Luke 6:20-36 Panzer Liturgical Service
Blessedness
Today is a day for remembering...
a day for giving thanks...
a day for celebrating.
It’s one thing to think of All Saints Day in the abstract. In our Apostle’s Creed, we say that we believe in the Holy Spirit and how that same Spirit gathers all believers together, across the boundaries of time – this we call the Communion of Saints. I love thinking of that community gathered with us as we stand around the table. At each Eucharist, we commune not only with each other but also with all who have ever gathered to break the bread and share the cup.
I love thinking about the saints of my life, not just the apostles and church fathers and mothers, but also writers and pastors like Barbara Brown Taylor and Will Willimon, who continue to live out authentic, loving faith in their personal lives and have left a written documentation of their journeys, which help me to address the challenges of my own life.
Modern day saints are not perfect but stand out in their confident belief that their work is God’s work. They understand that the blessings that Jesus proclaims in Luke are their blessings, too. And if we extrapolate that to our lives, we learn that All Saints Day is not just about remembering those faithful Christians who have come before us, also we can remember who we are, who God has called us to be.
Jesus’ Beatitudes in Luke help us to think about the “how-to” of sainthood. The Old Testament record implies that blessings are the sign of God’s favor and woes (or problems) are a sign of God’s disapproval or judgment. This concept is still prevalent in Christian denominations today, but the more I study the teachings of Jesus, the less I see this as the kind of life that Jesus calls us to live.
Here in Luke, Jesus promises that the blessings of the world don’t represent the actual blessings of God. God continues to act in surprising ways. Rather than depending on the approval of the world, Jesus tells us that our struggles may, in fact, be evidence of God’s presence with us. Jesus’ words ask us to look to the future. God’s promises are not only fulfilled in order to bring us contentment in the midst of trouble, but also for the fulfillment of all creation.
What are those promises? Those who weep now will laugh. Those who are hungry now for food and for justice will be filled. Those who are poor will receive the riches of God’s inheritance, which includes the promise to be with us always.
Jesus is calling us to look to the future, not to be overcome with our immediate needs. Jesus proclaims God’s promise to be with us in our current struggles, allowing us to focus on God’s grace in every part of our lives. And this is not work we do alone.
The Holy Spirit binds us together as the Church. The great wind which hovered over the world bringing life in the events of creation also brought new life to the people whom God called on the day of Pentecost. The followers of Jesus gathered in Jerusalem after his death and resurrection and waited... they didn't really know what for... but they waited. And on that day, they were all bound together for a lifetime... with God and with us.
You see, all those things go together. Without the witness of Jesus' resurrection, we would not know the joy which we know today, that Jesus Christ, indeed was raised from the dead, and lives eternally with the Father. Saying that we believe in the holy catholic or universal church means that we believe that the Holy Spirit came to tear down the walls which separate us, not build new or higher ones. This allows us to work together, without focusing on our differences.
By putting all of these pieces together, we are able to expand our understanding of the saints we celebrate today. The saints are all those whom we name today, people we have loved who joined the Church Triumphant. And they are those we did not know, but who lived and died faithfully, giving witness along the way. But the saints are also you and me, and as we continue on our own faith journeys, we are called to witness to the love of Jesus Christ through the example of our own lives.
One of my favorite All Saint’s hymns was written by a young British mother in the 1920’s to teach her children about the faith. It goes like this:
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 lived not only in ages past; there are hundreds of thousands still.So, maybe the next question is, “How do we do that?” – how do we go about living a life worthy to be called "a saint"? In Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, he describes a particular kind of life one is to live to be in God's favor. As we listen to what is expected of us and compare it to the kind of life that the world tells us to live, Jesus directs us to lead a strange and uncomfortable kind of life.
The world is bright with the joyous saints who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store,
in church, by the sea, in the house next door;
they are saints of God, whether rich or poor, and I mean to be one too. (Lesbia Scott (1898–1986)
Oh, don't get me wrong. On a good day, I can be as generous as the next person. I could probably give anything I own away and not really miss it or expect to get it back. I try to treat people as I want to be treated, and not give back the ugliness and unhappiness that sometimes meets me. I even try very hard to love the people who I know don't love me, although I am sure that I have not even begun to explore the possibilities for what that might mean for how I live my life. But in reality, I have not even begun to scratch the surface of what I could do, and these verses are a reality check I don’t always want.
True sainthood comes from someplace deep within us, in that place in our hearts and souls where the Holy Spirit presides. There, we cease to see our hardships as suffering. Sainthood doesn't come from looking at how hungry or poor or sad we are, just so that we can be in God's favor. Sainthood doesn't come from seeking out the hardships of life, but comes through living full, joyous lives in spite of our problems, or maybe even because of them. Sainthood doesn't come from wasting the gifts which have been given to us, or by seeking to live lives which are notable, but is achieved when we work daily at living in faith with the gospel message, sometimes, in fact, many times, in total anonymity or obscurity.
And once we’ve accepted the challenge and responsibility of sainthood, are we willing to ask the hard questions? What will it take to make us more willing to reach out to the people who are least like us? Can we find common ground with those who do not share our theological, personal and political persuasions? Our witness as Christians is supposed to tear down the walls which separate us, not build them bigger or higher or thicker. Our love as a people of God is about bridge-building so that together we can experience God's peace and love.
If we want to know how to make that happen, then we only need to look to the lives of those who came before us. It is that witness, in the lives of the saints of God, living and dead, which makes it possible for the church to continue to act out God's love, to seek God's direction, and to live out God's will in this world. It is that witness which gives meaning to our lives and to our deaths.
The people who are my special saints didn't seek or achieve fame, but just lived their lives, and professed a strong and unending faith in the One who gave life to us all. They kept on their journeys, in spite of disappointments, and rejoiced in the joy that came their way. Some of them I knew personally. Some I did not. Some are alive now. Some have gone on to the next chapter of life, living eternally with God. But because they lived and because others have been inspired by their stories to live more faithfully, we can know that living this life will have rewards and blessings that we could never have imagined.
Today is a day for remembering...
a day for giving thanks...
a day for celebrating.
And it is a day for rededicating our lives to Jesus Christ, a time to renew our citizenship in the communion of saints, seeking God's will and direction for our lives.
Let us pray:
O God, who gave us birth,
you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray.
You know our needs before we ask, and our ignorance in asking.
Give to us now your grace, that as we shrink from the mystery of death, we may see the light of eternity.
Speak to us once more your solemn message of life and of death.
Help us live as those who are prepared to die.
And when our days here are accomplished,
enable us to die as those who go forth to live,
so that living or dying, our life may be in you,
and that nothing in life or in death will be able to separate us from your great love in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. (UMH 1989)
Resources:
Seasons of the Spirit: http://www.seasonsonline.ca/files/all-saints-day_cong-life_yr-c.pdf
Michael K. Marsh: https://interruptingthesilence.com/2010/11/08/choosing-our-blessings-and-our-woes-an-all-saints-day-sermon-on-luke-620-31/
Closing Prayer from Service of Death and Resurrection, United Methodist Hymnal, 1989
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