All Saints’ Sunday Luke 6:20-31 November 4, 2001
Rev. Roger Haugen
Today is All Saint’s Sunday. The day we read the names of those who have been buried from this congregation this past year. A day to put carnations on the altar to help us remember those who have died and have left a hole in our lives. But what makes a person a saint?
We think of people. People for whom special days, hospitals and churches are named after. We might think of more recent people – people who have made significant contributions to our world, Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero who the people of Central America are asking the Pope to declare a saint these weeks. We might think of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, the young girl from Columbine High School who is reported to have declared her faith and was shot as a result. We might even include a grandmother or grandfather, aunt or uncle.
A bishop of Sweden once said “saints are those who make it easier for us to believe in God.” Robert Louis Stevenson said, “saints are sinners who keep on going.”
If we look in scriptures for people whom we might consider saints, we might include in our list King David. He wrote so many wonderful Psalms that still give us hope today. He was a powerful leader of his people, leading them to follow the God of Israel, holding in front of them the covenant and promises of God. But we would also need to remember the incident with Bathsheba, the lust and adultery that lead to murder. The idea of saint takes on a new dimension.
We might think of Rahab, or maybe we wouldn’t, the prostitute in Jericho who helped the people of Israel take possession of the promised land. She is declared as faithful for her trust in God. She is mentioned over and over again whenever the writers of Scripture want an example of faithfulness.
We might think of Peter, the faithful disciple, even with his ups and downs, his declarations of faith and his betrayals. He was the one who declared, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” but also “I do not know him.”
We might think of people on the list of those printed in the bulletin yet remember their failings.
Who are the saints? A saint is one declared a saint by God. A saint is one given the inheritance promised in Ephesians when we were “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.” A saint’s identity is assured by God through baptism and this identity cannot be changed or lost.
We are declared saints, we are invited to live our lives in response to that fact. In Ephesians, Paul declares who they are and encourages them to live accordingly, even though we get the impression that he is a little disappointed in the fruits of their sainthood to this point. He speaks in past tense as he talks of God’s realities for them, “who were the first to set our hope in Christ”, ’we were marked with the promised Holy Spirit.” And he speaks in the future tense of his hopes that God “may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him.”
A saint is one who is faithful in all circumstances, one whose identity is not shaken by the daily circumstances, the ups and downs of life.
Today’s gospel lesson is the Beatitudes. Jesus is declaring what is according to God’s order in spite of whatever conditions in which they might find themselves. “Yours is the kingdom of God” so you are blessed even if you are poor. “Yours is the kingdom of God, so blessed are you if you weep. Yours is the kingdom of God, and your trust is in the Son of Man so blessed are you even if people hate you, exclude or persecute you on my behalf.” The Beatitudes praise those who will be fulfilled in their whole being. Discomfort and pain only reinforces for the children of God that the Kingdom which is promised is not yet here. We long for the kingdom and are reminded daily that it is not yet here.
Jesus declares “woe” to those who claim self-sufficiency, to those whose circumstances would suggest that they have made it, that they do not need God in any way. Those who are tied to the order of this world because they are “full” or laughing or are spoken well of, according to the measures of this world. Jesus says they have had their reward. But it is not the reward of living in relationship to God and in line with God’s purpose for their lives.
Blessed are those who recognize their identity as a child of God, as a saint, declared so by God and seek to live in that relationship even if we are not always successful. Blessed are those to whom painful and difficult things happen, when they know that God does not fail them in such difficulty but rather finds them in their pain and gives them hope.
Woes are promised today to all of us who are well off, respected, and secure, not simply because we have such security and respect, but because it inevitably binds us, with an almost irresistible power, to this age and the culture of how things are. The Beatitudes are promised today to all of us today, not simply because we are lacking, or are mourning, but because the very fact of our lacks and sorrows may turn us away from things as they are, toward the Kingdom of God for which we pray. “Thy kingdom come” takes us urgency and new longing. We weep for those who are ill because we know life is not complete, we are poor because we have heard of the immeasurable riches of which Jesus speaks and we know we do not have them today.
The bottom line is that when you let your situation in life determine who you are, you will have great woe. But when you let God determine who you are, you will be greatly blessed. Who we are has been already determined – we are children of God, we are saints. When you let your poverty, your hunger, your sadness, and your lack of popularity be the final word about the meaning and significance of your life, you will indeed be in hopelessness and despair. But when you let the Kingdom of God have the final word about the meaning and significance of your life, you will have true joy.
When the world calls the shots for you, then you will be easily debased by your enemies. Those who curse you and abuse you will be able to reduce your life to rubble. Thos who make great and unreasonable demands on you will be able to lord it over you, and you will feel as though you amount to nothing. What Jesus is saying is that you are free not to give the world that much control over you. You are now free not to let your enemies have the final word in your life. When you give bullies more than they demand from you, you show that you are free from their control. When you refuse to let abusers control your life with their threats of pain and death, then you are free indeed from their tyranny.
Therefore, Jesus’ disciples are able to love their enemies, because they know it is God and not their enemies who have ultimate authority in their lives. His disciples are blessed because they trust God above everything else.
We are saints, that fact is made real in baptism. A saint is not someone who by his or her own reason and strength has achieved greatness. Rather, a saint is someone whom God has declared a saint by his grace in Baptism. When we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we are given a brand new perspective on reality – a reality quite different than the reality of the world. The world tells us that only the rich, the self-satisfied, the happy, and the popular are those who are blessed. “Nonsense!” replies Jesus, “You are blessed because I say you are blessed. You are blessed no matter what external conditions prevail in your life, because it is God, and not the world, with the final word about who you really are.” You are baptized, you are saints, may your life reflect this reality.
That is the good news we share this day with all the saints on earth and all the saints in heaven, with all the saints who have gone before us and all the saints who will come after us. We rejoice this day in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. We rejoice that God has called us to sainthood and for having given us a totally new way of looking at life, a way which turns out, in fact, to be the only way there is.
