What is a Saint?

PROPERS:          ALL SAINTS’ SUNDAY        

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2021.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The saints of God we celebrate today represent all types of human beings – from scoundrels to holy people.

 

            One of my favorite people in recent Christian history was the late Will Campbell.  He is the author of one of my favorite books of all time – Brother to a Dragon Fly.

 

            Will was not what many of us would consider a saint – but he was.

 

            He was reared in rural Amite County, Mississippi.  One of his neighbors was the Grand Old Opry comedian Jerry Clower.  His family was poor, but he was cut-out for the ministry at an early age.  He was ordained by a local Baptist congregation at age 17. After attending a Louisiana college, he received a master’s degree from Yale University.

 

            That is where the ordinary stopped.

 

            As a Southern Baptist pastor, he was named the director of religious life at Ole Miss in 1954.  He did not last long.  He resigned in 1956 after receiving death threats for his pro-civil rights positions at what was then a segregated university.

 

            He did not change his views.  He became a leader of the civil rights movement and a vocal opponent of the death penalty.  He was present at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when Martin Luther King was assassinated.

 

            Will was an iconoclast.  He was plain-spoken, frequently using profanity, even from the pulpit (He even caused a friend of mine to have his vocational life pass before his eyes after Will shucked the corn in a service to which he had invited him).

 

            He was a prolific author, and was the inspiration for cartoonist Doug Marlette’s character, Will B. Dunn, in the comic strip Kudzu.

 

            His autobiographical work, Brother to a Dragon Fly, is one of the most moving books I have ever read.  I found myself weeping at one moment and laughing uproariously at the next.  It is an unflinching look at his life.

 

            One passage sticks with me.  Will is asked by a friend to summarize his theology.  I have cleaned up his answer – it was not G-Rated – but it is to the point: “We are all scoundrels, but God loves us any way.”

 

            Colorful and profane he was.  But his faith was deep – and consistent. In his later years, he lived that theological principle of the love of God for all people by serving as chaplain to the Ku Klux Klan.

 

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            We frequently labor under the illusion that saints were some mystical, perfect people.  The hagiography associated with saints’ lives reenforces that viewpoint.  It is not accurate. They were all human beings – just like you and me. Their lives, though, have a unique thread which runs through their stories.

 

            We have warm, sentimental feelings about St. Nicholas of Myra. Did you know he is the patron saint of pawnbrokers and brewers?

 

            Or, take for instance the Dutch saint, Andrew Wouters.  He was a 16^th century priest in the Netherlands.  He was a drunk, many times in public.  He had multiple illicit affairs – despite his vow of celibacy – and fathered numerous children.

 

            He was arrested and imprisoned by Calvinist crusaders.  As he was about to be executed for his licentious lifestyle, he was asked if he repudiated his belief in the Eucharist and the papacy, to save his life.  His response: “Fornicator I was; heretic I never was.”

 

            He and 10 of his friends were hanged on July 9, 1572. He was canonized as a saint nearly 300 years later.

 

            Not exactly a sterling character to have as a model… but…

 

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            Today we celebrate the Sunday after All Saints’ Day.  All Saints’ Day, of course, is always on November 1 – this past Monday.

 

            There seems to be some confusion about what constitutes a saint. The common view seems to be that a saint is someone with rich piety, a faultless life, who is without blemish in their worldly existence.  Not so.

 

            Keep in mind this fact: The saints were and are all human beings.  As such, they are like us – subject to the foibles, mistakes, and misdeeds of our lives.  St. Paul and other New Testament writers refer to all the saints – the members of the Christian communities, the diverse and diffuse congregations that dotted the Mediterranean landscape.  Some of those communities observed the strict Jewish law; some seemed to subscribe to the theory that anything goes.

 

            There seems to be two characteristics of all the saints – from the earliest dawn of the church to today.  The first is that, despite their frequent human failings, they trusted in God.  They were people of deep and flawed faith.  Even Will Campbell and Andrew Wouters.

 

            The second characteristic is frequently used to describe our men and women who serve in uniform.  It applies just as well to the saints. All gave some, and some gave all.

 

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            You are the saints of today. All give some, and some give all.

 

            What our heart tells us to give, we give.  Whether it is from our time, our energy, our prayers, or our checkbook, we give, like the saints, out of a sense of abundance. Knowing that we are never alone, and that the hand of a very gracious God is with us.

 

            I sing a song of the saints of God… and I mean to be one, too.