St. Paul’s United
Church Sunday, October 30, 2011
An
Open Book – Rev.
David Mundy
Revelation 7:9-17 Matthew 5:1-11
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This past week the biography of the
late Steve Jobs was released and already it is a best seller. For those of you
who don’t know who Steve Jobs is or was, he cofounded
one of the most successful technology companies in the world, the iconic Apple.
Thanks to Jobs innovations it’s possible to use your Iphone
to call a friend and talk face-to-face about the book release or to download a
copy onto your Ipad and read it without bothering to
stand in line at a bookstore to buy one. Jobs was only fifty-six years old when
he died of pancreatic cancer but he has been proclaimed a genius by many, an
innovator who changed the way we incorporate technology into our everyday
lives.
Although the biography was published
almost immediately after Jobs death it was several years in the making. The
writer, Walter Isaacson was granted about forty interviews with Steve Jobs over
a couple of years, and because Jobs chose to be an “open book” to his
biographer he knew that there were aspects of it he might not like and he
planned not to read it for a while after it was published.
They discussed just about everything,
including who Jobs did and didn’t like, his approach to business, why he took
so long to have surgery that might have prevented death, and whether he
believed in God and the afterlife. Even
though Jobs had moved from being an atheist to only a 50/50 outlook in terms of
both, it hasn’t stopped some wags from speculating on what his arrival in
heaven might look like. One cartoon shows Jobs being introduced to Moses to
help update his tablets and another where he scolds St. Peter on quality
control and innovation.
Most of the reviews so far have praised
the biography, including its honesty which doesn’t always portray the subject
in the most positive light. That’s the reality of modern day biography. The
important and famous figures of our culture are all carefully scrutinized so
that every foible and failing comes to light, alongside their strengths.
Still, wouldn’t you say that these
biographies are the modern-day “lives of the saints,” the hagiographies of our
secular culture? After all, you might not know much about Steve Jobs, but
you’ve heard his name. And you might even buy a copy of the book for someone on
your Christmas gift list.
Those “old school” saints – you know,
the religious ones – just don’t capture our attention the way the pop figures
do. In the same week the Jobs biography was released Pope Benedict, the head of
the Roman Catholic, church canonized three more saints and I imagine I’m safe
in saying that you can’t name any of them.
It’s important to ask who are “saints”
are on this weekend approaching Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls Day, the
three-day celebration in the tradition of the church. Are they the secular
figures who become cultural superstars? Are the saints the Christians who have
made an impact on their culture? Or are the saints the regular folk who have
lived faithfully as Christians even though they may never receive much
recognition or be singled out for their contributions?
A few moments ago we heard one of the
All Saints readings which is from that often
perplexing and ominous final book of the bible called the Revelation of John.
In that passage, a vivid picture is created of a heaven where the faithful have
gone home after the trials and tribulations of this life.
An artist from five hundred years ago,
Jan Van Eyck, created his vision of the heavenly host adoring Christ as the
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. There is a gang of women led
by Mary, and a lot of “churchy” types, but there is also a sizeable posse of
regular folks. This painting may not appeal to us all that much as a vision of
heaven but the aspect I appreciate is that none of them has a halo. These are
real people, especially the gang of everyday saints.
So who do we venerate as the saints,
if anyone, as Christians of the twenty-first century? Maybe we don’t want it to
be the secular figures who aren’t necessarily the moral and ethical role models
we hope for.
Maybe we figure we don’t need special
individuals to look to at all, although there are those Christian examplars who inspire us and by whose bright stars we navigate
our way through the important issues of compassion and justice with a courage
and conviction we might not naturally possess ourselves.
A couple of weeks ago we acknowledged
St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and the environment whose example is
still current after eight hundred years. And just recently a new memorial was
unveiled celebrating the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King, a key figure in
the American Civil Rights movement. I should mention that last year a much
smaller tribute was included at the Washington Cathedral to Rosa Parks, the
woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery Alabama bus to ignite
the civil rights fire in a new way.
In the end thought we realize that
none of these people set out to be saintly and that the vast majority of those
who have truly shaped our faith are regular folk, family members, friends who
have lived their faith well, perhaps a Sunday School teacher, maybe even the
odd minister – and I do mean odd!– who have been
spiritual mentors and the source of encouragement.
My wife Ruth is an outreach counsellor
for the local shelter for women and children leaving abusive relationships here
in Bowmanville. She uses a self-esteem exercise with
groups which affirm the importance of those who shape our lives and the quiet
influence we can have on others. It
begins by inviting us to:
Name the five wealthiest
people in the world
Name last year’s Academy Award winners for Best Actor
and Actress
Name
five Canadian recipients of gold medals from recent Olympics
How
did you do? We seldom remember the headlines of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But applause dies. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with
their owners.
Then
it goes on to encourage us to:
List
a few teachers who aided your journey through school
Name
three friends who have helped you through a difficult time
Name
five people who have made you feel appreciated
List
a few teachers who aided your journey through school
Think
of five people with whom you enjoy spending time
The
people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most
credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care!
We
could certainly look at this from a Christian perspective and realize, often
with hindsight, that
we have been touched by individuals who are faith-full in their own quiet ways.
There just aren’t many of us who will have our biographies written but we often
open the book of peoples’ lives when they die we gather to mourn their loss and
give thanks for their lives.
Earlier this year I conducted the
funeral for one of the people who will be acknowledged in a few minutes. He was
a long-time member of this congregation who just made it to his ninetieth
birthday by sheer determination because his health had steadily deteriorated
during the last couple of years of his life.
At his funeral a granddaughter spoke
and mused that she her thought to describe her grandfather as a nice man, but
felt that this wouldn’t do justice to someone she loved and admired so deeply.
Then she realized that it was not an insult to say that someone was a nice
person. She went on to describe his generosity of spirit and his consistent
kindness to others. This was someone who retired early to care for his ailing
wife and always had time for family members and never complained about his
health. What she said certainly rang true for me it what I experienced of her
grandfather.
In the Apostle’s Creed, one of the
ancient creeds of the church there is the phrase “I believe in the communion of
saints” and the Roman Catholic theologian Hans Kung offers this explanation:
...from the New Testament perspective
the “communion of saints” is simply to be understood as the community of
believers . . . These saints are anything but exalted ideal figures. What is
meant are saints without haloes: believers who still have their failings and
sins yet who through God’s call in Christ have forsworn the sinful world and
are attempting in everyday life, for better or worse, to follow the way of
Christ’s disciples.
Kung goes on to point out that the
creed doesn’t specify whether these saints without haloes are the community of
faith in the “here and now” as well as in heaven.
I suppose that makes us the “saints in
training” in part because of our choice to be Christians but also because
Christ chooses us and loves us and redeems us. The good news is that we are the
earthy saints for this moment in time although, we have no idea what our legacy
may be, nor guarantee that we are heaven-bound. If we are open to having our
daily lives, warts and all, shaped by Christ then there is great hope.
We can be faithful in raising our
children to be Christians in their kindness and compassion.
As we age, we can be spiritual mentors
and encouragers to those who may be so much in the thick of life that the way
forward isn’t always clear.
All of us can make up the community
and communion of the faithful which is Christ’s church which may not make a
huge splash but is still important. This weekend the population of the planet
reaches seven billion human souls and we can decide either that we are
inconsequential in the midst of such mind-boggling numbers or that as the
Christian communion we can be the absolutely necessary and indispensable salt
and light for our world.
We can be open books in our faith
because of our experience of Christ and our conviction that through the grace
of Christ we are changed people.
Some of you will remember that Dag
Hammarskjold was the secretary general of the United Nations through the 1950's
until his death in a plane crash in 1961 while on a UN mission in Africa. Hammarskjold
was a brilliant and dedicated man who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after
his death. He was also a Christian who wrote reflections on his faith. I will
leave you with one today:
Yet, though me flashes
this vision of a magnetic field of the
soul,
created in a timeless present by unknown
multitudes,
living in holy obedience,
whose words and actions are a timeless
prayer —
“the
Communion of Saints”
– and –within
it – an eternal life.