ALL SAINT CELEBRATION

A Sermon for All Saints Sunday
November 4, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

Luke 6:20-31
Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you, who are rich for you have already received your comfort.
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. (NIV)


Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Throughout history, people have found it important to remember the dead. Archaeologists have revealed many different burial practices and tombs, which make statements about how ancient people mourned their deceased. Just south of here, you can visit the national monument of Effigy Mounds and see how the people native to this land would bury the dead in earthen mounds shaped like animals.

Modern tombs in the west are becoming more elaborate as people put special engravings and symbols on tombstones and decorate the sites with flowers, statues, wind chimes and other symbols. No matter what our cultural background, there is an innate need to memorialize the dead.

In the early days of Christianity, many people died as martyrs. They were killed for their faith in terrible ways. In 610 A.D., the emperor gave away the famous Roman Pantheon because he could no longer afford the upkeep. Pope Boniface was the recipient of his generous gift and he decided to rededicate it as a chapel for Christian martyrs. This finally gave the church a way to memorialize all those who had died for the faith and they would hold a celebration each spring.
This annual celebration grew and grew. After 200 years, it got so big that they found it could no longer be celebrated in the spring because they ran out of food for all the pilgrims. It was at that point that they switched the celebration to November 1—right after the harvest, so there would be plenty of food. They also began to celebrate all the saints, not just martyrs, and hence the name “All Saints Day” was born.

We just celebrated Reformation Sunday last week. On that date, we commemorate the beginning of the Reformation when Martin Luther posted the 95 thesis on the university door in Wittenberg. He posted it on the day before All Saints. The reason he chose this timing was that he knew there would be huge crowds coming for the celebration so his thesis would be read by a wider audience.

This tradition of celebrating All Saint’s Sunday continues and that’s what we recognize today. But just what is a saint? The word itself tends to be somewhat off-putting. We think of those paintings and stained glass windows of saints when we hear this word. We imagine people who look absolutely perfect and have that plate sticking to the back of their head, presumably a halo.

Well, as I look out across the church this morning, I don’t see any plates or halos on your heads but that doesn’t mean we’re not saints. No, not at all. We are saints! We are saints by virtue of our baptism. In Christ, we have been forgiven and freed to live the faithful lives to which God has called us. It is not our own doing or worthiness that makes us saints. It is Christ’s worthiness—given to us by grace.

This morning we have lit candles to remember the saints and many of you have named saints who have died and have gone on to be with God in glory. But we cannot forget that we are totally surrounded by the “great cloud of witnesses” the Bible talks about. This cloud of witnesses who help us along in our faith include those whose lives on earth are through but they also include those who fill the pews today. I want you to turn to the person sitting to your right and the person witting to your left and say to them, “Hi Saint!”

Wow, this church is just loaded with saints! What a great cloud of witnesses we are!

And for this All Saints celebration, the lectionary text for today gives us Jesus’ sermon on the plain to help give us a better vision of how we ought to live our our sainthood. Jesus says a lot in this complex passage, but what it really boils down to is that he tells us how to cling to God no matter what troubles or losses we face, and how appropriately to resist evil. These are shocking messages because they run completely counter to the way in which we think we ought to act if we are to do what is in our best interest.

The four beatitudes each in their way deal with a form of poverty. Beatitudes were common literary devices in the Jewish heritage. Blessing someone or celebrating the blessing of an action or lifestyle was a way of calling a profound spirituality into an everyday setting. “Blessed are you for caring for that widow in the village” was not just a kind thought. It implied that God would bless you for your generosity. In Jesus’ four beatitudes, he addresses real people in the Capernaum area. Often their crops failed. The fishermen didn’t bring home a catch. Illness spread without a cure. Early deaths left many widows and orphans. Hunger and sorrow due to circumstances beyond one’s control was common. And in their midst stood Jesus, who had experienced this personally. He also knew that God was closer to people in their poverty than he was to those who had abundance. For this reason, he who himself was poor, rejoiced with them because they depended so completely on God’s mercy and love.

Sometimes it’s difficult to relate to a story if you haven’t experienced something like that yourself. For example, think of Michaelangelo’s sculpture called the Pieta. It pictures Mary holding Jesus after the crucifixion on her lap, in her arms. Some people find this pose strange since it is never mentioned in the Bible. Still—this work of art spoke in a powerful way to women in the Middle Ages. Because of children dying in childbirth, from diseases, from accidents, it was highly unlikely that a mother in the Middle Ages reached old age without having held more than one of her dead children in her arms. This depiction of the Pieta for women was more powerful than the depiction of the crucifixion because it said, “here is something you know about. Here is death at a level of pain and sorrow with which you can identify.” Through this art, the tragedy of the crucifixion became real to them.

We in our modern world may find it hard to identify with the situation in ancient Capernaum—the audience to which Jesus was speaking. We don’t know their pain, sorrow, worry or loss. Yet, we do know about our own. We’re experts in that. We know that life can have its dead ends leaving us wanting. We also know that our loved ones who have gone before us in the faith, whose hopes are now fulfilled in ways we could never imagine, are beyond all pain, sorrow, loss, worry, illness and death. They are on the other side of poverty and the words of Jesus are not just empty talk—they are words of promise and hope. The fulfillment of these words will be ours as they are now already for our loved ones. The words of Jesus give us cause to thank God here and now already because the grace and love we poor sinners experience in having our sins forgiven and our future assured wipes all tears from our eyes. These blessings of Jesus’ are not just words—they are the reality upon which we live for we know God’s blessing and comfort in our times of deepest need.

The next section provides a more radical challenge to us—Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us. Oh, why does he always make it so difficult? If you read the internet forums and hear how people anonymously slander one another, how they talk about their political leaders, how they speak about people of other religious perspectives, you know our world is not prone to practice the words of Jesus.

So how do we possibly follow his teachings? And why? Is Jesus calling us here to become doormats for God, to allow people to walk all over us? This is not what Jesus is saying. Walter Wink, a New Testament theologian who has long struggled with these words of Jesus, says there is a big difference between saying “resist evil, but don’t react violently” and saying “just walk all over me, I’m not anything important.” For example, when Jesus says “turn to him the other cheek” or “give him your tunic as well,” he is saying, “don’t’ let your opponent dictate the terms of your opposition to him.” If he seeks to be inhuman, you have options. If the spiral of violence insists that each country develop more sophisticated weaponry to assure that the other has less, then consider new, more creative options. Jesus wants to break the spiral of violence by teaching us not to turn into the very kind of people we hate. Do not return evil for evil!

Of course, you and I know that people can literally lose their heads in practicing such nonviolence. However, it’s worth remembering that in the last decade, thirteen nations were involved in nonviolent revolutions, fully one-third of humanity. There are other ways to resolve conflict and Jesus knows it. We must be faith-minded enough to find these ways lest violence escalate.

These are the gifts given to the saints, those whose failures and miscalculations have been covered by the redeeming love of Christ. Today, our Gospel lesson asks that we remember all the saints and martyrs not because they were perfect people but because through Christ, in their poverty they have become rich, and in their struggles they have discovered the peace which passes human understanding.

And so today we celebrate all the saints. We celebrate the saints who have gone before us and who know dwell in God’s unending light. And we celebrate ourselves and the saints who share the pews with us today. Most of all, we celebrate the Savior who has made us all saints, Jesus Christ. We relish the powerful lessons he teaches us—how we can rejoice in our weakness and sorrow, how we can love even our enemies, how we can find creative alternatives to violence—at personal and national levels. How exciting that our sainthood is ongoing because of God’s work within us! How delightful that we can, indeed, change for the better! Let us recommit ourselves today to keep growing in our sainthood that God’s kingdom may, indeed, come. Amen.

And now, may the peace which passes all understanding keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© 2007 Laura E. Gentry