All Saints Sunday
Luke 6:20-31
"Saints??"
20* ¶ And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21* "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
22* "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!
23* Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
24* "But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25* "Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
26* "Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
27* ¶ "But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28* bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
29* To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.
30* Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.
31* And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
Randy Frazee has written a book called "The Connecting Church." He has a son who was born without a left hand. One day in Sunday School the teacher was talking with the children about the church. To illustrate her point she folded her hands together and said, "Here’s the church, here’s the steeple; open the doors and see all the people."
She asked the class to do it along with her &endash; obviously not thinking about his son’s inability to pull this exercise off. Then it dawned on her that the boy wouldn’t be able to join in.
Before she could do anything about it, the little boy next to his son, a friend of his from the time they were babies, reached out his left hand and said, "Let’s do it together." The two boys proceeded to join their hands together to make the church and the steeple.
Frazee says, "This hand exercise should never be done again by an individual because the church is not a collection of individuals, but the one body of Christ."
The church, the body of Christ is all the saints who have lived, who are living now and who will live in the future. The church is one person helping another person.
The church is made up of saints, who have been baptized into its body and who have received the grace of God.
In Luke’s version of the Beatitudes which is our gospel lesson this morning, we find two pictures of what a saint is.
Jesus says: And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
21* "Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.
22* "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!
23* Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
In this picture of the saints, the body of Christ, Jesus is speaking to the human condition. He is telling us that as our lives live in the brokenness of this world, we are blessed. We don’t need to be perfect or to pretend that the sinfulness of this world does not affect our lives.
We are blessed regardless of what we are experiencing.
I think that thought is important in this day and age. A saint is not a perfect person here on earth, but rather, a saint is one who knows the brokenness of this world and then turns to Christ for comfort and rest. In our world, we want the best, we want fame and fortune, and if we don’t get it we think there is something wrong with us. That is the theology of prosperity. It says if you are right with God, then everything in your life should be right, too.
But Jesus is clearly saying something about the theology of the cross. Jesus knows that we are living in an in between time. We are saved, meaning we are saints, but at the same time we are sinners, who have not been fully redeemed. So he is saying that even though you are a saint, redeemed by the blood of Christ, your live might not, will not be perfect. So blessed are the poor, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the those who weep, because one day your full redemption will come.
Jesus is telling us that we are blessed now in spite of all the brokenness around us and we are to use that blessing to walk with the saints around us. Just like that little boy reached out his hand to the one that had no hand to make the steeple, we are to reach out our hands to those around us, and walk with them in their journey of faith.
Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. There are many meanings for this saying of Jesus, but the one which describes the love, the faithfulness of the community of believers says; Blessed or happy is the person who identifies with the sorrows of the world. Blessed are they that voluntarily share their neighbor’s pain. Blessed are those who walk with another as they face the brokeness in their lives. Blessed are those who walk with another to give support, encouragement, strength and the comfort of God’s word. Blessed are those who allow another to feel the pain and heartache of life without pretending that somehow all will be okay.
Can you see that being in community with another, being a witness, being a saint for another saint is what the body of Christ, the church, is all about. Being able to be and walk with another down their path without wanting to direct or lead that person is our calling in the body of Christ. Being able to share with another their burdens without making it your own, being able to comfort another with our witness of action as well as the word is what the priesthood of saints is all about. The present moment as we celebrate this All Saints Day is a time for each of us to turn to our brother and sister in Christ to give them strength, courage, comfort and confidence as they walk their journey of faith.
We can turn to the saint next to us and say as the little boy did, let’s do it together.
But Jesus also says a woe in this saying.
24* "But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
25* "Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
This is a difficult group of sayings, but I think what Jesus is trying to say to each of us, if we are satisfied in our own idea of salvation, then woe to us.
If we believe we do not have to reach out to the hungry, to those who mourn, to those who weep, then woe to us. Jesus is saying that as a saint and sinner we do have a responibilty to those around us who might not have it as well as we do.
Luther always talked about saints as ’little Christs" in this world. Luther knew that in the same manner we are all saints and sinner, but he wanted our sainthood to be active in this world.
A closing story tells it well:
There was a monastery, a religious community, that had fallen into hard times. Once a great order, it was now but a fraction of the size it once had been. Now there were only five members left, all of them over seventy in age. It was obviously just a matter of time until their community would die out completely.
In the woods surrounding the monastery there was a hut that a preacher from a nearby town occasionally used as a retreat. It seems the members always knew when the preacher was there. As the leader, the abbot, of the monastery agonized over the future looming large on their horizon, it occurred to the abbot to go visit this preacher at his place of retreat. Perhaps he could offer some word of advice to save the monastery.
When the abbot arrived he was warmly greeted and welcomed. The abbot explained the purpose of his trip. The preacher could only commiserate with him. "I know how it is. The spirit has gone out of the people. It is the same in my town. Almost no-one comes to church anymore."
The abbot and the preacher wept and prayed together. They read portions of the Bible together. They quietly spoke of deep things. Finally the time came for the abbot to leave, to return to the monastery for evening services. The embraced, and agreed that they had experienced a blessing in this meeting. The abbot asked once more: "Is there anything you can tell me, any piece of advice that might help me in my work?"
The preacher responded, "No, I am sorry. I have no advice to give. The only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you."
When the abbot returned to the monastery his brothers gathered around to ask what he learned. "We wept. We prayed. We read the Bible. The only thing he said was just as I was leaving, something cryptic. He said that the Messiah is one of us. I don’t know what he meant." They were all disappointed that the preacher had offered no helpful advice; And they were all puzzled by this riddle.
In the days and weeks and months that followed, the old monks pondered this riddle, and wondered what it could mean. The messiah is one of US? Could he possibly have meant one of us five here at the monastery? If that is the case, which one? Do you suppose he meant the abbot? If he meant anyone, he must have meant the Abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation.
On the other hand, he might have meant brother Thomas. Certainly Thomas is a holy man. Everyone knows and respects Brother Thomas’ keen spirituality and insight.
Certainly he could not have meant brother Elred. Elred gets crotchety at times. But when you look back on it, Elred is almost always right. Often VERY right. Maybe the preacher did mean Brother Elred.
But surely not Brother Phillip. Phillip is so passive, a real nobody. But then, almost mysteriously, he has a gift for somehow always being there when you need him. Maybe Phillip is the messiah.
Of course, the preacher couldn’t have meant me. He couldn’t possibly have meant me. I am just an ordinary person. But, what if he DID mean me? Suppose I am the messiah, the one to save our monastery. O God, not me. I couldn’t possibly do or be that important, could I?
As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect, on the off chance that one among them might really be the Messiah. And on the off, off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah, they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.
Now, because the forest in which it was situated was beautiful, it so happened that people did still occasionally come to visit the monastery, to picnic on its tiny lawn, to wander along some of the paths, even now and then to go into the dilapidated sanctuary of the chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed this aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks, and seemed to radiate out from them and permeate the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling about it. Hardly knowing why, they began to come back to the monastery more frequently -- to picnic, to play, to pray. They began to bring friends to show them this very special place. Their friends also brought their own friends. And so forth.
Some of the younger men who came to visit started talking more with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them. Then another. Then another. Within a few years, the monastery had once again become a thriving order and, thanks to the preacher’s gift, a vibrant center of light and spirituality in that area. (Note below)
Saints, who? Little Christ, who?
Amen
Written by Pastor tim Zingale, November 1, 2004
Note:
This parable has been around for a while, (the setting seems to be post-Renaissance), and exists in several versions. I have edited the parable slightly, from the version presented in the preface in _The_Different_Drum_. Touchstone Books, 1987.
From a sermon by Dave Hodsdon
