October 11th, 1998 (St. George's URC, Hartlepool)                                                       Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
Revd. Phil Nevard                                                                                                                         Psalm 149
Proper 26 (RCL - year ‘C )  All Saints' Day                                                            Ephesians 1:11-23                                                                                                                                                            Luke 6:20-31  

"Reluctant Saints..."

(sing if you feel confident enough!)
O when the saints, go marching in,
O when the saints, go marching in...

Back in the days of Joshua and in the day of King David, it was fun to be a saint.  It was fun to go marching in with trumpets and watch the walls of Jericho topple.  It was fun to rout those Philistines day after day.  Back in those days, being the people of God, being God's holy ones , God's saints seemed to be all about glorious military success, and it was fun!

Daniel was writing in the days of the exile in Babylon. Daniel is a famous character from that time; according to Ezekiel, he was renowned for his piety and wisdom. And Daniel is writing about a vision he has had.

Out of the primordial "sea", the chaotic "deep" ,stirred up by the spirit of God , Daniel sees four beasts arise.  The first three are like a "lion", a "bear" and a "leopard". The fourth beast is too horrible to describe, but he remembers it has horns.

The four beasts are widely thought to represent the threatening nations that threatened Israel throughout this time - Babylon, Media, Persia, and the Seleucids.  Time has moved on since those glory days with David.  A small, struggling nation like Israel would have no difficulty in identifying these expanding superpowers as hideous monsters ready to devour everything in their path.  Suddenly it's not so much fun being a saint!  It seems that being God's people, being God's holy ones is no guarantee against defeat in battle, it is no guarantee against pain and hardship and fear.

Daniel is writing to encourage the faith of a community under seige, a people in peril.  Daniel is writing to reluctant saints.  Daniel is writing to those who are feeling the pressure and are not sure that being God's people is such a fab idea after all.

In Daniel's vision, the beasts are detroyed, each has his day, but none is indestructable.  In the midst of it all, Daniel describes "one like a man".  He represents the faithful community of the people of Israel, those who stand firm in their faith.  He is the one who triumphs, he is the one who is given a universal, eternal, unconquerable kingdom.

Daniel is saying to the people of Israel that their prize will be an ultimate prize - that they will be on the side of right, and that right will ultimately conquer wrong, light will ultimately conquer darkness.  But, leaving ultimate prizes aside, they are called to live as God's people, God's saints in the world and in the circumstances where they find themselves.  Their task as saints is to be a light to the nations, to demonstrate in their lives as a faithful community what it is to live as God's children.

Because the benefits are no longer so obvious, they are reluctant saints.

And how true this can be of the church today.  The benefits of being God's saints in Hartlepool are not immediately obvious are they?  We are called to live as a distinctive community of faith in a world which is sometimes hostile, but most often dismissive.  We are reluctant to follow our faith through because we are so often conscious that people will think we are strange, that people will think we are religious nutters.  It's surely best to blend in and not make too much of a fuss, isn't it?

But however reluctant the people of Israel might have been, they got this much right - they knew that God's people, God's saints were not a list of a few remarkable individuals, rather, God's saints were the whole community of God's people.  There was no such thing as a lone saint.  The people of God stood or fell together.  They were bound together simply because God called them his people.  They had nothing to recommend them, they were not particularly faithful people, they were not especially charitable.  They were bound together because God chose to call them his people, his children, God's reluctant saints.

(sing if you feel confident enough!)
O when the saints, go marching in,
O when the saints, go marching in,
I want to be in that number,
When the saints go marching in.

About 200 years after Daniel had written, Jesus climbed up a hill so that he could be heard, and challenged the people of Israel to stretch their boundaries.  Blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are those who weep, blessed are those who are despised - for theirs is the Kingdom of God.  And Paul writes the the Church at Ephesus with great joy because he can proudly testify that Gentiles are part of the people of God, Gentiles are saints too!  They must be because he has seen God's Spirit poured out upon them, God has chosen to call them his children.

If Daniel was writing for reluctant saints, those who weren't to sure that they wanted to be in that number, then Jesus and Paul are also speaking for reluctant saints.  These saints are reluctant because they have been made to feel unworthy of the name.  These saints are reluctant because they have been rejected so many times that cannot see themselves as God's children.  These saints are reluctant because religious authorities, man-made dogma, and human prujudice have shut them out time and time again

Who are the ones who are called to this awesome task of being a light to the world?  Who are the ones who are called to be the children of God?

Are you a reluctant saint?  I wonder why so many of you were so hesitant about standing up when I asked you to?  Maybe it's just embarasment about standing up in church.  But if we haven't the confidence to stand up as God's saints in the company of God's worshipping people, then how will we do it anywhere else?

Are you a reluctant saint?  Is it because you're afraid, like the people of Israel?  Is it that you are afraid of the world in which you live... afraid that your faith will make you look foolish... afraid of what people might say or think?.... Then I have good news for you... You are a saint, part of the people of God.  You are not alone, you are part of St. George's URC, part of the town centre Local ecumenical Partnership, part of Churches Together in Hartlepool.  But more that, you are part of the worldwide Church in all its richness and diversity.  And more than that, you are part of the whole company of God's people who have ever lived, from Adam and Abraham and Sarah and Ruth to little Emily at the back there.  And more than that, you are part of the whole company of God's people who will ever live!  Countless millions - more than the grains of sand, more than the numberless stars in the heavens!  You are part of it, you are not alone!

And more than that - you are bound to all of them because with them you worship an awesome, loving God whose name is above all names, who is life itself, yet who lives in you and in me.

Are you a reluctant saint?  Is it because you feel you are not worthy of the name... you are not good enough... you are too weak... to old... too young...   then I have good news for you... Jesus reckons you are worth something, Jesus reckons you are worth everything.  Jesus gave everything for you, Jesus gave everything so that you might be a part of the glorious company of God's people.

Are you a reluctant saint?

On this All Saints Day, I invite all you saints to stand....

As we stand, let us pray...

Loving God, we thank you that you have called us into the company of your saints.  We offer ourselves in your service.  We offer ourselves as individuals and as a community to be for your world a foretaste of your kingdom.  Take our fears and our reluctance, fill us with your Spirit, and send us out to be your faithful people, your saints alive!  Amen.