Makes me think of St George — the Rugby League Football team. [Show the team hat.] Do you know who St George was?
A dragon lived in a lake near Silena, Libya. Whole armies had gone up against this fierce creature, and had gone down in painful defeat. The monster ate two sheep each day; when mutton was scarce, young girls were substituted for sheep. Into this country came Saint George. Hearing the story on a day when a princess was to be eaten, he rode to battle against the dragon, and killed it with a single blow with his lance. [Show picture.] (That’s why they call the football team the Dragons.)
He was a soldier in the army of the Roman Emperor Diocletian (4th century), and he was one of the Emperor’s favourite soldiers. Now Diocletian was a pagan and a bitter enemy to the Christians. He put to death every Christian he could find. George was a brave Christian, a real soldier of Christ. Without fear, he went to the Emperor and sternly scolded him for being so cruel. Then he gave up his position in the Roman army. For this he was tortured in many terrible ways and finally beheaded.
Saints are great holy people who have gone before us. Many are so famous that they have churches named after them: The Anglican Church is called St Marks; the catholic church is called St Bernard’s
What other saints have you heard of?
What do you think all those saints have in common? What makes them saints?
I looked up what the Bible says about saints…
Do you know there is not one place in the Bible where it calls an individual a saint? But there’s about 70 places where it talk about saints as a group.
- Psalm 30:4 “Sing to the Lord, you saints of his, praise his holy name”
- Ephesians 1:1 “To the saints in Ephesus…”
That makes it sound as though all the people in the church at Ephesus were saints, doesn’t it? In fact that’s exactly what the Bible means when it talks about saints. The saints are all the people of God.
Have any of you met a saint?
I want to tell you about some modern day saints. In fact want to introduce you to a couple of modern day saints. [Two people in the congregation …]
- Saint Margaret
- Saint John
The most important thing about being a saint is that they are devoted to God. So what does devoted mean?
- Saints are followers of Jesus.
- Saints are God’s servants: the people he uses to act in the world. And because they serve a God who loves the whole world, saints are servants to other people in God’s name.