemies seems a fitting tribute to Sergeants Nicol and Huffsky. Two men united in death.

 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

 

Saints - living, working, in our world

 

Reflection 1^st November 2020

 

Relationship is at the very heart of the nature of God. The Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one and one in three - shows us this. As we are made in God’s image, God wants us to be in relationship too. With him and with other people. None of us is an island. We are not made to live only for ourselves. We are made for relationship, both with God and with each other and God's world. And for many of us of course Covid is all the more stressful because we cannot participate in relationships as we would normally do.

Perhaps more than other people, we in the Church turn toward each other almost instinctively as we celebrate our joys, mourn our losses, and when we need support through tough times and transitions. But even outside the church no person is an island. People work together to accomplish goals; we look to each other for reassurance that we're on the right track or for guidance if we're not; and we scarcely ever in adulthood make a decision that does not take somebody else into consideration. We look to our parents, grandparents, and mentors for wisdom; we look to our children for zest and inspiration; we look to our friends for help in sorting through the muddle of our daily lives. None of us is an island and thank God for that!

On the first of November every year, we in the Christian church remember that we are not islands, and give thanks for that, in the celebration called All Saints. As the name of the day suggests, it is a time for recalling all the "saints,"; saints known and unknown, who have preceded us, marking our way.

Who is a saint?

In the Roman Catholic Church saints are those who have been especially recognized by the for their exemplary lives. Protestants do not officially recognize saints in that sense, we have a more generalized vision of a saint as someone who is loving and Christlike, who not only knows what God wants them to do, but who always does it. A saint in this definition is an exemplary (and probably unreal) model of faith, whose example may make the rest of us feel like failures, or at least may tempt us to think that, since we're never going to be in their league, it really doesn't matter how we live.

There are other ways of describing saints. Paul's letters to his churches often begin with greetings to "those called to be saints," and those greetings were addressed to the entire congregation — in other words, to any and all Christians.

The word "saint," simply means "holy": one like, or one set apart for, God.  Frederick Buechner says, "A saint is a life-giver ... A saint is a human being with the same sorts of hang-ups and abysses as the rest of us, but if a saint touches your life, you become alive in a new way." Faith in fiction

This is like the definition of a saint given by a child who had been told that the figures in stained-glass windows were saints: "A saint is someone the light shines through.". And I’m sure we can all think of someone like that we know or have known.

It is people like them we remember, and who give us the courage to face our lives. We all have such saints in our lives — perhaps a much-loved grandparent, or admired mentor, or the friend who wouldn't let us be less than God called us to be. Such everyday saints help us to remember that it matters that we are faithful today; and they show us how to be faithful. We need them. We need to know that we are not alone, that we are not little islands. We need to know that we are part of a great community of saints who have kept the faith throughout history and who even now are doing so around the world.

That's what the communion of saints, the community of saints if you prefer, does for all of us. It reminds us of who we are, it gives us pictures of faith in action, and it encourages us to keep living out our calling in Christ Jesus.

We need that, because when we are baptized into Christ, although we remain part of the human family in the same way as everybody else, we are inducted into the Christian family, which has a unique way of looking at, and living in, the world. In fact, Christians look at the world in a way that the World thinks of as odd.

Nowhere is the oddness of the Christian outlook more clearly displayed than in the Beatitudes Matthew 5: 1 - 12. Blessed are you, says Jesus — or, according to some translations, happy — when you are poor, mournful, persecuted, hungry for a justice you don't see. That's hardly our society's usual definition of happiness. Blessed are you, says Jesus, who go ahead being meek, merciful, and peacemakers in a world where such efforts are doomed to failure and their doers to mistreatment.

None of us is such a saint that we can keep doing these things without support. We need the communion of saints to remind us that we are blessed when we live as if the love of God were the most important and the most reliable reality in life. We need the community of saints, and the community of saints needs us. With each other's help, we can live the life to which Jesus calls us, the life of God's kingdom on earth. “Living working in our world”  as Brian Wren’s hymn puts it.

None of us ever does that perfectly. But enough of us do it enough of the time that, over the centuries, the church has — through the daily life of its members as much as through its preaching and teaching — been able to nurture a distinctive vision, a unique outlook on the world that results in a different kind of living in it. That's a pretty remarkable achievement.

As Christians, we were never intended to go it alone. We are not islands; we are part of the body of Christ. We are part of the community of saints.