What is our goal as Christians?  What is the goal of the Christian life?  If you ask five people you might get five different answers…

Some might say, “The point of being a Christian is to live a good life.  Christ shows us a good way of living and being with others.  In him we learn how to live well.”  

Others will say, “The point of being a Christian is eternal life!  Christ died to save our sins.  That was the main point—his death and resurrection and how that opens up eternal life for all people.”

Both of these are good answers, and other people may have other good answers to add.  I would submit to you that the point of being a Christian is to become like Christ.  

Christ is our name, Christ is our identity, Christ is our spiritual hope. As we become like Christ, we do live a good life; As Christ’s life becomes our own, eternal life naturally follows as part of our eternal inheritance in him.  

The goal of the Christian life is to become like Christ in every way.  And we see scattered phrases that point to this throughout our liturgy.  In baptism, we ask parents and godparents, “Will you be responsible for seeing that the child you present is enabled to grow into the full stature of Christ?”  In the post-communion prayer we say, “Heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son Jesus Christ.”  You see, there is this holy expectation that Christ is a part of us and we of him.

What else does “conversion” and “transformation mean?”  Conversion is a physical term.  You convert ice into water.  When someone converts to Christianity they seek to become changed, no longer patterning their lives on the world, but on Christ, our savior.  And so those who seek transformation in the Church, find the same:  That more and more they are transformed into the likeness of Christ.

 

Now today we are talking about Saints.  We are celebrating All Saints Day.  And whatever else saints mean to other denominations, for each denomination has their own understanding of saints, for us the saints are, above all, exemplars.  They are people whose lives give us strength as we see Christ shown forth in their lives in many and powerful ways.  There is power in the stories of the saints for our own lives.

And there are so many of them.  Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyprian, Saint Alban who died in 209.  He was a pagan Roman soldier who, during a time of anti-Christian persecution found a priest knocking at his door seeking refuge.  Alban let the man in and, on hearing his story and testimony Alban was so cut to the heart that he converted that very moment, and when the Roman soldiers came to the door seeking the priest, Alban took off his clothes and put on the clothes of the priest and we out to the soldiers and to his death, that the holy life of that priest might go on.  Alban gave himself for the life of another out of pure love, and the life of Christ shone in him.

And there are so many saints.  The venerable Bede, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Augustine of Hippo—one of the greatest Christian thinkers ever.  And wouldn’t you know it, Saint Augustine’s mother was a saint, too.  Throughout her life she prayed for the conversion of her husband, who finally became a Christian late in life.  As a young woman she had great aspirations for her son, that he would become powerful in worldly ways as a secular leader or prince.  But as she matured in her faith, her most fervent prayer came to be that her son would convert to Christianity and give his immense skills to the service of God.  And in time he did and became—and this is not exaggeration—one of the three most important saints in the history of Christianity.  His writings and insight into the faith had an indelible impact on the faith still felt to this day.

And their stories go on and on.  Saint Francis and Clare.  Ignatius of Loyola.  Absalom Jones.  Maybe you haven’t heard of Absalom Jones before, but he was born an African slave in 1756.  At age 16 he was sold to a family in Philadelphia  and began taking night classes at a local school for slaves run by Quakers.  He was married at 20 and when he was able, through money he made by working beyond what he was required to do as slave, he purchased his wife’s freedom.  Several years later he purchased his own.  

Absalom was part of a local church in Philadelphia, but one Sunday the white parishioners decided they were too uncomfortable worshipping alongside all of the blacks.  So without consulting them they attempted to move all of the black parishioners into the upstairs gallery.  Rather than be forced into unequal status at worship they all walked out.  From among those people an organization was formed.  100% of the membership dues went to helping needy black families who were being ignored by the rest of society.  When they had organized their own church, after a time they petitioned the Episcopal Church to allow them to become a part.  They only asked that Absalom, their leader, would be accepted into seminary study and if he was found fit by the process that he be ordained deacon and then priest to serve among them.  Absalom was found worthy, and he was ordained deacon and priest and in his first year as leader of that church they grew to over 500 members.

 

We are surrounded by so many of these stories—stories of the saints’ lives, of how they showed forth the life of Christ and his love and passion, even in their own day.

It is possible for us, too, to live the life of a saint.  We may not end up being known and written about 300 years from now, but fame is not our prize.  Just as Christ is our name, our identity and our spiritual hope, so our prize also is Christ.  And when we set out to become like Christ in every way, the spiritual truth that was the foundation of his life miraculously and spiritually does become the bedrock faith of our own, to the great benefit of those around us and to the honor and glory of God’s name.

Amen.