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November 2, 2003
Sermon title"In Rememberance"
Scripture: John 14:1-6
Reverend Larry Gerber

Unlike "fingerprints," which everyone is born with, we die with soulprints. How deep those soulprints go depends on the depth of our moral character and virtue.

We are celebrating All Saints Day, a day when we celebrate the death date of our Saints.

Do you know who your patron saint is? Maybe you didn't even know that you were born on the "feast day" of Saint Somebody-or-other. "Feast Day" refers to the death date, not the birth date, of a designated saint.

Death dates, rather than birthdays, were celebrated as "feast days" because it was assumed that the saint's birthday into eternity was on this date. Since an excess of 2,000 saints have made it into the official canonical calendar at one time or another, there are more than enough saints to fill every day of the year. It used to be that devout families incorporated the name of the saint on whose feast day their child was born into the child's name. The hope was that since the child shared the saint's name and feast day, this particular saint would take special care of the child.

Saints are called saints because through their lives and often through their deaths, the saints imitated Christ and embodied Christ-like virtues. The popular notion of Christian virtue has had a history as up and down as the saints themselves. The concept of "virtue" has Old Testament roots where it was used to connote ability, efficiency and moral worth. In the New Testament, the Greek "arete" focused on the excellence of a person, including the wonderful deeds such a person could enact. "Virtue" was also derived from the Greek "dynamis," meaning "power" or "influence," especially the healing influence that proceeded from Christ. Spiritual power, excellence, moral worthiness and healing were the original marks of a "virtuous" man or woman of Christ.

But by the 19th century, Victorian culture had exchanged the concept of many Christian virtues for a life of virtue. In this designation, virtue became conscientious rule-following instead of a commitment to empowered moral worthiness. The virtuous saints of Christian history did things for the sake of Christ -- loved, taught, witnessed, and most notably, died a martyr's death because of their "commitment." By contrast, the "virtuous" Victorians of the 19th-century did not do things -- they didn't smoke, drink, dance, swear, gamble, lie, cheat or steal because these went against the rules.

Perhaps it's because we've now fallen so far away from Victorian standards of virtue that there is a renewed interest in the whole notion of virtues. Former Secretary of Education and self-proclaimed social critic William J. Bennett published a work entitled The Book of Virtues (New York: Simon & Schuster Trade, 1993). This wonderful collection of writings on virtues and moral character comes from the pens of some of the most "virtuous" (albeit sometimes unvirtuous) men and women throughout history. Who would have thought that in the 1990s a book about virtues would become a best-seller?

Character is what creates the unique fingerprint of our soul. A well-developed character is identified by the ruts and contours that are traced onto its surface. Ever wonder why a smooth, conscience-free con-artist is called a "slick character"? It is because he has no character, no guiding virtues etched onto his spirit.

Instead of smoothing out the contours of our characters, we need to conscientiously commit ourselves to deepening the grooves. Our souls should be deeply scratched by the gouged clefts and valleys of our characters. It takes a lifetime of experiences to create such a rutted and rocky masterpiece. The fingerprint of the soul is something we are not born with, but it is most certainly something we die with.

That is why Jesus said: "I go now to prepare a place for you, that where I am you will be also". Jesus had pruned his disciples to be like him, to follow his ways. He had put his fingerprint of the soul upon them. His job was to prepare them for the way of the cross, and the way through the cross into eternity. Jesus was building the character of His disciples. He thought that they understood where he was going: "You know the way where I am going>" Thomas: "We do not know the way. We do not know where you are going.." The disciples were not as learned as Jesus had thought.

About ten years ago,Ysenda Maxtone Graham was given a 10,000 pound advance to travel around England and study the state of Anglican churches of that time. In her final report, which she entitled The Church Hesitant (1993), she makes a salient distinction between "niceness" and "goodness."

In The Church of England, she observed, there is a great deal of goodness and a great deal of niceness. They need to be distinguished. Sometimes the good- ness is hidden behind off-putting elements such as coldness and bad temper. My heroes, she said, generally have something unattractive about them. (Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Church Hesitant [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1993]: 25.)

Paul's message to the Roman church claims that it is through endurance, character and hope that we synergize God's love in us. It is God's love "poured into our hearts" (Romans 5:5) that is both the starting gate and the finishing line of a virtuous life. And it is the desire to make that love available to all the world that keeps deepening the grooves of faith so that we end up with strong fingerprints -- of the soul.

As we prepare to partake of the elements representing the body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, let us be reminded that he has put his fingerprint of the soul upon us. On this, All Saints Sunday, let us be reminded that many people were indoctrinated into sainthood for their good deeds, while others were given saithood for abstaining from bad deeds. As we remember those who have gone before us, let us also remember whose we are, and who has placed the fingerprint of the soul upon us, as well as the responsibility that goes with His blessing.

Let us pray The Prayer of Humble Access which is printed in your bulletin.....

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766