"Life is a mystery Charlie Brown," says Lucy, "Do you know the answer?" Charlie Brown answers, "Be kind. Don't smoke. Be prompt. Smile a lot. Eat sensibly. Avoid cavities and mark your ballot carefully . . . Avoid too much sun. Send overseas packages early. Love all creatures above and below. Insure your belongings and try to keep the ball low . . ." Before he can get out another platitude, Lucy interrupts: "Hold real still," she says, "because I am going to hit you a very sharp blow upon the nose!"
This is All Saints Day. This is the day we celebrate the lives of special people who have enriched our lives. And like Lucy, we might sigh and say, "It's a mystery," Charlie Brown. "What is a saint anyway?" And Charlie Brown might answer: "Well, a saint is someone who is kind, doesn't smoke, is prompt, smiles a lot, eats sensibly, avoids cavities and marks their ballot carefully . . . Avoids too much sun. Sends overseas packages early. Loves all creatures above and below . . ."
Is that your definition of a saint a nice person who abides by all the rules?
Francis of Assisi bears the title of Saint but according to Mark Galli, in an article in CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Francis wasn't always a nice guy to be around. For example: He had this thing about money: his friars were not to touch it. And he did not mean the "youcantouchmoneybutjustdon'tletitgripyourheart" stuff.
One day a worshiper at the Church of Saint Mary of the Portiuncula, Francis's headquarters, left a coin as an offering at the base of the sanctuary cross. This was a common offering of gratitude to God in that day, but when one of Francis' friars saw the money disturbed by its presence at the cross, or perhaps knowing Francis's revulsion of money he tossed it over to a window sill. When Francis learned the friar had touched money, he did not take the errant brother aside, explain his point of view, and then hug him so as to be sure there were no hard feelings. Instead, Francis rebuked and upbraided the brother. He then commanded him to lift the money from the window sill with his lips, find a pile of donkey dung outside, and with his lips place the coin in the pile.
Was that nice? How could a saint be so nasty? Is he an exception to the larger guild of saints? Actually, when compared to the hundreds of stories of saints that can be culled from the Bible and church history, Francis was merely fulfilling his job description. (1) True saints are never shrinking violets. They are people of action and conviction. They are people who paint outside the lines of accepted practice. They are people who make a lasting impact on the time in which they serve. Let's give some thought to sainthood and determine what kind of people we would need to be if we were to qualify.
FIRST OF ALL, SAINTHOOD IS A LIFESTYLE. It is an alternative lifestyle, we might say. Saints are people who ta ke the teachings of Jesus seriously. Consider our lesson from Matthew's Gospel the socalled Beatitudes. Blessed are the merciful . . . Blessed are the peace makers . . . Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness . . . Blessed are those who are persecuted for my name's sake . . ." There is nothing here about financial security, nothing about classy threads, nothing about driving the right car . . . none of the things the world seeks after. Saints are people who march to a different drummer. People who dare to be different.
A traveler reported a sign on the wall of a restaurant in Wyoming, "If you find your steak tough, walk out quietly. This is no place for weaklings." Sainthood is not for weaklings! (2) Felix Adler put it like this: "The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. (3)
Saints are people we look up to. They are people of integrity who will stand their ground regardless of the standard the world may set.
Though his name might not be wellknown today, in 1972 and 1973 Stan Smith was known throughout the world for being the best of the best in the world of tennis. But many of those who knew of his athletic prowess were unaware that Stan Smith was also a Christian, a gracious, friendly man, and a person of integrity.
Stan Smith was good friends with another man of great character and integrity, Arthur Ashe. One year, Arthur and Stan were competing against one another in the World Champion of Tennis competition. The winner would gain instant fame and a great deal of money. The two men were wellmatched in skill, and the score was tied at match point. Arthur hit a very tricky drop shot that just barely cleared the net. To the crowd's amazement, Stan caught the shot and returned it in time, winning the game. But the umpires were not convinced that Stan had hit a legitimate shot. If the ball were "up," still in play, then Stan won the match. But if the ball had bounced twice before Stan reached it, then his hit was illegitimate, and Arthur won the match. The angle and nature of the shot made it almost impossible to see it clearly. Review of the videotape didn't provide a conclusive answer. Neither the umpire, nor Arthur Ashe had a clear view of the ball. According to the rules of tennis, the umpire asked Stan if the ball had been up when he hit it. He replied that it had been. Stan won. A minor controversy arose over this matter, and Arthur Ashe was asked many times why he had not contested the call in some way. Arthur answered, "If Stan says it was up, it was up." He believed in the integrity of his friend so much that he trusted his honesty in a close situation. (4)
As far as I know Stan Smith is not a candidate for sainthood. But he did bear one of the characteristics. His words and his actions were one. Sainthood is a lifestyle.
Joseph Stowell asked a Russian pastor why he thought Gorbachev lifted the oppression from Christians in the Soviet Union. He replied that the major problem facing the Soviet Union is its faltering economy. Gorbachev reportedly told Russian leaders, "Why do we oppress the very people who do not absent themselves from work, who are not alcoholics, and who give us a productive day's work? We need their strength." After decades of oppression, the light of a persistently righteous community of Christians shone forth and opened the Soviet Union to the gospel. (5) Sainthood is a lifestyle.
SAINTHOOD IS ALSO A LIVING TESTIMONY, a testimony to Christ's place and his presence in our lives.
According to reports from the Associated Press, one of the best selling items in religious bookstores across our nation right now is a simple nylon bracelet with the letters W.W.J.D. embroidered on the fabric. Many stores are selling as many as 2,000 bracelets a week. The $1.50 bracelets are in such demand that their creators are scrambling to handle the demand. What does W.W.J.D. signify? The simple question, "What would Jesus do?" This is the question that is constantly on the lips of every saint: What would Jesus do? This is why saints live an alternative lifestyle. They have a different standard for their lives. Their lives are a living testimony to the Lord whose name they bear.
Dr. Henry Poppen, who spent over forty years as a missionary to China, once told Dr. Robert Schuller of his experience of going to a remote village, where presumably missionaries had never been. There he told the people about Jesus, how he was gentle and kind, and that he was able to forgive easily and loved even those who were unlovable. When Dr. Poppen finished telling them about Jesus, some of the men came to him and said, "We know Jesus! He has been here." "No," said Dr. Poppen. "He lived and died in a country that is far away from here." "No, no," they replied. "He died here. Come. We'll show you his grave." They led him outside the city to a cemetery where they showed him a grave of an American. On the tombstone was the name of a Christian medical doctor, who, all on his own, felt called by Jesus Christ to go there, live there, and die there. The people so admired him that they thought he was Jesus, the very person Dr. Poppen told them about. (6)
Would anyone confuse your life with that of your Lord? Sainthood is a lifestyle; it is a living testimony. And one thing more: SAINTHOOD IS A LEGACY TO THE WORLD. That is, saints have only one reason for walking this earth: That when they have finished their sojourn, the world will be a better place because they have been here. Anthony de Mello, in one of his books, tells of such a man. According to his story, this man was so godly that even the angels rejoiced at the sight of him. But, in spite of his great holiness, he had no notion that he was holy. He just went about his humdrum tasks, diffusing goodness the way flowers unselfconsciously diffuse their fragrance and streetlights their glow. His holiness lay in this that he forgot each person's past and looked at them as they were now, and he looked beyond each person's appearance to the very center of their being, where they were innocent and blameless and too ignorant to know what they were doing. Thus he loved and forgave everyone he met and he saw nothing extraordinary in this, for it was the result of his way of looking at people.
One day an angel said to him, "I have been sent to you by God. Ask for anything you wish and it will be given to you. Would you wish to have the gift of healing?"
"No," said the man, "I'd rather God did the healing himself."
"Would you want to bring sinners back to the path of rightenousness?"
"No," he said, "it is not for me to touch human hearts. That is the work of angels."
"Would you like to be such a model of virtue that people will be drawn to imitate you?"
"No," said the saint, "for that would make me the center of attention."
"What then do you wish for?" asked the angel.
"The grace of God," was the man's reply. "Having that, I have all I desire."
"No, you must ask for some miracle," said the angel, "or one will be forced on you."
"Well, then I shall ask for this: let good be done through me without my being aware of it." So it was decreed that the holy man's shadow would be endowed with healing properties whenever it fell behind him. So everywhere his shadow fell provided he had his back to it the sick were healed, the land became fertile, fountains sprang to life, and color returned to the faces of those who were weighed down by life's sorrow. But the saint knew nothing of this because the attention of people was so centered on the shadow that they forgot about the man. And so his wish that good be done through him and be forgotten was abundantly fulfilled. (7)
This is the saint's reason for living: that the world will be a better place because he or she has been here. So, what is sainthood? Sainthood is a lifestyle, sainthood is a living testimony to Christ's presence in the world, sainthood is a legacy by which the world becomes a better place. And what has this to do with you and me? Just this, every follower of Jesus is called to sainthood. We are called to live merciful lives, peace making lives, lives of integrity and justice and generosity. We may not wear a bracelet that says W.W.J.D., but that is to be our credo, "What would Jesus do?" And we are to leave the world a better place because we have been here.
Author Kurt Vonnegut said something quite profound sometime back in USA TODAY. He wrote: "I got a letter from a woman a while back. She was pregnant, and she wanted to know if I thought it was a mistake to bring a little baby into a world as troubled as this one is. And I replied what made being alive almost worthwhile for me was the saints I met. They could be almost anywhere. By saints I meant people who behaved decently and honorably in societies which were so often obscene. Our own society is very frequently obscene," Vonnegut concludes, "Perhaps many of us . . . regardless of our ages or power or wealth, can be saints for her child to meet."
1. "Saint Nasty," June 17, 1996, pp. 25-28.
2. John Bardsley. Quote is from EMPHASIS, Nov/Dec 1993, p. 21.
3. Quoted in DAILY GUIDEPOSTS (1996).
4. Bob Briner, LAMBS AMONG WOLVES (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), p.124-126.
5. MOODY MONTHLY, October 1990, p. 34.
6. Dr. Robert H. Schuller, REACH OUT FOR NEW LIFE (Garden Grover, CA: The Cathedral Press, 1977 and 1991), pp. 100-101.
7. TAKING FLIGHT (New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1990), pp. 110-111.