All Saints Observance

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

October 28, 2007

Text: Luke 6: 20-31

What is wrong with being rich, full, merry and admired? And what is so good about being poor, hungry, sad and excluded? Is this some kind of joke? Does Jesus really want to be telling people who are needy that they are blessed? Wouldn’t this be cruel? Or are we telling them that they should not strive to improve their lot in life---and be happy with what they have? Are they supposed to wait until they die before they can find happiness?

And, since most of us here have most everything we need, how are we supposed to receive Jesus’ words? Some of us may remember when we were poor or hungry, sad or excluded, and we were not feeling especially blessed! (We may be feeling some of these now.) Is Jesus counseling us to change into permanently needy people again in order to welcome Jesus into our lives?

I don’t think Jesus was giving a command to be poor, etc. instead of rich, etc. Jesus was making an observation.

Who received him gladly, joyfully? They were the sick, the poor, the defeated and the reviled. They had everything to hope for because they had almost nothing now. They had “the greatest need and the capacity for inexhaustible riches, undistracted by the consolations of this world….” They had the one thing required: an emptiness God can fill and a discontent with the [present state of things], which [would] lead them to the wealth, satisfaction, consolation and comradeship of the kingdom.”
Jesus was not telling needy people that they should feel happy with their lot. He was observing that “it is only in the presence of a magnificent banquet that the hungry person is more blessed than the well-fed.” (G.B. Caird, St Luke, 1963. I am indebted to him for much of what follows.)

Have you ever been with youth camping out somewhere far from the nearest McDonalds? Maybe you have hiked all day, carrying your provisions with you. You set up camp and begin to prepare the mulligan stew. You cut up the vegetables, brown the meat, fetch water from a stream, begin to boil the mixture. Having eaten only trail mix all day, nothing smells as good as the food that is cooking. Why? Because you are hungrier than you have been in months. And you haven’t been able to sneak a trip to the refrigerator.

Or, maybe with a friend you decide to ride across the country on your bikes, from ocean to ocean (in the days before cell phones). It will take the whole summer. You camp on the side of the roads or in parks. Every day you go to bed hot and smelly; and the restaurants don’t want you hanging around for long. Occasionally, drunks throw beer bottles at you. But along the way, you have a few friends with whom you can stay and rest up. When you arrive at their homes, nothing feels so good as a hot shower and a soft bed----and conversation with someone beside your fellow traveler--- to whom you hardly can stand to speak any more.

Or someone feels the absence of a beloved parent or sister or spouse or friend. And they tell the doctor, when asked how they are doing, that all they seem to do is cry all the time. How thankful they are that someone cares enough to listen. Slowly, with the Doctor’s help, they begin to feel hopeful again. The shroud of sadness begins to lift. They are pulled up from the miry bog. Laughter returns to their life.

Those most likely to find his message and ministry good news were those who lacked, who suffered, who were oppressed, whose dreams for the future were simply for the next hour, the next day. As Jesus said-----in the days before preventative measures----- the well have no need of a physician (in the days before preventative measures), but the sick are desperate for a doctor.

Especially in Luke’s faith portrait of Jesus, it is the poor and oppressed that are remembered. Mary the mother of Jesus sings that in her being chosen, and in the son in her womb, God “has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” (1:51-53)

When Jesus as a young man was asked to read in the synagogue meeting, he read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (4:18-19)

The heart of Jesus went out often to those who were desperate. One particular group of the poor got his attention: the faithful poor, people like Mary and Elizabeth and Simeon. They were the sons and daughters of the Most High who suffered from the domination of the occupying forces of the Roman army; and they suffered from the condemnation they experienced from religious authorities because they were unable to follow all of the requirements of the Torah and the ordinances which had been deduced from the Commandments.

If God came to be with his people, to dwell among them in order to bring them up from their various slaveries----and if this is the meaning of Jesus’ ministry----then those most receptive would always be those who know that they cannot, by themselves, get to where they need to be.
We tend to look at the poor and powerless differently. We may be prone to blame them for the condition, and wonder, “Why don’t they do something to help themselves?” We may look at those who mourn and wonder what their problem is. And, when people are excluded and reviled, we may wonder why they can’t just fit in like everyone else.

But Jesus reached out to them and brought them hope. Because of their emptiness, they need the Gospel, the good news: that God has come to liberate them, to restore their dignity, to forgive and save them. Their prayerful longing for a new day was answered in the life, words and deeds of Jesus!

How do we relate to this wisdom about the blessedness of the poor? We can at least acknowledge that God in Jesus cares for the humble of the earth. And, if God does and we believe in God, we must, too. In our being and doing, we can continue Jesus’ ministry. We serve to the poor not only in relieving their suffering in all the ways in which this can be done, but also in opening doors of opportunity that may now be shut.

It is our calling, too, to affirm that “When we give bread, we bear witness that [neither we nor] they live by bread alone.”  (See Luke 4:4; I am indebted for this altered quote to Schubert Ogden, who was quoting William Temple, Anglican theologian of the early 20th century.)

But what do we have to say about the “woes?” This is tricky! By standards of comparison, most of us fit into the category of “rich,” and we are certainly “consoled” by our affluence. We get “hungry” like everyone else, but most of us have not known debilitating hunger. Are we “laughing” a lot? Well, this certainly varies from person to person and time to time; we have our seasons of “mourning” and “weeping.” And, most of us, most of the time, do not get “reviled” because of our witness to the truth of the Gospel---though we may be dropped off someone’s party list because we, with our religious life-style, were feared to be a wet blanket.

But why would we suffer woes for being happy, content and well-regarded----especially when some of the most popular media preachers tell us that God is ready to make us happy, rich and successful?

I think Jesus was saying that we may be so satisfied with our situations, external and internal, that we will miss the party! Remember the parable Jesus tells: a man threw a big banquet and invited all his friends, but they all had excuses---more important things to do. So what does he do? He tells his employees to go out and bring the blind and deaf and poor and lame and invite them to come. Such it is with the Kingdom of God! (See Luke 14:12-24)

It is likely that, when we have everything we think (or are told) we need, we will gloss over our deepest needs. We have our consolations now in the things and privileges we enjoy. Why would we want to change the way we live? Who needs help when we can get everything “on demand,” as we hear so much now? (I have wondered why we so impressed by the word “demand.” Why isn’t it “on request,” or, more honestly, “on credit?””

And yet, even when we are on top of the world, we may be spiritually starving. We may ask “Is this all there is to living? Who am I, really?”

I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jesus “woe” statements:

 But it's trouble ahead if you think you have it made.
   What you have is all you'll ever get.
 And it's trouble ahead if you're satisfied with yourself.
   Your self will not satisfy you for long.
   And it's trouble ahead if you think life's all fun and games.
   There's suffering to be met, and you're going to meet it.
 "There's trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contests are not truth contests—look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular. (The Message)
Jesus came preaching that God’s realm---the active, powerful, purifying, cleansing, transforming love of God--- is here and is coming. We can begin now to live under God’s gracious judgment, guidance and mercy. Jesus invites us to believe, as Stanley Hauwerwas writes, “to have confidence that God’s word is truthful and good.” We can sign on “for participation in an adventure called kingdom. That seems to me to be great good news in a world that is literally dying of boredom.” ( Stanley Hauwerwas,  “No Enemy, No Christianity: Preaching Between Worlds,” in Sanctify Them in the Truth, Abingdon, 1998, page 199)
This great adventure, living under God’s rule, means marching to the beat of a different drummer. Specifically, the drummer is Jesus. Our lives will be characterized, not by boredom or resignation but by agape love, “a gracious, determined and active interest in the true welfare of others, which is not deterred even by hatred, cursing and abuse, and not limited by the calculation of deserts and results, but based solely on the nature of God.” “Likeness is proof of parentage.”(Caird, St Luke)
We live mostly with a mixture of values in our ethical and moral decisions. A little enlightened self-interest, a little neighborliness, a little basic etiquette. But Jesus always reminds us that we must go deeper than that. “The Christian ethic is Ethics Part II….We ask not just what is right or wrong, but what is good.” (Caird)
Followers of Jesus, those who are learning from him, will be asking the golden rule question in its positive form: Ask yourself what you would want done for you; then do the same for your neighbor. What a revolutionary idea! This assumes that you and I will now see other people, whoever they are---and ourselves--- as made in the image of God, God’s precious “works of art.” (Ephesians 2:10, New Jerusalem Bible) We see that we and they are worthy of respect and love. This does not answer questions of strategy or policy or wise action: but it may just be the best place to start when we begin thinking things through.
What do you think? God has a big heart for the poor, the sad and the persecuted. Jesus says that those who lack and know it will be made full and happy. We learn from Jesus that these fulfilled and happy people will live distinctively different lives, courageously blazing a new path forward for their families, their church and their communities. And they will be sustained by the regular community rehearsal of the self-giving love of God in sacrament, prayers and Scripture. (See Hauwerwas, above)
Some of us, many years past, stood at an altar rail somewhere, and with our hearts in our hands, said “yes” to Jesus Christ. Some of us are newly baptized or confirmed. We met Jesus and we experienced God in him. Our common condition was our need for being rescued, for being grounded in a love which will not let us go; and our need for something to live for, something which is deeper, broader and more enduring than we are. “The Gospel brings [us] before the gift of God and challenges [us] to…to make the inexpressible gift of God the basis for [our] lives.” ( Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus)  
What will you and I decide? Will you and I be aware of our dependence on God for all that makes life worthwhile? Will we find the courage to live now by the virtues of a future, coming kingdom?
Today we have remembered and given thanks for those with whom we have shared life in this church and otherwise. Today the Church Militant recognized its unity with the Church Triumphant. To be truly ecumenical is to include those who have gone before, our “cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews Chapter 11) with whom we sing and pray.
We are all “saints” in the word’s original meaning, “set apart ones,” pilgrims in whom God dwells for the purpose of assisting in renovating the whole creation.
You may have heard the story of children being shown stained glass windows of the saints. When asked later what a saint was, one little girl answered, “Someone who lets the light shine through.” (I have lost the name of the source for this story.)
Today we give thanks for God’s extraordinary life in ordinary people. We are all like Simeon and Mary and Elizabeth: rejoicing that God has and does dwell among us, and receives our lives in order to bless them in the work of signifying God’s determination to bring the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
 Let us pray:
Almighty God, you have knit together your [people] in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord. Grant us grace so to follow your holy saints in all virtuous and godly living,  that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which you have prepared for those who sincerely love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (United Methodist Hymnal, #713)