I have been reflecting on this sermon since June when I was in OH for the funeral mentioned in the sermon. I love the outdoor columbarium that we put into place at the church I served in OH and to be able to inurn the first person in it was a surprise for me. But, the power of the story comes from the many names in the columbarium in the church I serve currently. What a testimony to the saints who have come before us!
I showed photos of the columbarium in my Time with Young Disciples. the granddaughter of the former minister and his wife who are inurned in the columbarium, recognized it as the place where they are.
We in the Reformed tradition still struggle to articulate or lay claim to who saints are in our tradition.
“A Wall of Saints”, November 3, 2024; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; I Corinthians 1: 1-9
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Introduction:
On my sabbatical, I had a couple of instances where I reverted from sabbatical mode to pastor mode.
One of those times, I officiated at a funeral service back at the church I served in OH. The secretary who had served the church for 30+ years, 17 of which when I was serving there died.
We had been through a lot together at the church and in her own life as she had some medical difficulties through the years, including a bone marrow transplant.
her service was much like one here at St. Andrew, and it led to her cremains being inurned at the outside columbarium at the church.
Although the columbarium had been built about 9 years previously, She was the first person to have her cremains inurned in the columbarium at the church. Somewhat fitting, since she has been the gatekeeper, if you will fo the church for all those years, and she had been there when the columbarium had been built
the fact that the church there has a columbarium is directly related to St. Andrew having a columbarium. After my father died and he was inurned here at St. Andrew, I went back ot eh church I served in OH and told people about how great it was to have a columbarium. For two years or so, no one seemed to be listening, and then a member comes up to me and tells me he has a great idea - the church should have a columbarium!
so they put a committee together, did their research, including getting a copy of the columbarium policy from St. Andrew, and built an outdoor columbarium in a courtyard next to the sanctuary.
Part of the process was selling the niches in the columbarium. Since no one wanted to pick a niche until they could see the columbarium, we implemented a two-step process. First, you bought a niche, and then when the columbarium was bylaw people would pick their niches.
so, we carefully documented the day and time people paid for their niches - not turned in the paperwork, but actually paid.
then, when the columbarium was built and people had time to see how this eight-sided columbarium sat in the courtyard outside the sanctuary, they could pick their spots. They would pick in the order in which they had paid for their niches and each person was given up to a week to make the decision. the picks were public, so when you picked, you could see who had already chosen what niche.
When the process began, it set off all sorts of funny and fascinating conversations.
A couple of people wanted their niches next to friends, so they asked if they could change their mind if their friend picked after them and the niche next ot them was take. Yes, we could do that.
someone wanted to make sure they were on the opposite side of someone else, as far away as possible. I didn’t need to ask about why!
Lots of joking about who was love or below someone else.
the secretary and I learned a lot about relationships in the church and laughed a lot about some fo the comments.
In all those conversations about who was going to be in the columbarium and where, the comment that stuck wiht me was the member who said, “I hope I live long enough to see the names of all those people on their niches. Those are the people who have shaped me.”
Frankly, I thought it was kind of silly at the time.
Until, until I arrived here at St. andrew and went into what is now the prayer room where the columbarium is.
I looked around and saw all the names.
Some of them were People who had shaped and formed me.
some of them I did not know, but others here do
A wall of saints.
Move 1: How do you become a saint?
a. IN the Catholic tradition, there is quite a process to become a saint.
1. Someone has to recommend you because of the extraordinary life of virtue you have lived or some amazing thing you have done.
2. In fact, a person needs to have been part of a miracle of two.
3. The Pope gets to decide who moves further along the process toward sainthood.
4. It takes a long time and the pope can wave some fo the requirements. for instance, if you are martyred, you might not need to have been part of a miracle.
b. IN the reformed tradition, we a have a little different approach to saints.
1. Theologically, the Reformed tradition emphasizes we are saved by grace alone.
2. no one can earn salvation.
cannot do some incredible work to save yourself.
3. Only christ can save a person.
3. In that context, to lift up those who had done some incredible work as saints does not fit theologically.
4. in the Reformed tradition historically and for currently, all believers in Christ would be considered saints because they have been saved by Christ and called to follow him.
5. As Nadia Bolz writes in her book Accidental saints: “it has been my experience that what makes us the saints of God is not our ability to be saintly but rather God’s ability to work through sinners. The title ‘saint’ is always conferred, never earned. Or as the good Saint Paul puts it, ‘For it is God who is at work in your, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13)[Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People, Nadia Bolz-Weber, 16)
6. Like Paul writing to the church in Corinth and telling them “they have been sanctified by Christ and called to be saints.”
c. IN the Reformed tradition, We also emphasize the communion of saints.
1. Communion of saints is the spiritual connection we have with those believers in Christ who have gone before us and those who will come after us.
2. We, of course, acknowledge this when we come to our Lord’s Table and understand that at the Table we are connected with all those who have come before and come after us.
3. This morning, we point to that when we pray over the names of the saints from the community of faith who have died in the past year and toll the bell.
Move 3: After the sermon, we will sing the hymn, “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God.”
a. the lyrics will include a litany of those people who are saints.
1. a doctor, a queen, a soldier a priest to name a few,
2. they meet us in places like church, or shops, or at school, or at tea.
b. any of us, all of us have been saved by Jesus Christ;
Any of us, all of us, have been called to follow Christ;
any of us, all of us have been bound together in Christ.
the saints of the church.
conclusion: Go look at the names on the columbarium niches.
A Sunday school teacher;
a youth leader;
professor who shaped students’ lives
a reading teacher
a builder who built homes and shaped lives
a mother who loved her children and loved all the other children around.
A wall of saints.
a wall of saints
that by the saving grace of Jesus Christ and his call to follow,
you are a part.
