Saints, Kwame Gordon and Us

Saints are everywhere. In our chapel, we now have an icon of St. Francis and there are pictures and statues of him everywhere in this building. There are pictures of saints or references to saints everywhere in our church and in our culture. You may hear people talking of their “patron saint” which is a saint who has special affinity for that group and its members. For example, St. Francis is the patron saint of many things, but most widely known for being the saint of animals who need rescuing, of the environment, of families and of birds. When one prays, it is said that their prayers are considered more likely to be answered by their patron saint. There is a patron saint for just about anything. There are patron saints for bakers and bikers, for safe driving and for sports, for sore eyes and sore throats, for engineers and scientist, for musicians and for historians, for journalists and for librarians, for prisoners and for peace. There are 17 patron saints for students and 4 patron saints for colleges.

I was talking with my sister, who is not particularly religious at all, on the phone and told her that I had to go because I had to write my sermon. She asked what I was preaching on – and I told her it was All Saints’ Sunday and, so I was preaching on the saints. She said, oh, I have a story for you. My mother-in-law is in the midst of redoing her kitchen and is having a really hard time with the workers and the plans. So, I went online and sent her St. Thomas, the patron saint of builders and construction workers. She emailed me back and said that she had just gotten a $2000 credit on her bill because they ordered too much tile and she owes it all to my sister’s email and St. Thomas.

Why do we celebrate All Saints’ Day? Why do people pay attention to saints? What do saints have to do with us in our lives today?

We celebrate All Saints’ Day because in the early days the Christians were accustomed to celebrating the anniversary of a martyr's death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. They would gather at their graves to witness to the gospel and to commemorate their death. Because there came to be so many days that they were venerating saints and martyrs, they came to join all of them into one feast, which is now known as All Saints’ Day. This is the day that we celebrate, remember and honor all those who have gone before us. It is the day in which we pause and reflect, look back and remember those who have inspired us, those who have led our way, those who have lived lives of faith no matter what the cost. Saints were ordinary people just like us. They were people who lived and died, they had families, went to school, lived in communities, and they had to deal with every day things just like you and I do.

So what makes them saints? Robert Ellsberg says, “The saints are those who, in some partial way, embody - literally incarnate - the challenge of faith in their time and place. In doing so, they open a path that others might follow." Saints are those people who have lived their lives in a way that others are inspired and encouraged by their actions and their faith. One of my favorite authors, Joyce Rupp, says, “I think of “saints” as not only those women and men who have been canonized by the church, but all people whose lives reflect the goodness of God. Saints are not perfect people. They have their faults, and weaknesses, their struggles and difficulties…yet the saints are people of integrity. They have a central focus at the core of their lives [and that is] the love of God.” (Joyce Rupp, Out of the Ordinary, p. 32).

Saints are not just those who are put into a book of Saints, or put onto a calendar. Saints are also those in our own lives that have stirred us to become something greater and to go a little deeper into our lives with God.

Every All Saints’ Day, I carry with me in my heart all those who I know who have died. The list is long and it includes family members, friends and colleagues, and others that I have never met, but that have inspired me through writing, art, music or in how they have lived their lives. This year, I bring with me a young man named Kwame Gordon who was in my youth group in Pasadena. He was 16 years old when died on June 2 of this year as he was shot down in gang violence in Los Angeles. He was not a member of a gang, he was a young man of peace and life and laughter and love who got caught up in something bigger than him. He was quiet, he had lots of friends, he did well in school, and his death was senseless and tragic. His death rocked our community, especially the teens and young adults that had grown up with him. And his death reached farther than just those who had known him. Kids that hadn’t known him, or just knew of him, were hurt and touched by his death too. We had a gathering for all those who wanted to talk about his death and for those who wanted to grieve. What came up for most kids as they were talking and crying was their deep sadness that one of their peers was gone. One of them – had been shot and killed and for what? We talked. We cried. We sat in silence as we thought about Kwame and what he meant to each and every one of us in that room. At the end of the evening, one of the girls said that the best way to remember him and to help this not happen again was to carry his memory with us and to remember who he was and what he stood for in his life. So, we all lit candles before leaving and said aloud what we would remember Kwame for and how he had inspired our lives. As I remember Kwame, I remember his quiet faith and how he served his community in a variety of ways.

In a few moments, during the prayers of the people, there will be silence for you to add names of those who have died in your life. It could be a recent death, it could be a death that happened years ago. I invite you to name aloud those people in your life who have died so that they may be honored and celebrated here, today, in the midst of this community, in the midst of your peers and your faith community.

Whether we like it or not, we transmit the presence of everyone we have ever known because when someone comes into our lives, they become a part of us. I find myself doing things and smiling because it is something my uncle would have done, or that my grandmother inspired me to do, or that my friend Mike taught me. We carry people with us in spirit because they have become a part of our soul. This is how people survive long after they have been gone. So I invite you to honor those who have changed your life just because they were in it. I invite you to name those who have died who have inspired you, given you courage, given you love, given you hope, or given you a gift in your life. The saints are people who help us find our potential and our direction on our journey. Let us honor them today and as our collect said at the beginning of the service, “give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all righteous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.”