How Fortunate We Are

 

Based on Matthew 5:1-12

            All Saints Day is our version of Memorial Day. It is the one day a year when we as a community of faith remember, not just those who have passed away since last All Saints Day, but all who have passed away since the church began. But not only that. All Saints Day invites us to call to mind all throughout time who have passed into the fullness of God’s presence. If we go back and look at Hebrews 11, the author speaks of the faith of Abraham, of Moses, of Rahab, Samson, David, of men and women whose names are known only to God. This great assembly that stretches back thousands of years are called in Hebrews 12:1 a great cloud of witnesses. These are the saints, the untold millions, billions, countless number of witnesses who surround us. It is these saints, our ancestors in the faith, that we memorialize today.

            All Saints Day is the day we memorialize all the saints, the community of saints, the great cloud of witnesses, who have gone before us. As I think about this image of the great cloud of witnesses, I am reminded of a story I once heard of this man who went to visit a well known Russian Orthodox Church somewhere. The building was massive. For those that are familiar with what the sanctuary of an Orthodox church looks like, this sanctuary was other-worldly. The icons, the ornate tile work, the candelabra. But as the man entered the sanctuary for worship in this famous, well known church, there were a few elderly women in the pews, the priest and a deacon. The sanctuary was virtually empty. After the service was over, the man introduced himself to the priest and expressed his gratitude for the beautiful service. Then he asked, “How does it feel to be offering up the liturgy in such a large space with so few people in attendance?” The priest laughed and said, “What do you mean, just a few people?” We are surrounded by a mighty cloud of witnesses. When we gather for worship, we are joined by the angels and archangels and the mighty throng of the church triumphant.” I know that for some they look at the Orthodox church a bit askance because when you enter the sanctuary you see icons everywhere. In the front, along the sides, on the ceiling. You are literally surrounded by the icons, images of saints, of Mary, of Jesus. Perhaps this is off putting to some. But especially on All Saints Day, it makes sense to be in a space surrounded by icons. It is a visual reminder that when we gather for worship, whether the gathered space is filled with icons, bare walls, or even in a living room or out in the woods, we are surrounded by a mighty cloud of witnesses, the saints who have gone before us. This is the day to remind ourselves of this truth.

            As we remember all those who have gone before us, our ancestors in the faith, we also recognize today that we too are part of that community of saints. I know that in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox churches there is a process in which a person is vetted and, in time, may be officially declared a saint. As an aside, you may have heard that a few weeks ago, the Roman Catholic Church beatified Carlo Acutis, who died at the age of 15 in 2006. Beatification is the first step toward sainthood, making Carlo the first of the millennial generation to potentially become a saint. I understand why this is done. Those who are declared saints serve as role models for the rest of us. They are looked to as those who embodied the best of what it means to be a Christian. In this light, saints are like Christian heroes.

            But the truth is that all of us who have responded to the invitation to follow Jesus and be a disciple are saints. You and I, right now, are saints and we belong to the community of saints. Belonging to the community of saints is not reserved for after you are dead. We belong to that community now.

            What is a saint, anyway? We find a definition in Rom. 1:6-7, where Paul speaks of those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, God’s beloved and called to be saints. These phrases are all synonymous and point to our calling to be distinct from those who do not belong to Jesus, that is, those who do not follow the way of Jesus. A saint is someone who follows Jesus. A saint is another word for disciple. We often think of saints as great, holy figures. But in the broadest meaning of the term, a saint is a follower of Jesus Christ. If you understand yourself to be a follower of Jesus, that makes you a saint…warts and all. The community of Jesus followers is the community of saints. That’s our community.

            What does the community of saints look like? What are its characteristics? This is where today’s scripture reading comes in. The beatitudes of Matthew 5 give us a glimpse of what the community of saints looks like, both in this world and in the world to come. The beatitudes name current reality and then describe a future promise that can be trusted because the one who speaks these beatitudes is Jesus, the very Word of God. These beatitudes cover the community of saints of this current time and of the future promise that we expect to experience fully when we die and enter into what is sometimes called the church triumphant, that mighty cloud of witnesses that currently surround us and are now experiencing the promise we find in the beatitudes.

            There are two quick points I want to make about the beatitudes. One is that these beatitudes describe a community, not individual disciples. What I mean is, we should not read the beatitudes as a description of an individual disciple. In any given moment, you are not all at once poor in spirit, mourning, peacemaking, meek, and merciful 24/7. You are sometimes expressing some of these characteristics. But no one person is all these things at the same time, all the time. But, if we look at the community of saints as a whole throughout the earth, we will absolutely see these characteristics expressed. The beatitudes describe a community, not individual disciples.

            The second point is that the beatitudes are gospel. They are good news, an expression of hope. When you look at them, they tend to move from struggle to relief. For example, there is movement from being poor in spirit to possessing the reign of God, from mourning to being comforted, from hungering and thirsting for righteousness to being filled. It’s this movement from a tough current reality to a future promise of comfort, fulfillment, salvation. The beatitudes are an expression of a hopeful future. And it is this hopeful future that allows us to proclaim our current blessedness. This phrase “blessed are” could also be “fortunate are.” Fortunate are the peacekeepers because they will be called children of God. It is the future promise that makes our current position one of being fortunate, in spite of the current suffering that we from time to time have to endure.

            And this gets me to the next thing I want to say. As I look over these beatitudes, I am particularly drawn to two of them. In these times in which we live, two of these beatitudes really resonate with me and I think they resonate with you as well.

            The first one is, blessed are those who mourn. We have a lot to mourn over these days. Today we mourn over those family and friends who have died this past year. We mourn over the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to Covid. We mourn over the continuing divisions and polarization in our society, how some of us have lost friendships or seen family ties strained over this political divide. We mourn the loss of civility. We mourn over the lives cut short due to gun violence or drug overdose. There is so much these days that we can mourn about. And we are fortunate that we can mourn. Fortunate are those who mourn. We are fortunate to belong to a community that values mourning, lamenting, grieving. I know what it’s like to be surrounded by my church family when I was grieving the loss of my mother. I had the space I needed to be sad and to take my time to process my grief. And often I thought to myself, how do people get through their grief without the church? We are fortunate to have a community where we can mourn. We are fortunate, because Jesus has declared that we will be comforted. We experience a taste of that comfort in this life and can be assured of our comfort in the life to come.

             The second beatitude that resonates with me is this one: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righteousness means doing the right thing. Another word for that is justice. That really speaks to me in these days. Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for justice. This year has revealed so much injustice. One example: when we moved into shut down mode earlier this year as the pandemic erupted, we discovered who are the essential workers and who are non-essential. And as it turns out, a lot of those non-essential workers are quite well compensated while quite a few essential workers barely make ends meet from paycheck to paycheck. The officer that shot and killed Breonna Taylor as she lay in her bed will face one charge, reckless endangerment, because some of the bullets he shot hit another apartment. He will not be held accountable for killing Breonna Taylor. For many of us, this appears to be unjust. We hunger for a just society free of racism, sexism, all the -isms, where every child has equal opportunity to thrive regardless of what zip code they live in, where people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. We hunger and thirst for justice. And it is fortunate that we do. We are fortunate because that hunger and thirst for justice is what motivates us to be engaged, to speak up, to demand more. And we are fortunate because Jesus has promised that we will be filled. We will experience a taste of justice in this life even as we are promised to experience the fullness of justice in the life to come.

            Fortunate are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Fortunate are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they will be filled. Our current reality is marked by mourning and by longing for justice, for people and institutions to do the right thing. We are a global community of saints in which many of us are mourning and longing for justice. These are the times we are living in.

            And we are fortunate to be living in these times. We are fortunate that we live in these times as a community of saints. As we mourn, we comfort each other. As we long for justice, we practice justice together as a community. But above all else, we have the promise of God spoken through Jesus. In these days and in the days to come, both in this life and the next, we will be comforted, we will be filled. We are fortunate because we have hope for a better future. Of this future hope we can be certain because God has spoken it into existence. And there is a great cloud of witnesses that can vouch for that promise because they are currently experiencing it.