Reflection: Generations before – Saints – Mentors   

I’ve just finished reading the story of the first thousand years of Christianity. Brilliant, readable and inspiring!* It’s awash with emperors, bishops, missionaries, monks and martyrs — many of them heroes of the faith who make up that huge crowd of witnesses cheering us on. But of course, many are the ‘heroes’ who didn’t earn a good faith-reputation.

“People of loving service are rare…Leaders of loving service are still rarer. (Ring a little bell?) …those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are long forgotten,” reflected the Archbishop of Canterbury at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral (in his sermon here).

And so, poignantly on that same occasion, resounded the hymn:

Finish, then, thy new creation; true and spotless let us be….

till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.**

There’s no place for elitism in the Christian faith. Not now and not in eternity. Because our hero is Christ, the courageously humble king. Heroes worth following — call them saints — are a reflection of him. They’re marked by courage, faithfulness, humility and generosity — authentic, serving love.

Whose life has attracted your attention…and why?

Prayer:  For heroes that have gone before, fill me with a right sense of wonder and inspiration, Lord. And for those who’ll walk behind, may my shadow cast an example of costly and courageous love. By the power of your Spirit grow me in your defining characteristics of faithfulness, humility and generosity today.

*The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity by Robert Louis Wilken

**Love Divine, hymn by Charles Wesley