Introduction

In 1991 I was vicar of Clock Face and Sutton Manor, in the Sutton area of St Helens. St Helens is a rugby league town and the players are local celebrities. I was also a member of a gym in St Helens. One day, Apollo Perelini came into the gym while I was doing my workout. Perelini played internationally for Western Samoa. (He was born on the day that Apollo 11 was launched. His actual name is Apollo 11 Perelini.)

I don’t know if you have ever been close to a professional rugby player. Imagine wearing a pair of jogging bottoms and stuffing a sack of potatoes down each leg. Apollo Perelini looks like that when he’s wearing shorts. And if you’ve never been in a gym, let me tell you that there are two kinds of people in gyms: the fitness fanatics – women who wear two strips of lycra and men who wear sleeveless vests so that you can see the work they’ve done on their arms – and then there are people like me who wear the biggest, baggiest tea shirt they can get their hands on, one that it covers a multitude of sins. When Perelini came into the gym, even the men in the sleeveless vests shrank a little.

I was on a stepper machine and Perelini got onto a similar machine on the row in front of me. My little legs were paddling away furiously. And his… Have you seen Jurassic Park when the T Rex is approaching? Every footstep makes the earth shake. Perelini makes the floor shake!

I finished my routine and went in the changing room. A few minutes later, Perelini came into the changing room. It was at that point that I decided not to have a shower but to go home in my tracksuit.

Why Bother?

There are two ways of reacting to a situation like that. One is to say, What an inspiring role model! I should work hard to get as fit as I possibly can! The other is to say, Why do I even bother! I am never going to have a body like Apollo Perelini!

People talk about the Mother Teresa effect. Teresa’s Christian commitment took her to renounce material wealth and to go and serve God in the poorest of the poor. Do we say, What an inspiring role model! Or do we say, If that is what it takes to be a Christian, why do I even bother!

On All Saints’ Day, we are encouraged to think of the heroes of Christian faith – the martyrs, the missionaries, the trailblazers. Are we encouraged by their example? Or are we put off even trying? What does it mean for me to be a saint? It’s what I’ve been called to be.

I’m never going to be Apollo Perelini. I’m just not built like that. And I’m never going to be Mother Teresa. But then, I’m not called to be. I suspect that a saint is someone who is the person they were meant to be. I think I’m meant to be your vicar.

More importantly, I’m called to be a husband, father, son… I’m called to be me. I’m going to say that a saint is someone they were meant to be. And sometimes that’s the hardest calling of all!

Being A Saint

Although All Saints’ Day invites us to commemorate the heroes, we are all called to be saints (Romans 1.7; 1 Corinthians 1.2). To be a saint is simply to be the person you were created and called to be. When the New Testament refers to ‘saints’ it means all who belong to the Christian community (e.g. Acts 9.13) – the living (not just the dead; cf Mt 27.52).

The greatest saints knew that it was not them but God working in them that made them what they were. It’s God’s light that shines through the saints. (Matthew 5.14; cf John 8.12:)

The NT never uses the word ‘saint’ in the singular, always in the plural, meaning the community of believers in a place. It’s something we do together. We are called to be saints here, with one another and with all who have gone before us.

Conclusion

A famous Rabbi – Meshullam Zusya – once said

“In the coming world they will not ask me,
‘Why were you not Moses?’
They will ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusya?’
(Rabbi Meshullam Zusya of Hanipol (1718-1800) Hassidic teacher)

God will not ask you, Why were you not Mother Teresa? But why were you not you?