Saints and Sinners

Good morning Saints!
Good morning sinners!

Welcome November. Today we turn the calendar to a new month. We also are reminded on this first day of November of that “great cloud of witnesses” who has gone before us. When it comes to the word “Saint”, unless we live in New Orleans (football team), we probably would not associate ourselves with the word. I find it interesting that the apostle Paul, when writing the church, would refer to it, at times, as “the Saints”. For many of us, we would in no way make that claim about ourselves. Most, if not all of us, would say, “I’m no Saint.” Why? We are aware of our origin. We are aware of who we come from (Adam). We are aware of where we have intentionally missed the mark. We are aware of Isaiah’s words that say our righteousness is as filthy as rags. Saints are perfect, right? And yet we read books entitled, “Saint Matthew”, “Saint Mark”, “Saint Luke” and “Saint John”. Not to mention Saint Peter. And if we know anything about Matthew, Mark, Luke, John or for that matter Simon Bar Jonah (Peter) we are aware that they were far from being perfect.

We often think of a Saint because of their faithful radical obedience to the Lord. But there is also an act of obedience Saints are faithful doing: repentance. Which means, what makes a Saint comes from who they are in relationship with—Jesus, who is the promised Christ.

Have a great day, Saints (and sinners), who are saved by God’s grace found in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord!