Sunday, November 1, 2026
The Scripture
Matthew 23:1-12
23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’s seat; 3 therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others, for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. 6 They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to have people call them rabbi. 8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers and sisters. 9 And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
9 You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was toward you believers. 11 As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, 12 urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
13 We also constantly give thanks to God for this, that when you received the word of God that you heard from us you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.
The Sermon
Probably most of us know them. The people whose obituaries are long. They list every committee and club to which the person belonged and every office they held. I’ve known some who use this list as a way of letting you know how important they are in the great scheme of life. The longer the list, the better.
And there are those who’ve rubbed shoulders and shaken hands with important, well-known people, been to important places, and done important things. They are often the ones who are quick to let you know this. If you happen to have shaken the hand of a president, they’ll try to one-up you by saying that they’ve shaken the hands of two presidents, or been called by a president by their own name. No matter what you’ve done, they’ve done more.
That’s probably what some of Jesus’ nemeses – the scribes and the Pharisees – were like. Sitting on Moses’ seat. Think of it. Their backsides got to touch the same spot as the backside of Moses. What does that do for them, to have such an honor? For them to know, and for others to know as well.
We are a people who are often impressed by credentials and connections, sometimes to the detriment of the actual qualities that a make a good person. When I was in seminary I had a really good professor who taught Old Testament. She was highly qualified, and she taught Hebrew quite well. But she could be extremely rude and off-putting to people she didn’t like. I found, in my own personal experience, that though she was indeed fair in her grading, she seemed to disregard my presence in groups of people, as though I didn’t exist, until one day I joined a group of people that were pursuing a particular cause that was important to her. Then she was extra-friendly to me. Months later, I saw her at a post-seminary event and was accompanied by another former student who I don’t believe had been very involved in any activities or causes my professor was in. The professor was especially friendly to me, but she completely ignored and shunned the friend I was with. I felt flattered by the professor’s attention, but it also lost its meaning when I observed how she treated my friend. I treasure the things I learned from that professor, but I find it hard to hold high respect for her in some ways because of how she treats those who do not appear worthy of her attention. There are many people in the world like that, and people often go crazy trying to win their approval. It doesn’t always work, and it’s never worth it.
So now we come to the question the sermon title asks. “Who are the saints?” It would be interesting to know personally those who have been named as saints throughout history. Would we have felt affection for and received affection from such persons as St. Mary, mother of Jesus, St. Paul the Apostle, St. Peter the Apostle, St. Francis of Assisi, known for his founding of the Franciscan order of priests and a lover of nature, animals and ecology? How about St. Teresa, also known as Mother Teresa, a servant of the poor in Calcutta, India? What were they like as people to know on a more intimate basis? I’ve heard whispers and accusations that Mother Teresa was not the saint she was touted to be. One might ask as well the question: Did Mary, Paul, Peter, Francis and Teresa and other named saints have any clue that the work they did, and the people they were, yielded them a special status in religious circles, and a place among the well-known servants of God?
We know, based on our reading of 1 Thessalonians, that Paul himself wrestled with the expression of his own faith and even spoke of bragging about how he himself actually lived a life of humility, which I find to be quite a paradox. I myself have known people who proclaim their humility, which makes me think that if a person were truly humble, would they have to tell people that they were? It’s like reaching a point where you want to be considered humble for the reward that it will bring you, not humble because service is a part of who you are, and you give no thought to the idea that it might bring you a special regard in God’s, or anyone else’s, eyes.
I saw a documentary recently on the Dalai Lama. From a Buddhist perspective, he might be regarded as the equivalent of a Christian saint. What goes through his mind when he sits in large auditoriums, cross-legged in his chair, a garment slung across one shoulder with the other arm exposed, and sees hundreds of people there clinging to his every word? How easy it might be for someone like him to think highly of him or herself! And yet, the Dalai Lama is loved because he radiates approachability and an attitude of natural humility. It isn’t something he strives for, it’s just something he lives and is.
And that is who we find are the real saints. On All Saints Day, it’s a good thing to think about. It’s also good to be reminded that Jesus himself addressed people in a way that indicated to them that those who thought highly of themselves in their dress and their ways of lording it over others, were not necessarily considered saintly or especially approved of by God. Oh, they thought they were, and they strove to maintain their status in what they wore and what they expected of others and where they were seen and where they were seated. What a life of performance those particular Pharisees had! It was all for show. People knew this. One might wonder how many others were impressed and attracted into the faith based on the actions and attitudes of those particular Pharisees.
What’s interesting is that though we hear of such men through the lessons we read of about Jesus’ ministry, we don’t know who they are and more than anything else, their names are not listed on the roster of saints.
Those who have been privileged to be named as saints are, for one, the apostle Paul, who in his letter to the Thessalonians that we have had read this morning, speaks of the kind of work he did among the people, which played a part in his being named a saint. First, we know that he spent some time and wrote letters from prison. Not a situation that might lead someone to be named as a privileged saint. According to him, he and his teaching companions lived among the Thessalonians so as not to be a burden, behaving with blameless conduct, and his attitude toward those he taught was that of a loving parent: teaching and encouraging and inviting those new Christians to likewise live a worthy Christian life. These actions were not designed to put the apostle into a Christian hall of fame, but were carried out because of Paul’s love for the people, and because of Paul’s deep love for God.
Do we see such behavior among the Pharisees? Not according to Jesus. The behavior we are shown in their case was that of a group of people for whom performance and appearances were crucial; a never-ending flow of actions on a stage of potential judges watching to discern proper, impressive behavior. Surely there were sincere Pharisees willing to serve God in humble ways, but they were not the ones Jesus was pointing out. And even while listing the ways in which the Pharisees behaved hypocritically, Jesus spoke of himself, yet in the third person, perhaps recognizing himself not as a person to be exalted, but as a vessel of God, gathering the people together as brothers and sisters. Jesus followers, living together as siblings, one not having precedence over the other. He also referred to someone who cared for them in a position of authority, speaking of their having “one Father, the one in heaven,” so that God, who loved God’s people like a parent loves their children, was not held above them as an uncaring authority. And the Messiah, Jesus himself, living as an instructor, a teacher; not as a slave master presiding and commanding at a distance, as were the Pharisees.
And so this leads to the question: “Who are the saints?” The saints are not the Pharisees, or in any way like the Pharisees about whom Jesus was speaking. The saints were those who behaved in the opposite manner, teaching but also practicing and living what they preached. Carrying burdens and lifting them off the backs of the people, rather than tying the people down with heavy expectations. Working alongside the people, rather than expecting the people to do all the work while they ordered people around. Not relying on special costume garb to beg people to notice them and respect their authority. Not flaunting themselves and their importance among people in the marketplace, but just being with the people, like the people, respecting and honoring the people. Jesus himself was the ultimate saint.
Today is All Saints Sunday. We Presbyterians don’t venerate saints much in our denomination, unlike some. Why? Look at the passages for today. Venerating people for their righteousness isn’t necessarily something Jesus promoted, nor does it appear to be done by the Apostle Paul. Those who were later named as saints, such as Mary, Peter, Paul, Francis, and Teresa, we assume did not live their lives in hopes of achieving the title. They lived and worked diligently out of their faith, conducting themselves with as much righteousness as they were able. And it was because of this that they were remembered as special figures in the life of the universal church.
We, too, as Presbyterians, have our own saints. They are the people who have gone on to heaven to be with God, no longer with us in the physical realm. In the two years I’ve been here, I can name several among us who have entered the church triumphant and are clothed in heavenly clothing: Doris Hager, Ken Sickler, Jaci Moore, Nan Banker and Elsie Myers. They are the saints we venerate today. Taking my cues from a Googled definition, to venerate someone is to feel or show them deep respect, reverence, or awe, and we might consider them, as we reflect on their lives among us, to be both human, and in some ways also great, holy or wise. Had we asked them if they believed this of themselves, they would have said, “No way!”, and we ourselves might not see them as saints in the classical sense. Yet saints they were, as they served God in the ways they did, with us and for us, in their own quiet, determined ways. These are the saints we remember. Each one shared his or her gifts in special, unique ways.
Each one also left a spark or two of themselves behind in the memories of this church as a teacher, a leader, an encourager, a witness, a keeper of traditions, as upright people who lived true to the faith, even when being imperfect souls, just like the rest of us. And each one left us with lessons on how to likewise live as saints. For that we are, even in our fumbling, imperfect ways. Some of us will fill the classic description more than others, but we all, through our trust in God, however pure and however flawed, are true saints of God. All of us leave a spark of God and a spark of ourselves in the lives of every person we meet, both here and in the world around us, whether we realize it or not. And most likely, we will not realize it. That is exactly the way it should be. God will show us the blessing of who we are in due time.
So who are the saints? All of those who have gone to be with the Lord before us – our spouses, grandparents, siblings, friends, any of our faithful. Doris, Kenneth, Jaci, Nan and Elsie. Mary and Paul and Peter and Frances and Teresa. And each one of us here in this place. It is a holy place, a holy world, even in the midst of the mess. As we trust in God, and be who God means for us to be in our own wonderful ways, we are saints alive, for heaven’s sake! Let us remember this and celebrate together this day and always. Amen.
Leave a Reply