About those Saints

Today is All Saints Day. It being the day after Halloween, this year I cannot but take a deep breath of relief and also appreciation for my neighbors. It seems this year there were fewer coffins and skeletons and witches and scary noises than previously. The children who showed at our door were cheery and appreciative of the safely packaged little treats, even with friendly parents hovering at the sidewalk. It was a neighborly evening, all of us seemingly enjoying some non-drama, unlike CBC’s The National, or CTV, PBS or CNN, news available on television after the kids had gone home.

Today, the morning after the 'hallowed eve' before, I consider it a privilege to sit down with Bible and good old Rejoice! booklet. Ray Harris is writer of the week and immediately takes me away with some good thoughts! [i] “For All the Saints” it’s entitled, and he bases his thoughts on Ephesians 2:11-22. I quote him briefly, “Many of us who are followers of Jesus, seeking to be apprentices in the faith, might cringe to call ourselves “saints.” The undertone of the world has made it a term of either confusion or comic derision, as in “I ain’t no saint!” Obviously identifying well with most of us readers, Harris goes on to make a very significant point. A saint is no pretender; a saint is one who is set apart, designated for service in God’s design, and it's important to recognize yourself as such. The apostle Paul uses this term in greeting the Christians of the first century, "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near... For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us (:13-14). ...for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God (:18-19). Very appropriate these words as most of us sit glued to televisions and devices seeking updates to the warfare continuing in that very Middle East locale.

My morning read continues [Yes, creature of habit, my morning rituals always include some 'further reading - or clicking']. 😑 Today's read includes a nice connect with several longtime forever friends living in other provinces. In short order I am listening to one link shared, a heartrending podcast by Dr. Gabor Matte, an Israeli who has lived in trauma, barely survived as an infant and grandparents killed in the WW2 holocaust. He speaks with a journalist who happens to be his daughter, tired and thoughtfully challenging all listeners to understand the history and speak responsibly and compassionately. Another friend, retired from years of overseas service with Mennonite Central Committee, shares a local agony. His son-in-law, mayor of Saskatoon, SK has both Jewish and Islamic friends and being pressured by each  group to make supportive public statements for 'their' side. An unofficial estimate 😏 is that 90% of Saskatchewan coffee shops are pro-Israeli! This of course is only social pressures commentary, always fueled by gossip and local anxieties, and nothing compared to the horrors of those living in Gaza, but it illustrates well the pain and restlessness being dealt with everywhere.

Later in the day some further reading provides a little more. My CBC News App [ii] claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been supporting Hamas for years because they too oppose a two-state solution as represented by the Palestinian Authority – divide and conquer? Strategies continue, journalists report and the world watches. 

Perhaps my view is simplistic, but I cannot ignore these old old scriptures above which have already survived some 2000 plus years of interpretation and reinterpretation. As stated in this Ephesians text, all people are invited to an encounter with God thanks to that Jew who went the distance for all of us, not a military strategist but the savior who invites all to come on board. Thanks to Jesus the dividing wall of hostility is gone. Would that the Nazis of the 1940s might have acknowledged that truth and would that the Hamas and the Israelis of 2023 could humble themselves enough to acknowledge the One who is available even for them. Further, it's important to note that many Palestinians are Christians who have responded to the invitation (Matthew 11:28-29).

Reading the news and the strategies of the military experts (Israeli, Canadian, Lebanese, Syrian, American et al) is prolonging the agony and the suffering of many in that land of our Christian beginnings. To hold back on seasonal Halloween witchcraft has definitely been an appropriate thing. But it would be extra good if those of us who have received new life, now designated as saints in God’s reign, would take up our saintly responsibility and declare simply and clearly to all the strategists. Cease fire!

May it be so. Come Lord Jesus.

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[i] Rejoice! Vol. 59, no. 1. www.MennoMedia.org/rejoice

[ii] Evan Dyer, CBC News October 28, 2023.