To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:2-3
What greater greeting could we have for one another as Christians than “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of my favorite parts of worship that we have here at St Andrew is the ‘Passing of the Peace.” We greet one another, hopefully going somewhere in the sanctuary we don’t haunt every Sunday in order to pass on the peace and joy we have in Christ to another person. The miracle of this simple practice is that no matter how much of God’s Grace and Peace we may give another, we never lose a drop in the giving. In fact, we often move on with more of it than when we started.
How is that possible? How can we receive more than we give? How do we take the five loaves of bread and two fishes worth of God’s Love we have in our pockets and feed thousands? There’s only one answer…It’s a MIRACLE!
What first drew me to St Andrew UMC was the simple fact that you had separate services for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. As a certified traditional worship nerd, I have never warmed to the practice of the “Combo Services” of combining a celebration of Christ’s Last Supper with His disciples with Good Friday celebrations. Those are two separate vibes. Two very distinctive aspects of our Holy Week traditions.
So you can imagine my joy when I actually served a church that also felt thee same way. We went full bore. A traditional Tenebrae (the Latin word for “darkness”) service with the relevant scripture readings; extinguishing candles one by one until there was complete darkness. We “Stripped” the sanctuary, and walked out in silence. The final touch was the “Sealing” of the church. I attached large black ribbons across the outside double doors in the shape of an “X.” Everyone was moved by the solemnity of the worship…save one.
The parsonage was right next to the church itself. And the next morning, I went out to my to get my morning mail when the neighborhood gossip who lived across the street came out to speak with me still dressed in her bathrobe. She excitedly asked, “Who died?”
The answer to that questions is well know by the good folks at St Andrew UMC. It its known. It is lived. It is shared. And that is why the last sainthood I wish to share with is Saint YOU! I suppose I could just say Saint (Fill In the Blank with Your Name).
I don’t claim that we are a perfect congregation. That title will only be earned once The Roll is Called Up Yonder. In the meantime, we do the most we can with whatever we have to build Christ’s Church in our little corner of the Kingdom of God on earth. As such, we are, as Paul tells the Corinthians, those who…”call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”
So what is a “Saint” anyway? Simply those who to those “…who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place…” That means we are never alone. Never have been. Never will be. For we are brothers and sisters in Christ in this congregation. But even more, we share our salvation and our faith with all United Methodists…with all Christians of all denominations everywhere on this planet where we make our home. In being so, we are part of what Paul calls “a cloud of witnesses,” representatives of Christians through the ages past as well as the ages yet to come. And that, my dearest friends, is the formidable place in which we live and serve and love in the Name and Power of Christ. Our Christ Cloud is better than any Cloud Apple could create and it is with us “until the end of the age” just as Jesus promised.
This is what we do. This is who we are. This is also who we can be, strive to be and hope to be. Saints are simply ordinary people who love Christ and who open their hearts and minds and wills to the Holy Spirit. Think of it as “Tag Team Christianity.” Anywhere we go, in any situation in which we find ourselves, good, bad or ugly, that Cloud surrounds us. Help and comfort is just hand slap away. And the result is always miraculous. Maybe we don’t see the miracle immediately, but it is, at the very least, a miracle in the making.
My prayer for all of us is that we take to heart the very real connections we have with all of Christendom. For once we do, who can stand against us. Who is there that cannot be loved. Who is there that will not be touched and changed by seeing Our Lord in the witness we give and live.
Blessings,
Rev Dr Jim McGrath
AKA St Nick Jim
