RVCC Pastor's Sermon

Sermon - November 04, 2007

“Saints From A To Z”

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Matthew 5:1-12

First comes Agnes, then Blaise, then Cecilia, Dominic, Egbert of Northumbria, and Francis. Then we have George, Hyacintha Mariscotti, Ignatius of Antioch, Jude, Kevin of Glendalough, Lucy, Marguerite D’Youville, Nicholas, Oswald of Northumbria, and Patrick. Finally we finish out with Quentin, Raphael of Brooklyn, Sebastian, Theresa of Avila, Ursula, Veronica, Wolfeius, Xanthippe, Yrieix, and Zosimus. There we have it - a saint for every letter of the alphabet. Throughout the history of Christendom, we find thousands of them.

They are ancient and modern, men and women, virgins and martyrs. They are said to intercede for us in hopeless causes and bless our throats, lest we swallow a fish bone.

In their lifetimes, they ministered in one way or another to the poor and the sick. One of them wiped the face of Jesus as he carried his cross. Another slew dragons, and yet another spirited all the snakes out of Ireland.

One was singing the psalms when he converted to Christianity, and a dove came down and flew around him. Though he tried to shoo it away, the dove stayed above his head for thirty days. Annoying perhaps, but, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, the stuff which can be the deciding factor when it comes to sainthood.

There is a feast day to honor hundreds of the best known ones – and lots of the little known ones too. And then, there is All-Saints’ Day, which in concept has been around since at least the 3rd century – if not longer.

And lest you be misled, according to Louis Tarsitano, All-Saints’ Day was not originally a day to honor human beings but rather a day to honor God and to remember all those who had been empowered by God’s gift of grace to make a difference in the world.

On All-Saints’ Day, the litany of names is long, for it is the day to honor all the saints too minor to have their own day but whom God still blesses, those who are the little beacons of light in the darkness of our world.

All Saints’ Day honors the little gifts from God - the ones we personally know to be poor in spirit, the meek and humble ones, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and really want to do what God requires, those who are merciful, the peacemakers.

According to Dianne Bergant, on All-Saint’s Day, “we celebrate the lives of all those who have gone before us and have tried to live with integrity. Some of them, like Agnes or Francis of Assisi, are known to the entire church. Most of them are hidden in obscurity, known only to those who were in some way touched by their lives.”

In a sense, All-Saints’ Day is for the rest of us, we who, in our own ways, have put the Gospel message first in our lives – and because of that choice have made all the difference to someone, somewhere.

And again, lest we be misled and conclude that no, that is not us, that is not anyone we know, remember this: saints are not perfect people – far from it. After all, St. Peter was inconsistent, and St. Paul was a bit on the arrogant side. Saints John and James had trouble with humility; they were the ones who jostled over who should sit at the right hand of Jesus. But, in spite of their quirks and imperfections, they all had something about them worth remembering and worth imitating.

When you come right down to it, saints are really ordinary Christians who do ordinary things extraordinarily well. In the end, saints know something profound about love – about loving God and loving the world, something that all of us realize in our hearts but do not always act upon.

Every community has its saints, and the Raymond Village Community Church (United Church of Christ) is no exception. We have a long line of pastors, some who ministered for years, and others for a short time – from William Twomey, our first pastor to Hilda Ives who forged a bond among area churches, forming the Presumpscot Union Parish, and on down to even me. I am humbled to think of myself as part of a history of men and women who called RVCC not only their spiritual, but also their pastoral, home.

In addition, we have been blessed by lay individuals and families who built up this community of faith. There was the Ladies’ Mite Society who got the money together in the first place, (all $2000+) of it, for a building, a church home.

There was the Plummer Family, dedicated and loyal to RVCC for generations – right down to Ernie Allen whom we just honored as an Elder. Look at the plaques throughout our building, and you will find several dedicated to the Plummer Family contributions.

Bruce Peavey wrote to me this past week about the long history the Morton Family in this church. He mentioned Harold Morton, born in 1879, and active in the church for over 50 years. Bruce described him as “a very gentle man who sang in the choir.” Harold’s wife, Doris, attended worship every Sunday and sat in the Morton pew. Bruce noted that she was “a wonderful woman and always found something good in everyone,” as was her daughter, Sharon, Bruce’s wife.

What an impressive, courageous, empowering, humbling – saintly – legacy has been handed down to us, we who are the current crop of saints and saints-in-training at RVCC. That is what St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, you know: that all of us are saints, that God has given each one of us the capacity to love and to serve and minister in Christ’s name.

OK, I agree that it is well nigh impossible to see ourselves memorialized some day in a stained glass window with one of those soup plate haloes behind our heads like the big time saints with their own feast days, the Judes and Blaises and Pauls and Marguerites and Ursulas and Agnuses.

However, Paul says that God has given each one of us the stuff from which saints are made. And God has given us a most impressive legacy to model through the ones who have gone before us here in this church.

And then last, but certainly not least, are the littlest of saints, the ones perhaps known only to us: an aunt, a cousin, a grandfather, a brother, a mom, a dad – a special person whose way of living in some way changed our way of living.

On All Saint’s Day, we are particularly mindful of those like that who passed away in 2007. And so we remember those in our extended church family who died this year, leaving us cherished memories and a powerful legacy – and we light a candle for each one of them:

Lois H. Gilman – Grammy, gracious. Dale Gilman’s mother, so proud of her family and all the accomplishments of her grandchildren, her husband’s dedicated and untiring caregiver in his final years, high school teacher fondly known as the “supreme ruler” and who amazed her students by being able to go all day without losing the crease in her slacks and with her blouse tucked in and wrinkle free. Always, always a lady.

Edward Godfrey – Pauline Cadotte’s brother, a WWII veteran, more than a decade older than Pauline and so when they were younger, their paths seldom crossed. In many ways, they lost each other until about 15 years ago. When they rediscovered one another, Pauline also discovered his kindness and generosity, his willingness to help financially, and his understanding of the importance of family.

Ernest H. Knight – so much a part of the history of RVCC…where to begin”…Look around the building and grounds….. the weathervane he reinstalled, the chandeliers he electrified, the beautiful murals in the sanctuary he discovered, the huge old spruce trees outside he cut down, the parsonage he paid off, the choir he sang in, the dedication he had when he walked the several miles to church each week rain or shine, across the ice of the lake in the winter, the love for this church and its place in this community, all left for us to read about in his history of the first 100 years of this faith community.

Bertha Stevens – mother of Charlotte Rowe, true matriarch of her family with 7 children, 22 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren. A hard worker, she dedicated her life to her family, instilling in them her strong values, so that they in turn might become loving, kind, and generous people. A strong woman of faith, she taught them all about the importance of family roots in a changing, sometimes confusing world.

Alton Wardwell – Elaine York and Carol Hanley’s father, a man who expressed his faith in all areas of his life and was unashamed to talk about God and God’s gift of grace. He shared his strong beliefs, and also his awe of God’s natural world on guided wilderness trips in the US and Canada. He always rolled up his sleeves to help anyone in need. He was an inspiration to his daughters – and undoubtedly to all who knew him.

And finally - “Blackie” – Kate Cloutier, one of our fourth graders, asked if I would remember her cat on All-Saint’s Day who was put to sleep earlier this week. I figured that if a child both actually read the Sunday insert and took the initiative to seek me out and ask, then I would honor her wish. And anyway, it is said that if we were all as unjudging, loving, and loyal as pets, the world might be a better place.

So….Blackie…. the one who loved to watch the birds and squirrels from the window sill, who slept on Kate’s bed, and always cuddled up to her, warming her in perhaps more ways than one, purring loudly, so very soft.

In the end, saints are simply those who were able to touch us in that special place because they loved and served God and the world. They allowed God to make a difference in their lives, a positive difference, a loving difference.

But do not get me wrong. It is not easy to be a saint. We all know that at times it is hard to love. It is hard to act on faith, hard to even have faith.

It is hard to be a caregiver for years. It is hard to come back into someone’s life after decades of distance. It is hard to insist on family roots and time together when the world is so intent on pulling us apart. It is hard to talk openly and unashamedly about one’s faith. It is hard to work unceasingly and lovingly for the good of a little church in Raymond, Maine.

And yet, down through the ages, people in our own church, in our own community, in our own families have done just those things. That is the legacy that these saints have passed on to us. May we remember them, and may they strengthen us. May we honor them by committing to be like them and to live as if God does truly make a difference to us. And may we trust that we, like the saints before us, have been given the gift of grace, the capacity to be poor in spirit, to be meek and humble, to hunger and thirst after righteousness and really want to do what God requires, to be merciful, to be the peacemakers – to be the stuff from which saints are made.

Sermon - November 04, 2007

“Saints From A To Z”

By Rev. Nancy Foran Matthew 5:1-12

By Rev. Nancy Foran
Matthew 5:1-12