We have some issues in the church. Yes, I know, we have a lot of issues in the church, but let's all hold up and focus on one, shall we?
We have a tendency to do that thing where we make the people in the Bible seem holier than they are.
Now, on the surface, that looks like a feature, not a bug, right? What could the problem possibly be with thinking that people in the Good Book are holy? Aren't they supposed to be? Yes and no. I mean, they are holy people, by and large, but what do we mean when we say holy? What do we mean when we say saints?
We have this idea that saints are essentially like Jesus Christ himself. Sinless, flawless, with no problems at all. These are people who were constantly calm, serene, only focusing on the Lord and His glory, right? But this view of the saints is a distinctly un-Lutheran view of saints. And you know me and things that aren't Lutheran, right? I would always much rather that we went with the traditional Lutheran view of things, saints as well as everything else.
So what's the Lutheran view of the saints? It's the view from the Bible. As is everything else in the Lutheran faith. If it's not in the Bible, we don't need it. And in the Bible, the saints aren't what you would think they are. Shockingly enough, if you look at the early saints in the early church, they were regular people. That shouldn't shock us, but it does. It's a horrible affront to realize that the saints in the scriptures not only aren't perfect, they're a long way from it. But this is only something that would shock you if you're not up to date on who the disciples, or who human beings in general, are in the first place. That is, the nature of humans as being a bunch of busted up monsters shouldn't be a surprise, unless you have a particular level of understanding about humanity. That is, a view that human beings are generally good until proven otherwise.
What that tends to mean, though is not what we'd think. This view of humanity tends to be wrong in a very damaging way. It's wrong because it has nothing to do with reality. And that's a big problem. The baseline assumption that goes into the theory states that people are generally good until they are proven otherwise. Fine fine, but that assumption is that the people who are discovered to be bad are just that. Discovered to be bad. These were bad people whose badness eventually gets revealed. No problem there, right? Well, if you think about things, you'll realize that what happens is that the only reason that some celebs, e-celebs, sports stars, local weathermen, and standard friends and family haven't been discovered as being bad is just because they aren't well known enough yet.
And you can set your watch by this. Celeb du jour, beloved by the people and cherished by the world, is found to have done something rotten, they are canceled and discarded, and the affection previously theirs is assigned to someone else....who will eventually be discovered to be rotten likewise. This happens over and over again, and happens more and more rapidly based on the cycle refreshing as often as it does, thanks to our access to information about the lives even of those who are wealthy and powerful.
I want you to understand something about this - think about all the people who have been canceled recently, and work out that the future celebs who are just about to get canceled, those people have already done horrible things, and are waiting for you to figure that out. But so are all the rest of the celebs, your friends and family, local weathermen, and yes, even the apostles of Jesus Christ.
A bandage that we all have to rip off is that people are, to be Lutheran for a minute, sinners. And they will continue to sin, round the clock. We tend to want to think about things involving celebs, apostles, neighbors, etc etc as being basically good because if we get to do that, we get to do that about most important people of all - not our friends, neighbors, family, celebrities, local law enforcement, politicians, or whoever. No, we want to do that about ourselves.
But the Bible, the real one, gives you the reality of the saints first. It gives you something that seems counter-intuitive, telling you about saints who you are supposed to consider as being holy, while also presenting you with saints who have a hard time even being consistent in their faith in God. And this isn't a contradiction, nor is it a flaw in the writing. Rather, this presents you with humans, you know, being humans. People being people. And it shouldn't be a big deal for us to wrap our heads around the disciples the way they are presented in the Bible - people who are capable of great faith and thirst for righteousness, but who are also wildly flawed, of frail faith, and an inability to accept the word of Christ as it is simply presented. If you read through the stories of the disciples, and don't talk over them, then you'll see that they oscillate wildly between great faith, and massive doubt. Part of what we do when we celebrate a saint's day, as we do on the day of Saints James and Philip, is to take them exactly as written.
And if they get to be human, why don't you? If they can be real, genuine people, flaws intact, then why can't you do the same? What is it about you that makes you so special, that you have to be perfect in order to be acceptable, or a follower of Christ? It's nothing in the scriptures that makes that happen, you know. That's something that we make up, to our detriment. Like with anything else, the more you add to the Bible the worse it gets. The more you have these unfair expectations on the saints, the more those same expectations end up being lumped onto you as well, at least in your own mind. The better option is to be as honest as possible, with yourself as well as with the disciples, and to finally rationalize the truth:
The disciples aren't good. You don't have to pretend to be better than them, just hoping you don't get found out. You can be yourself, you can sin boldly, and demonstrate clearly that you are redeemed. That's the name of the game. Your relationship with God isn't that he likes good people, but that he comes to save people who have a hard time being good. And that's simple enough.
The lives of the saints help to remind us of that. They'll put their feet in their mouths, they'll say too much, they'll fumble through the faith, won't get it right often, or ever.
Because they're like you, and like me. Read them in the text for what they are, and rejoice that Jesus spends his time with those people, deigns to save them, rescue them, and liberate them.
And that's a better story for you, and for me. The story of a people who need a God who comes to liberate them, not a story of people who don't need God until they get found out. And once you work that out, then you won't expect from your neighbor what you wouldn't expect from yourself. You're going to make mistakes. So will they. Don't worry too much about trying to find perfect people to be attached to. Christ didn't. Instead, relish that the Lord of Life comes to free you, me, and the disciples and saints from our sins.
