ALL SAINTS

Today we celebrate All Saints. It’s a day when we remember those men and women who have particularly inspired us in our lives as Christians who have excited us to holiness.

Saints are people who set us an example of what a life lived with God looks like. Our Gospel passage gives us an example of friends of Jesus: Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Their lives can tell us something of what it is to be a saint. We know that Jesus stayed with them from time to time and in particular in the week leading up to his death. So they were a hospitable family, coping not only with Jesus himself but with all his disciples as well. About Lazarus, all we know is that he opened up his house to the disciples and that his being raised from the dead ironically put his life in danger.

Martha was the practical one, bustling around making everything ready, serving the assembled company. Remember how on one occasion she grumbled that her sister wasn’t helping and was admonished by Jesus for worrying too much. Mary was the thinker, loving to listen to Jesus’ teaching. And it was Mary who poured ointment on his feet and wiped them with her hair. When Lazarus fell ill, the sisters had sent a messenger to Jesus because they trusted that he could heal their brother. When Lazarus died they were devastated. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother Lazarus would not have died” Mary says echoing her sisters’ words “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”. Neither believed that there was anything further that Jesus could do.

The first thing that strikes me about these three characters is how different they were. Martha called to serve, Mary called to listen and adore, Lazarus called to give hospitably.

Three different ways of being a friend of Jesus. And they weren’t perfect, Martha grumbled, Mary didn’t notice the work to be done, neither could resist reminding Jesus that if he had been in Bethany earlier their brother wouldn’t have died. But their example serves us well, telling us that there is more than one way to serve God, showing us how important hospitality is, showing us what friendship with Jesus can look like.

I’m sure we all have friends who inspire us in the way Martha and Mary and Lazarus do. Friends who walk closely with God, seeking to do His will in their lives. Friends who aren’t perfect, but whose example helps us to be more faithful disciples.

Let me tell you about my friend Louise. At age 11 she was devastated to fail the 11 plus exam. So she couldn’t follow her elder sister to the Grammar School, instead she went to the Secondary Modern School, believed herself to be an academic failure, left school at 16 and started working in a bank. She married and had children and I met her when I joined a bible study group on the housing estate we’d just moved to. She invited Harriet (who was just one) and myself for coffee “because I’d like to get to know you better even though you use long words which scare me”. What a start to a friendship.

Louise knew that she’d return to work once the children started school, and assumed that she’d go back to being a bank clerk or something similar. In the mean time she was asked by the church to become a Governor at the local primary school. And then she became involved in setting up a play-group and so went to college to train as a play-group leader. She’d always been fascinated by sign language so when the local deaf school set up a support group for deaf adults and needed help with a crèche, she volunteered and went to classes to learn sign-language so that she could talk to the mums and dads. That led to an interest in social work, so she took an access to University course and then studied to become a social worker, all the time continuing her studies in sign –language. Finally she took a post graduate diploma in sign-language translation and now works in a university translating lectures, seminars and tutorials for deaf students. And she translates Alpha Course sessions for local churches. The person I first met for coffee who was intimidated by the long words I used, would never have dreamt that she would be capable of all that studying and training, but she faithfully walked step by step in the way that it seemed that God was leading her. It wasn’t all plain sailing, she had a long period of illness and the family had to move because of redundancy. But I am inspired by that faithfulness, to me she is a prime example of what it means to be a friend of God.

I’m sure that you all know people who similarly inspire you. Their stories are a real help to us particularly when we know that they are people very like us, with the same flaws and weaknesses with similar strengths and gifts. But crucially they have used their gifts and talents in the way that God intended.

The Saints whom the Church celebrates provide us with other inspirational examples of what a life walked with God looks like. We all have particular favourites, saints whose life and work help us to live our lives more closely with God. I’d like to look briefly at three who have inspired me.

The first is Saint Benedict of Nursia, who’s often called the Father of Western Monasticism. He distilled his experience of monastic leadership into a Rule of Life written for monks, but remarkable in its good advice for those of us who live ordinary lives. We live at a time when “work/life” balance is seen as very important. St Benedict’s Rule, written 1500 years ago, speaks of the importance of getting all the key elements of life into balance: work, prayer, study, meal-times, recreation and sleep. And he also writes of the importance of adapting the rule to individual circumstances, because each religious house would be different and each monk would be different. This way of life is one that I can adapt to my own very different circumstances.

Then there’s Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. He was a very all or nothing sort of a character, a former soldier who never did anything by halves. He’s taught me the importance of discerning God’s will for my life and doing it whole-heartedly. And God’s will for my life is particular and individual to me, there are plenty of good ways of living, but I need to live in the way God asks of me. I am not called to work with deaf people as my friend Louise has been

Finally, there’s St Peter, one of our Lord’s closest friends. Enthusiastic, committed, at times totally inspired, at other times horribly wrong. Brave and cowardly, successful and a failure. What we might call very, very human. He teaches me that God can deal with my own failures, that there is always another chance, that God builds His Kingdom not with great heroes, but with ordinary flawed human beings.

These Saints inspire me in my own walk with God, give me good advice, an example to follow (and an example not to follow). I continue to ask for their prayers, the prayers of the Saints in Glory, just as I ask for the prayers of my friends, the Saints here on earth.

Let me end with a quotation from a Czech theologian

“God is offended by nothing and bears everything, even crucifixion; he loves humanity boundlessly and helps in the manner of a disarmed man: he teaches, leads, praises, gives examples, chides and warns. How does he practise this method? He sends good people into the world, who are a model to those around them…”

Quotation from Emanuel Radl in Roger Scruton “Gentle Regrets”

Penny Sayer
St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea