A GRINDING STONE AND A WINE PRESS
In the beginning of the Christian
story there were the ‘Jesus followers’, who, when they spread to Antioch in
Syria became known as Christians. In the letters they wrote they referred to
one another as ‘saints’, that is, holy people, and they found their shared
following of Jesus drew them together into communities which became known as
‘churches’.
In the Celtic church in the 700s, the
custom grew of celebrating all the saints, all, that is who are with God now
after their death. It was a way of encouraging the people who were about to
enter the long dark cold northern winter that after darkness comes the light of
spring and summer in the new year when the sun would return. This was what our Christian journey is
like. Dark periods are always followed by light.
In 1511, German painter Albrecht DΓΌrer
gave us a picture of all the saints gathered in heaven and what immediately
strikes the viewer is that they are all gathered round the Cross on which Jesus
hangs. The centre and focus of glory of the saints is the crucified Lord. St
Paul tells us this was a scandal to the Jews and sheer nonsense to the pagans
‘but to those who have been called, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of
God.’
The first Jesus followers, all Jews,
found themselves caught between persecution by their fellow Jews for their
belief in this crucified Messiah and persecution, later, by the Romans for
refusing to worship their gods, particularly when the practice developed of
calling the emperor ‘God’. But they quickly realised that by suffering for
their faith in Jesus and even dying of this faith, they were following him on
his way to the cross.
This all-the-way-to-the-cross faith is
the badge, the uniform, which the saints rejoice to wear. The woman grinding at
the mill and the man treading the wine-press, were acting out symbolically what
the Christian life is all about. When we use the word ‘grind’ or ‘press’ it is
usually in the sense of something hard that has to be crushed into shape. That
is what a saint is.
And the Eucharist is the heart of it.
For it is there that we receive the crushed grain that has become the body of
Christ and the pressed grapes that have become his blood. So the following of
Jesus can be tough; but if we find it so we are touching the heart of the
matter. You do not have to be a Christian to know that facing opposition can be
the making of a person. Any suffering can purify a person when accepted
patiently. Our Christian faith gives us the power to do this. 3 November 2024 All
Saints Rev 7:2…11 1 Jn 3:1-3 Mt 5:1-12