SUNDAY AFTER ALL SAINTS’ DAY - Revelation 7:9-17; Psalm 34:1-10, 22; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12 - A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

Saints and Being Good Stewards of Our Time

INTRODUCTION - What’s a saint?

If you read the New Testament carefully, what you will discover is that a “saint” is a person of faith. Whenever you and I do something faithful, whenever we do something that demonstrates that we are more concerned with what God wants than with what the world thinks, then we are being saints. A saint is not perfect. A saint is not a wimpy person who sits in a room praying all day, afraid to get his or her hands dirty. On the contrary, saints are almost always right in the middle of the action, sticking their necks out for God in some way, doing something that many other people are afraid to do.

THE BEATITUDES AND SAINTS

One look at Jesus’ opening to the Sermon on the Mount, the part that we call the Beatitudes, will confirm this.

Saints usually recognize that their faith is not what it could be, and they admit that to God. That is called being ‘poor in spirit’. (Matthew 5:3)

Saints recognize that the kingdom of God has not been fully realized yet, and a lot of things on earth are not as they should be, and they mourn - their hearts hurt - for any part of the creation that is hurting. People of faith are not in denial. On a deep level, they hurt, because the world hurts. (Matthew 5:4)

Saints do not have an inflated view of themselves, because they know that everything they have - the loved ones in their lives, whatever status or income they have, whatever talents - these have all originated in God. So saints can be authentic and humble at the same time; they can be gentle with themselves and kind to others, because they are okay in their own skin, thanks to who God is and what God has done for them. This is called meekness by Jesus. (Matthew 5:5)

Saints acknowledge their deep hunger and thirst for justice. They don’t just mourn about all the hurt in the world. They try to do something about it. Empowered by the Spirit and by their faith in God, they ask God, “What would you have me do, Lord?” They listen for an answer, and when the answer comes, they respond. They go. They serve. They love. They speak out on behalf of those who have no voice. (Matthew 5:6)

Saints are merciful and loving. They are folks who bring God’s compassion to our world. They serve the sick and dying; they give hope to the lost and the lonely and the depressed by listening and being present with them. They bring meals. When a job needs to be done, they arrive early and leave late. Their actions proceed from love. They know that they are the beloved children of God, and they pass that love on to others. (Matthew 5:7)

Saints try to do things from the right motives, the right intentions. They try to stay close to God’s heart, and let some of God’s heart rub off on them, so that they can be about the more important things in life. They strive to be holy, because they know that holiness has a lot to do with being whole, and being more like God. These are the pure in heart. (Matthew 5:8)

Saints work to bring peace to our world. They understand that there is already way too much violence and war and strife and hatred and prejudice in the world, and that it doesn’t take any effort to just jump into the fray, and add more of the same. They know that it is much more difficult - that it takes much more conviction, perseverance, and courage to work for peace. But they jump into the river and swim upstream anyway, because they follow the Prince of Peace. (Matthew 5:9)

Saints often get ridiculed or even persecuted for doing the right thing - for standing up for the wrong people, for telling the truth when people don’t want to hear it, for leading the charge for change when the majority of people want to maintain the unrighteous status quo. Like I said earlier, saints are people who aren’t afraid to stick out their necks for God in some way, when most other people are afraid to do the right thing, when most other people ridicule or even attack those who stand up for what is right. (Matthew 5:10)

WHAT IS A GREAT SAINT?

What is a really great saint, then? A great saint is someone who is faithful over time, over a very long period of time - like a lifetime. A great saint is someone who is faithful in season and out of season - when being faithful is popular, and when it’s not... when the pendulum in the culture swings toward justice, and when it doesn’t. A great saint finds a way to be faithful no matter what phase of life he or she is going through, no matter what age he or she is. He or she is just as faithful in their 20's as in their 70's or 80's, just as faithful as a single person or as a married or divorced one, just as faithful “before children” as during the child-raising years and after the children have grown up and gone out to find their own way in the world. A great saint tries to be as faithful in the “little things” as in the really big commitments of life. Did I say I’d call that person back? Did I say I’d meet you at 12:15? The great saint tries to keep all those agreements, as well as the big ones, like being faithful to God or to a spouse over a lifetime.

Finally, a great saint is always alert and on the lookout for that moment when God will break onto the scene and change everything. He or she never stops looking or listening or praying or waiting for God to show up, because they know that God does show up to folks who invite God in, that God does show up to those who are paying attention.

STEWARDSHIP OF TIME

And that brings me to the last thing I want to talk about today, which is stewardship of time.

Did you know that in Greek there are two words for time? One is chronos, from which we get our word “chronology”. Chronos is time as we normally think of it - what happened in what order. Chronos is sixty minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year. It is “chronos time” when you and I think about some of our favorite memories, and when they happened - the best thing that happened to me yesterday or last week, the year we had that especially memorable vacation, a graduation year.

The other Greek word for time is kairos. This is the word for time used in the Bible when you hear things like “The time is at hand!” “Kairos time” always has something to do with God’s timing, with God breaking into the world and making everything different. When Jesus began his ministry with the words, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” - the word “time” there is kairos. It’s “kairos time” when Abram encounters God in Haran and gets up and leaves with his family when he hears God say, “Go to the land that I will show you.” When Moses turns aside to see a bush that is burning, but not consumed, and hears God call to him out of the bush, that’s kairos time. It’s the Jews being led on dry land through the Red Sea, and then being given manna from heaven. It’s Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John leaving their nets, and Matthew leaving the tax booth, when Jesus said “Follow me.” It was “kairos time” when Jesus called Lazarus to come forth from the tomb. It was definitely “kairos time” when Paul said “Who are you, Lord?”, when the risen Jesus suddenly appeared to him on the road to Damascus.

It was “kairos time” when you invited God into your life in a new way. It was “kairos time” whenever you took a huge risk of faith and did something that seemed totally crazy - you moved across the country, turned down a job to wait for the right one, said “yes” to marriage, said “yes” to having children, took on a new project or ministry that you didn’t really feel prepared for - but you did it anyway, because you believed with all your heart that it was God who was calling you to do it.

Kairos time has everything to do with God breaking in - in God’s timing, not ours - and changing your present reality.

As you “sit with stewardship” this fall... as you pray about what your commitment to St. Ambrose will be in terms of how you will do your relationships here, how you will offer your time, your talent, your money, and how you will care for the earth, I invite you to take some time to reflect.

Ask yourself: What are my favorite chronos and kairos moments? Are some of them mixed together? For example, maybe your wedding day or the day your children were born strike you as being both a chronos and a kairos moment.

As you reflect on these memories, reflect also on where and how God might be calling you to spend your time during the coming year. Also, in what area of your life are you hoping that God will break in? How can you be more open to God “breaking through” and changing your life forever?

HAVING MORE FUN

I will share with you one new prayer that I am offering up to God for the next twelve months. The prayer goes like this: “Lord, trusting in you, I choose complete abundance in love, faithfulness, money, creativity, giving and receiving appreciation, and having fun.”

I added “having fun” to that prayer because I want to have more fun in my life. If you are not having any fun, even if you’re serving other people or saving the earth, you might want to find another way to serve others, or another way to save the earth. That’s the way I’m seeing it right now. Because when God breaks in, God not only changes things, but God makes things new. God brings hope where there wasn’t any before. God transforms lives and relationships. God brings love and reconciliation where before there was heartache or hatred, and division. God makes the lame to walk and the blind to see. In other words, God makes things fun again!

How will you spend your time over the next twelve months? Are you committed to doing things that usher in the kingdom of God AND that are fun? Are you just going to be content to “put in the time”, or are you going to be standing on tiptoes, looking to see how God is going to break in and do a new thing? Are you only concerned with chronos, or are you also eagerly awaiting those kairos moments?

CONCLUSION

Saints are people of faith. Great saints are people who have been faithful over time, and who stay on the lookout for God, because they know that at any given moment of any given day, God can make time stand still, and show up in ways that change everything. I want to be that kind of saint. What about you?