In the new Common Worship Lectionary today is called 'All Saints Sunday'. We don't just have All Saints' Day on November 1st to remember saints, to think about what sainthood is, but we also have All Saints' Sunday.

If you are of a High Church persuasion you will remember 'the saints'. 'The saints' are the particular ones- not only the New Testament saints, Saint Matthew and all the other ones who wrote the Gospels, or were Jesus' disciples, Saint Paul, but people like Saint Francis of  Assisi, Saint Benedict and all the other saints the church has honoured down the centuries.

But I want to begin this evening by saying that that is a a misunderstanding of what the New Testament means by the word 'saint'. This evening I want to bear in mind one particular verse from Romans chapter 1. I don't particularly want to preach from the set readings for this evening, but I want to look at Romans chapter 1 and the first half of verse 7.

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Particularly I want to speak on that phrase 'called to be saints'. First of all let me begin by saying that we are all called to be saints. The trouble with overemphasising 'the saints' is that it diverts our attention from this universal Christian calling and wrongly puts the emphasis on what 'the saints' do as meriting that title. We are loved by God and called to be saints. God's love is the qualifying factor. Paul wrote to all the Christians in Rome and therefore all called and called to be saints.

So to begin let us think about this matter of calling.
It is by God's calling that we are saints. Paul is, of course, very careful about the introductory wording of this beginning of the epistle, as he is indeed always and everywhere. Each word counts for something, and in Romans which is his most carefully thought-out treatise on Christian theology -and on Christian discipleship, he expands some of the thoughts in the introductory verses as he works through his letter. And so, this thought of God's calling is expanded on in Romans chapter 8, where we read in verses 29 and 30
for those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the first-born among many brothers (what a privilege there) and those he predestined he also called, those he called he also justified, those he justified he also glorified
    The fact that we are Christian has nothing to do with us.
We didn't suddenly decide to become Christians. In fact, for a person to become a Christian is something totally alien to his human nature. Paul reminds us in Ephesians chapter 2 that all of us were
dead in our transgressions and sins, in which (we) used to live when (we) followed the ways of the world..
All of us lived at one time gratifying our sinful nature, and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest we were objects of wrath.

Not the sort of topic which makes for very popular preaching nowadays. We don't like to think about that particular aspect of human nature. We like to think more about that essential goodness, which there still is in every person; the image of God in which we were created has been despoiled, but nor totally lost. But the clear teaching of the Bible is that we are all born dead in our transgressions and sins.
  Cemeteries are peaceful places; that's just what the German name 'Friedhof' means. Nothing ever happens. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a corpse? Have you ever tried to get a corpse to do anything? It's totally futile. There's no life there.
  We are born dead in our sins and transgressions. we are spiritually dead and a corpse can never do anything, still less give itself life. A corpse can never of itself come to life. When Jesus raised Lazarus, Jesus called out Come forth. Then the dead Lazarus was resurrected and came out of the tomb. That's a good parable of when we become a Christian. It is Jesus Christ calling us from the tomb of sin to life. It is also God's Word. God's Word awakens us to the state that we are in. It's also the work of the Holy Spirit. John 16 verse 8 tells us of the Holy Spirit
When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt, in regard of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.
It's the conviction of the Holy Spirit, it's the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit which brings our spirits out of their death and awakens them so that we can respond to God's call and it's by the work of the Holy Spirit that we become Christian. But now we move on to the second word in that phrase.

We are called of God and we are called to be saints.
We are called to be saints.
And here I want to re-emphasise what I said already: Sainthood belongs to all Christians; all Christians are saints. It's not just those whom the church particularly marks out and remembers. It's not those whom the Pope by his decree says are to be 'saints'. It is said that soon maybe, Mother Theresa will be 'beatified' and called a saint by the Catholic Church. But you and I are as much saints as ever Mother Theresa was- or in heaven, is. We are all saints. It's not just somebody in a stained-glass window with a halo around his or her head.

The word 'saint'; the Greek word agios has the same root as the Greek word for 'holy'. We are called to be saints; we are called to be the 'holy ones', and that means we are called to be 'set apart'. To be holy is to be set apart; not set apart in some cliquey sort of way;in some 'better-than-thou' sort of way, but set apart to God. The Old Testament priests had the inscription on their robes 'Holiness to the Lord'. That is the essence of holiness, the essence of sainthood. It is 'unto the Lord'; we are called out, called to be separate 'unto God'. We are His; He has called us
  Sainthood, then, does not depend upon some special moral achievement, some special collection of acts of righteousness. Every saint depends upon the completed work of Jesus Christ upon the Cross. Upon the Cross he bore our sins; upon the Cross he completed the work of total obedience to his Father's will. When he cried out on the Cross It is finished, I think two things were meant there.
He had borne the full weight of human sin; the weight which had caused him to cry out My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
But also, he had completed a life and a work of complete obedience to his Father's will. He had completely fulfilled the Law's demands. Remember he said I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them. He was the One the Law and Prophets spoke about and appointed to. In his life he fulfilled the law. He fulfilled all righteousness. And it is his righteousness which is given to us 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21 says He was made sin for us that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
There are two separate verses toward the end of Isaiah which  sum this all up.
First of all we are told that all of us have become like one that is unclean. All our righteousness is like filthy rags- then Isaiah goes on to say that God has clothed us with a robe of righteousness. The Christian is clothed with the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Holiness denotes not just separation but purity. We can never do anything to make ourselves more pure; more set apart- sadly we often do the opposite. Not more holy than what Jesus has already given us.

Well. Somebody might be sitting there and thinking, "Well, what does it matter what I do! If I'm already clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, surely I can just get on and live the life I like. It doesn't matter what I do!"
 But that won't do. That attitude is completely inconsistent with being clothed in that purity; it makes a mockery of it. In Ephesians chapter 4 Paul says this:
I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles (for us, the unbelievers) do, in the futility of their thinking..You however did not come to know Christ in that way. Surely you were taught in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus...You were taught to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood.. for we are all members of one body...among you there must not be any hint of sexual immorality or impurity or greed because these are improper for God's holy people.

If we are careless about how we live then we deny our calling. We are not living the way we were called to live. Our life becomes a contradiction. We shall find ourselves becoming full of contradictions. We shall find that our faith and our profession of faith becomes something increasingly unreal.

Peter in his second epistle advises his readers (chapter 1 verse 10) Therefore my brothers, be all the more eager to make you calling and election sure.
Now, what's peter saying here. He is not saying that we are to
do certain things in order that we may preserve our calling. No. What Peter is saying is that there are certain things to do that we may live in full assurance of faith. We have a 'therefore'- so we must look to the previous verses and there we read
For this very reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness, to goodness knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly love and to brotherly love kindness and love.
We don't do these things to win sainthood, in order to attain sainthood, in order to achieve God's calling. He has already called us. But these things
goodness
knowledge
self-control
perseverance
godliness
brotherly love
these things we strive for in order, first of all that we may have assurance, and also because the Word of God tells us that this is the way God wants us to live.

We think this evening then that we're are called to be saints; called because we are loved of God. And our lives will either make a mockery and a nonsense of all this- not that God will go back on his calling- the Bible tells us his calling is sure, but we shall make a mockery of our calling and shall become full of doubt, full of uncertainty, full of fear and we shall live lives that do not honour the Lord, the God who loves us and who called us. Let us be sure we live lives that give the world a true picture of sainthood.

One day we shall join the saints in glory. If we have taken our calling lightly, how are we going to look forward to fulfilling our calling. But if we strive to do the things; adding on to our faith those things that Peter advises us to then we may be sure that when the time comes that we shall join the saints in glory in full expectation, with full certainty.
To God be the glory
Great things he hath done
so loved he the world
that he gave us his Son
 
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