“I Sing a Song of the Saints of God”

Some of you might recognize this as a hymn, which it is. It is a fun little children’s hymn, that the Sunday School here at SMA have learned and generally comes up in church when a child is being baptized. It happens to be one of my favorites (my absolute favorite, being “Hail the Festival Day”).

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it here’s the text:
“I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew. And one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green; they were all of them saints of God, and I mean, God helping, to be one too.
“They loved their Lord so dear, so dear, and his love made them strong; and they followed the right for Jesus' sake the whole of their good lives long. And one was a soldier, and one was a priest, and one was slain by a fierce wild beast; and there's not any reason, no, not the least, why I shouldn't be one too.
“They lived not only in ages past; there are hundreds of thousands still. The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus' will. You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea, in church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea, for the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.”

Now, that being said (or sung ;-) I have come to realize how true the song is. While I have grown up knowing that first two verses are quite true, it’s the last verse that I have wondered about. Are their still, “saints of God” out there? With the way the world is right now, you have to wonder. What I’ve come to realize is that I just have to look for the modern-day saints; sometimes they are in plain sight, and sometimes I have to really look to see them. The last verse, while “out of date” as it may be, is quite true. You can really meet them at school, in “lanes”, at sea, in churches, trains, in shops or at “tea”. Since coming out to LA (or perhaps since I’ve grown older and more observant of these sort of things) I’ve noticed that, “The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ will.”
What I’ve also noticed is that these “modern-day saints” come in many shapes, sizes, personality types, and faiths. Not, that they are not Christian, but as you all know, there are a number of different “types” of Christianity (it’s not supposed to be that way in my personal belief, but there are anyway), while they all have the same basic beliefs they have different ways of expressing them. SMA is Anglican, which is very tradition based. I spent nearly all of my teenage years in a non-denominational church, so coming back to the church of my childhood has been interesting. They are very much exact opposites. Well, the non-denominational has a “tradition” of how their Sunday morning goes: “Worship (music), Announcements, and Sermon”. Anglicanism comes from a long history that stretches on for centuries, and I happen to be at one of the few churches in America that does the liturgy in the “old way”. As the SMA website states: “Our worship is in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, with the rich ceremonial of western Catholicism, the beauty of the Elizabethan Book of Common Prayer, and the musical heritage of the ancient chant.”
While this is very much like what I grew up on (before reaching the teenage years), it is also different, because it is rooted in deep tradition. As I stated before my teenage years I spent amongst the more evangelical type of Christians, some of which were hippies who joined the “Jesus Movement”. While they were different than what I grew up with, I came to accept and understand it. Now I’ve come back to my roots and while I in some ways feel that I have come home, there are times when I miss some of the aspects of the non-denominational church.
The other night, I went with my mom and her best friend (and her best friend’s daughter) to their “prayer group”. This “prayer group” is comprised of a group of older woman who have known each other for years (except for my mom, they’ve adopted her though), through their time spent at the Vineyard church. As I sat there, I realized that I was surrounded by saints of God. They love to do the will of God, and they love to pray and support each other. Each of them seeks the Will of God in all they do and are committed to being witnesses of Christ.
I’ve also spotted several at SMA and as I have thought back over my time at NCCC I’ve come to recognize several saints as well. To think that I over looked them! The “joyous saints who love to do Jesus’ Will” have surrounded me! I find that to be an extreme blessing, because if I pay attention, I’ll learn things that I might not ordinarily learn.

And well, as the song says… “I mean to be one too.”