For All the Saints...

 ALL SAINTS 2020

Matthew 51-12 The Beatitudes

 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them.

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

This morning we read some of the most well-known words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount where he speaks of the character and qualities of those who are Blessed – not so much of individuals but those who collectively form communities - communities of faith who seek to love God and to be genuine disciples.  They are surely amongst those considered as Blessed Ones, or Saints of God. 

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

** When NZ first reached Covid-19 elimination, Aunty Cindy (as the Prime Minister is known by her adoring fans) thanked the whole country, or as she called them, the Team of 5 million

*The first people Cameron Smith thought of after yet another grand final victory was another team of 5 million, the Melburnians who couldn’t get onto the field. Or out of their houses.

 And then, on the podium as the winning skipper, the veteran rake thought of all those still in lockdown in Victoria. “

Fellas, this 2020 season, it’s one like no other,”

Melbourne Storm Captain Cameron Smith

Smith said to his teammates. “What we’ve been able to achieve, we will never forget it, we will remember it for the rest of our lives.

“A big congratulations to everyone, particularly everyone celebrating their first premiership. Hold onto that forever boys.

“Lastly, before I go, this big ‘V’ on our jersey, this is who we are playing for - everyone back home in Victoria. “This one is for you, you beauty!”

** A few days later, Uncle Dan – aka Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, long a grim-suited figure bringing bleak news, now dressed in his Good News North Face jacket, was visibly moved as he announced the first day with zero COVID infections since what felt like forever, but was actually June 9.

Premier Daniel Andrews

A fair proportion of Melbourne’s population, it is fair to assume, was emotional right along with him. All those days and weeks and months of pain and false hopes and loss of jobs and income. And death.

The judgments and blame on how this all happened can wait for now. It is a time, as Andrews said, for Victorians to congratulate themselves on their courage, compassion and character.

Victoria-baiting had become a habit among certain federal government figures who not so long ago were declaring “we are all in this together”. It is many weeks now since Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “we are all Victorians”.

This week, however, it is true. We have, in the face of significant blunders, human error, inadequate resources and dreadful tragedy, suffered long and endured.

Daniel Andrews, whatever you may think of him, and whatever the months of reckoning to come for businesses and lives knocked sideways, deserved his emotional day on the podium, wearing that daggy North Face jacket he wears for special occasions spoke these words:

 “This has been a very difficult year, and Victorians have given a lot, and I’m proud of every single one of them,” he declared, the voice wavering the tiniest bit. “I don’t know that I’ll be drinking a beer tonight. I might be going higher up the shelf.”

This Sunday happens to be All Saints Day… Saturday was Halloween

...When it comes to Halloween, many churches are uncomfortable with some of the accoutrements which accompany the festival…

The irony is that Halloween — or “All Hallow’s Eve” — has long been a holiday of the church, too.

It’s the night before “All Hallows’ Day,” which we know as “All Saints’ Day” (“hallow” coming from the Old English word for “saint). Within the greater tradition of the church, All Hallows’ Eve and All Hallows’/Saints’ Day are actually the first two days of “Allhallowtide,” with “All Souls’ Day” being the final holiday of this three-day “season.”

Like elves and reindeer, this popular celebration typically has little to do with matters of faith — probably even less than Rudolph.

Maybe we should change that!

These three holidays have to do with death and all the myriad and sometimes contradictory ways we think about it, and as central as death is to the Christian message, or a death in particular, the church is not always very good at talking about it.

Part of me wonders if engaging more fully with this “season” of Allhallowtide might give us entry into these larger fears and questions about our own mortality and the Christian response to them. Some churches are already finding this to be true.

Where All Saint’s Day holds the deceased up in reverence and remembrance, Halloween invokes another important Christian approach to death: laughing at it.

Those who celebrate Halloween use costumes, sweets, smoke-machines and fake blood to make a caricature of death.

It’s almost as if by dressing up as Death we’re able to look in the mirror and say with the Apostle Paul, “Where, O Death, is thy sting?”

On the other hand, All Saints’ Day has seen a renaissance of sorts within Protestant churches in recent decades as part of a recovery of the Christian Year more broadly.

Traditionally, All Saints’ Day was reserved for all those “known” saints and martyrs within the church, the ones, as Barbara Brown Taylor puts it, “who have left a name, and whose stories we know something about,” whereas All Souls’ was intended for “the saints who are known to God alone, like our relatives and friends and the old woman across the street.”

Nowadays, at least in Protestant churches, All Souls’ is rarely acknowledged and many congregations — especially those which are uneasy with the idea of official sainthood — choose not even to remember all the saints, known and unknown, on All Saints’ Day.

And yet… and yet.  I read again of these ones whom Jesus called Blessed…

 Blessed are those…

·        who mourn, 

      those who are meek

·        those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

·        the merciful,

·        the pure in heart,

·        the peacemakers,

·        those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

-it seems to me that these are pretty good descriptors of those who are often designated as saintly in character, if not in status…

>>> I have more than a slight problem with individuals being granted Sainthood by a Pope, as if they have obtained some elevated degree of worthiness…particularly when such Beatification is seen as a guarantee of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven whereby they have the capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name. 

These Beatitudes which were read today speak not so much about individual saints, but rather of Saints in the heart of a Community of the faithful…

·        Likewise, Hebrews 11 and 12 could well be seen as a summary of ‘saints’ – those who had led lives of faithfulness and perseverance – not perfect, but who in their frailty and humanity had sought to serve and love God

…By Faith Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah… These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

And We are surrounded a great cloud of these witnesses…

·        Blessed are those…  is plural and speaks much more of the Communion of saints, not the piety of individuals

·        We need one another – you are part of a team of saints!

Many churches have taken on traditions of remembering in worship those from the congregation who died in the past year. Some print the names, others read them aloud. We often say that the church is a people of memory, and calling to mind this great cloud of witnesses in worship... is something worth doing  - and we will pause in our communion prayer at our Zoom Morning Tea for a time of quiet to give thanks for those who have gone before us…

As a Christian community we have a story that needs to be told. In fact, the very popularity of Halloween may be proof we need to tell it more.

It’s a story of light shining in the darkness, of perfect love casting out fear and of life waiting behind death. And it may even be true that the church, more than anyone, can laugh at death because we know how the story ends…

Or perhaps today we could join in a thundering rendition of the much loved Hymn: For All the Saints to symbolize the mystery of Christ’s triumph over the grave!

 

 For all the saints who from their labours rest,

who You by faith before the world confessed,

Your name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!

 

…But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;

the saints triumphant rise in bright array;

the King of glory passes on his way. Alleluia! Alleluia!

 

…From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast,

through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia! Alleluia!