Last week here… a big thing was done. Last week we took part in what we understand to be God setting a new direction for this congregation. We have a new statement of what we understand to be God's mission for us here and now. Mount Olive Lutheran Church participated in God working through His people in this place. God has promised us in scripture to work through His people, through His church.
For instance, when a new disciple was needed to replace Judas, God used the actions of His people, the church in Jerusalem, to choose Matthias. When God wanted to evangelize the gentiles, in new regions beyond Judea, He used the church to set aside Paul and Barnabas to go and do that new thing.
When there was controversy regarding what regulations the new Christians who were not Jewish should follow, God used the church, gathered together to hear and talk and pray, God used the church to make known His will.
We trust that as we gather together in the name of Jesus with Him as our head, we trust that God makes His will known through His gathered people. And that is what happened here last week. We trust God has worked in us and through us under the leadership of Jesus Christ, the head of this congregation. We trust that this new direction, is what God has given in our new mission statement;
Sharing Christ, Serving the Community. Say it with me please: Sharing Christ, Serving the Community. Say it again, Sharing Christ, Serving the Community. This statement will guide us in any decisions we make, in any goals we set and in all that we seek to do in this place. Say it once more, Sharing Christ, Serving the Community.
We want the people of Folsom to know those words and to associate those words with us, with Mount Olive Lutheran Church. We are going to need to get those words out there if they are to know them. Now one little thing I’d like to propose is this. You’re being handed two business cards just two. And between now and next Sunday I’d like you to give those two business cards to two different people who you come across in your weekly doings.
I’ll leave to you as to how best to do that, but find a way to give two business cards with our name and mission statement on it to two different people. I’m not asking you to try and convince anybody of anything. You’re not to try and sell them on any ideas. We just simply want people to know we are here and this is what we stand for, sharing Christ and serving the community.
We are not to think that when we hand this card out, we are trying to talk anybody into Christianity. No we are trying to let them know we at Mount Olive are here to share Christ. Our lives are lived with that in mind. Not to convince anybody of any thing, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. You don’t convert anybody, that not in our mission statement. We are simply showing that Jesus Christ is at work with His saving power in our own lives. 'A saint,' someone has said, 'is someone in whom Christ lives again.'
Today is the Sunday we celebrate all saints day. Now that may sound pretty roman catholic to us protestant folk. But before we dismiss this too quickly especially in light of what has happened here this last week, lets think about what a saint is. How would you describe a saint?
During family devotions, a father asked his children, "What is a saint?" His little daughter remembered the beautiful stained glass windows in her church portraying the Twelve Disciples. She answered her father, "Saints are those people at church that the light shines through."
A saint is a person who lets the light shine through – a person redeemed by the blood of Christ, in whom Christ now lives, who lets Christ's light shine through him or her. Christ provides the light. We simply let His light shine through our lives out onto the dark world around us.
We restrict the meaning of saint too much when we refer the term only to such dead Christians who once led exceptionally holy lives and performed miracles. The Bible speaks of all Christians as sanctified people, as saints. Saint Paul, for example, addresses the Corinthians as follows: "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" (1 Corinthians 1:2 ).
Christians are saints despite the fact that they are still sinners. They are saints – from the Latin word sanctus, which means holy, sanctified, consecrated –not because they are sinless but because by faith in Jesus Christ all their sins are forgiven and God declares them just and holy in His sight. They are sanctified, born again, regenerated, enlightened, and lead a new life in Christ.
"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation," Saint Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Saint Paul also urges those who are declared holy by faith to serve God with holy works in their everyday lives, not to be saved by them but to express their thanks to God. Because God the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, and given us faith, we too are saints.
And we are here to share Christ. We share Christ so that, remember that phrase from a few weeks ago? We share Christ, so that others too may know that they are saints redeemed by the blood of the lamb. A saint is a person, just an ordinary person.
Blasé Pascal has been quoted as saying, There are two kinds of people in the world: (1) saints, who know they are sinners, and (2) sinners, who arrogantly think they are saints. Saints, know that they need a Savior to take away their sins, and sinners, who feel no need for a Savior from sin. These two types of people are all around us and we are simply letting them know that we stand with the all sinners who need the savior, Jesus Christ.
But saints in the classic sense are also known for what they do. And that is like the second part of our mission statement. Serving the community. We serve the community not because we are so civic minded, but because in that way people can know that we are no different than they are and in that way we share with them the need of a savior.
Now this means actual service on our part. And that does mean that we are to be civic minded honestly. We simply don’t hide the fact that in our service to the community we are motivated to do that by the love that Christ has first shown us.
Saints are also known as the children of God, that’s perhaps one reason why the epistle lesson was chosen for today. This lesson declares what we are… children of God. Look at the first verse of that lesson. It says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Children are known to take after their parents. So what does God do that we as His children take after. God loves, so we love. God acts so we too act. We are called the children of God because of God's love for us. We know that we are loved by God for what reason?
Right because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Well that work, that righteousness of Christ is put on us in our baptism and marks as God's own. We’re not of this world anymore, we are marked as ones belonging to God. A saint is just that, a human who is loved by God.
But what they do also marks a person as a saint. Ever heard of saint Ambrose. Look at hymn number 13, savior of the nations come. That hymn was written by saint Ambrose in the late 300’s! The late 300’s and we still sing it today usually around advent which is coming soon. It’s a beautiful hymn of praise to the coming son of God, Jesus Christ. But what do you know about Ambrose? Let me tell you, before he became bishop of Milan he worked in the government. He was a roman prefect and governor of sorts. This guy, whose hymn is in our hymnal was a government employee!
Saint Ambrose served the community. He was well schooled and he was brought up in a Christian home, but he served the public good. Saints do their work on earth for a heavenly reason. Saints do what they do for the sake of love. They are simply people regular people, who are acting on their faith.
Let me tell you about someone else who many people today consider a saint because of what she did. Mother Theresa. A reporter once watched Mother Teresa bind the disgusting wounds of a leper. He whispered to another reporter, "I wouldn't do that for all the money in the world!" Mother Teresa's hearing was better than he thought. She whispered to the reporter: "Neither would I!" She was willing to do anything for the Lord who has so dearly loved her.
What about us here. We’re also to be willing to serve our community with the love that God has first served us. Today we take communion and when we do we proclaim that God's Son, Jesus, has died for us and shed His blood to redeem us. That is the love that God has showed us. And that is the love that motivates us to serve our community.
We believe that God has drawn us together at Mount Olive Lutheran to serve Him at this time and from this place. He has spoken through His church again as we have seen Him do in scripture. Last week was a big thing for us. And it’s not over, in fact it has just begun. We now set off in the direction that we trust God is leading us in, together we are;… … sharing Christ and serving the community.
And this we do in Jesus' name. Amen.