"Blessed Are They Through Whom God's Light Shines"
Matthew 5:1-16; Rev. 7:9-17
Jesus saw the crowds, and he
went up the mountain and sat down, in the classic posture of an authoritative
teacher. He was teaching a New Law,
casting a vision of the Kingdom of Heaven.
It quickly becomes apparent that the Beatitudes and the rest of the
Sermon on the Mount turn the values of the world upside-down.
Jesus begins this sermon with a list, but it isn’t a list
of “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots.” But if the Beatitudes are a description of
reality, what world do they describe? Certainly,
not the one we’re living in now. One of
my colleagues puts it this way:
“Blessed are the meek,” Jesus says. But in our world, the
meek don’t get the land, they get left holding the worthless beads. “Blessed
are those who mourn,” says Jesus, but in our world mourning may be tolerated
for a while, but soon we’ll ask you to pull yourself together and move on.
“Blessed are the pure in heart,” says Jesus, but in our world such people are
dismissed as being naïve.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,” says Jesus, but in our world,
those who pursue peace risk having their patriotism called into question.
In the world we live in, it looks like we live by other
beatitudes: “Blessed are the well-educated, for they will get the good jobs.
Blessed are the well-connected, for their aspirations will not go unnoticed.
Blessed are you when you know what you want and go after it with everything
you’ve got, for God helps those who help themselves.” If we’re honest, we have to admit that the
world Jesus proclaims is not the world we have made for ourselves.[1]
Our
lives as disciples are in need of transformation. The church and our society--the world--is in
need of continuing re-forming.
Living in the ways of the Kingdom of Heaven isn’t easy. It doesn’t come naturally. It’s something we have to learn over time, as
disciples. We learn the ways of heaven
in Christian community, where we encourage each other and hold each other accountable.
This
morning we’re celebrating All Saints’ Day.
It’s about remembering those who have gone before us... and who have shown us what it means to walk
in the way of Jesus Christ. It reminds
us that we’re part of the “communion of the saints.”
So…on this All
Saints Sunday-- GREETINGS to all you saints.
Does that make you squirm a little? Most of us probably don’t think of ourselves
as being very saintly. We might be able
to relate to what Nelson Mandela said when somebody called him a saint. Mandela said, “I’m not a saint unless you think
of a sinner who keeps on trying.” I think that’s a good way to think of it.
In some parts
of the Christian church, saints are people who have lived exceptionally holy
lives. But in the Protestant and
Reformed tradition, we’ve come to understand the word “saint” in a broader sense--in
the biblical sense.
The apostle
Paul began some of his letters by writing, “To all the saints at Rome…or
Ephesus…or Corinth”—even if he was going to spend part of the letter telling
them how they’ve been failing in the Christian life and need to do better. Their failures don’t keep Paul from calling
them “saints.”
As Will Willimon says, “A saint is
any Christian, anyone whom God has called out to be blessed… baptized… different…
distinctive. Saints are those ordinary
people who have had their little lives caught, commandeered by Christ in rather
extraordinary ways. And for that, Jesus
calls them “blessed.”[2]
Jesus’
teachings about how to live as his followers were handed down to us as a
community of people called to live this way together. It’s a radically different culture than the
mainstream culture around us. We are called together to be the church, which is in the
business of producing and equipping saints for their ministries.
It would be too hard to live this
way as individuals. But as part of a
community of people who are inter-connected with one another, who support and
nurture and encourage one another in living prayerfully and generously and hospitably,
we can find ways of sustaining each other in the Christian life.
Think about
it. You may be the only word from the
Lord that some people will hear this week or ever. So,
you—you all-- are blessed
and sent out into the world to be God’s word in a troubled, hurting, confused world.
You and I
are called to embody God’s love and light to the people we meet who are sad… or
lonely… or hungry… or just need a friend.
The GOOD
NEWS is that you are not alone. On this All
Saints Sunday, we remember the saints who have gone on before us, trusting in
the promises of Christ and the reign of God.
We are in a long line, part of a procession of people of faith who are
rooted in the past and march on toward an eternal hope. While we who are a part of the Communion of
saints here on earth labor on for the kingdom of God, the rest of the Communion
of saints, past and present, are cheering us on!
In the
Revelation that was given to John, we receive a glimpse that great multitude of saints:
“The
redeemed are so numerous they cannot be counted. Who is among them? There is Steven
who was stoned and St. Peter who was crucified. Martin Luther. John Calvin.
John Knox. John Wycliffe.
There
is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, triumphant over the Nazi gallows. There is Bishop Oscar
Romero with the Eucharistic prayer of thanksgiving still issuing from his mouth
as he was killed for his activism against poverty, social injustice, and
torture.
There
is Martin Luther King Jr., still praying that his dream will come true for
humanity. Sister Dorothy Stang, who was
killed for advocacy for the rural poor in the rain forests of Brazil. Egyptian
Copts killed on their pilgrimages. Hildegard of Bingen. Mother Teresa. The list goes on and on. We see a procession of the faithful… these witnesses, through whose lives God’s
light shined.
So, I hope we will ponder, with one of my
colleagues: What would it mean if we
honored those whom God honors, in how we live our lives? What would happen if we stopped aspiring to
the culture’s prizes of status and power and privilege? What would it cost us if we lived more deeply
into justice and mercy and humility?[3]
The Beatitudes give us glimpses of what the
world looks like when the Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount is answered:
“Thy kingdom come; thy will be done…”
What is the world like when God’s will is
done?
Saints, the
light of God shines through your lives.
It is not our light that is shining:
it is the light of God, shining through our lives. So, let the light of God shine through you so
that others may know God’s hope and peace and joy!
To God who is able to accomplish abundantly
far more
than all we can ask or imagine--
to God be
the glory in the church...
and in
Christ Jesus...
to all GENERATIONS...
for ever
and ever! Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
November 5, 2017
[1]
Lance Pape, “Commentary on Matthew 5:1-12, at Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2203
[2] William
Willimon, “Saints, All of You” at www.chapel.duke.edu/worship/sunday/
[3]
I am grateful to Sarah Dylan Breuer for posing these questions at www.sarahlaughed.net. Cited by Barbara
Bruneau in “All the Saints and All the Hypocrites at REVGALBLOGPals. https://revgalblogpals.org/2017/10/31/revised-common-lectionary-all-the-saints-and-all-the-hypocrites/
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