The 8 am and 11.15 am Services last Sunday opened with the hymn, “Rejoice in God’s saints.” I wonder whether we fully appreciate the lyrics of this hymn. We can indeed find joy in thinking about those who have inspired us with their faith and commitment. “Saints” acquire a larger than life image in our minds and history and the passing of time has a way of magnifying that.
However these were very ordinary humans like us, with faults, warts and all. But the grace of God worked through their obedience. And they, not unlike those in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11, encourage and inspire us. And so the hymn goes:
Rejoice in those saints, unpraised and unknown,
who bear someone’s cross, or shoulder their own:
they shame our complaining, our comforts, our cares:
what patience in caring, what courage is theirs!
We would like to do a bit of that in this year’s Missions Month. We want to rejoice in God’s saints, many who are “unpraised and unknown” (at least to most). These are the faces of our Missions work. We think of the late Frank Teo (in photo), one of the early local Anglican missionaries who laboured in Pakistan. His wife, Mabel and their two children, Amos and Aaron, and his parents are still actively worshipping and serving in SAC. We rejoice when we think of Susan Goh, who has now served for 11 years in Cambodia, loving, caring and teaching the many students under her care in Project Khmer H.O.P.E. She served together with early retirees Yvonne Chew (10 years), and Choo Beng Geok, Kang Beng Gek and Caroline Lim (6 years each). Or Lim Sok Chin, who has served 25 years in Africa with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We can also thank the Lord for young adults like Hannah Chee and Han Qiang, who spent some years serving in the Deanery of Thailand. Or someone like Barnabas Sim, who spent 4 years serving in Hanoi.
Yes, these are all our very own, missionaries from the Cathedral, who sensed the call and went in obedience. This list is by no means exhaustive.
Indeed “a world without saints forgets how to praise.” But they should inspire us, not just with their heroic deeds. For they “bear someone’s cross, or shoulder their own.” There is daily, a cross we need to bear (Luke 9:23). To take up the cross is to walk as Jesus walked. St Peter called it following in the steps of the Master (1 Peter 2:21). It is about walking with Jesus, saying ‘no’ to sin and pride, living in brokenness, forgiving and being forgiven. It is about loving God. A saint walks with God and from that wellspring of relationship, bears fruits in the world (John 15:5). All very biblical language, as biblical and “old” as the term ”saint,” but a helpful and needed reminder.
