Gospel: Matthew 5:1-12
1st Reading:
Revelation 7:9-17
2nd
Reading: 1 John 3:1-3
Welcome to All Saints Day, a day
when we remember and celebrate all who have died and remember that we, too, are
saints, through our baptism and participating in the body of Christ. I definitely have some mixed emotions on this
day, especially this year, because I experienced some significant deaths of
loved ones in my life this year. It is a
weird point to be 6 months from their deaths, because this time last year, they
were living, making memories, making plans, going about their day. They were moving and breathing. It was such a short time ago and our hearts
ache for them, to see them again, to hear them again, to know they are enjoying
life, to write them a letter, or call them on the phone, or stop by to say hello. They were just here, and now it feels like a
there is a huge chasm, an empty place, a great distance between us.
I was at grandma’s house in
September, sorting through grandma’s fabric with my mom and aunt. I hadn’t remembered that grandma’s house had
a smell. It has a cedar scent to it. In that moment when I walked in, I thought to
myself, “I may never smell grandma’s house again.” That smell has so many memories for me and
they flash through my mind, one after the other.
Grandma and Macey are gone. They died.
God promises new life. So how
should I picture them? Where should I
picture them? What is this place they
have gone? What does new life look
like? Is it enough to believe that their
memories live on through us? Or do I
picture them among green hills, running like in The Sound of Music? How do we honor their memory? What is this new life they are called to and
are we called to it only in death, or in this life as well?
The Book of Revelation is a word
painting for suffering Christians. It
was written for those persecuted by Nero to have a vision of hope, in which God
and the Lamb, Christ are in the center, surrounded by the saints and martyrs,
singing and worshiping God, with God’s love and light extending from that
central place and rippling out in concentric circles to the farthest corners of
the heavenly realm and breaking into our world.
Macey and grandma and Carrie and
Drew and Aileen and all these saints we honor today already stand in that inner
circle in the light of God’s presence.
They live in the Kingdom fully, where there is no hunger or pain,
sheltered by God, comforted by God, guided and shepherded by God, and living
the new life God promises. They live
this vision of Revelation.
And we get glimpses of it. Did you recognize any of the words this morning
in that reading? We enact this scene, or
try to every Sunday morning at Church. We place God and the lamb, Jesus, at the
center, and we gather together as many as come, although all are welcome. There is no distinction, but all worship
together from any nation, all tribes, and peoples and languages. I wear the white robe for all the rest of
you. It is like a uniform that the
saints wear, so that no one’s clothes are better than any other or a
distraction for the saints. We sing this
song, “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and might be to
our God forever and ever! Amen.” Sound
familiar? We sing these words from
Revelation as we enact this scene, as the Kingdom of God breaks in, living this
vision of what is to come. We don’t just
sing by ourselves, but our voices join with the saints gathered around the
throne, collapsing the distance between us and them, between our world and the
Kingdom of God.
And it isn’t just in our singing
that these realms come near, but anywhere and anytime that people have enough
to eat and drink, where there is shelter and protection, when compassion and
tenderness is shared. This is fully the
reality in the heavenly realm, and there are points where it breaks into our
world when God’s love touches our hearts and brings the Kingdom through us to
others in need.
Never does the heavenly realm
see so far away from this world than in the values that matter to God and the
values that are lived in this world.
That’s where the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew come in. In this world, we think someone is blessed if
they are confident, don’t know the pain of loss, are full of good food and all
kinds of treasures, are merciless, are smart, refuse to compromise, and don’t
endure any suffering. That’s when a
person can say they are blessed. Those
are the people we tend to admire.
However, that is not what God
admires or values. When we are so full
of ourselves, how will we ever have room for God? When we have all the comforts of life, what
would cause us to open our eyes and look for something more, for a Kingdom and
a realm of misfits? If we can do it all
ourselves, why would we need each other or God?
To be blessed is to have room for each other. To be blessed is to have room for God. To be blessed is to look for God. To be blessed is to realize that we all are
broken and we all need healing. To be
blessed is to be honest about ourselves and our imperfections and shortcomings. To be blessed is to be ready to receive.
I remember working as a chaplain, I found patients at the hospital were
open to talking about their spirituality, more so than most people I met who
were healthy. I found my patients were
blessing me with their openness to God’s presence. Much of the time, I think we go about our day
and don’t give God’s vision a single thought.
But when we mourn or feel helpless, we find ourselves remembering what
is most important, and putting our hope in God, instead of our own power. That’s when the Kingdom of God is breaking
through and giving us new life.
In the Beatitudes, God lays out God’s values. Jesus begins with an unexpected blessing, for
the poor in spirit, the merciful, etc.
This is a current reality that someone is living. They didn’t choose this mode, it is the way
things are. Then Jesus offers a vision
of a future reality that is God’s vision, of comfort, inheritance, fulfillment,
mercy, vision, adoption. This is the
promised future. This is the Kingdom of
God which the martyrs know fully, and which is breaking into this world.
Two times in the Beatitudes it isn’t a future reality, but a present
reality. For both the poor in Spirit and
the persecuted, Jesus says, “Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is a present reality more than the
others. They have access to it now. They are part of it now. It is theirs.
It is not far away, but here on earth, God wiping away the tears, these
folks focused on what matters, living God’s values, open to God’s presence,
upheld in community, shining with God’s light and love.
Every Sunday we also pray that God’s Kingdom come and it does come
regardless. The saints and martyrs are
in that reality even now. But we also
pray it comes among us, that it breaks through in our world in our words and
actions. And we pray that we would open
our eyes to see it in the hungry and homeless and ill around us and reach out
to them as Christ in our midst. “See
what love the Father has given us, that we should be called Children of God;
and that is what we are.” And that is
what our neighbor is. “Beloved, we are
God’s children now.” And this gives us
hope for the future that God is revealing to us.
May you have hope in more than your own comfort and stability. May you find the broken places in your life,
spaces that God dwells and shines a brilliant light. May you look for God’s Kingdom coming into
the world and participate in it. May you
know blessing in pain. May you know God’s
presence and share it. May God’s future
Kingdom promise be collapsed into your everyday reality. May you let go of what is distracting you,
and live in the values of the Kingdom.
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