In the name of God-
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Sometimes,
the liturgical purists get upset about days like today. They will point out
that All Saints’ Day was actually November 1, and November 2 is All Souls’ Day,
reminding us that on All Saints’ we celebrate only those who have “saint” in
front of their name, such as Peter, Paul, or Francis. All Souls’, they say, is
the day when we remember all those who have died in the hope of the
Resurrection. They can get a bit frustrated when we combine the two, and they
certainly don’t like the hymn that says that the saints are just folk like me.
And that’s fine, the Episcopal Church is a big tent and we are made richer by a
diversity of opinion. But I’m not really concerned with the question “who is a
saint?” But what is of greater interest to me is: “how are the saints?”
Blessed are you. Our Gospel reading this morning is
perhaps the most quoted passage in the entire New Testament. Jesus goes up the
mountain and begins to teach the crowds- of course reminding us of Moses going
up a mountain when God gave him the Ten Commandments. But as with all
Scripture, the context is the message. Today, the word “bless” has become
somewhat of a dirty word in Christianity. Some preachers will tell you about
the things that you need to do in order to receive your blessings; as if God is
some sort of infomercial where for just 3 easy payments, you can get what you
want. Later in this sermon, I’m going to get to Stewardship, but to be clear,
that will not be my message. Blessings are not up for sale today. You can find
books that mistakenly proclaim that if you are blessed, that is a sign that
you’re living right. But is that really what it means to be blessed?
The word that Jesus used is tough to translate into
English. It could mean happy, but not Hallmark card happy. You might translate
it as satisfied, but not the way you feel after an all-you-can-eat buffet. One
scholar thinks it should be something like “helped,” suggesting that God will
be on our side in these situations. But I struggle with all those
understandings. The meek are not inheriting the earth, they’re being trampled.
Those who are mourning the loss of a loved one still shed tears. Persecuted
Christians in Iraq and Syria, while being promised heavenly treasures, still
have to deal with the Islamic State on a daily basis. What sort of blessedness
is Jesus talking about?
There is a big debate amongst scholars about this passage
known as the Beatitudes. Some say that we should hear these sayings as
future-oriented promises; as a comfort that the struggles felt today will not
be there for all eternity. And others read them as entrance requirements,
saying that if we want to follow Jesus, we must be meek and persecuted. But
still, I’m not convinced.
A few weeks ago, we read the Ten Commandments, and what I
said about them was that they were not intended to be read as a list of rules,
but rather were about the formation of a people. The same could be said for the
Sermon on the Mount, which begins with this list of blessings. The Beatitudes
are not a strategy for achieving a better society. If we all became persecuted,
poor, and meek, the Church will likely die out. Instead, the Beatitudes are
picture of a new society. Furthermore, these blessings are written in the
plural; these blessings are not about you or me, but they are about us. Jesus is
painting us a picture of what his vision for society looks like.
In a book published in 1989, Will Willimon and Stanley
Hauerwas wrote about Christianity as being a colony within a larger culture.
The book’s title, Resident Aliens, describes
well the tension that I spoke of last Sunday- of being citizens both of this
world and of the Kingdom of God. What they say is that being a Christian makes
us different, not for the sake of being unique or seeing ourselves as superior
to others, but different in that we have different purposes. I was struck by an
interview I heard this week with the CEO of the Alevo Group, who will soon turn
the old Phillip Morris plant in Concord into a manufacturing operation with
thousands of jobs. In the interview, he said that his company didn’t ask for any
tax breaks because tax breaks take money from the local economy, and his future
employees would benefit from community services funded by tax dollars. It’s a
refreshing break from the corporate model that says that profits are all that
matter, and an example of a what it means to be different.
The Beatitudes describe the Christian community more than
they seek to control it. To the world, money and status matter, death is final,
and war is a necessary evil. But Jesus says- blessed are the meek, blessed are
the peacemakers, blessed are the merciful. This is a different way of being. As
with all of the Bible, the words on the page are not primarily telling us what
we are supposed to do, but rather who God is. The Beatitudes show us that God
blesses those who thirst for righteousness and the pure in heart. It seems
then, that being blessed, while has it has components of being fortunate,
happy, and satisfied, is also about being different. And that is because when
we become resident aliens, when we live in a different sort of way, we find
liberation from the oppression of the world, freedom from what enslaves us, and
the joy of the Gospel.
And today, All Saints’ Sunday, is a day when we celebrate
those who are different. There is an old Apple commercial that showed images of
Einstein, Earhart, Ali, Ghandi, King, Lennon, and Picasso that said “Here’s to
the crazy ones... The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things
differently... They have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree
with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore
them. Because they change things... They imagine... They create. They
inspire... Maybe they have to be crazy... Because the people who are crazy
enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” To me, that
sounds like a bunch of saints who are resident aliens. That is the answer to
the question “how are the saints?” They are different. And in that difference,
they know the joys and blessings of the Kingdom of God.
In addition to being All Saints’ Sunday, today is also
the first Sunday of our Stewardship campaign at St. Luke’s. And this idea of
being different is one that I think is crucial to properly understanding
Stewardship. Stewardship is a real passion of mine; I love it. And it has
nothing to do with the fact, of which I am keenly aware, that Stewardship
drives fund my salary.
We all
have a lot of assumptions about money. A good exercise is to think about how
money was handled when you were growing up. Was money discussed openly in your
family? Were you taught that money provides vacations and nice houses, or were
you to live modestly, saving money for a rainy day? What is your relationship
with money like today?
It has been said that entitlement is the opposite of
stewardship. Entitlement says that my hard work has led to my success, while
stewardship realizes that all gifts flow from God. And while you don’t get to be the
Rector of a church like St. Luke’s by luck, I would naïve to think that it is
only my talents and capabilities that led me here. Instead, I know that I am
steward of the office of the Rector at St. Luke’s. One day, many, many years
from now, I will just be another picture on the wall of clergy. The issue is
that you can’t be grateful if you have a sense of entitlement. And I’ll tell
you, I am grateful to be the steward of the Rectorship here. There has been
some research done to suggest that gratefulness leads to happiness, and not
happiness that leads to gratefulness. Or in the language of the Beatitudes,
gratefulness leads to blessedness.
So on
the question of money- are you grateful or entitled? That is, are you in
control of your money, or is it in control of you? There is a really easy way
to find out. Give it away. If you can easily give your money away, then you are
in control of your money. And if you struggle to give money away, then it is
quite likely that your money controls you. Perhaps you’ve noticed that
financial advisors now often call themselves “wealth advisors.” We actually
have a word in English for what happens when wealth becomes an end to itself:
greed. Instead, money is to be used for a purpose other than simply building a
balance. Being a steward means making sure that the gifts that you have been
given are used for their intended purposes. We all have been given things for
which we are grateful- education, family, friends, a church community, jobs.
How do you use these gifts to give glory to God?
Now, as
much as I think it would be good for you to pledge money to St. Luke’s, if you
don’t think that St. Luke’s is a worthy place to give your money, then don’t
give it here. But for your sake, for the sake of your happiness and
blessedness, give it away. Part of the reason why I’m so passionate about
stewardship is that I truly believe that in the practice of stewardship, we can
find salvation. Other than the Kingdom of God, Jesus spoke about money more
than any other topic. And that is because Jesus knew how powerful money can be;
he knew that it is easy to become a slave to our money. Stewardship is an
invitation to be grateful for the gifts that we have been given, and is an
opportunity to exercise our control over our money instead of it having power
over us.
Anne
Frank astutely said that “no one has ever become poor by giving.” And, of
course, Jesus said “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” When we give,
when we practice stewardship, we find the joys of God’s Kingdom. In the
Beatitudes, Jesus is giving us a glimpse of what this looks like- and it looks
a bit different. God’s economy doesn’t work the way that Wall Street does. Wall
Street says “foolish are those who give their money away, for they diminish
their returns.” But Jesus says “blessed are the generous, for they find true
happiness.” The saints of the church are those who are resident aliens, those
who think and act differently. Today, we celebrate and give thanks for their
life and ministry. We pray that we might be given grateful hearts, being aware of
the gifts that have been bestowed upon us, asking for the strength to give our
money away so that we might be free to receive the blessings of God’s Kingdom.
Amen.
