Ah, the saints…
In Christianity, “saint” has a wide variety of meanings, depending on the context and denomination, of course!
The original Christian denotation was “any believer” who is “in Christ” and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on earth. The word saint thus would include “all of the baptized.”
By that same line of reasoning it would also exclude any of the non-baptized…but I do not seriously think any real scholar would hold to that belief today…
Saints….are saints…and God makes them all, not we, ourselves…
In Orthodox and Roman Catholic doctrine, all of their faithful deceased in Heaven are considered to be saints, but “some are considered to be “more worthy” of “greater honor,” “emulation, or veneration,” with official ecclesiastical recognition given to some saints by “canonization or glorification.”
The English word “saint” is from the Latin “sanctus,” meaning to sanctify. In the Christian context the word is used to translate the Greek (“hagios”), which is derived from the (“hagiazo”) which means “to set apart”, “to sanctify”, or “to make holy”.
Lutherans were never big on the glorification and the veneration of saints, but at the time of the Reformation – the saints were retained and not discarded. The saints were considered to be important – for our lives of faith.
Luther himself – when almost struck by lightning – prayed and cried out to Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. It was at that time, he prayed, if his life was spared, he would enter the priesthood – which, he later did.
A listing of saints and saint days is not unusual in the Lutheran Church. Praying to the saints however, is another story.
It was felt early on in the reformation process that we need no intercessor, because there is but one, Jesus Christ our Lord. You do not need to pray or go to anyone else first. Jesus is our “go to guy!” We kind – of cut out the middle man!
It was the early church fathers who spoke of the saints as being the “living faithful” who had devoted their lives to God. The early church fathers incidentally did not include the deceased…in their definition of saints!
So as you can tell, when it comes to the saints, the church is all over the board.
It was when I came here – from Mt. Zion, that “all saints” took on special meaning for me and my life.
It was here – that I made the connection that we are all in this thing – “called life” together. And, in a sense, all of us are saints…there are no exceptions…
It was here that I started learning about and actually reading about the lives of some of the saints.
Luther was fond of saying that we are “both sinner and saint, at the same time.” He was correct.
We are all like Heinz 57…there is a little bit of everything thrown into the fray…good and bad.
Can you pray to the saints, of course you can, can you venerate them, of course you can, can you worship them, of course you can.
It was also Martin Luther who also taught and wrote, “A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone.”
We each have our own road to tread…our own conscience to follow. And no one should throw stones at the traveler, while he is on the road!
Because, we are all in this thing, called life — together…
In a very real sense, we are all journeying, and we are all travelers.
Each and every one of us is on the road.
The thing to be mindful of…of course, is where is your road leading you? Are you currently headed in a direction you want to be traveling?
And are those who are traveling with you – are they worthy of the same journey? Are you going with them – or are they going with you? And just where is this journey leading? What is your goal? Where are you headed?
What is important to you? And, at journey’s end, where do you want to end up?
I know this, the journey continues for now…and this is but a momentary respite along the way…
Journey on…