Sermon Notes for October 30th
October 30, 2005
“A Great Multitude”
Revelation 7:9-17
1. In the first years after the death of Jesus, the Christian movement encountered hostility from those in Jewish circles. In the Gospels there is plenty of evidence of the antagonism between Christians and Jews – which is seen in the confrontations which are recorded between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees. This opposition really reaches its culmination in the last Gospel, the Gospel of John.
But, as time passed, the message of Jesus traveled further and further throughout the Roman world and moved away from its Jewish roots in Jeruselum. As we know the Apostle Paul was particularly instrumental in establishing churches in Turkey, Greece, and there were even Christians in Rome itself very soon after Jesus’ death.
This sudden emergence in the Ancient World of a radically new idea … the idea of the Christ … the incarnation of God …occurring in the midst of human history … was an astounding event.
The Romans, however, were not impressed … at least not their leadership which included Emperor Caesar – the man-God.
But, many of the common people welcomed this new revelation for it brought them a new hope … as it brought the message that the one-God which had been revealed to the Jewish people … was now to be the God of all people … and that in His Son, Jesus, the Christ … the power of death itself had been conquered and a new Kingdom had been born on the earth.
2. This new revelation … spread rapidly up and down the roads and highways and shipping routes of the Mediterranean. And with its success … came conflict … as is always the case with any new idea.
The early church leaders, like Paul, who were convinced at first that the return of Christ was immanent, did not concern themselves with politics at all. But, as time went along, questions arose as to what would be the relationship of Christians to society and ultimately to the government in Rome.
This conflict … between the Kingdom of God, as it were … and the Kingdoms of this world … has been with us ever since. It is here today. It is even at the heart of the current political and religious polarization that affects our country today.
So, also, is the age old question of when exactly will Christ return? When, exactly, will the end times occur? When, exactly, will the world, as we know it, come to an end?
In fact, just turn on the television, as I did on Friday night for the NBC special on the evangelical mega church phenomenon and the currently related controversy over church and state … and you will realize that the issues of the early church …issues about the relationship between politics and religion … are revealed in this passage we read today from the book of Revelations. And, as a result, we find that these issues are as relevant today as they were in the early years of the church.
3. The big question, back then, most simply put was this: What is the relationship between the Christian faith and the Government?
What is the relationship between the Rule of God and the Rule of Man?
Now, if you can solve that question … you will be a very wise person, indeed. Except, it cannot be resolved! At least not in this life. This is because as long as we are human we are, at the same time, also spiritual beings… which means that our inner spiritual life is lived in relation to eternity … and to God … and, as a result, there necessarily will always be a tension between this temporal world and the eternal world of the spirit.
This tension is revealed in the New Testament writings … in various ways … consider for a moment the familiar passage from I Peter:
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
13Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
4. Honor the King…Honor the King … and who would be the king in those days. Caesar, himself, of course.
But what if the King … what if Caesar is unjust. What if Caesar is not only unjust – but corrupt and ruthless … and even insane?
What then?
What if Caesar demands that all people must worship him instead of God. What if Caesar has himself proclaimed God? What then?
And, what if Caesar has anyone who fails to worship him … put in jail, or beaten, or even put to death? What then? Are you to honor the Emperor? Are you to submit yourselves to every authority – even Caesar as is indicated in I Peter?
Consider, for a moment, these facts:
In the year 66 AD, only thirty years after the crucifixion of Jesus, under the Roman, Pontius Pilate … the Jews revolted … and war broke out … Emperor Nero order his general Vespasian to move in to put Jerusalem under siege. This is the same Nero who had only a few years earlier blamed the burning of Rome on the Christians and had many Christians tortured and executed for entertainment. However, now things had turned against Nero and he committed suicide in 68 AD. As a result, Vespasian had to return to Rome, where he became Emperor after Nero. It was then left to Titus, Vespasian’s son to finish the job in Jerusalem, which he did when he defeated the Jewish freedom fighters and destroyed the Temple for all time. Later on, Titus would become Emperor, and was later followed by his younger brother Domitian.
5. Imagine all this on national television! … and it sort of puts modern day politics in some perspective.
But, there is more, Domitian went on to be just as bad as Nero. And eventually he had the Roman Senate proclaim him Dominus et Deus … (Lord and God).
Most scholars believe that the symbol of the “beast from the sea” in Revelations 13 – “who has the power of Satan and who has a blasphemous name upon his heads” is none other than Domitian. In fact, there were widespread rumors that Domitian was actually the evil Nero come back to life!
Is this the kind of Emperor that one should honor and obey? And what is really going on with all this madness a-foot?
Early Christians must have wondered? And, suddenly, the trouble they had been having with the Jews … seemed small in comparison to the great evil … represented by Rome itself.
6. Now suppose you are one of those who are persecuted. Suppose, you have been exiled to the island of Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor … in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea. And suppose you now have plenty of time to meditate about what is going on … and in the midst of this … you have a powerful revelation … from God.
And it all becomes clear to you … that the end of the world is not far off … and that the cataclysmic battle … the apocalypse … long discussed by the Jewish prophets … is now at hand. Only, now you are able to put this in a more Christian context.
And what is your purpose … but to offer a powerful message of hope to your Christian friends … in all the churches … that if the persecution continues … it is not to be feared … but rather it is a sign that the end is near … and rather than being frightened into submission … the churches should hold out – even if it means suffering and death.
Because, according to your vision … you have seen that God is going to intervene … Christ will come … there will be a final confrontation … and Satan (ie The Emperor) will be overthrown … and those who hold out will be saved … and, as is written in Revelation 13, there is this powerful warning against accommodating the Emperor:
9A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
Quiet a different message from that in I Peter!
So, what are we to make of this …?
7. I was at Hamline University last Thursday, for a lecture and seminar on the DaVinci Code and the so called Gnostic Gospels and a New Testament professor was there from St. Thomas … and so I asked him about this apparent contradiction.
He said, it has to do with differing circumstances at the time these writings took place. For the one in I Peter has to do with more common sense advice.
For the writer of I Peter is more concerned with the controversy that Christianity had stirred up in the pagan world. His advice, then, is more practical. Christians should be good citizens and not draw on themselves any unneeded criticism. It would be the same as I would admonish all of us to obey the law and be good citizens here in Bemidji or otherwise our church would end up having a bad reputation.
Quite different from living under persecution. So, we have different messages for different circumstances.
8. Now there isn’t time enough to get into all aspects of the entire Book of Revelation – which is one of the most amazing, most misunderstood, and most controversial books in the Bible.
But, as should seem somewhat obvious, the Revelation of John was primarily written to address very timely topics which existed at the end of the first century … and which surrounded the conflict between Christians and the Roman Empire.
We also need to realize that because all apocalyptic writing is visionary and uses extraordinary symbolism … it is very difficult to interpret all the strange images … and metaphors which are used in writings of these kinds …and this has led to all sorts of interpretations.
And, as we know, this has led to countless efforts on the part of modern prophecy preachers to attempt to correlate the Book of Revelation to current events. In fact, nowadays, there is a whole industry of religious books, novels, and now movies designed to show that we are living in the end times – just as foretold the Revelation of John.
9. In fact, because this kind of End of the World prophesying (along with the DaVinci code controversy) seems to be the big item in religious discussion these days … I just purchased for our church a video discussion series on the Book of Revelation which I hope to show in the near future.
Now, for many of you, this emphasis on the book of Revelation may not have been emphasized greatly in the more moderate middle of the road churches like ours – and I suspect for most of us … in our religious upbringing …we paid little attention to the rather obscure book called the Revelation of John.
But, as we know today, the recent evangelical religious revival in America has and is greatly influenced by expectations about the immanent or at least highly likely return of Christ … in our own lifetime.
Add to this, many of the recent natural calamities, the growing environmental crisis, and the possible world wide flu epidemic, and you have all the ingredients for reading into the Bible all kinds of scenarios.
It also, turns out, that every year, in the lectionary cycle of Sunday scripture readings … these are the passages that are the assigned texts for Sundays in late October and November. This is largely, because we are coming to the end of another lectionary yearly cycle. Which will begin all over again after Thanksgiving with the start of Advent? WAIT, did I say Advent? It hardly seems like Christmas, does it … but, there are actually only four more Sundays left … and we will be starting to prepare for the birth of Jesus!
So, I will be returning to the Book of Revelations again in the next few weeks.
10. But, for today, I would like to end by going back to the passage we read this morning … about all the multitudes who are gathered before the throne of God.
This passage is appropriately assigned for this week because on Tuesday it is All Saints or All Souls Day. Let me read it again…from Revelations 7:
9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
What we have here, regardless of how you interpret the Book of Revelation’s many obscurer symbols and images, is a fairly clear idea that in the end, sometime, beyond all time, in another place … which we call eternity … there will be gathered all people … and it will be a time of rejoicing … and thanksgiving … and this is what we call heaven … In fact, the Book of Revelations is a powerful poetic attempt to describe the undescribable …
And the message of Revelations is that regardless of persecution, suffering, misfortune and all of life’s other vicissitudes … there will be a time beyond time where all the saints … all who are faithful … to God …
Will stand before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. And …
16Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
11. This powerful image of the end-time … is a great metaphor for us today because it underscores how, regardless of circumstance, we are all mortal beings … and our lives are ultimately dependent not on our own doings … but on God’s final word …
For, we must realize that no matter how hard we try … or what we think … we cannot see or fully understand or totally grasp what life is all about through the use of our own minds alone …
It is, therefore, in the face of death … where we are ultimately forced to confront the greatness and timelessness of God … our Creator … and, through faith, we are able to find hope in His revelation in Jesus Christ … and so we share today in the great vision of St. John … in the Book of Revelation as recorded in Chapter 22:
1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
That is pretty clear … don’t you think?
12. And so today, we honor those of this congregation who have passed from this life … and who we will join again someday …
And in commemorating their lives … we celebrate our life … and the mysterious sovereign power of God …
Now, while we do not worship these people … as Methodists, in the same way perhaps as some do in other Christian traditions … we do give thanks for them …
For, the reality is that Methodism, like other Protestant traditions, was born in the more modern world …and is therefore unlike the older Catholic tradition, which is why we do not canonize people … like Mother Theresa … and yet we are encouraged to remember and to lift up these great persons … these saints … of the past … who were and are the holy ones …and we are reminded, as is written in Hebrews 12:
1That we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses,
Which allows us: to throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles, and allow ourselves to run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
And, while there were and are, certainly, those persons who have shown exceptional qualities of faith and good works, let us not discount the general idea that all persons of faith are in a way saints … in other words: we are all saints.
And so, I ask you all now, to take time, to pray … as we hold up these persons from our church … and all persons we have known … who have strengthen our faith … and who have given our lives meaning … through their witness to the love and goodness of God
A great cloud of witnesses …
PRAY IN SILENCE.
“A Great Multitude”
Revelation 7:9-17
1. In the first years after the death of Jesus, the Christian movement encountered hostility from those in Jewish circles. In the Gospels there is plenty of evidence of the antagonism between Christians and Jews – which is seen in the confrontations which are recorded between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees. This opposition really reaches its culmination in the last Gospel, the Gospel of John.
But, as time passed, the message of Jesus traveled further and further throughout the Roman world and moved away from its Jewish roots in Jeruselum. As we know the Apostle Paul was particularly instrumental in establishing churches in Turkey, Greece, and there were even Christians in Rome itself very soon after Jesus’ death.
This sudden emergence in the Ancient World of a radically new idea … the idea of the Christ … the incarnation of God …occurring in the midst of human history … was an astounding event.
The Romans, however, were not impressed … at least not their leadership which included Emperor Caesar – the man-God.
But, many of the common people welcomed this new revelation for it brought them a new hope … as it brought the message that the one-God which had been revealed to the Jewish people … was now to be the God of all people … and that in His Son, Jesus, the Christ … the power of death itself had been conquered and a new Kingdom had been born on the earth.
2. This new revelation … spread rapidly up and down the roads and highways and shipping routes of the Mediterranean. And with its success … came conflict … as is always the case with any new idea.
The early church leaders, like Paul, who were convinced at first that the return of Christ was immanent, did not concern themselves with politics at all. But, as time went along, questions arose as to what would be the relationship of Christians to society and ultimately to the government in Rome.
This conflict … between the Kingdom of God, as it were … and the Kingdoms of this world … has been with us ever since. It is here today. It is even at the heart of the current political and religious polarization that affects our country today.
So, also, is the age old question of when exactly will Christ return? When, exactly, will the end times occur? When, exactly, will the world, as we know it, come to an end?
In fact, just turn on the television, as I did on Friday night for the NBC special on the evangelical mega church phenomenon and the currently related controversy over church and state … and you will realize that the issues of the early church …issues about the relationship between politics and religion … are revealed in this passage we read today from the book of Revelations. And, as a result, we find that these issues are as relevant today as they were in the early years of the church.
3. The big question, back then, most simply put was this: What is the relationship between the Christian faith and the Government?
What is the relationship between the Rule of God and the Rule of Man?
Now, if you can solve that question … you will be a very wise person, indeed. Except, it cannot be resolved! At least not in this life. This is because as long as we are human we are, at the same time, also spiritual beings… which means that our inner spiritual life is lived in relation to eternity … and to God … and, as a result, there necessarily will always be a tension between this temporal world and the eternal world of the spirit.
This tension is revealed in the New Testament writings … in various ways … consider for a moment the familiar passage from I Peter:
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
13Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. 16Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. 17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
4. Honor the King…Honor the King … and who would be the king in those days. Caesar, himself, of course.
But what if the King … what if Caesar is unjust. What if Caesar is not only unjust – but corrupt and ruthless … and even insane?
What then?
What if Caesar demands that all people must worship him instead of God. What if Caesar has himself proclaimed God? What then?
And, what if Caesar has anyone who fails to worship him … put in jail, or beaten, or even put to death? What then? Are you to honor the Emperor? Are you to submit yourselves to every authority – even Caesar as is indicated in I Peter?
Consider, for a moment, these facts:
In the year 66 AD, only thirty years after the crucifixion of Jesus, under the Roman, Pontius Pilate … the Jews revolted … and war broke out … Emperor Nero order his general Vespasian to move in to put Jerusalem under siege. This is the same Nero who had only a few years earlier blamed the burning of Rome on the Christians and had many Christians tortured and executed for entertainment. However, now things had turned against Nero and he committed suicide in 68 AD. As a result, Vespasian had to return to Rome, where he became Emperor after Nero. It was then left to Titus, Vespasian’s son to finish the job in Jerusalem, which he did when he defeated the Jewish freedom fighters and destroyed the Temple for all time. Later on, Titus would become Emperor, and was later followed by his younger brother Domitian.
5. Imagine all this on national television! … and it sort of puts modern day politics in some perspective.
But, there is more, Domitian went on to be just as bad as Nero. And eventually he had the Roman Senate proclaim him Dominus et Deus … (Lord and God).
Most scholars believe that the symbol of the “beast from the sea” in Revelations 13 – “who has the power of Satan and who has a blasphemous name upon his heads” is none other than Domitian. In fact, there were widespread rumors that Domitian was actually the evil Nero come back to life!
Is this the kind of Emperor that one should honor and obey? And what is really going on with all this madness a-foot?
Early Christians must have wondered? And, suddenly, the trouble they had been having with the Jews … seemed small in comparison to the great evil … represented by Rome itself.
6. Now suppose you are one of those who are persecuted. Suppose, you have been exiled to the island of Patmos, off the coast of Asia Minor … in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea. And suppose you now have plenty of time to meditate about what is going on … and in the midst of this … you have a powerful revelation … from God.
And it all becomes clear to you … that the end of the world is not far off … and that the cataclysmic battle … the apocalypse … long discussed by the Jewish prophets … is now at hand. Only, now you are able to put this in a more Christian context.
And what is your purpose … but to offer a powerful message of hope to your Christian friends … in all the churches … that if the persecution continues … it is not to be feared … but rather it is a sign that the end is near … and rather than being frightened into submission … the churches should hold out – even if it means suffering and death.
Because, according to your vision … you have seen that God is going to intervene … Christ will come … there will be a final confrontation … and Satan (ie The Emperor) will be overthrown … and those who hold out will be saved … and, as is written in Revelation 13, there is this powerful warning against accommodating the Emperor:
9A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
Quiet a different message from that in I Peter!
So, what are we to make of this …?
7. I was at Hamline University last Thursday, for a lecture and seminar on the DaVinci Code and the so called Gnostic Gospels and a New Testament professor was there from St. Thomas … and so I asked him about this apparent contradiction.
He said, it has to do with differing circumstances at the time these writings took place. For the one in I Peter has to do with more common sense advice.
For the writer of I Peter is more concerned with the controversy that Christianity had stirred up in the pagan world. His advice, then, is more practical. Christians should be good citizens and not draw on themselves any unneeded criticism. It would be the same as I would admonish all of us to obey the law and be good citizens here in Bemidji or otherwise our church would end up having a bad reputation.
Quite different from living under persecution. So, we have different messages for different circumstances.
8. Now there isn’t time enough to get into all aspects of the entire Book of Revelation – which is one of the most amazing, most misunderstood, and most controversial books in the Bible.
But, as should seem somewhat obvious, the Revelation of John was primarily written to address very timely topics which existed at the end of the first century … and which surrounded the conflict between Christians and the Roman Empire.
We also need to realize that because all apocalyptic writing is visionary and uses extraordinary symbolism … it is very difficult to interpret all the strange images … and metaphors which are used in writings of these kinds …and this has led to all sorts of interpretations.
And, as we know, this has led to countless efforts on the part of modern prophecy preachers to attempt to correlate the Book of Revelation to current events. In fact, nowadays, there is a whole industry of religious books, novels, and now movies designed to show that we are living in the end times – just as foretold the Revelation of John.
9. In fact, because this kind of End of the World prophesying (along with the DaVinci code controversy) seems to be the big item in religious discussion these days … I just purchased for our church a video discussion series on the Book of Revelation which I hope to show in the near future.
Now, for many of you, this emphasis on the book of Revelation may not have been emphasized greatly in the more moderate middle of the road churches like ours – and I suspect for most of us … in our religious upbringing …we paid little attention to the rather obscure book called the Revelation of John.
But, as we know today, the recent evangelical religious revival in America has and is greatly influenced by expectations about the immanent or at least highly likely return of Christ … in our own lifetime.
Add to this, many of the recent natural calamities, the growing environmental crisis, and the possible world wide flu epidemic, and you have all the ingredients for reading into the Bible all kinds of scenarios.
It also, turns out, that every year, in the lectionary cycle of Sunday scripture readings … these are the passages that are the assigned texts for Sundays in late October and November. This is largely, because we are coming to the end of another lectionary yearly cycle. Which will begin all over again after Thanksgiving with the start of Advent? WAIT, did I say Advent? It hardly seems like Christmas, does it … but, there are actually only four more Sundays left … and we will be starting to prepare for the birth of Jesus!
So, I will be returning to the Book of Revelations again in the next few weeks.
10. But, for today, I would like to end by going back to the passage we read this morning … about all the multitudes who are gathered before the throne of God.
This passage is appropriately assigned for this week because on Tuesday it is All Saints or All Souls Day. Let me read it again…from Revelations 7:
9After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
What we have here, regardless of how you interpret the Book of Revelation’s many obscurer symbols and images, is a fairly clear idea that in the end, sometime, beyond all time, in another place … which we call eternity … there will be gathered all people … and it will be a time of rejoicing … and thanksgiving … and this is what we call heaven … In fact, the Book of Revelations is a powerful poetic attempt to describe the undescribable …
And the message of Revelations is that regardless of persecution, suffering, misfortune and all of life’s other vicissitudes … there will be a time beyond time where all the saints … all who are faithful … to God …
Will stand before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. And …
16Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
11. This powerful image of the end-time … is a great metaphor for us today because it underscores how, regardless of circumstance, we are all mortal beings … and our lives are ultimately dependent not on our own doings … but on God’s final word …
For, we must realize that no matter how hard we try … or what we think … we cannot see or fully understand or totally grasp what life is all about through the use of our own minds alone …
It is, therefore, in the face of death … where we are ultimately forced to confront the greatness and timelessness of God … our Creator … and, through faith, we are able to find hope in His revelation in Jesus Christ … and so we share today in the great vision of St. John … in the Book of Revelation as recorded in Chapter 22:
1Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
3No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
That is pretty clear … don’t you think?
12. And so today, we honor those of this congregation who have passed from this life … and who we will join again someday …
And in commemorating their lives … we celebrate our life … and the mysterious sovereign power of God …
Now, while we do not worship these people … as Methodists, in the same way perhaps as some do in other Christian traditions … we do give thanks for them …
For, the reality is that Methodism, like other Protestant traditions, was born in the more modern world …and is therefore unlike the older Catholic tradition, which is why we do not canonize people … like Mother Theresa … and yet we are encouraged to remember and to lift up these great persons … these saints … of the past … who were and are the holy ones …and we are reminded, as is written in Hebrews 12:
1That we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses,
Which allows us: to throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles, and allow ourselves to run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
And, while there were and are, certainly, those persons who have shown exceptional qualities of faith and good works, let us not discount the general idea that all persons of faith are in a way saints … in other words: we are all saints.
And so, I ask you all now, to take time, to pray … as we hold up these persons from our church … and all persons we have known … who have strengthen our faith … and who have given our lives meaning … through their witness to the love and goodness of God
A great cloud of witnesses …
PRAY IN SILENCE.
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