Welcome to St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Kamloops

As I prepared for All Saint’s Sunday, an incident from my youth came to mind. I was probably 7 or 8 years old. At that time my family attended the Lutheran Church of the Cross on Arlington Ave., in Winnipeg, Manitoba. My parents were married there. I was baptized there. My parents brought my sister and I to that church faithfully. Sunday school was a highlight of the week. My teacher that year was Mrs. Schmeichel. Like my father, her husband was involved in the building trade. My dad knew him professionally and as brother in Christ.

Two Sunday School classes on two consecutive Sundays with Mrs. Schmeichel are permanently etched on my mind. A Law Sunday and a Gospel Sunday. The Law loomed large on the first Sunday. Mrs. Schmeichel sat precariously on a little chair at a children’s table surrounded by her class. She tried to teach the lesson. Then tomfoolery broke out among the students. I chimed in. She seemed surprised that I spoke up and began to support the misbehaving boys. With a raised voice she addressed me: “Edward, if you don’t stop right now, I am going to tell your father what you have done. I will tell on you.”

My retort: “Ha! I’ll tell my father on you!”

The moment those words came out of my mouth, everything changed. I knew what I said was wrong. I knew I was in trouble. I don’t remember much of anything after that moment. However, I remember vividly the ride home from church. Mrs. Schmeichel had indeed “told on me.” The words emanating from the front of the car convicted me of the crime of insubordination and disrespect of a trusted teacher. My parents also expressed their extreme disappointment in me. My father announced that the following Sunday I was going to apologize to Mrs. Schmeichel.

At that moment I totally sympathized with the disciples who were often stunned by a pronouncement from Jesus. “Why didn’t they just ask what Jesus meant?” we ask from a position of safety.

I expected to be found guilty and be reprimanded. But I did not expect the sentence that my father imposed: a heartfelt apology. Apologize to her? How was I to do this? What words would I say? When was I to do this? Was I to apologize to her alone at the beginning of or the end of the class? In the alternative was I to apologize in front of the whole class? What if she was still mad at me? What if she didn’t accept my apology? Rather than ask these important questions I sat in stunned silence. Feelings of embarrassment and shame overwhelmed me. I feared my confrontation with Mrs. Schmeichel.

The days that followed were hard. I thought about what I had to do night and day. Rather than ask for help, I tortured myself for a week. I was not looking forward to church and Sunday School. Then the fateful day came.

I went downstairs to my Sunday School class. I was early. She was alone. With my head bowed, I walked right up to her.

“Mrs. Schmeichel, I am sorry about what I said last week.”

Her response: Silence ………………….. Crickets as they say today.

I sheepishly looked up. At that moment I saw a tear roll down her cheek and she said these words as my eyes met hers: “I forgive you Edward.”

Just then some of my classmates came bounding into the room. She wiped her cheek, and I took my seat. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The knots in my stomach suddenly untangled. I was at peace with Mrs. Schmeichel and the world. I vowed to do better. I vowed not to challenge her leadership again.

This is a silly little story from my childhood; however, it points to the meaning and purpose of All Saints Sunday. It makes me remember who I am. It reminds me of the people that God put in my life. It reminds me that God put them into my life to shape and mould me and teach me to remember who I am.

The conflict that occurred in a small classroom in a Lutheran Church in Winnipeg is emblematic of what happens in families, congregations, church bodies and even Christian nations. Trouble arises and leadership is challenged by in-subordinates. The life and even continuance of a community of faith is challenged. It could be torn asunder by the challenges to its leadership. What is worse, the salvation of members of these congregations could be at stake.

The Apostle John was made aware of a virus that was spreading throughout the Christian congregations around him. This virus came in the form of teaching of man named Cerinthus. We know of this man from the writings of a church historian named Eusebius. Cerinthus was a nominal Christian of Jewish descent who came from Egypt. He rejected all the Gospels and Paul’s writings and accepted only parts of Matthew and Mark. He combined Jewish ideas with Gnosticism or special knowledge of God. He taught that Jesus was the physical son of Joseph. In Cerinthus' interpretation, the Christ descended upon Jesus at his baptism and guided him in ministry and the performing of miracles, but left him at the crucifixion. He retained circumcision of all males and keeping the Sabbath. Salvation came from obedience to the Torah. His teaching confused many and began schisms in many Christian congregations.

Congregational leaders appealed to St. John for help. Like a good parent, he responded with a letter addressed to the congregations infected by this virus. Fourteen times he used the word “children” in his first letter. Most of these times he referred to his audience as “my dear children.” Throughout his letter he encouraged those he addressed as “children” to remember who they were.

The first thing John did was call them to remember that they were sinners. He said: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8 & 10). He reminded them that: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

Their first sin is that they were beginning to forget who they were. They were God’s children. John assured them that they were not God’s children because of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will. They were born of God, by God’s will through faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God.

John had taught them that unless God allowed and guided, not one person could come to Jesus Christ and/or believe in him. They had received the Holy Spirit, the breath of God, and came to believe.

John reminded them, that he taught that Jesus, was the Son of God, who was there in the beginning, at creation, became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John taught that he had seen Jesus’ glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

He called them to remember that Jesus was the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” He really died for their sins. Jesus was really resurrected to new life.

He called them to remember that, like Martha, Jesus had made a promise to them: ““I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Just like Martha they had made a confession to Jesus “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

He called them to remember that Jesus had called them to: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)

John called them to confess their sins. Some had begun to doubt the Jesus was fully human and fully divine. If Jesus was not the Son of God some doubted that he could not have died for all their sins and provided for their atonement. Some came to believe that the faith they needed for eternal life was not in Jesus but in themselves and their ability to follow the Law. They were called to have faith in grand and secret ideas about the creation of the world and God’s will for them through strange interpretations of the Old Testament scriptures. Faith became cerebral, based on special knowledge about God and spiritual feelings. Concern for their brothers and sisters in Christ got in the way of developing their special knowledge and experience of God.

John called them back to the basics. If they came to Jesus and confessed their sins, God would forgive them. He called them to have concern for one another, to help brothers and sisters in Christ that were in need. By this they would show themselves to be children of God and believers in Jesus the Christ.

John’s letter called many to repentance. They turned to Jesus and were transformed by him. The teachings of Cerinthus are gone. They are dust. John’s letter lives on and still calls many back from the brink of doubt and hopelessness. The confessing church repented and moved on. The same church exists today and is still assailed by the Cerinthus’ brothers and sisters. The hymn writer S.J. Sone provides a vision of Christ’s Church in verse three of the iconic hymn,” The Church’s One Foundation.” Though with a scornful wonder, men see her sore oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed, yet saints their watch are keeping, their cry goes up, "How long?" and soon the night of weeping shall be the morn of song!

That is precisely what John preached: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” This is our hope, our vision, our reason for being. Love for Father, Son and Holy Spirit and one another will keep us together.

These times of distress can either make us stronger or tear us apart. Take my little story at the beginning. Mrs. Schmeichel could have told my parents about my behaviour and they could have laughed it off. “Come on, he’s just a kid. He kept quiet after you warned him, didn’t he? Don’t make a federal case of it! Let go of it! Move on!” Comments like this could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for Mrs. Schmeichel. Maybe she had been complaining to her husband that her students were always disrespectful to her and that she felt like a failure as a teacher. Now the Skutshek boy joined in and was harassing her. What if she quit as a Sunday teacher as a result? What if the Schmeichel family quit the church?

What if my parents took offence. What if they said: “Our son says you singled him out from the rest. You picked on him. You yelled at him! He is so sensitive. Edward and Desiree will not be attending Sunday School as long as you are a teacher.” What if my parents and the Schmeichel family left the church because of the great offence they felt? We have all seen a situation like this spiral out of control.

What saved us all was Jesus. He convicted me of my sin. He convicted Mrs. Schmeichel to tell my parents of my wrong. He convicted my parents of my sin. He guided my parents to make the right decision: to call me to repent and to apologize. It was through this painful event that I came to understand the love of God in a new way. I learned that hen you are wrong, love means having to say you are sorry to the one you hurt, even if it is painful. When you have been wronged, love means that you forgive the one who has hurt you. When you are wrong, love means that you want to change, and you want to be different and new. We can love this way because of God’ love. God’s love is expressed in Jesus who took our wrongs, that we inflict on one another, upon himself and paid the price through horrible pain, suffering and death on the cross. The love of Jesus compels us to seek forgiveness from those we have wronged and compels the one’s wronged to forgive. This is a great witness.

We should all give thanks to God for the saints that came before us. Who passed the torch to us. The one’s who God used to shape and mould us. The one’s that God used to show us the love that convinces others that we are Jesus’ disciples. They are gone, but not forgotten. Because of Jesus’ promises they are with him and they are cheering us on! God use the examples of the saints who you used to mould us to love one another in ways that convince others that we are your disciples. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. 

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