09/02/2026
St. Aidan’s Day, August 30th 2026 (transferred), Father Phillips Bradford Johnson, Rector
“Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Hoy Ghost, Amen
As Christians our goal is, upon our departure from this world, a smooth transition into the next world. We want to enter into the joy of our Lord! We long for this! As we transition into our sunset years, we might wonder more and more exactly what our departure will be like: will our eternity be spent with the Prince of Peace or the Prince of Darkness? What lies beyond the grave? Sometimes, that grave comes sooner than we expected; yet once we depart, it’s out of our hands. No one comes back; no one gets a second chance. God, the righteous Judge, will hand down His decision---and that decision will be final. No delays; no appeals. For now, we are still here; we are to concentrate on this life, and how we can continue to better ourselves. Our Lord was born to die; we were born to live, to fight under His banner, to be strong and of good courage, to be saints-in-the-making, saints in training. Our Lord, as always, set the example: He came to us in humility. He went to His Cross in humility, yet contrary to what His enemies thought, He was not humiliated. Humility is a positive act, an inner state of being free from pride; humiliation is an external, painful experience which makes one feel ashamed. Now, in this life, in this world, some around us but not necessarily known to us, are saints-in-the-making. These are modest, unselfish individuals who follow God’s calling and live the Summary of the Law with gladness and singleness of heart. These saints-in-the-making are not on the liturgical calendar, but God knows who they are. They would tell us that sainthood is not something we can grasp like a life preserver. Sainthood is something into which we must grow into, until we can exclaim, with St. Paul, “I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me.” As always, prayer is the first step. There was a young boy who really, really wanted a puppy for Christmas, and he let this be known to his mother, who advised, “If you really want a puppy, you should get down on your knees and ask God to give you one! So night after night, just before going to bed, the boy besieged heaven with his prayers, confident that God was hearing him. But when Christmas morning came, there was no puppy under the tree! The boy, instead of sulking, played happily with the toys he received. His mother put a hand on his shoulder and said, “I guess God didn’t answer your prayers.” ‘Oh, He answered them,” the boy replied, “he just said no.” Indeed: sometimes God says no. Now for the saints, it all starts with God, and it all ends with God! St. Therese of the Child Jesus, known as “The Little Flower,” performed even the simplest tasks with great love, rather than seeking majestic achievements. In her spiritual simplicity, she saw herself as a tiny wildflower in God’s garden. She said, “I have found my vocation: it is love!” St. Francis of Assisi, who loved all God’s creatures and even preached to the animals, because no man or woman would listen, said we should live the Gospel through humility and love for all creation. St. Vincent de Paul, whose eyes were opened to the spiritual needs of the French peasants by the deathbed confession of a dying servant, and who became known as the “Apostle of Charity” because for decades he fed he hungry, cared for the sick, and helped prisoners. Really, we all have our own “favorite” saints, and sometimes we think we know them so well that we as them to use their “clout” to get us things which we think we need. In this spirit, there is a famous jingle to St. Anthony of Padua” “Tony, Tony, look around, something’s missing and must be found.” And now we come to St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, chosen as our patron saint going back to our first years at Merle Hay Chapel. Over the years, my predecessors and I have given you various homilies about him. You and I know that Aidan inherited a tough situation from his predecessor priest in Lindisfarne: the wrathful priest had hammered his now beleaguered flock every Sunday with fire-and-brimstone sermons, calling them worthless and wretched: they were all headed for hell, but he, of course, was not. Aidan saw right away that his new flock, by now trembling in their pews, needed a reset: a change from castigation to charity while maintaining orthodoxy, yet emphasizing the power of love. As Aidan lived in the 7th century, over 800 years before the Protestant and English Reformations, there was one Church, rather than a lot of subdividing groups (what we call “the alphabet soup.” Aidan simply wanted a return to the traditional Christian values, which did not include a priest yelling at his parishioners from the pulpit. Here, as Aidan did at Lindisfarne, we reject the watering down, or outright rejection of, the traditional dogmas certified by the ecumenical councils. With Martin Luther, we believe in justification by faith alone; yet works are also important. Salvation, rather than being “once saved, always saved” is an ongoing process from the womb to the tomb involving faith, grace, and cooperation with God. The saints became what they are because of their faith in God, their hope in God, and their burning love for. God. Their faith drove them, with a passion, to be heralds of the Cross, shepherds of their flocks, and stewards of the mysteries of God. And so the great saga continues: faith passes from generation to generation, from father to son, as in Elijah’s mantle being cast over his son Elisha. Our prayer is that when each of us stands before God at the hour of our death, He will say, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!” In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, AMEN
