Story In a small country village in Sicily, there were two brothers, renowned members of the local Mafia.
They were mean, bad and very rich.
No one had a good word to say about them.
Indeed, everyone seemed to have a story about how they had either been cheated or maligned by the brothers.
One day, one of the brothers, Giovanni died.
The surviving brother, Luigi - with a rare touch of conscience felt that something nice should be said about his brother Giovanni at the funeral.
So he went to the local vicar and said:
“I know that folk in the village hate us, you don’t know the half of what we have been up to.
However, I want you to say something nice about at his funeral.
I want you to say that Giovanni was a saint when you preach at his funeral.
If you agree to do that, I‘ll show my gratitude by giving 100,000 Euros towards the repair of the church. And here’s the cheque for the amount.
If you don’t, you’ll be in big trouble with me!”
The vicar thought about it for a minute, agreed and cashed the cheque for 100 thousand Euro.
Word soon got out about the deal.
And a week later, the whole village turned out for the funeral, because everyone wondered what the vicar would say.
After the opening hymns had been sung and the readings had been read, the vicar climbed up into the pulpit and delivered his sermon.
Eyeing Luigi, sitting in the front row, the
Vicar said how evil the pair of them had been.
He went on to say how Giovanni had cheated, not only in business but on his wife, how he had lied and how had had no concern for anyone but himself.
In fact he went on to say what a downright scoundrel Giovanni had been.
After ten minutes of preaching in this vein, the vicar, being a man of his word, ended his sermon by simply saying
"But compared to his brother, Luigi - Giovanni was a saint.
So what is a saint? (Click)
In his letters St Paul referred to followers of Christ – those who received Jesus as their Saviour and Lord- as saints.
Have you ever thought what the term “saint” means?
Did you realise that St. Paul uses the term “saint” a lot in his letters. For example in Romans 1:7 we read:
“To all who in Rome, who are loved by God and called to be saints, Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
So what is a saint?
Well, the term “saint” has a number of meanings.
1. Long suffering (Click)
Someone who is long suffering is called a saint. I am sure you have heard the expression, said about Maddy;
“She was a saint to put up with him so long. “
For some reason the personal pronoun associated with this expression is always female
2. Church’s V.C. (Click)
Others see it as the church’s Victoria Cross – for people who have done something special.
For example, St Thomas a Beckett who was martyred for his faith.
3. Member of the Body of Christ (Click)
But Saint is a biblical term.
The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary gives the biblical
definition of the term “saint” as being One of God’s chosen people, a member of the Christian church.
A saint is someone who is a Christian.
He is someone who has received Jesus (to use Jesus’ own words in Matthew 10:40)
The Bible Commentator RT France makes the telling point when he said that “In Jewish thought a man’s agent is like himself” (Matthew R.T. France p.190)
What a privilege it is to be called to be “saints”.
But what a responsibility!!
Because Christ is judged on what people see of his disciples
The etymology of the word “Saint” derives from the
word “sanctified” – that is set apart for God.
Receiving Christ means more than simply acknowledging that Jesus exists or that he is divine
It means leading a life that is Christ centred
4. So what should a saint do? Click
This morning’s epistle reading from Romans 6 goes to the heart of Christian living.
St Paul writes:
“ do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires”.
4.1 DO NOT SIN (click)
King David did not sin when he first saw Bathsheba naked
He committed adultery in his heart when he looked a SECOND TIME
I call that the sin of the second glance.
What we allow our minds to see will affect how we love our lives.
What is the effect of sin
St Paul in our epistle reading answers it directly and contrasts it with God’s gift to us.
Paul writes:
23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23)
The Christian message is not simply about becoming a Christian.
It is continuing to the end.
The last baptism I had I started my sermon by saying:
This event has nothing to do with BELIEF in GOD.
And paused. I immediately got their attention
It is all about being willing to be a disciple of Jesus.
St James in his epistle tells us the demons believe in God
19 You believe that there is one God. Good!
Even the demons believe that—and shudder. Jas 2:19
St Paul in his last letter writes this to Timothy
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Tim 4:6-8)
Or put in more theological terms – it is not simply about salvation – though of course salvation is vitally important.
It is more. It is also about the process of sanctification.
That is that we consecrate our lives to the will of God
And interestingly the word “sanctification” has the same derivation as the word “saint”.
In other words, we need to become more Christlike.
For sanctification speaks of our wills becoming conformed to the will of God
As Christians God calls us to live differently.
St Paul put the matter like this:
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Rom 6:12-14)
We are not to live our lives in fear of judgement because Jesus has dealt with the penalty of our sin on the Cross.
Rather we are called to live holy lives because we love God and so we will not want to do what God hates. And God hates sin!
It is the motivation that is so important!
How do we do this.
4.2 By spending time with God each day (Click)
We can do this by drawing aside each day
To read our Bible (Click)
By praying (Click)
By listening (Click)
5. Conclusion
The challenge of our readings today is that we need as Christians to WORK on the way we live our lives today (CLICK)
Or put another way work on the sin in our lives –
NOT because of fear of losing our salvation but because as St Paul puts it
“......count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.”(Rom 6:11-12)
As Christians we are called to live a new way of life.
4.2 Spend time with God (Click)
Quite a challenge. Amen
