Welwyn 9.30 Feast of All Saints, 4th November: Daniel 7. 1-3, 15-18: Eph 1. 11-end: Colin Hull

Introduction

Good morning Saints of Welwyn. Are you surprised I should call you that? Well you are All saints and today we celebrate All Saints day (although it was on Thurs). Yes, all of you are saints, as I hope to explain with some references to our readings from Daniel 7 and Ephesians 1.

The saints of the Most High in Daniel

I want first to go back to our OT reading from Daniel. The book is divided into 2parts. Chs 1-6 are stories of a young Jew and his three companions taken into exile and made servants of the King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, (around 597BC) where they face several trials and threats to their lives. They have to remain faithful to God while living in this alien environment, even in the face of death. Daniel is thrown to the lions when he will not do what the king asks and his three friends are cast into a hot furnace. God’s angel saves them because of their faithfulness and as a witness to the king.

Then chs 7-10 record some visions that Daniel has after he prays for deliverance for his people. The content and the background of the stories and visions has led many modern scholars to indicate that the book was probably written several centuries after around 175 BC during the reign of the Greek Seleucid tyrant Antiochus 4th. Antiochus who tried to wipe out the Jewish faith and culture and persecuted those Jews who refused to adopt Greek customs and religion. It is against this background of persecution that Daniel and his friends are seen as heroes, staying true to their God and His Law and Covenant, even in the face of threats to their lives.

Our reading came from the opening vision in ch7. For some odd reason the lectionary reading missed out the whole central section of the vision you will be more familiar with; the Son of Man. In contrast to some weird and horrible beasts, “one like a son of man” is presented before God, “the Ancient of Days”. The power of the beasts is taken away and the Son of Man is given God’s Kingdom to rule. But in part of the reading we did have the meaning of the vision is explained to Daniel.

“The four great beasts are four kingdoms that will arise on the earth. But the Saints of the Most of the High will receive the Kingdom and will possess it forever.

One of the beasts is surely Antiochus 4th and his empire and he is judged by God and his kingdom taken away. Christians often associate the “Son of Man” in Daniel 7 with the risen and ascended Jesus, the original meaning of the Son of Man figure here stands for all the true and faithful people who are resisting Antiochus. It is their faithfulness in the face of persecution that makes them God’s Saints, His Holy ones. In other respects we do see in Jesus a person who is persecuted but raised up with authority by God, hence in his own right He is the truest Saint of the Most High.
But let’s leave that aside today. Today we are considering All Saints of the Most High.

Thinking about us and this persecuted and exaulted figure of the Son of Man, we don’t face persecution in this country but maybe we face greater scepticism over religious faith. Our beliefs may be attacked or ridiculed. The church may be harshly criticised. Is that your experience? Have you ever had to defend your faith or been in a place or situation where you heard others attacking it? How did you feel? Could you answer or did you feel inadequate?

Today, Saints of Welwyn, sometimes we have to face such things. We might in many ways be tested to be true to the Lord who has called us. To show our beliefs are valid and worth everything. Remember we are called with a promise of victory. The Saints are those who may risk all for their Lord.

But let me come back now for the other reason I am calling all of you saints..

The “Haggios” in Ephesians

The letter to the Ephesians, as it is known, may not have been written just for that church.
Several early manuscripts omit the name. It might have been a circular letter to several churches Paul had visited and founded. What we do know of the church of Ephesus was that it was probably a mixed congregation; Jew and Gentile.

The letter begins...

“Paul , an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the Saints who are in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus”

There is that word “saints” addressed to the whole church. The word translated as “saints” is Haggios, that can also be translated as “holy ones”, whose lives are set apart from the world to live for God. The faithful are the “believers” who are bound to Jesus through their faith.

So there you have it, the whole church/churches talked of as Saints. Everyone of them is a Saint through their belief in Jesus as the Messiah/the Christ.

Paul goes on to say that the Saints, including you and me, have been marked out from the beginning, predestined to belong to God. God had a plan for them before he created the world. It was all part of God’s plan in his Grace and Pleasure, to make us part of something wonderful and amazing, to be His and belong to Him. God had the plan all along to create people for His company and help us find salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus. What we have found in Him, by His giving us forgiveness and giving us His Holy Spirit is just a foretaste of many wonderful things to come.

So, to recap so far..

The Daniel passage calls those who are trying to be faithful to God, the Saints of the Most High

Paul calls the whole church the Saints (the Haggios, the Holy ones), who have been drawn into God’s company as part of his eternal plan, and made holy by their belief and trust in Jesus who has died for us all.

So, you will not be a saint someday when you reach some great stage of morality and perfection, you are a saint, just awaiting the completion of the work of Christ in you. While people may do particular deeds that have merited their special memorial, it is not those deeds that have made them saints. Their doing those deeds was because they already were the saints.

So then, what if we are the Saints?

It is because of our faith and our being Saints that so much else follows.
It is the knowledge of who we are in God’s plan that enables us to become better than we are now.

Paul says he prays for the church...

“ I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe”

He goes on to say that the power at work in us is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and that the fullness of Christ’s glory is to be found in His Body, the Church. The church with all it’s Saints is the glory of Christ! That’s right, fullness of the glory of Christ is to be found in the Body of His people. How’s that for a vision to live up to?

In the ordinary day to day struggle we may loose sight of who we are. We may loose our sense of Saintliness and mission. We may loose sight of our being the glory of Jesus on earth. If we forget who we are and what we are called to be then we can just drift along through life as if our faith does not matter or have any affect, other than give us nice feelings. That is why Paul prays to have our eyes opened. That is why he wants us to realise the great inheritance of which we are part of and the glory we are called to. If we daily remind ourselves we are the Saints of Christ then it will affect everything. If we daily remember our calling and being the Saints now, we have the power to live even more as the transformed and transforming people of God.

So if each day you remember that you are already one of His chosen Saints, part of His eternal plan for the world it will keep you growing! Knowing His favour rests on you as one of his Holy Ones, you’ll want to live even more up to that calling and be worthy of it. Yes we need to be grasped afresh each day with the knowledge of our calling and being part of His salvation for the whole world in the Love and Body of Jesus Christ. We need to be daily made even more aware of the great power of Christ’s resurrection in us. As we think about it, we will become involved in it. It will destroy our selfishness and self seeking. It will transform every relationship we have.

Sainthood is not for some elite super-spiritual people to strive for. It’s the realisation that we are already Saints, so be it everyday!

Amen