Colossians 1:1-14

William F. Schnell

November 2, 2008

   Halloween is short for All Hallows Eve, or Even, both of which are abbreviations for Evening.  Halloween is the evening before All Hallows Day, also known as All Saints Day on the Christian Calendar.  The Roman Catholic Liturgical Calendar recalls individual saints on individual days.  For example, there is a feast to the one-in-only St. Kevin on June 3.  Five days later, on June 8, there is a feast to one of ten St. Williams, all of which may be found on stained glass windows in one church or another.

   We have honored a saint with a stained glass window at The Church in Aurora.  It is St. Stephen.  Go to any cathedral or elaborate church edifice and you will find stained glass windows with images of the saints, beginning with the disciples (St. Peter), the apostles (St. Paul), the Gospel writers (St. Mark), the church fathers, (St. Augustine), the patron saints (St. Francis of Assisi), and modern saints (St. John Neumann).  Someday soon we may see stained glass windows bearing the images of Mother Teresa and pope John Paul II.

   The title of our message for today, the day when many Protestants observe All Saints Day, is “Stained Glass Saints.”  Like Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox and other “high church traditions”, most Protestants speak of saints.  For example, we refer to Paul as St. Paul.  But unlike the more “high church traditions,” we do not have involving processes that confer sainthood on people who meet stringent qualifications.  Our saints can be more common, everyday people like you and me.

   We believe there is a biblical justification for this understanding.  Paul regarded all Christians as saints, and addressed his letters accordingly: To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints (Romans 1:7).  If we were to transport this biblical terminology for believers to the modern era, it would not be inappropriate at all to refer to Rev. Horak as St. Kevin, or to Flip Eavenson as St. Flip.  I can just hear it now in our next staff meeting: “So when do I get my window?”

   The answer to that question may surprise you.  The answer is that we are already those stained glass windows.  We are already those windows through which the light of God’s love and understanding reaches others.  Yes we are stained by sin, but because of God’s redeeming love in Christ we are made pure and holy and useful.  Just as we have gained a glimpse of God through the faithful lives of others, so others gain a glimpse of God through our faithfulness—even when we do not realize it!

   Notice how Paul, in his admittedly wordy fashion, describes the Colossians as both the receivers and transmitters of the knowledge of God (in this sense we might have entitled this message: “God’s Two-Way Radios”).  We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints--the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth.  You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit (Verses 3-8).

   Just as God reached the Colossians through “Stained Glass Saints” such as Epaphras and Paul (the latter being the self-professed greatest of sinners turned saint), so God is now reaching others through the ministry of the Colossians.  They have become “Stained Glass Saints” through whom the divine light of a different realm shines forth.  Therefore, Paul writes to the Colossians, God …has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light (Verse 12).

   The man who became my mentor as a minister and a man, used to publicly deride me as a hopeless mess.  He was the founding Dean of my seminary.  In the classroom he would single me out, and walk right up to my desk and point his finger at me and say, “Schnell, you are a hopeless mess.”  And I loved it that this widely known and highly regarded man would single me out for special attention.  It was his funny way of saying, “Schnell, I like you.  I don’t know why I like you, but I do.  I guess it is because a mess like you is a walking, talking testimony to the amazing grace of God and it gives me hope for myself.”

   When Nancy and I were married, we asked Dr. Dunn to perform our wedding by the seminary pond.  When we had children, we asked him to christen them.  When I returned to seminary for a doctorate, he was requested as my advisor.  Whenever I struggled in my ministry, and ministry is always a struggle for a hopeless mess like me, I sought him out.  Most of our time together would be chit-chat and catching up, but always there would be a word or sentence from him that would shine the light of understanding on whatever hopeless mess I was in, and I would walk away having heard a Word from God about what I had to do.

   Bogie Dunn was a window through which the Word of God became a lamp for my feet and a light for my path, and not for me only.  Everybody wanted a piece of Bogie in his so-called retirement years.  He would accept an invitation to be an Interim Minister and then, much to his consternation, the search for a new minister would stop.  Why would anyone want another minister if they had Bogie?  He was preaching in the pulpit on All Saints Day 14 years ago when he suffered a massive brain hemorrhage that took his life.

   Well everybody who knew him was just devastated, and for not entirely unselfish reasons.  To whom would we go with our struggles?  Through whom would God shine the light of understanding?  But as time went by, two interesting things happened.  First, I realized that, in a strange way, Bogie was even more intimately and immediately available to me than ever before.  Whenever I had a struggle, I could almost hear what he would have to say about it.

   Second, I began to understand what it was like to be him.  I am now the age he was when we first met back in 1978.  And to read it from some of your pastor appreciation cards, apparently a measure of divine light reaches you through the stained glass of St. Bill’s ministry.  Believe me; I am usually not aware when it is happening, which is why I keep each and every one of your cards to remind me when in doubt.  And you probably are not always aware of it when God’s light and life and love reach others through you, so I am reminding you here that you, too, are a stained glass saint.

   Who have been the stained glass saints in your life?  A mom who believed in you against the odds?  A dad who made great personal sacrifices so that you might have a better life?  A grandmother to whom you could confide your deepest secrets?  A grandfather whose greatest pride was you?  That—shhhhh—favorite uncle or aunt?  That lifelong friend who never quit caring for you through those whacky ages and stages of life?  That preacher or teacher?  Who have been the stained glass saints in your life?

   Some are alive, and some have died, but all are living in us today.  And if we become stained glass saints like them, one day we will be gathered together--never to part again.  For as St. Paul has put it in our text, God has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.  Surrounded by that great cloud of witnesses, and as a foretaste of that glory to come, let us join together in the Resurrection Liturgy as printed in our bulletins.