God Transforming Us Through The Saints

The Rev. Robert P. Travis

All Saint's Sunday Sermon – 8 and 10:30am Eucharist Services, 

Church of the Ascension, Knoxville TN

RCL Propers for All Saint's Day Year C 11/3/2013

Scripture Text: Daniel 7: 1-3, 15-18, Psalm 149, Ephesians 1:11-23 Luke 6:20-31

Sermon Text

If any of you have been to the healing service on Wednesdays in the past few years,

you know how much I love the Saints,

So I take it as a big honor to get to preach on the day we celebrate all of them!

I am grateful for the Saints that we remember.

Almost as much as I am grateful for the gift of God‘s son, Jesus Christ.

I love that hymn we sang when I was very little,

“I sing a song of the Saints of God,

patient and brave and true,

who toiled and fought and lived and died

for the Lord they loved and knew.”

When I was little, my favorite verse went,

“They loved their lord so dear, so dear,

and his love made them strong;

and they followed the right,

for Jesus’ sake the whole of their good lives long.

And one was a soldier and one was a priest,

and one was slain by a fierce wild beast,

and there’s not any reason no,

not the least, why I shouldn’t be one too.”

Somebody told me a funnier version of that verse

is to switch the words beast and priest,

so that one was slain by a fierce wild priest.

I never found that that funny either.

But I loved that song,

and particularly that verse.

Because as a young boy, I wanted to know,

as most little boys do, how to become a big strong man.

For my part, until I was about 15,

I thought being a soldier was a more likely way to be a big strong man than being a priest.

Because soldiers are accorded such great honor

in our country,

and they certainly have to be strong to do what they do.

I loved war stories

and stories of knights in battle,

I loved playing violent video games

that allowed me to be a virtual soldier,

killing all the bad guys.

But one of the saints in my life as a little boy,

was my grandmother.

Perhaps some of you have a grandmother that you think of,

as sort of a saint.

My grandmother was a strong woman,

of viking blood she would say,

She was strong, and sometimes fierce,

but she loved Jesus,

and served Him in her methodist church until she died.

She taught me to pray the Lord’s Prayer,

and she used to read me bible stories.

I being a war-loving boy, always wanted her to read to me some Old Testament Stories,

particularly the story of Samson and Delilah

was my favorite.

And she would say to me, when I was about 7,

“Now Robert, that story is quite violent, couldn’t we read another story?” But I said no, that was the story I wanted to hear, and she loved me so much that she would read that story to me over and over again.

And by the time I was 15, I had a dream,

that one day I would go to the Airforce Academy,

and become a fighter pilot.

Today I want to tell you how God

transformed that vision for me,

and changed me into pursuing a different kind of strength.

Now what Jesus is describing for us in the beatitudes we heard from the Gospel of Luke

could easily be described as ways to become a saint.

Focus on the blessed things and avoid the woes,

and you will head on the path to sanctification.

Many saints in the past have done that,

and decided that, for example, that taking a vow of poverty will lead to greater sanctification.

I’m not sure I’m ready to be that kind of saint,

and actually I relate more,

and am a little more scared by the woe to you passages.

But what Jesus does after setting out the blessings and woes,

is give some pretty strong commandments,

which I think we can all agree, lead to saintly living,

if we could but follow them.

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also;

and from anyone who takes away your coat

do not withhold even your shirt.

Give to everyone who begs from you;

and if anyone takes away your goods,

do not ask for them again.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

These are the ethical commands that Jesus is asking us to follow, if we want to be his disciples.

But to follow any of them, much less all of them,

I think we all know that transformation has to take place.

Let me tell you a story about a time in which Jesus directly taught me the meaning of one of these commands.

I liked playing sports as a child,

and as a young teenager, I was fencing,

swimming, playing tennis, horseback riding, skiing and cycling among other things. As you can imagine,

with all of those sports I wasn’t very good at any of them,

but they were fun.

And I played on the men’s tennis team in my school.

I was not cool, and for plenty of reasons I had had bullies pick on me in the past.

But this one day during tennis practice,

a boy named Greg started making fun of me,

and even hitting balls directly at me,

really trying to pick a fight.

I wasn’t having it, and so I returned insult for insult.

And naturally that just made him madder.

When we were heading into the locker room after practice he threatened me.

He said “Rob, if you step one foot in that locker room,

I’ll deck you.”

I decided I was not going to kow tow to this bully,

and so I boldly strode into the locker room,

and deftly stepped aside as he tried to run me down.

I dodged him and he slammed himself against the wall.

The fight, as you can imagine, only heated up

because of my move,

and I quickly found myself face to face with a furious, red-faced knucklehead.

I knew I did not want to fight,

because we had strict anti-fighting rules in school

and if I fought him, he and I both would be suspended.

But I also did not want to back down and be labelled a wimp.

My back was to the wall of lockers.

He began punching me in the chest

as his friends and mine circled around to watch.

I just folded my arms and did not hit back.

He kept yelling at me to hit back,

calling me every name in the book.

And I told him I was not going to give him

the fight he wanted.

My adrenaline was pumping,

and I knew I could hit him really hard if I wanted to,

but I just stood there and took his blows,

and wondered how it would end.

All of a sudden, he slapped me on the cheek.

And at that moment everything slowed down for me,

I was reminded,

and I have to believe it was the Holy Spirit reminding me,

of Jesus’ commandment to turn the other cheek.

So I smiled, and turned the other cheek to him.

He looked shocked, but just got angrier.

He proceded to slap me back and forth on each cheek,

as I continued to stand my ground and tell him I was not going to give him the fight that he wanted.

Finally he backed down,

and threatened to kill me the next time he saw me.

I told him that even if he killed me,

he would not win,

because I was not going to fight him.

He knew the street rules of fighting,

as someone must have told him it’s cowardly to beat up someone who won’t fight you.

And I knew the rules of the school

and that they were there for student’s protection.

Later he got suspended, and I did not, because witnesses, both my friends and his convinced the baffled vice-principal that I actually did not fight.

As I left the locker room I heard people saying things like “he was like Martin Luther King, he was like Gandhi,

and I think even one person said, he was like Jesus.”

That just blew me away,

and humbled me because I knew

I was not like those great men,

and certainly not like God in the flesh,

but I realized that my actions

had become a witness for peace.

I made it to the car where my dad was waiting to pick me up, shaking still from the adrenaline that had not been released,

and broke down in tears only after the car door closed.

My dad, also one of the living saints in my book,

asked me what happened, and I told him the whole story. When I said,

“Dad, I did what I learned in church. I did what Jesus said to do, I turned the other cheek, but it just made him angrier,” My dad said “Rob, I’m so proud of you. But remember St. Paul says, that when you turn the other cheek you will be heaping hot coals on their heads.”

I said, “Dad, nobody taught me that part!”

The thing is, that experience changed me,

it started to change me then,

and it has been transforming me ever since then.

And that is what happens,

when we really try to live Jesus’ commands.

Much like Fr. Brett was talking about last week. Transformation is part of the deal when it comes to becoming a follower of Jesus.

I thought about the implications of my actions,

and started studying The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,

and Gandhi.

I realized in my own little way a little of the great power that non-violent resistance can offer.

And I started to become a lover of peace.

Becoming a lover of peace,

meant that I had to give up some of the plans I had been holding on to.

Just a few months later I gave up my dream

of going to the Air Force Academy

and becoming a fighter pilot,

because I knew I could not pursue peace and non-violence, and be in a profession in which my job was to kill people.

Now some might say that God killed that dream,

but I don’t look at it that way.

I look at it that God had a better dream in store for me.

And he has been teaching me more and more what it means to turn the other cheek since then.

I can’t wait to see what God’s dream of peace

will mean for me as I continue to follow him.

One of the best things that resulted from my new commitment to follow Jesus in peace,

was that at Columbia College I got to volunteer with an organization called Peace Games that taught elementary school kids in the New York City public schools how to de-escalate fights and use non-violence to resist bullies.

And this whole experience has made me have a deep appreciation in my Christian faith,

no a reverence

for those saints who advocate peace,

like St. Francis of Assisi,

and The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

And I can hear my grandmother warning me that the story of Samson and Delilah was too violent,

and I realize God was working through the saints in my life, to bring about that transformation long before that fight which would drive home the teaching

he wanted me to learn.

So who are some of your favorite Saints?

Which of these commands of Jesus

or virtues do they exemplify for you?

And what kind of transformation do you think

that means God is calling you to make in your life?

The answers are right there in our hearts,

and in our experiences,

and we all know saints who can show us the way

to that holy transformation.

For, “they lived not only in ages past, there are hundreds of thousands still, the world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will. . . for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.”

Amen