MENTORING
SAINTS
Hebrews
12:1-2
We
are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses...let us run the race that is set
before us...looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
Did you wonder why the hurricane that hit
England on Monday was called St. Jude?
The answer is simple. On Monday,
according to the Catholic calendar of saints, we were meant to celebrate the
festival of St. Jude, one of the lesser known apostles. Jude was a travelling-missionary amongst the
earliest Palestinian Christians, and the author of one of the letters in the
New Testament. For some unknown reason
he later became the patron saint of the desperate, the hopeless and of lost
causes. When all else fails, including
your car insurance after being struck by a fallen tree, St. Jude is your
man! But if we started with hurricane St.
Jude on Monday, we end tomorrow on All Saints Day to make sure we don't forget
any of them. So what are we going to
make of all this stuff about saints, patron saints and saints' days?
It all began in the earliest days of the
church when martyrs for the faith were given a special status as revered
witnesses to Christ. But by Medieval
times, virtually every day was a saint's day, and the veneration of the saints
was getting out of hand. Reformers were
scathing in their criticism not only because some so-called saints were dubious
characters, and others were fictitious, but chiefly because the cult of the
saints detracted from the centrality of Jesus.
Instead of the saints pointing to Jesus they seemed to be attracting all
the attention to themselves. Instead of praying to Jesus in their hour of need,
people turned to the likes of St. Jude when all seemed lost. We are surrounded by a great cloud of
witnesses, so the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, but they do not point to
themselves, they point "to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our
faith" and encourage us to run the race of faith with our eyes fixed on
him. Saints are witnesses to Jesus by their lives,
examples of those who have run the race of faith before us, or are still
running today with us.
But there is more that we should note in
thinking about saints, for we are all included.
In the opening greeting of his letter to the Christians in Rome, Paul
addresses them all as "God's beloved...who are called to be
saints." That is not simply a
formal mode of address, it is a challenge to all believers in Christ to become saints, that
is, witnesses to Jesus. The word
"saint" in the New Testament does not refer to some special
Christians but to all forgiven sinners who have become faithful followers of
Jesus. Real saints are not supermen and or
superwomen, or stained glass images in fancy dress. They are ordinary folk who embody the love
and grace of God and so live lives of compassion and service that can be quite
extraordinary. We have all met saints
like these, some have died but some are still living. and only a
few are officially canonized by the Church. They may not have performed spectacular
miracles, but they have shared their faith and love in Christ with us, which is
a miracle enough. And in doing so they
have become what saints are meant to be -- role models for our lives. So it is surely appropriate that this week we
should recall and honour all those saints who have influenced our lives for
good, and all those who continue to do so.
But also remember that we are called to be saints ourselves, role models
who help others to follow Jesus.
Looking back over the years, I recall
several people who have been role models in my life. Isobel reminded me the other day of Ross
Snyder, one of my professors in Chicago in the early nineteen-sixties. He was a great teacher, a devout Christian, and
a remarkable human being. Throughout my
five student years at University before going to Chicago I had spent much time
listening to lectures, making copious notes and writing innumerable essays and
exams. But Ross's seminars were
different. I remember the first time I participated
in one which, by design, was confined to a dozen students. Instead of giving us a lecture, Ross asked us
to reflect on the question: "who am I?" and then share our answers
with the class. After jotting down a few
points, starting with my name, where I came from, my age and background, I
suddenly realised that all of these said nothing about me really. But to dig deeper beneath the surface was a very unsettling task, for who was I really,
not just who I appeared to be, or what I wanted others to know about me? Ross knew that learning to know oneself
beneath the surface was the beginning of true knowledge, an essential step in
learning to know others and know God. He knew that education is as much about
personal formation as it is about fact information; that being a Christian was
not simply about knowing the truth, but participating in the truth. Suddenly in that class I realised that I was
not just learning about things for the sake of gathering information or head
knowledge; I was being taken on a life-changing journey. Ross had become my mentoring saint, a role he
continued to play over subsequent years.
In one of his writings, Ross Snyder describes how he understood being a
teacher: "I wish desperately that each student become...a work of art
capable of evoking other works of art."
To be artists of the soul bringing goodness,
truth and beauty to birth in others is what it means to
be a saint.
While travelling in the Eastern Cape
recently, Isobel and I met a man who turned out to be the son of one of the
ministers in our Church who I had briefly known many years ago. He told us that despite the fact that he had
won first prize in a national Sunday School competition, he had become a
prodigal son, turned his back on his father and his faith, and gone off to live
his own life. That turned out to be
something of a failure, but now in his later life he was finding his way back
to a living Christian faith. But his
story reminded me of the many people have gone through Sunday School and
confirmation, or had religious education in school, and yet been turned off
Christianity in the process. They may have won a prize for bible knowledge, but
they had not been helped to become followers of Jesus that made a difference in
their lives. Perhaps there are too few good role models around to really
inspire them.
Knowing about the Bible or what Christians
are meant to believe, does not make us Christians or a better human being. For that we need mentoring saints who help us
discover God's love and grace for ourselves, mentoring saints who provide an
example in pointing us to Christ. And we in turn are called to be mentoring
saints for others, not least those we love the most.
John de Gruchy
Volmoed 31
October 2013
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