Last weekend Lucas and I were attending the Saint Family Reunion in Ohio. Some of you may not know it, but I was already a half “Saint” before I was ever baptized. You see, my mother’s maiden name was capital-“S” Saint, as she is the daughter of James Giles Saint the Third (who was, incidentally, a Presbyterian minister—after all, what would you do with a last name like “Saint”?). So my genetic half-Sainthood doesn’t mean I’m already halfway through the process of sanctification. Though it does mean that, yes, our family theme song is “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
At any rate, four branches of the Saint family gathered together at the reunion last week. Now, when I told one of the local church members about this during our time at the Food Bank this week, he laughed and said, “If my family had a reunion, you’d need a SWAT team there to keep the peace!” Some of you might have a similar feeling about getting together with your extended family. Lots of old arguments, hard feelings, and irreconcilable differences coming together over dinner, not something many of us enjoy.
But what was remarkable was how peaceful our family reunion was, as I imagine these things are as present in our extended family as in anyone else’s. We had the whole gamut of political and theological views represented in our gathering. We had all ages of people and many kinds of lifestyles. We had Salvation Army officers, global missionaries, multiple Presbyterian ministers, Unitarian Universalists, and I'm sure some "spiritual but not religious" thrown in for good measure.
I think the oldest was my great Uncle Bill, who is probably in his late eighties. He was accompanied by his caregiver, his gynecologist son John, who wore scrubs all weekend and told a dirty joke I won’t repeat here. Half the family laughed at it and half of them didn’t understand it. We had loquacious cousin Aland, free-spirited teacher Amari, tatooed Suzanne, and shy psychology student, Jenny. Some of us were single parents of toddlers, and some of us, like me, in that role for the weekend, were trying to figure out how they manage it on a day to day basis! We had strong-armed Aunt Dottie, who if you stretch her, reaches 5 feet, marshalling all of us together for a family picture. It was something to see.
One of the more remarkable moments was during our Sunday morning family worship service. My sisters, Julie and Beth, and I had been asked to lead the group in singing "In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified." A pretty simple tune, in which you can substitute various phrases: "in our church" or "in this world" or whatever. With the upcoming Sunday lectionary in my mind, upon which I am currently trying to write a sermon (II Samuel 7: 1-14a and Ephesians 2:19-22) I asked the group to sing "In this house, Lord, Be Glorified." It was lovely to see and hear all of these wonderful people, in all their variety, who are all family in some way, who are all "saints" in some way, singing this song together.
The Ephesians passage says something about this:
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God."
God reunited the Saints, and God continues over and over again, to reunite all the saints, as people of all different kinds come together in community, worshipping and inviting God to be glorified in their midst.
At any rate, four branches of the Saint family gathered together at the reunion last week. Now, when I told one of the local church members about this during our time at the Food Bank this week, he laughed and said, “If my family had a reunion, you’d need a SWAT team there to keep the peace!” Some of you might have a similar feeling about getting together with your extended family. Lots of old arguments, hard feelings, and irreconcilable differences coming together over dinner, not something many of us enjoy.
But what was remarkable was how peaceful our family reunion was, as I imagine these things are as present in our extended family as in anyone else’s. We had the whole gamut of political and theological views represented in our gathering. We had all ages of people and many kinds of lifestyles. We had Salvation Army officers, global missionaries, multiple Presbyterian ministers, Unitarian Universalists, and I'm sure some "spiritual but not religious" thrown in for good measure.
I think the oldest was my great Uncle Bill, who is probably in his late eighties. He was accompanied by his caregiver, his gynecologist son John, who wore scrubs all weekend and told a dirty joke I won’t repeat here. Half the family laughed at it and half of them didn’t understand it. We had loquacious cousin Aland, free-spirited teacher Amari, tatooed Suzanne, and shy psychology student, Jenny. Some of us were single parents of toddlers, and some of us, like me, in that role for the weekend, were trying to figure out how they manage it on a day to day basis! We had strong-armed Aunt Dottie, who if you stretch her, reaches 5 feet, marshalling all of us together for a family picture. It was something to see.
One of the more remarkable moments was during our Sunday morning family worship service. My sisters, Julie and Beth, and I had been asked to lead the group in singing "In My Life, Lord, Be Glorified." A pretty simple tune, in which you can substitute various phrases: "in our church" or "in this world" or whatever. With the upcoming Sunday lectionary in my mind, upon which I am currently trying to write a sermon (II Samuel 7: 1-14a and Ephesians 2:19-22) I asked the group to sing "In this house, Lord, Be Glorified." It was lovely to see and hear all of these wonderful people, in all their variety, who are all family in some way, who are all "saints" in some way, singing this song together.
The Ephesians passage says something about this:
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God."
God reunited the Saints, and God continues over and over again, to reunite all the saints, as people of all different kinds come together in community, worshipping and inviting God to be glorified in their midst.
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