Saints on Different Pages

Happy All Saints Day to all who celebrate.

Today, many of us remember the ordinary saints who now rest from their labors. And our congregations are full of many ordinary saints still walking the earth and doing their best. Or so we pray.

So what happens when the saints of God disagree about what a saintly life looks like? The answer to this question is the substance that fills my day. Consider this parable:

A medium-sized church of upstanding members meets in a church building on a landscaped street with lots of foot traffic in a popular suburb. Every Sunday morning, their ushers unlock and fling open the front doors. And – as they’ve been trained – they look for unsavory characters who might be loitering on their property. On many Sunday mornings, a homeless man can be found sleeping under the boxwoods by the sidewalk. The ushers quietly shoo him away so that there will be no uncomfortable encounters between worshippers and this disheveled neighbor.

The church calls a new pastor who is excited to be serving them. New Pastor loves them immediately and yet the pastoral honeymoon is short-lived when he observes one Sunday morning, that two ushers are shooing away a homeless man who’s had been sleeping under the boxwoods by the sidewalk. New Pastor is mortified and he reacts immediately: “What are you doing? Instead of sending him away, why aren’t you inviting this man inside, offering him a cup of coffee and the men’s room, and inviting him into worship or to sit in the parlor and relax?”

The ushers – many of whom have been ushering for generations – are shocked at the attitude of New Pastor. He is asking us to bring a dangerous person into the safety of our sanctuary. This man could be on drugs. He could be mentally ill. He definitely smells bad.

Some of the saints side with the Pastor who believes the Bible tells us to offer lavish hospitality in the name of Jesus. Think Good Samaritan.

And some of the saints side with the ushers who believe the Bible tells us to protect the vulnerable which would include the older members and children. Think “let the little children come to me.”

Misinformation and demonization ensue. Anonymous letters are sent accusing the New Pastor of creating chaos. The Pastor is overheard accusing the ushers of being Pharisees. The denomination is called in to mediate. The Pastor wonders is he should quit. Some of the members want him to quit.

And so it goes. In a world that craves community and meaning, we have saints who disagree to the point of damaging community and looking less like Jesus every day.

Instead, what if differing saints listened to each other’s perspectives? What if we saw each other as siblings rather than rivals. What if we cared less about being “right” and more about being Christlike?

I share this in the hope that saints on different pages would read it and have compassion for each other.

The Dancing Saints image from the gorgeous domed ceiling of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Among the saints encircling their rotunda are John Coltrane, Queen Elizabeth I, and Anne Frank.