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All Saints Sunday, Revelation 21:1-6 PDF Print E-mail
Nov 1/09

Most of the leaves are off the trees, and I hear farmers are either in a harvest that never seems to end, or else the crops are in the costly post-harvest dry-down stage. The fields are mostly just stubble. It’s a November landscape, a reminder to all of us to look for all our warm things that we put away last spring. And what’s up with the low clouds that keep hiding the sun, and causing the dull weather. According to one of you (you might guess which one), cloudy dull days have a special purpose---you just wanna’ get that bulletin out, so when the sun comes out, you will be ready for it! I hope Halloween was a fun and safe evening for all of you.

And now we wake up to the day after Halloween which is traditionally celebrated as All Saints Day. It’s a day when we think about the saints, that have passed on, and the saints who are still living. And so that’s where I want to spend some time this morning, talking about saints. And I want to introduce a saint to you, named Uncle Gordon.

Uncle Gordon was a farmer and a Co-op Manager in a little Manitoba town not too far from here. Uncle Gordon loved farming. He loved his animals and he loved his family of 6 children. But the thing that made him a saint in my eyes is his kindness. He was kind to a fault. And the other thing that added to his kindness was the fact that he knew so many people. Uncle Gordon is a legend in my family because he knew so many people. Uncle Gordon would come to the fall supper every year at the church in Winnipeg and my two children would be amazed that Uncle Gordon (who was not from Winnipeg) would know so many, many people in the church my children went to. Uncle Gordon would make friends everywhere he went. One summer he attended the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto for 8 days. He was staying at his cousin Marilyn and her husband Andrew’s in Etobicoke, Ontario. On one of those eight days, Marilyn and Andrew were getting anxious because the time was getting to be very late. Finally at 1 a.m. there was a knock on the door. It was Uncle Gordon who had spent the whole day talking to every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the horse barn and Uncle Gordon learned too late that the bus to Marilyn and Andrew’s quit running after midnight. It was then that Uncle Gordon noticed a garage station where he saw two young Torontonian men and asked them at 1 o’clock in the morning, “Hi I’m from Manitoba. Can you drive me to my cousins in Etobicoke?” They said, “Sure!” And two more friends were made. Uncle Gordon had a million friends, and that’s how he made them, by being so kind and friendly. And that’s why I call Uncle Gordon a saint. He was very saintly with his friendliness. He was friendly to a fault.

But he wasn’t perfect. Like they say every saint has a past and every sinner has a future meaning, saints are not perfect and neither was Uncle Gordon. In his older years he had his driver’s license taken from him because his memory was fading too much to be responsible for all the things you need to know to drive a car. But Uncle Gordon was not going to stay put and he kept on getting into his car and driving into town to check his mail. So his son put a sign inside his car that read, “Dad you do not have a license, you are not supposed to be driving.” This didn’t stop Uncle Gordon and once when he was driving back from town he noticed a couple of university students checking the crops in a neighbour’s field. They had walked the entire field and were just coming up to the road as Uncle Gordon approached. He realized that these poor kids had a good mile to walk to get back to their car, and so he stopped and offered them a ride. They were grateful for this kind man until they got into the car, closed the doors and read the sign. By his kindness, Uncle Gordon was a saint, but he wasn’t perfect.

That’s what a saint is, an ordinary person with an exemplary character or an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. I love the way this little story portrays a saint: A little boy was visiting a great Cathedral with his grandmother. He asked who the people were in the windows. “Those are the saints,” his Grandma said. The little boy looked and looked at those people in the windows. The next Sunday at Sunday School the little boy’s teacher asked, “Who can tell me what a saint is?” And the little boy answered, “A Saint is someone the light shines through.” Someone the light shines through. A saint is someone God’s light shines through.

Do you know anyone like that? In your family, in your circle of friends, in your community, in the world? I invite you to take a moment to bring someone to mind who has passed on, or is still alive today whom you have seen God’s light shine through. Something they did well, wise words they said, ways they cared for others? Maybe it’s somebody sitting here today that you would name as a saint. Or maybe it’s not even a person. Maybe it’s a dog or a special animal. I invite you to write their names on the card that is being passed around and the names will be read out loud during the prayers of the people. If you would like to add one or two words beside their name, that describe this person please do. We’ll collect the names after the sermon.

And while you are writing I will continue this sermon. King David would have named his great-great grandmother Ruth as a saint. She was known for her loving kindness and steadfast love for her mother-in-law, Naomi. Stories would have been told and retold about Ruth’s faithfulness. Jesus probably told stories about Ruth too, because she was Jesus’ ancestor too. God’s light shone through Ruth impacting so many people down the generations.

And let us also remember that this same divine light we see shining through the saints, shines through us too. You don’t have to be famous, or perfect, or dead to be a saint. You just have to be you, as God uses you to bring in God’s glorious kingdom we read about in the Revelation reading. God uses you to build a new heaven and a new earth where you are given tasks like wiping tears from eyes, sitting with those who mourn, helping those who need physical help, bringing humour and lightheartedness to cloudy dull days, keeping hope when the crops look a little hopeless and giving all your worries and concerns to God so you are freed up to put your arms around your family, your community, and your world…..you know…..saintly things—for all the saints!