Rev. Peter K. Perry
Prescott United Methodist Church
505 West Gurley Street
Prescott, AZ USA 86301
mailto:pkperry@cableone.net
http://www.prescottumc.com
520-717-1688 Home
520-778-1950 Work

Peter’s Letter to the Saints
1 Peter 1:13-16
All Saints Day

(1 Peter 1:13-16) Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline
yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you
when he is revealed. [14] Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the
desires that you formerly had in ignorance. [15] Instead, as he who called
you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; [16] for it is written,
"You shall be holy, for I am holy."

(Leviticus 20:7-8) "'Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the
LORD your God. [8] Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes
you holy.


I recently read the following (in Holy Days and Holidays (Edward M. Deems,
ed., Gale, 1968):

'The first idea I had of heaven was a great city with spires, and a great
many angels, but not one person I knew. Then one of my little brothers died
and then I thought of heaven as a great city, with walls and spires and a
little fellow that I knew. Then a second brother died, then a third and
fourth, then one of my friends died and I began to know a little about it,
but never until I let one of my own children go up into the skies had I any
idea as to what heaven was like. Then the second and the third and the
fourth child was taken away from me, and there came a time when I lived more
with them and with God than here on the earth.' So the best view of heaven
comes to you and me, when we have loved ones in that city of light."

The longer we live the more people we know who dwell in heaven with God. We
think of them as the saints. We remember them with joy, with sorrow, with
hope, with love. And for those who have especially meaningful to us in this
life, we say, "I want to live as they lived." We live in imitation of the
saints who have gone before, who have given us an example to follow. But
there is one example that exceeds all human examples. God calls us to be
holy.

"You shall be holy for I am holy!" When Peter, long ago, was writing to the
churches, this was the reminder he offered up to the people of the church…
"You shall be holy for I am holy!" Peter was actually quoting a passage
from the Old Testament Book of Leviticus… "Consecrate yourselves and be
holy, because I am the LORD your God … who makes you holy." As the young
Christian movement spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, the apostles,
Peter and Paul and others, wrote letters to the churches encouraging them to
walk in the ways of Jesus. The letters are full of practical advice…but
perhaps this is the best such advice: "Be holy as I am holy!" The young
church was in the business of doing two things: Win people to Christ, and
make those people holy. You might consider the entire process as making
saints. Nearly 2000 years have passed, and this is still the business of
the church. Making saints.

Now when we hear the word saint, perhaps we think of football in New
Orleans. Or maybe the old TV show just made into a movie. Or if you grew
up Catholic or Anglican, then maybe you think of Saint. Francis, or Saint
Joan, or Mary or Ignatius or Christopher or Teresa or others among the
canonized saints of the church. . If you grew up Protestant, maybe all you
can conjure up in your mind is good old Saint Nick! But when the writers of
the New Testament letters wrote their letters, they addressed them to the
saints... the churches …the people who followed Christ.

Over the years, we have confused things, and come to believe that the saints
are people who are especially close to God, who have an inside track to
heaven, who do miracles in their spare time and feed birds from their hands,
and die martyrs deaths. But in fact, the biblical understanding of a saint
is one who is called to be holy as God is holy. God says through Peter and
through Moses, "You shall be holy for I am holy!" You shall be my saints.

This week, on Wednesday, the Christian church celebrates All Saints Day.
Most people around here won’t be doing much in the way of celebrating, but
the night before, millions of American children will be trick-or-treating,
dressing up in costumes and hoping for a bag full of goodies. Most of us
have fond memories of Halloween, but in recent years the appropriateness of
the holiday has been questioned in some circles. If you’ve been here before
at this time of year then you know that I am not one of those Christian
preachers who believe that Halloween is the work of the devil. Those who
worship the devil may want to own this holiday, but it is not theirs to
claim. This is a holiday not about death and darkness, but about life and
light. This is a holiday that pokes fun at the devils and demons of our
imaginations. This is a holiday that claims aloud in strident voice that
God’s goodness overcomes every kind of evil. So that when we remember the
saints who have died, we may do so with the firm conviction that they have
indeed gone on to greater things.

For all the saints,
who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus,
be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

This is a day for remembering…

When I was a child, I didn’t spend much time remembering the saints. The
thing I liked best about this time of year was the costumes, the dressing
up, the pretending to be someone I was not. I remember going as a chimney
sweep one year, as a hobo, as an alien, as a monster. One year, my mom went
all out and, with the help of half a dozen cardboard boxes and yards and
yards of aluminum foil, I went as a robot. Dressing up, make-believe, being
someone you are not … this is part of what the Halloween masquerade is about
in our culture today. It is an exercise in imagination. What would it be
like to be a monster? What would it be like to be a fairy princess? What
would it be like to be superman?

The masquerade is healthy, I believe. It is good to exercise our
imaginations, to dream of worlds where dragons breath fire and horses have
wings, and little green men fly about in shiny spaceships, and Hobbits and
Harry Potter are as real as your best friend. Indeed, as children we learn
to confront our fears by doing it first in our imaginations. There is a lot
to fear in our world…random violence, terrorism, injustice and oppression,
greed and the destruction of God’s world. I grew up in a world that was
afraid of nuclear destruction and the specter of communist domination.
Today’s young people grow up afraid of AIDs and the proliferation of guns
and drugs. I suspect that every generation has its dark fears, its
heebie-jeebies, and its worst nightmare.

The fantasy and role-play of our imaginations help us to deal with our fears
and the reality of evil and tragedy throughout our world. We confront our
fears in our imaginations every day. And I believe it is far healthier for
children to laugh at monsters and witches and devils than to live in unholy
fear of them.

Now friends, if we can imagine the worst that can happen to us, why can we
not imagine the best as well? Remember the call of God in the scripture
lesson today, "You shall be holy for I am holy!" Why can we not then "dress
up" as Jesus? Why can we not, in the words of an old hymn, "preach like
Peter and pray like Paul?" Can we live in imitation of the saints, and in
so doing become more holy ourselves?

Can you imagine yourself holy, as God is holy?
Can you imagine yourself serving as Jesus served?
Can you imagine yourself helping to build a world filled with peace and
justice?
Can you imagine allowing the love of neighbor to conquer the fear of
neighbor?
Can you imagine a world where all children are cherished?
Can you envision a world where all people are fed?
Can you see a world where wars are history, and where God is glorified in
all things?
And when this life is done, can you imagine yourself singing God’s praises
in heaven with the saints who have gone before?

It is a holy vision of which I speak today, but it is not a new vision. It
is the vision of the saints. And it is a vision that will come to pass when
all people walk in the light of God’s love, following the footsteps of Jesus
and proclaiming the glory of God with their very lives. It is this vision
that the church seeks to create through the work of the saints. The kingdom
of God, on earth as it is in heaven…

You are the saints, the builders of God’s kingdom. You, who seek to be holy
as God is holy, you are saints!

You may say, "I don’t feel much like a saint. I yelled at my wife today. I
coveted my neighbor’s car yesterday. I forgot to pray last week. I walked
on by the homeless beggar. I gossiped. I used my power to intimidate. I
didn’t speak up when I heard a falsehood. I sinned. I fell short of the
high calling. No, God, I don’t feel much like a saint today." Yet, still
God persists in calling his people saints. Do we bear the name with
discomfort? God seems to know who we are. Do we?

I am one of God’s saints.
Say that with me… "I am one of God’s saints."
Now say it with conviction… "I am one of God’s saints!"

And God says to the saints, "Be ye holy, as I am holy." I believe the
reward is great. I believe that as we live lives in imitation of God in
Christ, as we seek to be holy, we are making the world a better a place, we
are building the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. But more than
that, as we live holy lives, God is preparing a place for us in his heaven.
We cannot know what it is like there… Saint Paul said in a letter to the
saints of Corinth that "eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has the
human heart imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." I don’t
care about streets paved with gold and alabaster buildings and rivers of
jewels…all I know is that God is preparing a place for the saints, for those
who are trying to be holy as God is holy.

One of the questions I get asked all the time about our developing building
plans has to do with the stained glass windows in this sanctuary. People
want to know what’s going to happen to them. For generations, light has
streamed through these windows given in memory of saints now more forgotten
than remembered. And yet the streaming light reminds us that God is here, a
light shining in the darkness of our lives. One of my colleagues likened
sainthood to the light we see in stained glass windows. God’s light shining
through us, brings beauty into our lives and into our world, into our work
and our play and our church. When we strive to be holy, as God is holy, it
is as though we are cleaning the window of our life so that God can be seen
more easily. These windows, just as they do today, will one day in the
not-too-distant future allow God’s light to enter a new sanctuary that will
be built in this place.

And, God willing, our lives will do the same. If we are holy, as God is
holy, then the world will see God in us and through us. God’s kingdom will
come to us and we will come to God’s kingdom. Be ye holy, O saints of God.
Be ye holy, as God is holy. Amen.

Sing "O when the saints"…