November 2, 2008
The Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
All Saints Sunday
Joshua 3:7-17; Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37; 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13;
Matthew 23:1-12
(Children’s Sermon)
Today is All Saints Sunday – it follows Halloween every year – and is the day when we celebrate the “saints” of the Episcopal Church, in truth, of all Christian churches.
How many of you know what makes a saint? How does one get to be a saint? In the Roman Catholic Church there is a whole process. But what about the Episcopal Church, do you know how a person gets into the Lesser Feasts and Fasts book?
We borrowed some saints from the Catholic Church. They were saints from before we broke away in 1549. But since that time the world wide Anglican Communion has selected its own “saints,” and some parts of the communion honor people different from those we do. For our “saints” to be in this Lesser Feasts and Fasts book they need to be voted on at two General Conventions. However, in truth, besides the ones we inherited and the biblical disciples of Jesus, we rarely call people SAINT, i.e., give them the title.
So who are these people? They are people who live ‘exemplary’ lives, ordinary human beings who live extraordinary lives. And I would say that all of them have one thing in common and that is they not only understood the last line in the gospel this morning, they lived it: “those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Saints, all of them in this book, are folks who in some way humbled themselves. Though they may have had a high place in the church or in the secular world, their faith gave them a humbleness that allowed them to do something really extraordinary in the world.
My favorite song as a child was “I sing a song of the saints of God,” a copy of which is hopefully in your hands. For me this song talks about saints in a way I think is wonderful. Let’s all now sing the first verse: “I sing a song of the saints of God . . . “
Note the first verse says one was a doctor, one was a queen and one was a shepherdess on the green, and the next verse says one was a soldier, another a priest, and a third was slain by a fierce wild beast.
I thought it might be fun to look at the stories from this book about some of these people and tell you how they lived their ordinary lives in a humble yet extraordinary way.
Doctor: the Rev. Dr. D. T. Dalzell and a Dr. Armstrong – no first name – were among those who with Constance and her nuns chose to stay in
Queen: actually Elizabeth of Hungary, born in 1207, was a princess, the daughter of King Andrew the Second of Hungary. We borrowed her from the Catholic Church, and actually the Catholic Church in town is named for her.
Shepherdess on the Green! Do you think I could find that shepherdess? Not in our feasts and fasts! But in Wikipedia I found one! Solange.
Solange (died 10 May, c. 880) was a Frankish shepherdess and a locally venerated Christian saint. She was born to a poor but devout family in the town of
At night, he came and took Solange by force, but she struggled so violently that she fell from his horse while he was crossing a stream. The young man became so enraged that he drew his sword and beheaded her. Legend has it that Solange's severed head three times invoked the Holy Name of Jesus. Like the stories of Saint Denis and other saints in that part of France, Solange picked up her head in her own hands and walked with it as far as the church of Saint-Martin in the village of Saint-Martin-du-Crot (Sainte Solange, Cher, the only commune in France to bear this name). There she dropped truly dead.
A cult surrounding her grew up almost immediately. Many miraculous cures were attributed to her intercession. In 1281, an altar was erected in her honor at that church, and it preserved her severed head as a relic and began to call itself the
The reason she didn’t make it to our Feasts and Fasts is because she was changed from a normal human being who did ordinary things for people, the way the doctors did in Memphis and Elizabeth did for the poor, into someone who was not really human and whose story is probably not based on any fact but based instead on some myth, an exaggerated story about her. But it’s still a wonderful story to tell, isn’t it?? And it is also true that if she had been someone who remained faithful to God and had chosen to marry the prince, it’s still possible that she may or may not have been recognized as a saint. But unfortunately we only know her by that fantastic tale!
“One was a soldier and one was a priest and one as slain by a fierce wild beast,” so says the second verse.
There are many soldiers in Feasts and Fasts and many priests and, of course, many slain by fierce wild beasts. I will leave it up to you to get one of these wonderful books and follow along to learn of about these people. We use it for the Wednesday morning Eucharist and some people use the book all during the year for their personal devotions. There are bible readings and a prayer suggested for each one.
But I am going to leave you with the story of Agnes, one who was slain by a fierce wild beast, because she was a child who lived a pretty ordinary life. I think, she is sort of half way between myth and a real person. When she was twelve, she dedicated her life to Jesus. She lived in the years 292 to 304, almost two thousand years ago. When the Emperor Diocletian persecuted the Christians in 304, it was demanded by the Roman authorities that she recant, that is, deny her faith in Jesus, but she wouldn’t so they beheaded her (or maybe she was burned at the stake – two different traditions evolved after her death).
But she is an example that even very young people can do very extraordinary, saintly things. She remained faithful even against people threatening and then carrying out their threats. She was brave, pure, and faithful, all humble attributes of a saint.
Each of these people gives us something to strive for and to think about in our own lives. We honor them and all those who have gone before us and all those whom we encounter in our own lives, all who live or have lived humble faithful lives.
Now I invite you all to stand and sing with me, “I sing a song of the saints of God . . . “
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd