SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON November 7th 2010

                          

Book of Common Prayer - Preface for All Saints’ Day:

 “Who, in the multitude of thy saints, hast compassed us about with

so great a cloud of witnesses.”

 

The Preface above echoes Hebrews 12:1, which states, “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.”

 

All Saints’ Day.  Twelve months ago we had the privilege of the debut of Robert McLeod’s Tune for Hark the Sound of Holy Voices, which we will sing again today.  Since then we’ve also experienced Ron Gillis’ talent of composing tunes, including the composition of the hymn that I introduced to All Saints’, King of Kings and Lord of Glory.  So today I thought I’d throw out a challenge to both Bob and Ron - to write a new tune for a song I remember from my youth.  Perhaps, you all might know it:

 

Born on a mountain top in Tennessee. 

Greenest state in the land of the free. 

Raised in the woods so he knew every tree.

Killed himself a bear when he was only three.

 

Davey, Davey Crocket, king of the wild frontier.

Davey, Davey Crocket, king of the wild frontier.

 

Believe it or not, Davey Crocket’s fame extended to Australia in the 1950’s, when I was growing up.  He became my first American Hero, thanks to movies and a television series.  Unfortunately, my parents never bought me a coonskin hat! 

 

Now you’re saying, we can’t possibly change that tune!!  More than likely, you are also wondering, what Davey Crocket has to do with All Saints’ Day?  He certainly can’t fit into the hymn, I sing a song of the saints of God.

 

Please excuse me if I tell you a bit of American History about Davey Crocket. Davey Crocket was born in Tennessee in 1786. He died at the battle of Alamo, and he became a larger-than-life figure.  He was a sharpshooter, but I doubt he killed a bear when he was only three!  He became a member of the state legislature.  He was a real person. We know him, of course, through the legends, through the songs, and through movies.  And there are lots of legends about him.

 

We do that will all our heroes. And that’s what we do with the saints, too.  We can find fantastic legends about some of the saints of God.  Apart from Mary, who is entitled Queen of the saints, the saints were real people, just like you and I.  Perhaps, they lived lives just like us.

These people became saints because they were better Christians than us.  Maybe they found it difficult to pray, or come to church, like us - but at the end of their lives, the Church looked upon them and said. ‘These were great men and women who showed us the holiness of God.’  They showed that by their deeds, or by their words, or by their lives.

 

I have a number of saints who are my heroes.  One of mine is St. Maximilian Kolbe. He was a Polish Franciscan taken to Auschwitz by the Nazis in 1941.  One day there was an escape from the concentration camp, and as a result the guards rounded up all the men, including Maximilian Kolbe.  They decided to make an example, by choosing one of them to go to the gas chamber.  The man they choose was a Jewish man with a family.  Father Kolbe protested to the guards, and said, “This man has a family; take me instead.”  They did, and he died at the age of 47.

 

In 1982 Maximilian Kolbe was canonized by Pope John Paul II.  Present at the ceremony at St. Peters in Rome was that same Jewish man, who’s life Maximilian Kolbe had saved.  Father Kolbe was a witness to Christ in that death camp. He witnessed to the dignity of life in that most awful of places. He was a witness to love and life in the most appalling circumstances.  In his own body, he was a witness to Christ’s sacrifice.  In the words of Hebrew 12:1, Maximilian Kolbe was a witness, who was surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses in that concentration camp. 

 

Also killed in Auschwitz was a young Jewish writer named Etty Hillesun.  She was a writer, and on the train to Auschwitz she scribbled a few last notes to friends, some of which have survived.  In one note, she said these amazing words: “Someone has to take responsibility for God in this situation; that is, someone has to behave as if God were real.  Someone has to make God credible by the way they meet life and death."

 

"To make God credible.”  Etty Hillesun did that by her life and by her death.  She was a witness to God, surrounded by witnesses, making God real and credible.

 

When we celebrate All Saints’ Day, we celebrate all those men and women of every age who have witnessed to the credibility and the reality of God.  Who, in the words of Etty Hillesun, have made God real by how they lived, and in many cases, by how they died.

 

The first saints recognized by the Church were those who died in the Roman persecutions. Martyrs, we call them.  The word martyr means to witness. Pray God that we may not be called to witness to our faith by martyrdom.  What we are called to do is make God credible by how we live, and what we say.

 

There is another point to what the writer of Hebrews is saying, “Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.”  He is referring to all the saints that have gone before us, the saints who are in glory in heaven. There they rejoice with Christ, but they still surround us here on earth. Not physically, of course, though there have been visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The saints surround us spiritually and prayerfully.  The saints have run their race and now they cheer us on to the finishing line of the Christian race.  They don’t just cheer us on - they will us to win. 

 

Think about the World Series.  The San Francisco Giants fans were willing their team to win and they did!   Now, all those fans rejoice.  It’s the same with the saints.  They will us to win the race, and they rejoice with us at the victory that awaits us in heaven. 

 

Like Davey Crocket, the saints are real people, as well as being legendary.  So we know that they know what it’s like for us to run the Christian race. 

 

So on this All Saints’ Sunday, we give thanks to God for all those men and women who have made him credible.  Above all, we give thanks that God has made himself in Christ.

Credible through the life and death of Jesus.

Credible through the great cloud of witnesses, in whom Jesus came alive in their day.

 

Let us give thanks today that not only do the saints inspire us by their lives, but they also assist us with their examples and prayers - so that we, too, may make God credible.