Year C, All Saints Luke 6:20-31
It’s
complicated. All Saint’s Sunday is complicated. This is partly because the understanding
of this day has evolved over the years. It was originally meant to be a day to
commemorate all the Christian martyrs (those who had been persecuted and died
for their faith). In the first few centuries of the church, they would
commemorate a martyr with a specific day. But by about the 4th century,
with the increased persecution of Christians, it became clear that they were
going to run out of days. Finally, by the 9th century, they
picked one day and called it All Saints Day. This was to be the day that
would not only commemorate all Christian martyrs, but all Christians who had
died. With all of these changes, the understanding of what it was to be a
saint shifted to what many people perceive as the original intention of the New Testament—to mean all Christians who have died and all
Christians still living.
When Paul used the word saint, he was almost always referring to those who were
alive. In his letter to the Ephesians he wrote, “I have heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints…” Here at St.
John’s, and in many other churches, we attempt to embrace both perspectives. In
the evening, our choir provides a lovely Evensong where we read the names of
those in our parish who have died in the past year.
At this service we sing, “I sing a
song of the saints of God” and we talk about how we can meet them at school, on
the sea, in church, in trains and at tea—and then we end by singing, “…and the
Saints of God are just folk like me and I mean to be one too.” I don’t know about you, but I have always
interpreted that as, I mean to be one in this life.
But that is the thing about the
Christian life, the line between the living saint and the saint that has died
is blurred. We live in this life—it’s
all we know. But we live this life with
a promise of what is to come. We live
knowing that life as we know it could end at any moment. We have all
experienced that too many times, someone we love dies unexpectedly or even a
personal health crisis that has taught us how incredibly fragile life is and how
narrow the line is between life and death.
A lot of people think that we come
to church or read the Bible to learn how to be good Christians/saints, so that
we can get into heaven when we die. But
the Bible isn’t a how to manual on heavenly acceptance. Jesus was a lot more concerned about how we
live in the here and now—how we love the saints in our midst.
Our gospel reading is often referred
to as “the beatitudes.” You can also
find the beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew.
However, Matthew’s beatitudes are a little tamer, more palatable. Both
gospels contain blessings (which in Latin is translated to beātitūdō).
However, Luke
contains fewer blessings and balances them with woes. Like All Saint’s Day,
Luke’s beatitudes are complicated.
First of all, they contradict what
we think of as being blessed. Usually when someone says that they are blessed,
they are talking about something good that has happened. They just had a healthy child. They got a new job, a nice house, a clean
bill of health. No one ever says, “I just
lost my job. I am so blessed. Everyone
is mad at me. I am so blessed. I am so
depressed…and blessed! I have never heard anyone say anything like that.
But that was what Jesus was telling
his disciples—“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh…” Another way that blessed is translated is to be
happy. That makes even less sense. The
best translation that I have found is “unburdened or satisfied.” While that is better
than happy, it still makes this text complicated. Usually when people are
struggling with money, they don’t feel unburdened or satisfied. People who are grieving are not unburdened. Sometimes
you can tell someone is grieving by the way they walk as if they are literally
sinking under this invisible weight. So what in the world is Jesus talking
about?
We aren’t blessed because we are
poor or sad or persecuted. We are blessed because in our grief or poverty, we
are (hopefully) able to reach out to God, we are able to acknowledge that we
need God and that we are nothing without God. That is where the blessing comes
in. It’s subtle, but it’s there.
Luke also has a woe section—“But woe
to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” This doesn’t mean
you aren’t blessed if you are rich. In means that if you find your consolation
(or your comfort and security) in your wealth, then woe to you. Alas, that doesn’t really make me feel a whole lot better because
most of us find comfort in financial security. That is why it’s called
financial security. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But if we put too much faith in that and not
enough in God, then our priorities are askew.
Because in the end, money can only do so much. It can’t protect us from
grief or illness. It definitely cannot
protect us from death. And when we face those things, we better have some other
place where we can find comfort and strength.
That’s why I think Jesus said that
the poor, hungry, weeping and persecuted were blessed. It wasn’t because their life was easy. In
fact, it almost guaranteed that their life was hard. It was because their hope
was in God. Remember who Jesus was
talking to in this text—the newly chosen disciples, who had just left their
homes, their family and any chance of financial security. They needed to hear this. While I find
the beatitudes a lot more challenging than comforting, I bet the disciples found comfort in
these words.
All Saints Day was first created to
commemorate the lives of Christians who were persecuted for their faith and
died as a result. There was a time in
the church when sainthood was exclusively connected to martyrdom and how you
died. Today, I think most of us want to
be remembered for how we lived.
I’ve buried a lot of saints since I
have been at St. John’s. Many of them
inspired me with their faith and service.
Yet I think the ones that inspired me the most are the ones who found
blessings even in the midst of trials, those who never gave up on God. This
isn’t to say that they didn’t question or struggle, but they found strength in
their weakness, they found God’s strength.
I have seen that in many of our living saints as well.
