In the name of the God who adopts us as children that we might flourish in his love ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
“November 3, 2020 is Election Day in the United States. The Sunday prior is November 1, the Feast of All Saints. You are the rector of a congregation in a community that is made up of people all along the political spectrum in terms of both involvement and affiliation. While there have not been open conflicts in the congregation around political issues, a climate of anxiety and political tension is weighing on people. You have discerned that your sermon on All Saints’ Day needs to address this situation. Assume the readings are the appointed ones and that a Baptism will be celebrated. In approximately 1,000 words, briefly identify and elaborate on two pastoral issues which you would address in a sermon.”
That was a
question asked on the General Ordination Exam this past January. One of the
final hurdles in the ordination process is this exam which poses six essay
questions to those preparing for ordination. I have the honor as serving as one
of the question writers for the topic of “The Practice of Ministry,” and I
authored that question back in July 2019. More than any other sermon I’ve ever
preached, I’ve been thinking about this one for a long time.
But just because
I’ve been thinking about it doesn’t mean that I’ve necessarily gotten a handle
on what needs to be said. Only a preacher that has confused themselves for an
ostrich can stick their head in the sand and ignore the fact that Tuesday is
election day. But it’s just as true that, as Psalm 147 puts it, “the Lord is not impressed by the might of a
horse and has no pleasure in the strength of a man.” In other words, to quote
King George in the musical Hamilton, “oceans rise, empires fall.” On the
cosmic scale of history, this election will be nothing but a footnote to the
larger story of God’s redemption of all things. So, a sermon that is about the
election would be just as problematic as a sermon that ignores it altogether.
It really is
serendipitous that this Sunday is the Feast of All Saints, because it gives us
a way to think about the enormity of this moment in the history of our nation
while keeping things in perspective on the larger canvas of the God who created
all things. There are a lot of ways to think about what All Saints is all
about, and this year I want to focus on the idea of the gift that God has given
us. We heard in the Collect that God has “knit together thine elect in one
communion and fellowship.” What unites the Church isn’t that we’ve all decided
to think the same way, because we don’t. What unites us is that God has knit us
together. We are united by the unity of God. As we heard at the opening of this
liturgy – there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us
all. And so that makes us brothers and sisters. Those of you with siblings know
that you didn’t get to choose them. Your parents knit you together into one
family. Well, in the same way, God has made us into one family. And, even if it
doesn’t always seem to be the case, unity is a profound gift.
We also hear this
language of a unifying gift in the passage from 1 John – “See what love the
Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what
we are.” What we are gifted is what we will see in the Sacraments that will be
celebrated in this liturgy, Baptism and Eucharist; it is the gift of grace.
There are many
ways to understand this gift of grace. The well-known passage which begins the
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew reveals to us what the gift that God has given
us is all about. The word that we hear as “blessed” is one that can be
translated in many ways. You can find different translations that render this
word as “Happy are the poor in spirit; fortunate are those who mourn;
congratulations to the meek; blissful are the merciful; wonderful news for the
pure in heart.” However, we understand what it means to be blessed, these are
words with positive associations.
We have to be
honest, very few of us are going to sign up to be poor in spirit or to mourn.
Perhaps we like the idea of being merciful and peaceful, but persecuted? No
thank you. When Jesus says “blessed,” it is a word that refers to an inner
reality, even if it doesn’t correspond to external circumstances. If happiness
and contentment are the results of us getting exactly what we want, then no one
who is persecuted is going to be happy. But if these things are derived from
somewhere else, well, then, the changes and chances of this life cannot shake
us. And that’s what Jesus is talking about.
For many, this
state of blessedness was something that was thought to be unattainable except
for the very few. If you were very wealthy and well-respected in the community,
it could be said that you are “blessed.” But for most people, such a state of
bliss was impossible to comprehend. The word that is recorded in Matthew for
“blessed” is found elsewhere in Greek literature. For example, in the Odyssey,
it is said that the gods, such as Zeus and Athena, live in “everlasting bliss.”
It’s the same word though. Blessedness was reserved for the gods, or the very
nearly god-like. When you are free from disease, misfortune, anxiety, poverty,
and death, then, and only then, could it have been said that you are “blessed.”
What Jesus is
announcing is radical – this state of being blessed is not only for the Roman
elite, not only for the gods of mythology, but it is for the poor, hungry, and
oppressed peasants of Galilee. This is the gracious gift of God – blessedness
is given to all of God’s children, to all of us. And because our blessedness
comes from God, it can never be taken away or lost. Two days away from an epic
and contentious election, in the midst of a new high of Coronavirus cases in
our nation, while many of us are struggling with personal issues of one kind or
another, despite all of this chaos, God has given us the gift of blessedness.
One scholar has
noted that this blessedness is a serene and untouchable joy that is
unassailable by the travails of life. And this is what we see in the lives of
the Saints. Yes, it’s true that in the New Testament the word translated as
“saints,” which means “holy” or “set apart,” is applied to all of the members
of the Church. This makes sense, as, by Baptism, we are set apart and made holy
as we are gifted with the Holy Spirit. Without question, we are a part of the
fellowship of all the saints, and in that sense, yes, we are all saints. But
the Saints, with a capital “S,” the sort of people we’ve been studying in our
Wednesday night Zoom classes about the stained glass windows of our church,
these are people in whose lives and deaths we have seen the blissful
blessedness of God.
Consider St.
Alphege, an Archbishop of Canterbury who gave his life to protect the people
entrusted to his care from Viking invaders or St. Hilda, who founded a
monastery and was an advisor to both kings and commoners. In them, we see the
light of Christ shining brightly. Yes, the light of Christ can and does shine
through all of us. It is the Saints whose overall legacy witnesses to blessedness
that made their lives different. That’s the idea behind the identity statement
of this parish – come and see the difference that Christ makes. Well, that’s
what the Saints help us to see – they are people who lived differently, who were
persecuted, who were merciful, who were pure in heart. But we don’t venerate
the Saints for being better-than-average people. No, the Saints instead are
windows through which we see the blessedness of God which enabled them to live
differently. Saints are those who live as if these Beatitudes are absolutely
true. We don’t earn the blessedness by becoming poor or meek. Rather, when we
do those things, we are going with the grain of the universe, aligning
ourselves with the priorities of God’s love, and in doing so, we encounter the
blessedness that God intends for us.
One theologian has
said that the difference between those who admire Jesus and those who would be
his disciples is indicated by their willingness to hear and trust the words of
these Beatitudes. These words of blessing do not describe something we strive
for, rather they describe what is normal in a world that is governed by the
grace, mercy, and love of God. And here’s where All Saints helps us to, as
Christians, interpret the election and state of politics in our country. Our
salvation is not on the ballot. The Messiah is not on the ballot. Justice is
not up for election. The dignity of all human beings is not up for debate. This
isn’t to say that the election doesn’t matter. But no matter the results, it
will still be true that the meek will inherit the earth when God’s glory fills
the earth as the waters cover the sea. The peacemakers are always those called
the children of God. The merciful will always receive mercy. The Kingdom will
forever belong to those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
And this is a wonderful
gift because it means our mighty fortress is found in the love of God, not on
Capitol Hill or Wall Street. The sort of bliss and contentment that had been
reserved for the gods has been gifted to us in Jesus Christ. Now, what makes a
gift good is that it’s something that we need. If someone gives you a gift that
you don’t need, we usually call it “junk.” But God knows us better than we know
ourselves, and so what we are given is something we desperately need and can
certainly use. The gift of grace is what allows us to enjoy the abundant life
that Jesus tells us that he came to give us.
Because God
assures us that blessedness is ours, we can have confidence that we are known
and loved, no matter what. We can believe that we are forgiven, no matter what
we have done or left undone. We can trust that death does not have the last
word in our lives. We can hope for the reconciliation of all things and
peoples. We can rest in knowing that our lives matter because they are gifts
from God. We are made blessedly different by the grace of God. We can live with
love as our ethic, love as our purpose, love as our destination.
Just imagine how
your life, our society, our world might be transformed if this love was the
thing that we trusted more than anything else? Well, we don’t have to imagine
it because blessed are children of God, for they shall live, and move, and have
their being in the love of God. Let’s get to Baptizing Ridge and Anna into this
love, and as we do, may we be reminded that, along with them, we are the
blessed children of God.
