Just Folk Like Me

What makes someone a saint?  Is it a certain set of virtues?  Is it popularity and a reputation that they garnered over the years?  Originally the Church had no formal process for making someone a saint, it was more like a person’s example of godly living gained such a reputation that stories were shared and they were remembered annually on the anniversary of their death.  This is the origin of the calendar of saints that began with the Orthodox Church in the East.  The Roman Catholic West, though, instituted a long, lengthy process to becoming an official saint of the church, including canonization by Church authorities and the attribution of at least two miracles to the would-be saint.  

In the Episcopal Church we have followed the lead of our Orthodox and Roman brothers and sisters.  Our calendar of saints includes many of the same figures as their calendars do, as well as some originals like Florence Li Tim Oi and Jonathan Daniels, but our calendar is regularly changing.  For years we used a resource called Lesser Feasts & Fasts, which had all of our Episcopal saints in it, but because our process of making someone a saint is more like the Orthodox than the Romans, our General Convention added more people to that calendar, which resulted in a new resource called Holy Women, Holy Men being produced in 2009.  Still, even more folks were added after that, and now we have yet another resource for our saints calendar called A Great Cloud of Witnesses.  Basically, we now have a saint for every day in our calendar, and I don't think that’s not a bad thing. 

You can order your copy of A Great Cloud of Witnesses by clicking here .

When I was in seminary the argument was often had that having a saint everyday was, in fact, a bad thing.  The sentiment shared by some was that if we celebrated a saint every single day then we would lose the significance of whatever liturgical season we were in.  I get that, but if we think about sainthood and think about what The Feast of All Saints really means we realize, as that wonderful hymn reminds us, that the saints of God are just folk like me.  Folk like you.  Everyday folk.  Regular folk.  Flawed folk.  Troubled folk.  Redeemed folk.  Beloved folk.  So while A Great Cloud of Witnesses may have a saint for nearly every day, and our calendar of saints in the Episcopal Church continues to grow with every new General Convention, I can appreciate raising up the witness of the saints each day.  Such daily celebrations help us remember that the saints are all around us, everyday people meeting us in the everyday moments of our lives, giving glimpses—even tiny ones—of the astounding love of God. 

If you've read the blog these last three years you've likely noticed that All Saints is one of my favorite feast days of the church year.  I always take a moment on this feast to think of All Saints Episcopal Church, nestled in the southwestern Virginia mountains, the little church that loved and supported me my entire life and sponsored me—and my dad—for ordination.  I love this feast also because it is traditionally a baptism day.  We did not have anyone get baptized at our church on Sunday, which is a first for an All Saints Day during my time here, but that didn't make the day any less special. Around the world new Christians joined the church through the waters of baptism on All Saints, taking their place in that great pantheon of saints.  In the same spirit, reminding ourselves of our place among the saints of God and the connection we have with them through our own baptism, we showered ourselves with those same waters.  Oh yeah, that’s another reason I love this day!

When I get to splash folks with holy water, or when I get to take part in the sacrament of baptism I see something pretty amazing.  I see everyday folks being transformed by the power of God, and in those moments I am reminded that God’s power is made most awesome in the everyday, ordinary moments and people. That makes me think of all the people I have interacted with over the years, folks I may not have had a significant relationship with, but folks who revealed God to me.  I think of Frankie, who ran a bodega on the corner of 9^th Ave. & 20^th St. in New York City.  When I said I was student at the seminary across the street, Frankie told me “I’ll take care of you!”  That was a huge comfort at a difficult time of my life; never mind the fact that Frankie’s bodega was shutting down and would be closed before the end of the semester.  I think of Sam Dotson, a man with cerebral palsy that lived in the nursing home in Wise, VA, and whose passion for God  inspired my whole family. To this day I cannot sing I’ll Fly Away without Sam on my mind and my heart.  I think of Brad Warren, a senior on the Centre College baseball team when I was a freshman, who on a day when I, as a young pitcher, got absolutely rocked in an intrasquad game and was thinking of quitting, said simply, “Keep your head up.”  I think of folks like these and all the other saints that I have met, including those in my church and the surrounding community. 

Sitting in my family pew at All Saints, Norton.

So, I wonder, who do you think of on this solemn Feast of All Saints? Who are the ones who have shown you God’s love and mercy?  Have they gone on into glory, or are they just the regular, everyday folks who, like you, are just trying to make it on their own faith journey?  On Sunday our church wrote down the names of our saints on paper and placed them in the alms basins.  Those names were blessed by God, and earlier this week I spent time praying for all of them.  Some folks chose to hang on to their piece of paper, carrying their saints with them wherever they go.  I wonder what you might do to remember the ones who have been saints in your lives.  

Sometimes I am asked why we Episcopalians pray for the dead, which can sometimes seem counter-intuitive.  The answer is 2-fold:  1) we know that death is not the end, that our lives are merely changed when we die and that we still live in the fullness of God’s glory, and 2) we pray for them because they pray for us.  That’s what saints do.  We pray.  We fight.  We toil.  We live.  We die.  And through it all we pray; after all, the saints are not perfect, they are faithful and prayerful, and they share that faith, those prayers, with others and show them how to be faithful and prayerful themselves.  May we all have the grace to be saints to one another, and may all the saints, who from their labors rest, pray for us.