All Saints 2022

 Every year in the fall, I love to look at the changing leaves.  It seems like every leaf I see is more beautiful than the last.  Yesterday when I was walking I collected a bunch of leaves that had been blown down by the storm.  They were everywhere, every shape and size, every color.  It was amazing.

The leaves are changing colors because they are releasing their energy.  All spring and summer they soaked up the light of the sun, used some of that energy to make sugars to feed the tree.  Now the days are shorter and they begin to release the energy they stored up that made up the leaf itself.  They fall to the earth and further release their energy into the soil to enrich the soil.  That is what leaves are made to do, to capture the sun’s energy, to share it with the tree, and to release it back into the soil when they fall.

People too are meant for soaking up the light of Son, s-o-n, who gives us the s-u-n.  We soak up the light of the s-u-n when we enjoy God’s good creation, exercise, eat, spend time with people we love, hear the promises in scripture, and sing praises the one who made us and loves us unconditionally.  And we are like leaves in that we exist to release that energy back.  We are like leaves on a tree in that we are part of a whole.  We soak up the light and we make the sugars using that energy that we send around to the rest of the tree to give life to the whole organism.  We are leaves on the tree of our family.  We are leaves on the tree of our neighborhood.  We are leaves on the tree of our church.  We exist to soak up energy and to let it flow through us to others.  We are also like leaves in that we live for a time and then we fall to give back more of that energy.  

Today we celebrate All Saints Day.  We celebrate the ones who have been part of our tree and have shared energy with us in life.  Now they have fallen and they share life with us, release their energy to us in a different way.  Their memory, their example, give life and hope to us.  We are still learning from their lives and we continue to be enriched for having known them.  

And we celebrate the living saints, the ones that are still on the tree with us.  Here is a quote from Martin Luther, “You must make a distinction between the saints who are dead and those who are yet living, and what you must do for the saints…The living saints are your neighbors, the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, poor people; those who have spouses and children, who suffer shame, who lie in sins.  Turn to them and help them.  That is where you apply your works.  There use your tongue that you defend, draw near, advise, cover them with your coat and help them, in order to uphold their honor.”

Jesus shares with us today the blessings of being a leaf, the blessings of soaking up the energy of the sun/son and sharing with the whole.  He shares with us the blessing of being poor and being ready to receive, the blessing of growing in compassion for others, of hungering for something more than this world says is important.

The leaves are falling off the trees right now.  What better time to remember the cycle of death and resurrection, that we are in a season of dying and going back to the earth and also Spring is part of the process, part of the promise.  What better time to remember our priorities are not to let the energy and life and love stop with us, but to pass that life on to others who need it.

Jesus comes in this week's Gospel to the plain, the flat place, to give a sermon laying out his priorities and surprise surprise they are different from the world’s priorities.  Jesus is  prioritizing those who are hungry, poor, and grieving.  They are called blessed by Jesus.  They are open to meeting Jesus.  They are open to receiving.  They are open to the pain of others.  They are open to connection.  This is what blessing is.

This world teaches us that our list of priorities is to be rich, satisfied, and laughing and that's what it means to be blessed, to stop the flow of life at our own door, to accumulate all we can.  Those are not God's priorities.  Jesus does not come to be rich, satisfied, or laughing.  He knows that those are only temporary.  That they are illusions.  Jesus calls them woes, not to shame us, but to help us remove them as priorities from our lists.

The people listening to Jesus' sermon on the plain have their priorities.  If they had been rich, full, and laughing, they probably would not have responded to the invitation.  Some of them come because they are literally hungry.  Jesus feeds them right before this.  Once they have some food in their bellies, their brains are more ready to listen.   

Some people come because they are following the crowd.  Jesus tells them that other people noticing them in a positive way and speaking well of them is not the priority or goal.  It may feel like a blessing, but it is temporary, fleeting, and tenuous.  To always be seeking others approval is not satisfying.  It is is exhausting and it is not a priority to God.  

Some people there with Jesus want an actual change in their life.  They see how the world's priorities are all mixed up, that they can't keep up, that the world rewards injustice and selfishness.  They want more.

Jesus comes to all of these at eye level.  In Matthew's Gospel Jesus gives the sermon on the mount.  He is above everyone.  This ties him to Moses who was associated with the mountain of God, receiving the commandments from there and preaching from there.  But Luke's Jesus comes to the crowd at eye level, he comes to us at eye level, very direct.  He gives us his list of priorties.  Unexpected things that the world does not value can be a blessing.  When we are hungry, grieving, insulted and attacked, that is blessed in God's priorities.  That's what God is looking for.  That's where God promises to show up.  That's when people have been receptive to God's vision.

God's vision is here in today's scriptures.  Daniel sees a vision of power in which worldly kings don't have the final say, but the Holy Ones of God will reign forever.  The psalm puts forth a vision of joy and praise in which the powers of this world will sit under God's judgment and there will be glory for God's faithful ones.  The writer of Ephesians has a prayer and vision that God will give the believers a spirit of wisdom and revelation and that their eyes would be opened to the power of God's love.  

Jesus comes and looks in the eyes everyone who is hungry and lacking and gives them his blessing.  He then offers to those who see that the world's priorities are upside down a way of resisting the world's values that is nonviolent, but still powerful.  It is powerful to stand your ground when someone strikes you, rather than crumble.  It is powerful to give more than is asked of you.  It is powerful to love your enemy rather than let your anger consume you.  

God is bridging the gap between heaven and earth, coming to earth as Jesus on our level, to look us in the eye.  Some of us come because we're hungry.  Some of us come because someone else brought us here.  And Jesus is with us to change our priorities, to bridge the gaps between our priorities and God's priorities, and to turn our world right side up again.  

The saints who have gone before see clearly that the world's priorities were upside down.  They see the big picture that God sees, what really is a blessing and what is a woe, what lasts and what doesn't.  They know what is powerful and what just seems powerful and their witness gives us strength to be one of those who comes to Jesus to be changed and to follow him, to let his love flow through us to change the world.  

I invite you to go out today and look at the changing leaves.  They are like mosaics on the ground, making a picture of beauty a vision of the flowing of life of releasing energy.  Look around you at the faces you see.  Notice the beauty there, the other leaves on the tree.  Each leaf I pick up seems more beautiful and amazing than the last, but when you put them all together, that is when you begin to see the picture that God is painting for us of the flowing of life and the connection we all share.