The Making Of A Saint

November 6, 2022 – All Saints’ Sunday

Hope Lutheran Church

Rev. Mary Erickson

Ephesians 1:11-23

The Making of a Saint

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

As we gather this morning in worship, we come bearing our grief. Today we remember and lift up the lives of those departed individuals who have touched our lives with the lasting legacy of love and grace. We lit candles to signify that, despite their passing, their light still shines on in our hearts.

Today is All Saints’ Sunday. On this day we lift up the lives and witness of God’s saints. This annual holiday reminds us of the connection between the great communion of saints. It affirms that we who dwell in this realm and walk as yet by faith are nevertheless still connected to the saints who now dwell in eternity and see God face to face. Their lives still influence us. Their memory bears witness to the faith that sustained them and directed them through challenge and strife.

Who exactly is a saint? We might be short-sighted in our consideration of exactly who qualifies for sainthood. Our preconceived notions may indicate that saints are very, very, very good people. Saints led impeccable lives of faith and service. These superheroes of faith are now commemorated on holy medals. Their lives are emblazoned on holy playing cards, their image illustrated on the front and their holy stats enumerated on the back of the card.

We harbor this image of perfect, flawless individuals. But God’s holy saints comprise a much broader category, and they, thankfully, are as flawed and as vulnerable as you and I!

The author of our reading from Ephesians presents the lasting characteristics of the saints. So let’s consider the making of a saint.

Three times our passage mentions an INHERITANCE. The saints are inheritors. Now, an inheritor doesn’t do anything to receive their inheritance. You don’t earn it, like a paycheck. An inheritance is bestowed upon you, it’s pure gift. This gift is bequeathed to you by the one who selected you to be the recipient of their generosity.

According to Ephesians, we have received an inheritance through Christ. This precious inheritance is nothing less than our redemption as God’s people.

Like any other inheritance, we didn’t do anything to earn or achieve this gift. It was bequeathed to us when Jesus died on his cross. At that moment, we became the inheritors of his testament. All of the riches of his estate became ours: forgiveness of sin, the righteousness of God, life everlasting, blessed peace, the healing of his holy balm.

In his dying, we received our inheritance, we became his heirs of salvation; we became saints.

Though in this life we are still enmeshed by sin, at the same time we are also God’s saints. We are both saint and sinner. The sin doesn’t trump our saintliness. Rather, our sainthood surpasses our sinfulness. The inheritance stands fast.

Christian author and minister Paul Washer made this remark: “I have given Christ countless reasons not to love me. None of them changed his mind.”

Number one, saints are not perfect individuals. Far from it, we are extremely flawed. But our inheritance in Christ has made us saints and bestowed upon us all the treasures of heaven.

The second characteristic we discover about saints is their HOPE. Because of Christ’s redeeming actions, saints journey through life with hope. Each day we dwell in the light of that hope.

• We hope because we know that nothing in heaven or earth that can overcome the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.

• We hope because we know that God is working for good in all things.

• We hope because, although weeping may linger for the night, we know that joy comes in the morning.

• We hope because we know the outcome of all things.

• We hope because we know that in the end, Jesus will sit at the right hand of the Father, and God will be all in all.

This gift of hope allows we saints who walk as yet by faith, to move through each day with confidence in the great future of God.

• Though we’re hard pressed from every side, we’re not crushed.

• We may be perplexed, we may look at our world and wonder what is going on, but we’re not driven to despair.

• We may be wronged and mistreated, but hope is the quality that revives our soul. It allows us to stand up when we’ve been knocked down.

• Hope is the quality which allows God’s saints to keep on keeping on.

God’s saints are INHERITORS of God’s divine gifts. And God’s saints are sustained and strengthened by the enduring quality of HOPE. And lastly, the hope we have in Jesus allows us to grow in LOVE.