Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son… Today we are celebrating All Saints – so we might ask the question, “Who are the saints?” Some of you will begin to name people like Saint Paul and Mother Theresa, and Joan of Arc and any number of those recognized by the church as being saintly. Others of you will begin to name people you have known who had a special heart for God and a spirit of love. St. Paul always used the word in the context of the believers of Jesus Christ.
In our reading from the Book of Revelation today, we get John’s vision of the saints in heaven worshipping around the throne of God. And I just absolutely love that it says that there are “a great multitude. . . from every nation, tribe and people and language. . . all robed in white worshipping God and the Lamb.” That means we don’t all have to look and sound alike. This is one of the readings often used for funerals. It’s very comforting to believe that we will not be alone when we die, that there is something bigger than we are, that all those things that have tormented us in life, will be overcome and destroyed in death.
In the same way our Epistle gives us much hope: We are God’s children now (in other words, we belong – we belong to something bigger and better than we could ever ask for. We belong to the one who matters.) What we will be has not yet been revealed. (Lot of wisdom in that statement because we really don’t know.) What we do know (the one thing that we can be sure of – the one thing that we are promised) is this: When he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
The way I see it, is that we are given two promises.
In this life, we are not promised happiness, riches, health, love, or any other thing that most people desire in this life. The promise we have from God is that regardless of what happens to us, regardless of what state we find ourselves in – God will be here with us! That is his promise for this life – our life on earth. God will be with us – to encourage us, to strengthen us, to comfort us, to fill us, to love us. That is his promise for our life here on earth. When we are going through tough times – when we are in pain, when we are alone, when we grieve, God is there with us. He is there with us in both the good times and the bad times. He laughs with us, he cries with us, he rejoices with us, he grieves with us. He is there to share with us. We don’t see him, but we can feel his presence. We are never alone.
That’s the first promise and the second is like it…
The second promise is that in death, we will be with him. Our lesson from 1st John says, “we will be like him – for we will see him as he is.” Even Genesis says that we are made in his image – and that means we will see ourselves as we are – the spirit that lives within us.
Our lesson from 1st John also says that those who live in this hope “purify themselves, just as he is pure.” My commentary said this meant that we are required to live virtuous ethical lives… emulating the essential goodness, purity, of God. Well, that would sure be great if it were that easy, but too often our human emotions get in the way.
I think we would love for our heroes to be heroes and our villains to be villains – that way we can always tell them apart. But more often than not, the lines get blurred. One of the popular shows on TV a few years ago was called “Heroes.” In the first season, you could sort of tell who the heroes were and who the villains were. But by the time the third season came around, the lines became so blurred between hero and villain that they began to all look the same and the heroes began to disappoint. I think that’s the reason it didn’t last past the third season. It portrayed that mixing that takes place in humanity – but it also took it much too far for cultural tastes.
In the Matthew’s beatitudes Jesus turns the world upside down with his idea of who is blessed. . . In the Hebrew society blessedness was seen in those who had everything – money, power, position. . . One commentator called these the Be-Attitudes – the attitudes we need to have to BE right in this world. So we hear Jesus say “blessed are the poor in spirit – for they know their need of God. . . Blessed are those who mourn – we will all mourn at some point in time and God will comfort us. . . Blessed are the meek, those who don’t force their will on others . . . Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for the Lord will fill us with good. . . Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy in return. . . Blessed are the pure in heart, for when you seek God, you will find him. . . Blessed are the peace makers, as you seek to help others find peace you will be seen as children of God. . . And when you are persecuted, remember that I am with you. And great is your reward in heaven.
N. T. Wright, former Bishop of Durham says that Jesus is admonishing us to strive for these qualities. We may strive for these things, but no matter how good we try to be, no matter how hard we strive – when we live in this world – it is going to impinge upon us – and we will often fall short of our expectation of ourselves and other’s expectation of us. And by the same token, those around us who we love and sometimes depend on are going to fall short of our expectations of them.
Some of you may remember the TV series M*A*S*H. In it, Dr. Hawkeye Pierce is a surgeon with a mobile army hospital. He is an excellent surgeon who is disillusioned by war and the atrocities of war. There is another character, Corporeal O’Reilly – better known as “Radar.” Radar looks up to Hawkeye and thinks he can do no wrong. And in one episode, Hawkeye gets drunk and when a rash of wounded are brought in, he has to leave the patient he is working on to go throw up. It totally crushed Radar’s image of Hawkeye and Hawkeye tells him, I don’t want your worship – I can’t live up to the image you project on me – I can’t live up to your expectation.
No matter how hard we strive, we are human. Part of the human condition is that we make mistakes, and we are not perfect. In that, we can hardly be called saints if saints are those who live perfect lives. But according to Paul, saints are those who know and love the Lord – who strive after him living the best life they are capable of. And hopefully, in death, we will be remembered for our love of God and those things we did which pleased him. And we trust we will be forgiven for the sins we committed and the unholiness we may have harbored in ourselves – because the truth is that we don’t have to live up to someone else’s expectation of us - (and not even our own expectation) – we simply have to trust that God will accept our meager efforts because of our love of him and that he will forgive us the rest.
Remember the two promises: In this life God will be with us, and in the next life, we will be with God. Amen.
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