For all the Saints
I suppose we all have our own ideas about what the best thing in the world is! Perhaps it’s a never ending supply of chocolate, perhaps it’s football 24hours a day, perhaps its washing that needs no ironing – and puts itself away, perhaps it’s peace and quiet, or perhaps it’s company…
I suppose we all have our own ideas about what the ultimate lifestyle is – an ideal way to live. And I suppose we do all have our own ideas about what heaven is and what it will be like to live there.
November 1st is All Saints Day – not an occasion we tend to celebrate in Methodism, but it is the day when any saint who doesn’t have a special day of their own is remembered. We are not particularly hot on celebrating Saints, but this does give us the opportunity to think awhile about Saints and about heaven.
- So what’s heaven like?
The reading from Revelation leaves us with no doubt about what God’s idea of heaven is. The experience that being with God forever will be. Heaven is where God is in his glory, where he receives the praise, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour and power that are his right. Heaven is where God’s power and authority are rightly acknowledged and honoured. God is God and this is what he deserves.
According to Jesus, heaven is also the place where we receive our reward. It is where the Christian life reaches its ultimate goal and conclusion. It is our ultimate hope.
Charles Kingsley, the novelist wrote, “It is not darkness that you are going to, for God is light. It is not lonely, for Christ is with you. It is not unknown country, for Christ is already there.”
In some versions, 144,000 is mentioned as the number who are marked with God’s seal. There are those who believe this is the physical limit of heaven, but I don’t believe God limits his grace and his love. Rather 144,000 is a symbol – “full completion and perfection”. It is 12 x 12 – the perfect square – made even more complete by then being multiplied by 1,000. In Israel 12 denotes the number of tribes – encompassing the whole nation. Everyone has a place in heaven – if they choose to take it.
Heaven is where the whole of God’s people will meet. No one who follows the characteristics he lays down will be unacceptable – ALL his saints will gather there. We will meet with our Christian brothers and sisters from all ages and all nations.
Think of a really good party – the delight of seeing those we love and spending time together, and sharing together. Heaven is for us to revel in God. For our joy and adoration, our praise and thanksgiving for everything he’s ever done for us, all come together and culminate in awe and worship.
God has given us so much. If now we feel our thanks are inadequate, in heaven we will finally find the way to express how we feel. In heaven there will be nothing to distract us from giving him our worship, our adoration, our praise – our all. What a privilege it will be to be part of this – to be able to stand with all God’s people and tell him we love him.
But heaven is not just about a place for after death, it has meaning for us now, here on earth. Heaven begins in our lives today. Heaven comes on earth as we begin to live out God’s Kingdom where we are. Heaven is God’s reward for his Saints in heaven and his saints on earth.
But what is a Saint?
A reward is always offered for some right action. We are used to seeing, ‘Lost dog, or cat – reward offered’. A valuable item returned to its owner, or information about a crime bring their reward. Or the reward of hard work that sees a job done well; or the reward of a smile for something you have said or done to someone else – rewards are about cause and effect. To receive a reward there must be right action, so for God’s people to receive their reward in heaven, there must be some right action. And so we come to the beatitudes. God’s plan for a happy life – for us and for the world.
Several years ago, a newspaper printed what it considered to be criteria for measuring the greatness of a man:
1. His ability to make and keep money
2. The cost, style and age of his car.
3. How much hair he has.
4. His strength and size.
5. The job he holds and how successful he is at it.
6. What sports he likes
7. How many clubs he belongs to.
8. His aggressiveness and reliability.
Not only are they not politically correct, but they do not appear to me to be very sound criteria. Nowhere is kindness, love, seeking justice, care or any other good features mentioned. There is no place for sacrificial giving, integrity, faithfulness. They give no real measure of any man or woman.
Jesus also set down eight principles for the measure of a person. His standards stand in stark contrast to the aforementioned. There appears to be a wide gulf between the popular image of the successful person and what God sees as the successful person.
Jesus had just started his ministry and was gaining in popularity. Large crowds were gathering. He had just picked out his disciples. And in the quiet of the rolling grassy hills of northern Israel by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus delivered a sermon to a multitude. Acres and acres of human faces. The crowd represented a cross section of humanity. There were rich and poor, young and old, doubtless varied races, those who were astute business men and those who were failures. In fact, the crowd that Jesus spoke to that day represented the world in miniature.
Yet, as different as they all were, Jesus understood that they were all on the same quest. They were all after the same thing. They all wanted happiness.
But on this special day Jesus shared with the disciples and, indeed, with all of history, that the usual concept of happiness is a foundation built on sand. Happiness is not at all based upon what we have. True happiness is based upon who we are. Happiness is not based upon the kind of house that we live in; it depends on the kind of people who live in the house. It is not the kind of clothes that we wear, but the person wears the clothes.
Jesus begins to tell his disciples what is important – what will make them his people – what will make them saints. They fly in the face of everything that the world has taught us. They are the right way to act, the attitude that we should have.
So very briefly:
We are to be spiritually poor – not lacking in faith, but recognising our poverty in comparison to the riches of God. We have nothing except what God has given us.
We should mourn – not to be sorry for ourselves, but to be sad for the present disobedience of the world.
We must be humble – not wanting power and attention for ourselves, not wanting everything our way, but be concerned only for others. God will give real power to those who submit to his rule.
We must yearn for the time when the way of God is shown to be right – that is what heaven is.
Our hearts must be pure. To the Hebrews, heart symbolised not emotion, but thought and will – not easily swayed but what we decide to do. Our concern therefore, must be to live our lives governed by the desire to do what is God’s will. It is then that we will finally be able to come into God’s presence.
We must make peace – to do that is to be like God himself. He brings peace to the world – and we must too.
These may not be natural reactions to us. But however difficult they may seem – remember Jesus has been there first – this is the way he lived. And Jesus believes it is to people who live by these guidelines that the kingdom of heaven will be given. This is our hope, and our vision. And there are many others who have gone before us, ordinary people who did extraordinary things, through and for God. They are our encouragement.
Saints are those people who bring God’s love, God’s lifestyle into this world. The large crowd of witnesses, with their eyes fixed on Jesus. Not on other people, not on things, but on Jesus. Who do not become discouraged, but run with determination to and for him.
You don’t have to be famous to be a saint – or dead. It’s not just Mother Theresa, or Saint Francis, Paul or any of the spiritual “greats”. If our lives help to inspire others to know and love God, we are saints too.
That’s something we can all achieve. It is us, where we are day by day, doing what God asks of us. Fulfilling his ministry in the places he has put us. There will have been some perfectly ordinary people who will have inspired you to love God. They are saints too. We are all part of the ‘great cloud of witnesses’.
- Who have been Saints for us?
Following All Saints Day, comes All Soul’s Day, and it is good for us to pause and remember those who have had an influence on our lives. Those people who have showed God to us – the Saints in our lives.
Let us come with thanksgiving for them. Let us come in prayer and offering that God may make us the people we can be for him. Let us come in hope of the glorious future God has.
Pam's Perambulation 