“Sun-Catchers”
Text:
Thesis:
Ruth 1:1-18
Saints are those people who let the light of God shine through them
onto others.
One day a little boy and his sister decided to take a walk through the cemetery.
As they were going along, they stopped and read the inscriptions on the different
headstones – "beloved son” – "generous benefactor” – "virtuous wife.” As the
two of them were getting ready to leave the cemetery, the little boy looked at his
sister and asked, "I wonder where they bury the bad people." Good question –
after all, when was the last time you saw a headstone that said: "John Smith,
Rotten Husband"?
There's the saying: "Don't speak ill of the dead." But sometimes we go to the
opposite extreme. We speak of those who died as if they never had any faults.
Today as we celebrate All Saints' Sunday, we give thanks to God for all those
faithful people who have died across the years. But we don't have to pretend
that those people never sinned – in some way, they all did. When we talk about
people being saints, we aren't saying that they were perfect – that they never did
anything wrong. No, when we talk about saints, we are talking about those
people who, when we look at their lives, show us something about what God is
like.
One day a little girl went with her Sunday School class to visit a huge downtown
church. The little girl was in awe of all the beautiful stained glass windows with
the sunlight shining through them. At one point, she asked her teacher who the
people were that she saw pictured there in the windows. The teacher told her
that those were saints. Later, when the little girl got home, she told her family
about all she had seen. And she said: "Today, I learned who the saints are.
They're the people who let the light shine through them."
That little girl is correct – Saints are those people who let the light shine through
them – who let the light of God shine through what they say and do. After all,
what's the main way that we come to learn about God? We learn about God
from people who touch our lives – people like parents and grandparents, Sunday
School teachers and ministers. We learn what God's love is like, as we receive
love from those people. We learn what God's faithfulness is like, as others show
us what it means to be faithful. And that's the job of a saint – to let God's light
flow through them, so that others can get an idea of what God is like. Since all
of our stained glass windows are pictures of Jesus, I want to give you another
image. This morning I’d like to think of a saint as God’s sun-catcher.
Ruth, in our scripture reading, is a sun-catcher. The story begins in a foreign
country called Moab, where a woman named Naomi loses her husband. Shortly
after that, her two sons die, leaving Naomi with no one in the world except her
two daughters-in-law. Ruth is one of those daughters-in-law. Naomi decides to
return home to Israel. So she tells the two women that it would be best if they
returned home to their families. The one daughter-in-law took Naomi’s
suggestion and left. But Ruth said that she would stay with Naomi no matter
what.
What we didn’t read was the rest of the story. The two of them go home to
Bethlehem. Once there, Ruth worked like a dog to care for her mother-in-law –
spending her days out in the fields, gathering up pieces of grain for them to eat.
One day, while Ruth was working in the fields, she met a man named Boaz, who
fell in love with her. Eventually they got married and she gave birth to a son
named Obed. At the very end of the story we learn that Obed became the father
of Jesse...And Jesse became the father of David who was the greatest king in
Israel's history. And David was a direct ancestor of Jesus.
Ruth was a person who let God's light shine through her. By loving and staying
faithful to her mother-in-law in that time of crisis, Ruth shows us something of
what God's love and faithfulness are like. And because Ruth allowed God's light
to shine through her like she did, she became a part of the chain of events that
brought king David and eventually Jesus into the world.
Marianne Cope is a sun-catcher. She grew up in New York, the oldest daughter
of immigrant parents in the 19th century. When her father became ill, she worked
in a factory to support the family. After he died, she continued to help her
mother until the younger children were older. Then at age 24, Marianne finally
got to do what she had always wanted to do – devote her life to poor and
marginal people. She joined the Sisters of St. Francis and quickly displayed her
gifts of compassion and administration, serving in several hospitals.
Eventually she received a desperate call to what is now Hawaii to bring order to
their hospitals where leprosy was an epidemic. Then, when those with leprosy
were banished to Molokai, she went with them, bringing God’s comfort and
compassion to them for 30 years before her own death. This year, Marianne
Cope is among those named by Pope Benedict as an official saint. She let the
light of God shine through her – sacrificing her own health to bring comfort to
those abandoned by the world.
John Wilcox is a sun-catcher. When I was a college student estranged from the
church, he listened as I shared my questions and doubts. He encouraged me to
return to the church and get involved even with my struggles. Through him, I
discovered a community that embraced me and welcomed my service. John
died suddenly almost 20 years ago, and I am thankful he is one of my
sun-catchers.
When we celebrate All Saints' Sunday one of the things we do is we give thanks
for all those people like Ruth and Marianne and John. We give thanks for all
those people who were faithful as best that they were able. Without them, we
wouldn't be who we are today.
But often today we forget about the past. Many people have the attitude that
today is all that matters. We hear about cemeteries that get vandalized,
tombstones getting toppled over and broken. Or what about when we see an old
graveyard that's been neglected and is overgrown with weeds. It says that many
people don't care. They don't care about the past.
On All Saints' Sunday we remember that the past is important. Those who have
died across the years still matter. Because the truth is that they are very much a
part of who we are today. It's like one of my favorite passages in the book of
Hebrews, “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,..” (12:1) This image suggests that
as we live our lives here on earth, it is like we're runners on the track in a
stadium. And all around us in the stands are all those who have gone before us,
cheering us on – rooting for us to be the people that God wants us to be and to
finish our race.
As we celebrate All Saints' Sunday we remember the saints – the sun-catchers –
all those faithful Christians who have let God's light shine through them. We
give thanks for the saints of long ago that we read about in the Bible – saints like
Ruth. We give thanks for the saints who have brought light into the darker
places of life – saints like Marianne. We give thanks for those saints who we
have known in our own lives – especially John Wilcox and Bob Simpson, and
Helen Clark, and Eleanor Kelly.
As we celebrate All Saints’ Sunday we also remember those saints who still live
among us – Who still let God’s light shine through them – Especially Mick
Patterson, Mary Harbison, Nancy Reynolds, Louise Montali, and Layden Wilson.
And as we celebrate All Saints' Sunday we remember how God invites even us to
be saints – sun-catchers – how God invites us to let God’s light shine through
what we say and through what we do. So for all the saints - past, present, and
future - we give thanks to God. AMEN
[Idea and first story from sermon by Ed Bowen, Crafton PC]