A Cloud of Witnesses
Sermon preached in St. Leonard's Chapel, St Andrews on the 12th November, 2006 by Rev Giles Dove
Readings: Hebrews 12:1-2 and Revelation 7:9-12
Sermon:
May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in Thy sight O Lord, Our Strength and Our Redeemer. Amen.
'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus' (Hebrews 12:1-2).
In my secular employment in universities my work has touched upon the seemingly modern and innovative disciplines of communications and marketing. Around the time I left my last university post, the senior management team were beginning to get quite excited about the notion of 'the University's brand'. As is sometimes the case in such circumstances, colleagues had heard of the word, had become persuaded that this 'brand thing' was probably of some significance, they wanted a piece of that 'brand business' for themselves. BUT, they probably did not really understand what branding is about. Moreover, they were not really interested in understanding just what a brand is.
Those who had watched cowboy films might have noticed that a cow in the Wild West is only too aware of what a brand is. Man or beast, if you've had a white-hot branding iron applied to your flank you know about it. The branding iron makes an indelible and unique distinguishing mark on each individual and that brand does not come without some effort and, quite probably, some suffering.
For a more contemporary definition of brand, let us turn to that most original of sources, the book of Wikipedia the Free Online Encyclopaedia at www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/brand we read: 'A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service'. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.
So, what has all of this business jargon got to do with the man we commemorate at this service today? St Leonard, whose feast is in the calendars of the Church at 6 November, had served in the army in sixth century Gaul before he heard the voice of God calling him to commit his life to the service of Jesus Christ, leading the life of a hermit. Leonard became a popular holy-man in his own day as he brought healing to lepers and others who sought his prayers. Amongst those he cured was the wife of King Theodebert. Doubtless as a result of which, Leonard was furnished with sufficient land to establish a monastery at Noblac near Limoges.
In the ninth century Leonard's relics were housed initially in a church built specifically for them. Many pilgrims went to his shrine in the hope of healing, and St Leonard soon became a popular patron of churches and of hospitals. There are churches dedicated to him throughout Europe. St Leonard is remembered also as the patron saint of prisoners and is depicted holding fetters in one hand in artistic representations such as Walter Pritchard's 1956 painting of 'The Legend of St Leonard' on the east wall of this chapel, and in the coat of arms of this College of St Leonard.
With a prisoner's fetters as his logo, therefore, St Leonard has been held up for centuries as a virtuous example of Christian living and commitment notably in the care he expressed for those who suffer, whatever their background, royalty and rogue alike were touched by Christ's healing through the ministry of St Leonard.
Leonard is certainly not the only saint we think about at this time of year. This period in November, in the run-up to Advent, is sometimes referred to as The Kingdom Season. This is the time of year, beginning with All Saints Day on 1 November, when we remember that we are part of the communion of saints stretching across time and space. Our thoughts and our prayers, our whole lives indeed - whether offered alone or together - are caught up in the great outpouring of praise and worship of the whole people of God.
So far this month, we have commemorated All Saints; we have remembered the faithful departed All Souls - those 'who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no man can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one'; and, today, we mark Remembrance Sunday. All these are part of this time - of this Kingdom Season. It is a season in which we celebrate both the reality of God's kingly rule and our mortal awareness of the final ingathering.
A few years ago, I had the great pleasure on All Saints Day, of attending the patronal festival at the church of All Saints, Margaret Street, in London. The then Archbishop of Canterbury was the guest preacher - and less said about that the better. The service itself, however, was really quite magnificent. One of those occasions designed to appeal to all the senses. When the music, the colour, the smells create an atmosphere of almost heavenly splendour. Throughout this Kingdom Season, and into during Advent too, we do well to be reminded of that wonderful passage at the beginning of Hebrews Chapter 12:
'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.'
'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses...' has been buzzing about my mind since All Saints Day this year. Back at that church in Margaret Street, the great cloud was of smoky incense. But it is the great cloud of the faithful that surround us - the small cloud round about us this evening, the bigger cloud worshipping in their own traditions elsewhere in St Andrews at this time, the yet bigger cloud across Scotland, across the United Kingdom, across the world on every continent and island, that great cloud that has gone before us into the closer presence of God - those known to us (and those unknown) faithful departed. They join our worship, they share our faith, they are enriched by our sacraments. We are not alone. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
My university studies and research, here in St Andrews, were in history. I find something reassuring about knowing my tiny place in the great span of centuries gone by. I think I find the concept of being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses quite reassuring too. St Leonard led the rather lonely life of a hermit in the forest. Professing the Christian faith can appear a lonely endeavour in our day. It is good to know that there is a multitude of others who have shared and who continue to share our faith in one God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When I don¿t make time to pray, others are praying. When I sin or despair, others are faithful and hopeful.
Recognising that some people feel rather uncomfortable about the very idea of saints, I think it is worth giving a little consideration to just what it means to be a saint.
The manifestation of the reverence and honour in which a saint was held in the Middle Ages is commonly called a 'cult', a word derived from the classical Latin word 'cultus' which was usually used to refer to 'worship' or to an 'act of worship'.
Rather than being an object of worship per se, the prime function of a saint was as an object for praise and as an example for imitation. This function developed during the Middle Ages so that saints came to be seen as intercessors whose prayers were particularly effective in obtaining benefits from God for those who venerated them. Nowhere is this seen more dramatically than in those places which were established as the focus for pilgrimage: those places to which the faithful travelled from far and near in the expectation of receiving demonstrable benefits from the earthly remains of the saints, more often than not in the form of miraculous cures from a whole host of physical and mental ailments.
Churches and monasteries fostered the cults of individual saints often, though not invariably, with local connections. The promotion of centres of pilgrimage came to involve the laity as well as the clergy, as finances became increasingly important for the maintenance of a respectable cult.
As small communities became important cult centres through the increased awareness of their association with local saints, or the presence of the relics of national patrons, their whole form and nature would be altered. To cope with the increase in pilgrim-visitors, churches, hostels and hospitals were founded. These pilgrimage centres also became bastions of commercial and mercantile activity. In short, pilgrimage and the cult of saints altered the structure of local communities not only in ecclesiastical terms but also from the point of view of the economy, the social structure, the architecture and the geography.
We might presume that there was some competition between various shrines and we might imagine monks encouraging the presence of sick and infirm pilgrims at their shrine in order that they might compete in miracles of healing with rival saints shrines. Saints were an important monastic product which, with monastic marketing, brought indispensable monastic profits. Whilst not wishing to undermine the personal devotion of some ecclesiastics to the cult of saints at pilgrimage sites, I think it would be wrong to pretend that a more materialistic side did not exist.
Here in Fife, notwithstanding the scepticism of motivation, there is no doubt that, with the shrines of Scotland's national patrons Andrew and Margaret - at St Andrews and Dunfermline, and with the widespread veneration of literally dozens of other saints, Fife became the focus for a cosmopolitan assortment of pilgrims. In terms of religious activity and as a pilgrimage centre St Andrews in particular could match shrines across Europe in its splendour and popularity.
The hospital in St Andrews is first named as St Leonard's in a bull of Pope Innocent IV, dated 1248, serving as a hospital or hospice for poor pilgrims visiting the shrine of St Andrew. St Leonard's later became an almshouse for old women and poor men, and in 1512 the College of St Leonard was created out of the former hospital and church by Archbishop Alexander Stewart of St Andrews for the education of poor clerks. The original foundation was for a Principal Master, who was to be a canon of the cathedral, four chaplains and twenty-six poor clerks.
Today, as you will know, St Leonard's serves as the virtual Graduate School for the University of St Andrews. It is good to know that this ancient place of worship dedicated to St Leonard continues to be surrounded by the teaching and learning offered by St Leonard's School.
Just one saint of the many in the calendars of the Church, Leonard points us to healing, to the defence of the innocent, to learning, to care all in the name of Jesus Christ.
Returning to Wikipedia: 'Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service'.
A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer.
'What is Christianity's brand, and who are those women and men through the ages who have carried that brand and who continue to carry that brand in their communities, in their families and in their lives? 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses' let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus' (Hebrews 12:1-2)
From time to time, it is good to find a quiet space to rest in the presence of God and to rest in the comfort of being surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Perhaps you can find time to do that this Kingdom Season and into Advent as we start our preparations for Christmas and for our eternal destiny.
St John paints a stunning picture in the Book of Revelation:
'After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!' And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, singing, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.'
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.