For all the Saints

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 1^st 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.

Walk humbly with God

Listen to the sermon.

So often the tendency is to just ignore the Old Testament lesson, and focus on the Gospel lesson; especially when you have the Beatitudes to preach on.  But today’s lessons fit together beautifully to make a statement about our relationship with God.

Today’s Old Testament lesson can sound confusing.  The setting is a court of law.  The Lord is bringing a suit against the people of Israel.  The judge and jury are the mountains and hills and the foundations of the earth itself.  And God says, “What have I done to you that you treat me the way you do?  I brought you out of slavery in Egypt.  I saved you from the Moabites and look at the way you treat me.   What do you have to say for yourself?  Plead your case before the mountains and the hills.”

Then the voice of the people of Israel answers, and they don’t have an answer, so they plead – asking, “what kind of sacrifice does God want to atone for our behavior?  A calf, a thousand rams, ten thousand rivers of oil?  What about my first born child, would that appease God?”

The prophet, Micah answers for God.  “He has told you, O Mortal, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God…”  The Lord doesn’t want sacrifices – he wants your heart – and for you to treat everyone as if you were dealing with the Lord himself.

So, even though the Old Testament is full of information on how to atone for our sins by offering sacrifices, we learn here that there is something that is more important to God than the sacrifices we make for him.  That something else is found in the way we treat and respond to the people around us.  But by the time Jesus came along, the people had mostly forgotten.

The leaders, the priests and the Pharisees and Sadducees had become arrogant and prideful.  But Paul tells us to “let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”  The problem with the sacrifices is that some people take great pleasure in boasting about those sacrifices.  They become a source of pride and pride always draws us away from God.

Let’s take a look at our Gospel lesson.  This is the famous Sermon on the Mount from the gospel of Matthew.  Matthew has five sermons built into his gospel.  This is the prologue to the first sermon, that portion that has become to known as the Beatitudes, which is simply Greek for blessings.  One writer has said that this is the instruction manual for how we are to behave.

It starts out by saying that when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain.  But the teaching seems to be to his disciples.  In those days, the teacher always taught sitting down – it says, he sat down and his disciples came to him and he taught them.

Blessed are the poor in spirit - Blessed are the meek – Blessed are those who mourn – blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – Blessed are the merciful – Blessed are the pure in heart – Blessed are the peacemakers -  Blessed those who are persecuted – Blessed are you when you are persecuted for my sake…

As Jesus talked to the people, they probably thought he was crazy – these people lived in a time and under a regime where they were persecuted, they mourned the loss of their loved ones at the hands of the Romans, they had to remain meek because if they didn’t they would be crucified as rebels.  That was a way of life for them and they didn’t feel very blessed for it.

Are any of these things that you might be able to boast in – well, we would sound awful silly boasting over the first four.  “I’m poorer in spirit that you are…”  “I’m meeker than you…”  I have more to mourn about than you do…”  “I hunger and thirst more than you…”  And yet at seminary, I remember people who did just that – “I’m more persecuted than you…”And it became a source of pride to be persecuted.

But look at the others – “Blessed are the merciful” – doesn’t God call us to be merciful every day?  Isn’t that what Micah is calling us to do in the first lesson?  To do justice and to love mercy?  “Blessed are the pure in heart – for they shall see God.”  And that is the whole point of why we are here, why we are sitting in this building this morning – to be able to see God – both here on earth and eventually in heaven.

So how do we become pure in heart?  According to Micah, we do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.  According to Matthew, we are meek, and we are merciful, we are peacemakers, and we hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Even the Psalm gets into the mix here – the psalmist asks, “Who may dwell in your tabernacle, who may abide on your holy hill: those who lead a blameless life and who speak truth.”  God holds us to a pretty high standard.

Matthew really turns the world upside down - what the world believes is the opposite of God’s reality and that’s the most common theme in the gospels.  But Jesus doesn't issue this as an order but, instead, he gives a blessing.  He promises that, when our need is greatest, whether we mourn, or hunger and thirst, or find ourselves persecuted -- there we will find God--and there we will find blessing, and our lives will be made stronger.

Paul tells us that this didn't make any sense to either the Jews or the Greeks.  The Pharisees and Sadducees didn't believe the signs that Jesus gave because they weren't showy like parting the seas or raining down manna from heaven.  The Greek Stoics and Epicureans found it foolish to think that a "god" would be meek and mild or would come down and die willing.

But for those who are being saved – (Christians who believe) - it is the very power of God and the wisdom of God to choose the lowly, the foolish, and the despised of the world, so that no one could boast in the presence of God.  Jesus’ sacrifice was God’s doing, not ours.  So if we are going to boast, let us boast in the cross of Christ, and walk humbly with our God; this God who loved us so much that he sent his only son to be an example, to show us the way, -- and to be the final sacrifice for our sins.  Amen.