📖 Read
Matthew 10:32–39; Matthew 28:16–20; Hebrews 11:33–12:2
🔎 Focus
“Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 10:32–33 NRSVue
“I believe in…the communion of saints”
The Apostle’s Creed
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,”
Hebrews 12:1
✟ Devotion
In my tradition, we may speak the Apostle’s Creed every so often, but we don’t really process the communion of saints. Part of that (if not almost all of that) is an ignorance and disregard for traditions because too much is tied (in our minds) to the Roman Catholic Church.
Another significant part is the way that life after death is considered. Many traditions and thinking have a clear divide between life on earth and life beyond this one.
Both of these lead us to conclude a more philosophical understanding of the communion of saints than the writers of the Apostle’s Creed understood. Many (if not most) don’t really see, understand, or even believe that the saints are among us. There is no question that some traditions invoke the saints as if they are gods, but the general disregard of the saints is throwing away everything because of a flaw.
Some traditions hold that when we (especially as a church body) worship in the power of the Holy Spirit that we are indeed worshiping with the saints who have died before, because they are with and in Christ. There are some traditions that believe that we are worshiping with the saints to come, as well, for the same reason.
This is not some call to fully transform or change your thinking in regard to saints, but to understand how often saints are not part of our thinking. I’m sure there are one or two churches in my tradition that have a name such as Saint Matthew’s, but generally that is left to the Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and the Anglicans.
Rather than think of a church (for example) named after a saint as something weird, perhaps think of it as a statue of a person. We all know that the statue is not the actual person, but that the statue represents a particular life of impact. So, too, are the saints. Lives of impact.
We often do not see the impact our lives have, from the smile at a stranger, to a laugh with a friend. Yet, there is no person on earth who does not have impact upon the life of another.
When we read some of the stories of saints, we can become overwhelmed by their story, thinking we could never be that way. Yet, saints never called themselves saints and were also overwhelmed by the lives of the saints before them.
Some of the stories seem mystical or magical or even miraculous. Yet, none of these people saw themselves as great, they saw themselves living in the grace of Jesus Christ.
🤔 Reflection
Do you believe that you are living in the grace of Jesus Christ? Why or why not? If so, how? If not, how might your thinking change?
What makes a person a saint to you? How might you develop one or more of those traits in your life?
⏏️ Act
Take some time and search for info on the life of a saint. As many saints have “feast days”, look up the saint for your birthday, or the day you gave your heart to Jesus.
🙏 Prayer
Jesus, through your example and life, you inspired saints to follow you. Holy Spirit, thank you for emboldening the saints of the past, today, and the future. Father God, thank you for your loving embrace of all who are broken in this world, including ourselves. Amen.