One of the great disputes of the Reformation regarded the saints, those excellent Christians who had died. A major part of Roman Catholic piety revolved around the invocation of the saints, asking them for aid, particularly in the forms of prayers.
This practice led to all kinds of abuses, something that both the Council of Trent and the Lutheran Confessors addressed.
The Lutheran take on the saints in unique, and particularly helpful. (Taken from the Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXI:4-6.)
Our Confession approves honors to the saints. For here a threefold honor is to be approved:
#1: Thanksgiving
The first [honor] is thanksgiving. For we ought to give thanks to God because He has shown examples of mercy; because He has shown that He wishes to save men; because He has given teachers or other gifts to the Church. And these gifts, as they are the greatest, should be amplified, and the saints themselves should be praised, who have faithfully used these gifts, just as Christ praises faithful business-men, Matthew 25:21-23.
We give thanks to God for the saints, for the faithful that have gone before us to the throne of God. And this thanksgiving is two-fold. We thank God that He has had mercy on our fathers and mothers in the faith, forgiven their sins, and called them to be Christians. We give thanks to God because He has shown mercy to the saints, and He has given them as gifts to the church. We thank God that the Lord used Moses to give us the law, David to give us the Psalms, Peter and Paul to give us their writings in the New Testament.
#2: Strengthen Our Faith
The second service is the strengthening of our faith; when we see the denial forgiven Peter, we also are encouraged to believe the more that grace truly superabounds over sin, Romans 5:20.
The saints were also sinners. Peter denied Jesus. David was an adulterer. Paul persecuted the church. Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, even the saints. When we remember the saints, we remember the height and depth of the Lord’s love and mercy, and this strengthens our faith. The Lord has had mercy before, He will continue to have mercy with us.
#3: Imitation
The third honor is the imitation, first, of faith, then of the other virtues, which everyone should imitate according to his calling.
Finally, we honor the saints by imitating them. The saints are our heroes. They have fought the good fight and finished their race; that have that for which we still endeavor.
This imitation, like the thanksgiving, is two-fold. First, we imitate their faith. We see how they clung to the promises of God through all sorts of trouble. We see how their life was in the Lord’s mercy, and we know that our life is in the same mercy. Second, we imitate them according to our calling. Rulers see the wisdom of David and Solomon. Pastors see the faithfulness of Paul and Timothy. Parents consider Mary and Joseph, mothers think of Hannah, fathers think of Zachariah. All Christians look for the examples of faith, love, and hope exhibited by the saints.
This three-fold honor of thanksgiving, strengthening of faith, and imitation also applies to our own parents and grandparents, those pastors who baptized us and taught us the faith, and all the faithful Christians through the ages that have served us by serving their Lord. We are truly surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and these saints encourage us on our way to the glory of the face of Jesus.
