Leader: Today we gather to remember and give thanks.
People: For those who let the light of God shine through them.
L: For those who taught us about God’s love.
P: For those who shared God’s love with us.
L: For those who loved God and neighbor as self.
P: For those saints in our lives who showed us how to do the same.
L: Today we gather and give thanks and say now in our hearts the names of those saints who come to mind:
(Pause)
L: Thanks be to God.
All: Amen.
Showing posts with label All Saints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label All Saints. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Monday, November 3, 2025
“Obtained an Inheritance” a sermon on Ephesians 1:11-23
Ephesians 1:11-23
“Obtained an Inheritance”
Preached Sunday, November 2, 2025 at Boardman United Methodist Church
Have you ever received an inheritance?
Perhaps for some of us, we have been left money when a family member died. Or perhaps a piece of jewelry or something special to us and our loved one that was passed on to us. Or even something we gave them - I know I have this little glass penguin that I gave to my grandmother when she was alive and now I have it back - and I am reminded of her when I look at it. Some of us, I know, are left with the responsibility of their parents’ or family members’ houses when they die - and that’s a whole other story, less of an inheritance per say and more of a responsibility to care for.
When we think of the word inheritance we think of large sums of money, estates...perhaps we think of the stereotype of spoiled heiresses or we think of crime movies that start with the reading of a will…
On this All Saints Sunday, I would encourage us to realize that we all have received an inheritance worth far more than anything that can be left behind in a will.
First, from those who we have called saints of our lives, we have received all they had to teach us, all the love they had to give us, and all the memories and moments that makes us who we are because of their love for Christ and us. By saints of our lives, I am referring to those people in our lives who we call saints. Not a saintdom decided upon by an institution, not a saintdom based on miracles performed or any other sort of rubric…but a saintdom based on how they loved Christ and how they loved their neighbor and how they loved us while we shared time with them on earth. These are those people who have the opportunity to remember today and give thanks for. These are the people that we will have the opportunity to remember today. To read their names, to light candles…
And to give thanks for them and all that they have given us - the inheritance they passed on to us. Not an inheritance of things but an inheritance of showing us how to live a life of love. Of showing us what it means to follow Christ, what it means to be a saint. Perhaps of how they participated in a local church community. Of how they talked about their faith. Of how they helped those in need. Of how they had love for us and for others. They left us an inheritance of Love - Love for God, love for neighbor, love for us.
I’d like to pause here for a moment to give an opportunity for you to call to mind those saints from whom you have received an inheritance of love. Say their names - in your hearts, outloud, or to your neighbor sitting next to you. Let’s just spend a moment bringing them to our minds with gratitude in our hearts.
That’s one of our inheritances - the inheritance of those who have loved us well. For which we say, thanks be to God!
And secondly, in Christ we have obtained an inheritance far beyond any other!
Our short but very theologically dense passage today from Ephesians uses the word inheritance three times. I’m going to quote from that passage now for the three times it’s used. But Paul is particularly wordy and uses run-on sentences in this passage - including the longest sentence in the New Testament! So I’m going to use some ellipses here and there to help illustrate our inheritance in Christ.
“In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance…so that we…might live for the praise of his glory.”
“In him you also,...were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people”
And then the last one is part of a prayer toward God: “that…you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints…”
Now normally we think of inheritance as something we receive after someone dies. And in the traditional usage of that word, that’s what it means. But the inheritance we have in Christ is not something we have to wait to receive - Christ has already given us his inheritance, in the here and now. Christ’s inheritance is being a beloved child of God. Christ’s inheritance is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christ’s inheritance that we obtain through believing in Christ is enabling us to live a life for God’s praise and glory, loving God and loving neighbor. In other words, living the life of a saint.
Living the life of a saint…here and now. Today we remember the lives of those we’ve loved who have died. And let’s be honest, sometimes in death, people do get a little white-washed. We don’t want to “speak ill of the dead.” We might forget the rough edges and remember the good times. Or not - each and every relationship is complicated. But, often, in general, we give someone the title of saint AFTER they die. But our inheritance of having everything we need for sainthood is given to us, here and now, in this life.
So what do we need for sainthood?
We need love. Simple as that.
One, we already have God’s love. We are God’s beloved children, adopted by God, and thus full heirs with Christ - and we’ve obtained that inheritance through Christ!
Two, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we know we have that. The Holy Spirit is given to all of us. The Holy Spirit is our inheritance in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God at work in our lives, here and now, and is with us all, never farther away than our next breath.
And three, we need Grace. Grace is God at work in our lives and God, through the Holy Spirit, is always at work in our lives. As Methodists we have a specific term for the grace that helps us to love better - and we call that sanctifying grace. Sanctifying as in - to make sacred. What is it to be sacred in the Christian tradition? It’s to resemble God or to be of God. And who and what is our God? Our God is the God of love. So we believe that every day, God gives us sanctifying grace - that is, every day, God works in our lives to help us make choices and actions that allow us to love God and to love neighbor as self. And overtime, day after day, we get better and better at it. We find we can more easily choose and show and share love. This is the work of sanctification - the work of becoming more like the God of love - the work of being a saint, here and now.
And well, we have all three of those things! We have God’s love! The Holy Spirit is working in our lives! And God is constantly offering us grace. Isn’t that a marvelous thing when you realize we have all we need to live our lives as saints? We have all we need to choose and show and share love every day - love of God, love of neighbor, love as self.
We already have everything we need to be saints!
Isn’t that a really great feeling? It’s like when you get a craving for cookies or an itch to bake and you haven’t done it in awhile and you walk into your kitchen and you open the pantry and you realize - you already have everything you need! You can bake cookies here and now.
But we also have a bonus ingredient: We have the examples of those whom we call saints in our lives. Those are like the chocolate chips in our cookies - they just make everything better. We have all we need - and we can look to the examples of those who are saints, who have shown us and others their love for God, we can pull on our inheritance from them - our memories, our lessons learned, all the love shared - and look to their examples to know where to go - with everything we could ever need - to choose love every day, love of God and love of neighbor as self - to be a saint.
And so today as we read the names of those who have died in the last year and light candles in honor and memory of the saints of our lives…and as we share in Holy Communion, a meal which surpasses all boundaries of time and place - even the boundary of death - a meal that we share with all the saints of earth and all the saints in heaven - As we do all this, may we remember and give thanks for all those who have shown us and the world the love of Christ. And may we follow in the footsteps of those saints, knowing that we have all we need through the inheritance we’ve obtained through Christ - and live as saints, here and now.
May it be so. Amen.
“Obtained an Inheritance”
Preached Sunday, November 2, 2025 at Boardman United Methodist Church
Have you ever received an inheritance?
Perhaps for some of us, we have been left money when a family member died. Or perhaps a piece of jewelry or something special to us and our loved one that was passed on to us. Or even something we gave them - I know I have this little glass penguin that I gave to my grandmother when she was alive and now I have it back - and I am reminded of her when I look at it. Some of us, I know, are left with the responsibility of their parents’ or family members’ houses when they die - and that’s a whole other story, less of an inheritance per say and more of a responsibility to care for.
When we think of the word inheritance we think of large sums of money, estates...perhaps we think of the stereotype of spoiled heiresses or we think of crime movies that start with the reading of a will…
On this All Saints Sunday, I would encourage us to realize that we all have received an inheritance worth far more than anything that can be left behind in a will.
First, from those who we have called saints of our lives, we have received all they had to teach us, all the love they had to give us, and all the memories and moments that makes us who we are because of their love for Christ and us. By saints of our lives, I am referring to those people in our lives who we call saints. Not a saintdom decided upon by an institution, not a saintdom based on miracles performed or any other sort of rubric…but a saintdom based on how they loved Christ and how they loved their neighbor and how they loved us while we shared time with them on earth. These are those people who have the opportunity to remember today and give thanks for. These are the people that we will have the opportunity to remember today. To read their names, to light candles…
And to give thanks for them and all that they have given us - the inheritance they passed on to us. Not an inheritance of things but an inheritance of showing us how to live a life of love. Of showing us what it means to follow Christ, what it means to be a saint. Perhaps of how they participated in a local church community. Of how they talked about their faith. Of how they helped those in need. Of how they had love for us and for others. They left us an inheritance of Love - Love for God, love for neighbor, love for us.
I’d like to pause here for a moment to give an opportunity for you to call to mind those saints from whom you have received an inheritance of love. Say their names - in your hearts, outloud, or to your neighbor sitting next to you. Let’s just spend a moment bringing them to our minds with gratitude in our hearts.
That’s one of our inheritances - the inheritance of those who have loved us well. For which we say, thanks be to God!
And secondly, in Christ we have obtained an inheritance far beyond any other!
Our short but very theologically dense passage today from Ephesians uses the word inheritance three times. I’m going to quote from that passage now for the three times it’s used. But Paul is particularly wordy and uses run-on sentences in this passage - including the longest sentence in the New Testament! So I’m going to use some ellipses here and there to help illustrate our inheritance in Christ.
“In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance…so that we…might live for the praise of his glory.”
“In him you also,...were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people”
And then the last one is part of a prayer toward God: “that…you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints…”
Now normally we think of inheritance as something we receive after someone dies. And in the traditional usage of that word, that’s what it means. But the inheritance we have in Christ is not something we have to wait to receive - Christ has already given us his inheritance, in the here and now. Christ’s inheritance is being a beloved child of God. Christ’s inheritance is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christ’s inheritance that we obtain through believing in Christ is enabling us to live a life for God’s praise and glory, loving God and loving neighbor. In other words, living the life of a saint.
Living the life of a saint…here and now. Today we remember the lives of those we’ve loved who have died. And let’s be honest, sometimes in death, people do get a little white-washed. We don’t want to “speak ill of the dead.” We might forget the rough edges and remember the good times. Or not - each and every relationship is complicated. But, often, in general, we give someone the title of saint AFTER they die. But our inheritance of having everything we need for sainthood is given to us, here and now, in this life.
So what do we need for sainthood?
We need love. Simple as that.
One, we already have God’s love. We are God’s beloved children, adopted by God, and thus full heirs with Christ - and we’ve obtained that inheritance through Christ!
Two, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we know we have that. The Holy Spirit is given to all of us. The Holy Spirit is our inheritance in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God at work in our lives, here and now, and is with us all, never farther away than our next breath.
And three, we need Grace. Grace is God at work in our lives and God, through the Holy Spirit, is always at work in our lives. As Methodists we have a specific term for the grace that helps us to love better - and we call that sanctifying grace. Sanctifying as in - to make sacred. What is it to be sacred in the Christian tradition? It’s to resemble God or to be of God. And who and what is our God? Our God is the God of love. So we believe that every day, God gives us sanctifying grace - that is, every day, God works in our lives to help us make choices and actions that allow us to love God and to love neighbor as self. And overtime, day after day, we get better and better at it. We find we can more easily choose and show and share love. This is the work of sanctification - the work of becoming more like the God of love - the work of being a saint, here and now.
And well, we have all three of those things! We have God’s love! The Holy Spirit is working in our lives! And God is constantly offering us grace. Isn’t that a marvelous thing when you realize we have all we need to live our lives as saints? We have all we need to choose and show and share love every day - love of God, love of neighbor, love as self.
We already have everything we need to be saints!
Isn’t that a really great feeling? It’s like when you get a craving for cookies or an itch to bake and you haven’t done it in awhile and you walk into your kitchen and you open the pantry and you realize - you already have everything you need! You can bake cookies here and now.
But we also have a bonus ingredient: We have the examples of those whom we call saints in our lives. Those are like the chocolate chips in our cookies - they just make everything better. We have all we need - and we can look to the examples of those who are saints, who have shown us and others their love for God, we can pull on our inheritance from them - our memories, our lessons learned, all the love shared - and look to their examples to know where to go - with everything we could ever need - to choose love every day, love of God and love of neighbor as self - to be a saint.
And so today as we read the names of those who have died in the last year and light candles in honor and memory of the saints of our lives…and as we share in Holy Communion, a meal which surpasses all boundaries of time and place - even the boundary of death - a meal that we share with all the saints of earth and all the saints in heaven - As we do all this, may we remember and give thanks for all those who have shown us and the world the love of Christ. And may we follow in the footsteps of those saints, knowing that we have all we need through the inheritance we’ve obtained through Christ - and live as saints, here and now.
May it be so. Amen.
Monday, October 27, 2025
All Saints Call to Worship
L: We come together in worship this morning:
P: To sing praises to our God.
L: We come together in worship this morning:
P: To be together in Christian community.
L: We come together in worship this morning:
P: To encounter Christ in the bread and the cup.
L: We come together in worship this morning:
P: To remember the saints who have gone before us.
L: We have come together in worship -
All: Let us worship with all the saints. Amen.
P: To sing praises to our God.
L: We come together in worship this morning:
P: To be together in Christian community.
L: We come together in worship this morning:
P: To encounter Christ in the bread and the cup.
L: We come together in worship this morning:
P: To remember the saints who have gone before us.
L: We have come together in worship -
All: Let us worship with all the saints. Amen.
Monday, November 6, 2023
"Beloved Children" an All Saints sermon on 1 John 3:1-3
1 John 3:1-3
“Beloved Children”
Preached Sunday, November 5, 2023 (All Saints)
Today is All Saints Sunday. A day in the Christian year where we recognize, remember, give thanks to God for those faithful persons who have died and gone on to be with God. We read the names, call to mind, honor those who are no longer with us, who, in their lives, showed us what it means to follow God, to know God, to love God.
These can be saints in the canonical sense as certain Christian sects are used to thinking of them. St. Peter, St. John, St. Augustine, St. Julian, St. Teresa, and so on and so forth. Honoring and remembering these saints as examples of what it looks like to whole- and full-heartedly love and follow God can be a worthwhile and beneficial part of our faith.
And, especially today, we are focusing more on the everyday people, those our paths have crossed with, those who were in our lives who shaped us, who loved God, loved us, and shared that love of God with us. I think of my grandmother and great-grandmother. Those who sat me on their knees and first shared the faith with me. Who sang hymns next to me in church. Who showed me what it looks like to love all your neighbors. I think of church members who showed me what it looked like to be faithful until the end, of having a faith big and brave enough to face hardship with hope, of having a faith generous and inclusive enough that all were welcomed in.
All of you have people, who through the way they lived, through the way they loved you, shared with you the love of God. Today, these are who we are referring to as the saints.
Through honoring and remembering these saints, we recognize that God’s love for these saints, and for us, extends beyond this life, beyond the grave. God’s love extends to these saints, and to us, to a place where there is no hunger, no thirst, no hardship, no tears, and no more death. A place where those saints are gathered now, in the presence of God, and someday, we too will be gathered there. We recognize that the saints, and us, in this life, and the life beyond, we are all beloved children of God.
“Beloved Children”
Preached Sunday, November 5, 2023 (All Saints)
Today is All Saints Sunday. A day in the Christian year where we recognize, remember, give thanks to God for those faithful persons who have died and gone on to be with God. We read the names, call to mind, honor those who are no longer with us, who, in their lives, showed us what it means to follow God, to know God, to love God.
These can be saints in the canonical sense as certain Christian sects are used to thinking of them. St. Peter, St. John, St. Augustine, St. Julian, St. Teresa, and so on and so forth. Honoring and remembering these saints as examples of what it looks like to whole- and full-heartedly love and follow God can be a worthwhile and beneficial part of our faith.
And, especially today, we are focusing more on the everyday people, those our paths have crossed with, those who were in our lives who shaped us, who loved God, loved us, and shared that love of God with us. I think of my grandmother and great-grandmother. Those who sat me on their knees and first shared the faith with me. Who sang hymns next to me in church. Who showed me what it looks like to love all your neighbors. I think of church members who showed me what it looked like to be faithful until the end, of having a faith big and brave enough to face hardship with hope, of having a faith generous and inclusive enough that all were welcomed in.
All of you have people, who through the way they lived, through the way they loved you, shared with you the love of God. Today, these are who we are referring to as the saints.
Through honoring and remembering these saints, we recognize that God’s love for these saints, and for us, extends beyond this life, beyond the grave. God’s love extends to these saints, and to us, to a place where there is no hunger, no thirst, no hardship, no tears, and no more death. A place where those saints are gathered now, in the presence of God, and someday, we too will be gathered there. We recognize that the saints, and us, in this life, and the life beyond, we are all beloved children of God.
Today we also did a baptism of a beloved child of God.
In certain Christian traditions, there are certain days that are set aside as preferred days for baptisms. These days are Easter, Pentecost, Baptism of the Lord, and…All Saints Day. Perhaps the first three days are obvious to us why they would be preferred days for baptisms. The Feast of Christ’s resurrection that we share in our baptism, the birth of the church which we are joining when baptized, the remembrance of Christ’s baptism as we too are baptized - these make obvious sense…but for many of us, All Saints Day may, at first, seem like an odd choice.
We are used to thinking about baptisms, and especially infant baptisms which we commonly do in The United Methodist Church, we are used to thinking of them as joyous and life-filled celebrations - which they are. And then we are used to thinking about All Saints as this somber, kind of morose day. They don’t mesh. And while there is a certain sadness to All Saints, there is also an immense sense of comfort, of hope, of assurance of love beyond the grave. As well as thanksgiving for all who have gone before. And in baptism, we claim the title of child of God. And in claiming that title, in claiming the identity of children of God, through baptism, we then die to all other identities - identities of sin, or evil, or any identity that would lessen as, that would attempt to claim us as anything less than the beloved children of God we are.
One of the ways I like to talk to parents about baptism is like signing the adoption papers. We know that all children are inherently, beloved children of God. In the sacrament of baptism we formalize that with a ritual, with the signing of the adoption papers. The person baptized or their parents sign the papers - that they will do their best to live as a child of God, that they would do their best to raise their child as a child of God, to teach them about God’s love that they would one day fully accept that identity for themselves. God signs the papers. And there is no trying with God - God always fully keeps God’s promises that this child is a beloved child of God. And then, the congregation signs the papers. That is, we make promises to surround the baptized with love, to share God’s love with them, to show them what it means and what it looks like to follow and love God. And when a specific congregation makes those promises, it’s specific for that child and that congregation but it’s also universal. We who are present for the baptism, sign those papers, make those promises, on behalf of Christians everywhere. That no matter where that child ends up, and no matter what children (young or old) come and go from our community, we - and all Christians everywhere - would share God’s love with all of them and be constant examples for them of love of God and love of neighbor.
We make those promises on behalf of all Christians. We welcome the baptized into the community of faith - not just Boardman UMC community of faith but the universal body of Christ - AND, that universal body of Christ doesn’t just include those who are living. It includes that great cloud of witnesses, the saints. The baptized is welcomed into Christian community - the community of the children of God, of the living saints *and* those who have died - who have passed on - saints in the presence of God, yes, *and* still children of God in God’s everlasting care. We, together, living and dead, are all children of God, all part of the same community to which the newly baptized is welcomed in.
And for those of us who are alive, we are called to be living saints - to claim the identity of children of God and the identity of saints together for ourselves...and then help others claim those identities. We are called to live life in such a way that, like those who we remember today who have gone before us, we will then show others the way to God with our lives. That we would be saints to the child we baptized today, all the children we have and ever will baptize, and really, to all people. That we would be saints. That we are the ones who - show, tell, share - that they, that all people, are also beloved children of God, loved so deeply by God that that holy, eternal love even extends beyond the grave.
Today, as we remember the saints, may their memories spur us on to live as living saints, to fulfill our baptismal promises, to fully live into our identities as beloved children of God, and through our lives, share that eternal, everlasting love, with every child of God.
May it be so. Amen.
In certain Christian traditions, there are certain days that are set aside as preferred days for baptisms. These days are Easter, Pentecost, Baptism of the Lord, and…All Saints Day. Perhaps the first three days are obvious to us why they would be preferred days for baptisms. The Feast of Christ’s resurrection that we share in our baptism, the birth of the church which we are joining when baptized, the remembrance of Christ’s baptism as we too are baptized - these make obvious sense…but for many of us, All Saints Day may, at first, seem like an odd choice.
We are used to thinking about baptisms, and especially infant baptisms which we commonly do in The United Methodist Church, we are used to thinking of them as joyous and life-filled celebrations - which they are. And then we are used to thinking about All Saints as this somber, kind of morose day. They don’t mesh. And while there is a certain sadness to All Saints, there is also an immense sense of comfort, of hope, of assurance of love beyond the grave. As well as thanksgiving for all who have gone before. And in baptism, we claim the title of child of God. And in claiming that title, in claiming the identity of children of God, through baptism, we then die to all other identities - identities of sin, or evil, or any identity that would lessen as, that would attempt to claim us as anything less than the beloved children of God we are.
One of the ways I like to talk to parents about baptism is like signing the adoption papers. We know that all children are inherently, beloved children of God. In the sacrament of baptism we formalize that with a ritual, with the signing of the adoption papers. The person baptized or their parents sign the papers - that they will do their best to live as a child of God, that they would do their best to raise their child as a child of God, to teach them about God’s love that they would one day fully accept that identity for themselves. God signs the papers. And there is no trying with God - God always fully keeps God’s promises that this child is a beloved child of God. And then, the congregation signs the papers. That is, we make promises to surround the baptized with love, to share God’s love with them, to show them what it means and what it looks like to follow and love God. And when a specific congregation makes those promises, it’s specific for that child and that congregation but it’s also universal. We who are present for the baptism, sign those papers, make those promises, on behalf of Christians everywhere. That no matter where that child ends up, and no matter what children (young or old) come and go from our community, we - and all Christians everywhere - would share God’s love with all of them and be constant examples for them of love of God and love of neighbor.
We make those promises on behalf of all Christians. We welcome the baptized into the community of faith - not just Boardman UMC community of faith but the universal body of Christ - AND, that universal body of Christ doesn’t just include those who are living. It includes that great cloud of witnesses, the saints. The baptized is welcomed into Christian community - the community of the children of God, of the living saints *and* those who have died - who have passed on - saints in the presence of God, yes, *and* still children of God in God’s everlasting care. We, together, living and dead, are all children of God, all part of the same community to which the newly baptized is welcomed in.
And for those of us who are alive, we are called to be living saints - to claim the identity of children of God and the identity of saints together for ourselves...and then help others claim those identities. We are called to live life in such a way that, like those who we remember today who have gone before us, we will then show others the way to God with our lives. That we would be saints to the child we baptized today, all the children we have and ever will baptize, and really, to all people. That we would be saints. That we are the ones who - show, tell, share - that they, that all people, are also beloved children of God, loved so deeply by God that that holy, eternal love even extends beyond the grave.
Today, as we remember the saints, may their memories spur us on to live as living saints, to fulfill our baptismal promises, to fully live into our identities as beloved children of God, and through our lives, share that eternal, everlasting love, with every child of God.
May it be so. Amen.
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
“Obtained an Inheritance” an All Saints sermon on Ephesians 1:11-23
Ephesians 1:11-23
“Obtained an Inheritance”
Preached Sunday, November 6, 2022
Have you ever received an inheritance?
Perhaps for some of us, we have been left money when a family member died. Or perhaps a piece of jewelry or something special to us and our loved one that was passed on to us. Or even something we gave them - I know I have this little glass penguin that I gave to my grandmother when she was alive. Some of us, I know, are left with the responsibility of their parents’ or siblings’ houses when they die - and that’s a whole other story, less of an inheritance per say and more of a responsibility to care for.
When we think of the word inheritance we think of large sums of money, estates..perhaps we think of the stereotype of spoiled heiresses or we think of crime movies that start with the reading of a will…
On this All Saints Sunday, I would encourage us to realize that we all have received an inheritance worth far more than anything that can be left behind in a will.
First, from those who we have called saints of our lives, we have received all they had to teach us, all the love they had to give us, and all the memories and moments that makes us who we are because of their love for Christ and us. By saints of our lives, I am referring to those people in our lives who we call saints. Not a saintdom decided upon by an institution, not a saintdom based on miracles performed or any other sort of rubric…but a saintdom based on how they loved Christ and how they loved their neighbor and how they loved us while we shared time with them on earth. These are those people who have the opportunity to remember today and give thanks for. These are the people that we will have the opportunity to remember today. To read their names, to light candles…
And to give thanks for them and all that they have given us - the inheritance they passed on to us. Not an inheritance of things but an inheritance of showing us how to live a life of love. Of showing us what it means to follow Christ, what it means to be a saint. Perhaps of how they participated in a local church community. Of how they talked about their faith. Of how they helped those in need. Of how they had love for us and for others. They left us an inheritance of Love - Love for God, love for neighbor, love for us.
Let’s take a moment and we’ll just do 2 or 3 - does anyone want to lift up a way that a saint in your life left you an inheritance of love? To go ahead and share that aloud….
(Sharing)
That’s one of our inheritances. For which we say, thanks be to God!
And secondly, in Christ we have obtained an inheritance far beyond any other!
Our short but very theologically dense passage today from Ephesians uses the word inheritance three times. I’m going to quote from that passage now for the three times it’s used. But Paul is particularly wordy and uses run-on sentences in this passage - including the longest sentence in the New Testament! So I’m going to use some ellipses here and there to help illustrate our inheritance in Christ.
“In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance…so that we…might live for the praise of his glory.”
“In him you also,...were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people”
And then the last one is part of a prayer toward God: “that…you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints…”
Now normally we think of inheritance as something we receive after someone dies. And in the traditional usage of that word, that’s what it means. But the inheritance we have in Christ is not something we have to wait to receive - Christ has already given us his inheritance, in the here and now. Christ’s inheritance is being a beloved child of God. Christ’s inheritance is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christ’s inheritance that we obtain through believing in Christ is enabling us to live a life for God’s praise and glory, loving God and loving neighbor. In other words, living the life of a saint.
Living the life of a saint…here and now. Today we remember the lives of those we’ve loved who have died. And let’s be honest, sometimes in death, people do get a little white-washed. We don’t want to “speak ill of the dead.” We might forget the rough edges and remember the good times. Or not - each and every relationship is complicated. But, often, in general, we give someone the title of saint AFTER they die. But our inheritance of having everything we need for sainthood is given to us, here and now, in this life.
So what do we need for sainthood?
We need love. Simple as that.
One, we already have God’s love. We are God’s beloved children, adopted by God, and thus full heirs with Christ - and we’ve obtained that inheritance through Christ!
Two, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we know we have that. The Holy Spirit is given to all of us. The Holy Spirit is our inheritance in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God at work in our lives, here and now, and is with us all, never farther away than our next breath.
And three, we need Grace. Grace is God at work in our lives and God, through the Holy Spirit, is always at work in our lives. As Methodists we have a specific term for the grace that helps us to love better - and we call that sanctifying grace. Sanctifying as in - to make sacred. What is it to be sacred in the Christian tradition? It’s to resemble God or to be of God. And who and what is our God? Our God is the God of love. So we believe that every day, God gives us sanctifying grace - that is, every day, God works in our lives to help us make choices and actions that allow us to love God and to love neighbor as self. And overtime, day after day, we get better and better at it. We find we can more easily choose and show and share love. This is the work of sanctification - the work of becoming more like the God of love - the work of being a saint, here and now.
And well, we have all three of those things! Isn’t that a marvelous thing when you realize we have all we need to live our lives as saints? We have all we need to choose and show and share love every day - love of God, love of neighbor, love as self.
We already have everything we need to be saints!
Isn’t that a really great feeling? It’s like when you get a craving for cookies or an itch to bake and you haven’t done it in awhile and you walk into your kitchen and you open the pantry and you realize - you already have everything you need! You can bake cookies here and now.
But we also have a bonus ingredient: We have the examples of those whom we call saints in our lives. Those are like the chocolate chips in our cookies - they just make everything better. We have all we need - and we can look to the examples of those who are saints, who have shown us and others their love for God, we can pull on our inheritance from them - our memories, our lessons learned, all the love shared - and look to their examples to know where to go - with everything we could ever need - to choose love every day, love of God and love of neighbor as self - to be a saint.
And so today as we read the names of those who have died in the last year and light candles in honor and memory of the saints of our lives…and as we share in Holy Communion, a meal which surpasses all boundaries of time and place - even the boundary of death - a meal that we share with all the saints of earth and all the saints in heaven - As we do all this, may we remember and give thanks for all those who have shown us and the world the love of Christ. And may we follow in the footsteps of those saints, knowing that we have all we need through the inheritance we’ve obtained through Christ - and live as saints, here and now.
May it be so. Amen.
“Obtained an Inheritance”
Preached Sunday, November 6, 2022
Have you ever received an inheritance?
Perhaps for some of us, we have been left money when a family member died. Or perhaps a piece of jewelry or something special to us and our loved one that was passed on to us. Or even something we gave them - I know I have this little glass penguin that I gave to my grandmother when she was alive. Some of us, I know, are left with the responsibility of their parents’ or siblings’ houses when they die - and that’s a whole other story, less of an inheritance per say and more of a responsibility to care for.
When we think of the word inheritance we think of large sums of money, estates..perhaps we think of the stereotype of spoiled heiresses or we think of crime movies that start with the reading of a will…
On this All Saints Sunday, I would encourage us to realize that we all have received an inheritance worth far more than anything that can be left behind in a will.
First, from those who we have called saints of our lives, we have received all they had to teach us, all the love they had to give us, and all the memories and moments that makes us who we are because of their love for Christ and us. By saints of our lives, I am referring to those people in our lives who we call saints. Not a saintdom decided upon by an institution, not a saintdom based on miracles performed or any other sort of rubric…but a saintdom based on how they loved Christ and how they loved their neighbor and how they loved us while we shared time with them on earth. These are those people who have the opportunity to remember today and give thanks for. These are the people that we will have the opportunity to remember today. To read their names, to light candles…
And to give thanks for them and all that they have given us - the inheritance they passed on to us. Not an inheritance of things but an inheritance of showing us how to live a life of love. Of showing us what it means to follow Christ, what it means to be a saint. Perhaps of how they participated in a local church community. Of how they talked about their faith. Of how they helped those in need. Of how they had love for us and for others. They left us an inheritance of Love - Love for God, love for neighbor, love for us.
Let’s take a moment and we’ll just do 2 or 3 - does anyone want to lift up a way that a saint in your life left you an inheritance of love? To go ahead and share that aloud….
(Sharing)
That’s one of our inheritances. For which we say, thanks be to God!
And secondly, in Christ we have obtained an inheritance far beyond any other!
Our short but very theologically dense passage today from Ephesians uses the word inheritance three times. I’m going to quote from that passage now for the three times it’s used. But Paul is particularly wordy and uses run-on sentences in this passage - including the longest sentence in the New Testament! So I’m going to use some ellipses here and there to help illustrate our inheritance in Christ.
“In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance…so that we…might live for the praise of his glory.”
“In him you also,...were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people”
And then the last one is part of a prayer toward God: “that…you may perceive what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints…”
Now normally we think of inheritance as something we receive after someone dies. And in the traditional usage of that word, that’s what it means. But the inheritance we have in Christ is not something we have to wait to receive - Christ has already given us his inheritance, in the here and now. Christ’s inheritance is being a beloved child of God. Christ’s inheritance is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Christ’s inheritance that we obtain through believing in Christ is enabling us to live a life for God’s praise and glory, loving God and loving neighbor. In other words, living the life of a saint.
Living the life of a saint…here and now. Today we remember the lives of those we’ve loved who have died. And let’s be honest, sometimes in death, people do get a little white-washed. We don’t want to “speak ill of the dead.” We might forget the rough edges and remember the good times. Or not - each and every relationship is complicated. But, often, in general, we give someone the title of saint AFTER they die. But our inheritance of having everything we need for sainthood is given to us, here and now, in this life.
So what do we need for sainthood?
We need love. Simple as that.
One, we already have God’s love. We are God’s beloved children, adopted by God, and thus full heirs with Christ - and we’ve obtained that inheritance through Christ!
Two, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And we know we have that. The Holy Spirit is given to all of us. The Holy Spirit is our inheritance in Christ. The Holy Spirit is God at work in our lives, here and now, and is with us all, never farther away than our next breath.
And three, we need Grace. Grace is God at work in our lives and God, through the Holy Spirit, is always at work in our lives. As Methodists we have a specific term for the grace that helps us to love better - and we call that sanctifying grace. Sanctifying as in - to make sacred. What is it to be sacred in the Christian tradition? It’s to resemble God or to be of God. And who and what is our God? Our God is the God of love. So we believe that every day, God gives us sanctifying grace - that is, every day, God works in our lives to help us make choices and actions that allow us to love God and to love neighbor as self. And overtime, day after day, we get better and better at it. We find we can more easily choose and show and share love. This is the work of sanctification - the work of becoming more like the God of love - the work of being a saint, here and now.
And well, we have all three of those things! Isn’t that a marvelous thing when you realize we have all we need to live our lives as saints? We have all we need to choose and show and share love every day - love of God, love of neighbor, love as self.
We already have everything we need to be saints!
Isn’t that a really great feeling? It’s like when you get a craving for cookies or an itch to bake and you haven’t done it in awhile and you walk into your kitchen and you open the pantry and you realize - you already have everything you need! You can bake cookies here and now.
But we also have a bonus ingredient: We have the examples of those whom we call saints in our lives. Those are like the chocolate chips in our cookies - they just make everything better. We have all we need - and we can look to the examples of those who are saints, who have shown us and others their love for God, we can pull on our inheritance from them - our memories, our lessons learned, all the love shared - and look to their examples to know where to go - with everything we could ever need - to choose love every day, love of God and love of neighbor as self - to be a saint.
And so today as we read the names of those who have died in the last year and light candles in honor and memory of the saints of our lives…and as we share in Holy Communion, a meal which surpasses all boundaries of time and place - even the boundary of death - a meal that we share with all the saints of earth and all the saints in heaven - As we do all this, may we remember and give thanks for all those who have shown us and the world the love of Christ. And may we follow in the footsteps of those saints, knowing that we have all we need through the inheritance we’ve obtained through Christ - and live as saints, here and now.
May it be so. Amen.
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