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.
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| NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern |
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| Melbourne Storm Captain Cameron Smith |
“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.
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| 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.
“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!
