ALL SAINTS
Ephesians 1:11-23: Luke 6:20-31
All Saints Day Observed — Sunday, November 6, 2022
The Rev. Dr. Ritva H. Williams
Blessed are you who turned your clocks back one hour last night and gained an extra hour of sleep! Was it good? Are you more rested? More filled with energy? I am delighted that you are here this morning — blessed to be a blessing to each other and our neighborhood.
Today is All Saints Sunday, a day we set aside to celebrate all the saints. And who are these saints? In the New Testament the word “saint” never refers to a special class of super-duper Christians, rather it refers to all the members of the community of faith. For example, our first scripture reading this morning is addressed to “the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful to in Christ Jesus.” The writer is talking to a specific group of saints in a particular city, who are faithful in Christ Jesus. I wonder what the writer had to say to those saints who were not faithful, or only occasionally faithful? So here’s the thing, saints are not saints because of where they live, how faithful they are, how smart they are, or how many good deeds they do. Saints are saints because of what Christ does for them: naming and claiming them for God, affirming and proclaiming their identity as God’s beloved children, created in God’s image, worthy of love and respect, and uniquely gifted to make a positive difference in their world.
The writer of Ephesians describes God’s dream of gathering together all things in heaven and on earth. The resurrected, cosmic Christ is the agent of this dream come true by removing barriers between people to create communities of saints called churches. Christ is head and source of these communities. Christ fills all in all, empowering the saints to love God, and to love all the saints.
If our reading from Ephesians is mile high view of what the cosmic Christ is doing in the world, our gospel lesson brings us down to earth. We meet Jesus coming down from a mountain to a level place. He is surrounded by crowds of disciples and people from as far away as Tyre and Sidon. Jesus speaks directly to his disciples, but everyone present overhears his words. It is up to them and us to determine “am I a disciple too?”
Jesus says, blessed are you who are poor — literally in Greek, “beggars.” Blessed are you who are hungry now. Blessed are who are weep now. Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, revile you and defame you.
As pastor and professor David Lose writes, “… [in the eyes of the world, all these people] are losers. And yet Jesus calls them blessed. Why? Simply because God always reserves God’s most acute attention for those in need, those left behind by the powers that be, those left out of the lavish bounty of the world’s produce … God’s unfailing and unflagging concern for the losers of this world is etched across the pages of Scripture in letters deep and clear … for anyone willing to read.”
Jesus follows the blessings with a series of “woes”: woe to you who are rich … woe to you who are full now … woe to you who are laughing … woe to you when all speak well of you.
Turning again to Pastor/Professor Lose: [We dress well, live in nice houses, and strive for upward mobility, but underneath it all] “we are still racked by insecurities, still find it hard to love ourselves or others, still destined at the end of all our striving for a hole in the ground. We, too, are losers, and unless we recognize and confess that … as one of the defining elements of our existence — we will have a hard time receiving the mercy and forgiveness, grace and life Jesus offers.”
Dr. Lose defines saints as people who know they are vulnerable and in their vulnerability lean on the Christ. The woes warn us about the danger of using "money to safeguard ourselves from our own vulnerability, to create an illusion that we are not dependent on God, to blunt our sense of solidarity with, and responsibility to, the poor, and to isolate ourselves from all others in need.”
Nothing reminds us of our vulnerability and solidarity with others more powerfully than death, loss, and grief. In the face of death we are all losers.
The good news in our gospel lesson is acted out as Jesus the Christ, the eternal Word of God that became flesh and lived among us, comes down from the mountaintop to stood on a level place with all the losers. The good news is Christ continues to meet us precisely when and where we are most vulnerable, when we feel most like losers. The good news is that as losers gather around the Christ, they become the communion of saints standing in solidarity with all who are vulnerable, needy and broken.
On this All Saints Sunday, we thank God that all of us losers are free to confess our vulnerability, free to seek comfort and consolation in the communion of saints gathered around Christ. Just as we celebrated our newly baptized saints, Brady Terukina and Eden Bostian, at the beginning of our worship, now we honor the saints who have been gathered into eternity over the past twelve months …
