Be the blessed! ~ All Saints Day Sermon ~ 6 November 2011 ~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

6 November 2011

All Saints Day Sermon

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Greenwood, Virginia

We are one fellowship, we are one body, we are the great multitude, we are blessed, we are the children of God.

The readings today are in the present tense.  They describe what is.  They describe the deep and abiding mystery and mystical vision of God ever breaking into this very world.  God is with us, and God abides with us, and God is present now, in this present time.  Christ has lived, and was made known in the person of Jesus in Nazareth, Galilee, and Capernaum, but Christ is alive, alive now among us, within us, enlivening us and empowering us.

It can be easy to overly intellectualize and criticize the words of scripture, and get some emotional distance from them.  “Well” we say in our authoritarian voice, the writer of the Psalms was talking about a particular moment during David’s reign.  Or, we note that the writer of 1 John was, “speaking metaphorically about the notion of us being the children of God, when surely he was merely offering pastoral care and a fanciful vision of hope to a restless community.”  We can fall into the trap of talking so much about God that we forget that God is alive, that God is amidst us God is within us and we are his holy people, a royal priesthood.  We are the saints in light.

The readings today are in the present tense in the sense that while they may be talking about times past, or times future, they are also talking about the time in the present.  The present moment is here for us, it is the only moment that we truly have.  While we hope for joy in the future, lest not our hope for the future cloud the joy amidst us in this moment – this holy moment. 

If you are anything like me, you probably find yourself spending a good deal of time in the past – past glory, past hurts, past relationships, revisiting the moments of the past and considering their goodness, and the ways that they were lacking.  You may also find yourself thinking about the future, planning, hoping, considering the stresses that may impact us in the future.  Do you do this? Does this strike a chord?  Our Bible also does this, of course.  We look to the past, to the story of creation, to the stories of figures such as David, and Ruth, and Esther, and Abraham, and all the rest.  Also, our Bible gives us visions of a future – perhaps the visions of the Psalms, or perhaps also the letters of John and also Revelation offer up visions of a future that we can barely imagine.

However, the Bible also breaks open the present, and while the past and the future are important – knowing where we have been and where we are going are key – however, if we don’t know where we are, we are lost.  We must remember that we encounter God in the present moment.  Think of Moses, walking through the wilderness, what if he didn’t turn aside in the present moment to see the burning bush, what if he was so wrapped up in the pain of the past?  What if he was so longing for the future that he forgot to be observant about God’s presence in the present?  Well, Moses had to be present for God’s presence to be seen. 

Are you ready to see God in the present?  Are we ready to see that we are truly blessed?  Are we ready to truly encounter God in this tremendous moment?  Are we ready to encounter the mystical and reality of God in our lives? 

The psalmist reminds us, “bless the Lord at all times, glory in the Lord, be radiant!”  BE RADIANT!  BE RADIANT.  Are we radiant, or are we borrowing trouble from the future. 

“Taste and see that the Lord is good, happy are those who trust in him.”  Taste and see!  TASTE AND SEE.  The psalmist does not say, “fast today so that you might lose a few pounds and God may reveal himself to you tomorrow.”  No.  “Taste and see!”  Are you tasting it, are you seeing it?  Perhaps we need to cleanse our spiritual taste buds and clear off our lenses. 

Of course, we have been promised much by God, but we also have been made children of God.  Christ has thrown open the doors.  Where the gates were closed, locked, with a passcode for solely a few, Christ has busted down the doors to the House of God.  We have been made children of God, we are ALREADY children of God.  “We are God’s children now” says the letter of 1 John.  “WE ARE GOD’s CHILDREN NOW.”  You see, we don’t need to wait, we don’t need to postpone joy.  Of course, more has been promised to us, “What we will be has not been revealed, …[but] we will be like him!” 

You see, the blessings have already begun, and are present now. Jesus knew this when he enacted what he commanded.  He became the gift that he spoke abouty.  He became the Good News that he proclaimed.  When Jesus said “Blessed are….” He was not offering a word of hope.  When Jesus said, “Blessed are…” he was not offering mere reassurance.  Nope, he was creating blessing through his words.  Remember when God created all that is, and spoke the words “let there be light” and there was light.  Jesus, too, creates through his words.  And the blessing that Jesus offers is the blessing that creates a holy people, a communion of saints, the children of God, empowered to breathe life and hope and peace into even this present moment.  A people who will not be living merely in the past, and a people that will not be borrowing trouble from the future.  In Christ’s blessing, a holy people is created who are able to live and breathe and offer hope in this present moment – and we are they.

We are the children of God.  We are the blessed.  We are to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”  We are the ones who are “happy because we trust in him.” 

And so, we are the saints of God, “patient and brave and true,” we are the ones who can and do make a difference in this world.  We are the ones who are blessed, who no longer need to worry, who no longer need to fear anything, because we fear only God (we are in awe of God), and God has blessed us, and promised us mercy and love.

We have been given “ineffable joys.”  What does this mean?  I have no idea, but it must be grand.  It must be wonderful.  We have been blessed with “ineffable joys” in our lives, do we have eyes to see.  Can we take a moment and see and “ineffable joys” granted to us?

God is with us, and God abides with us, and God is present now, in this present time.  Christ has lived, and was made known in the person of Jesus in Nazareth, Galilee, and Capernaum, but Christ is alive, alive now among us, within us, enlivening us and empowering us.

So, Be Radiant! Be the Blessed!

Rowan Williams on All Saints

In its original Latin the Apostles' Creed announces belief in the communio sanctorum; and this could mean one of two things - or maybe both. It could be 'the sharing between holy people' or it could mean 'the sharing of holy things'. Now when the New Testament, especially St Paul, talks about 'holy people', it doesn't mean quite what we might mean by 'saint', it isn't offering a sort of verdict on a lot of spectacularly good lives. Christian people are 'holy' simply because they have been adopted by God into relationship, into that family relationship expressed in saying 'Our Father'. So the 'sharing between holy people' isn't some kind of club for the spiritually gifted; it's simply the relationship that holds together those who recognize and express their adoption by God. And so this sharing becomes tangible and visible when Christians are together just breathing the air of Christ, making real in words and actions who they are in relation to Jesus. The 'communion' that is meant here is what becomes visible when Christians are simply saying who they are.

And what does this involve? The Church is the community of those who have been 'immersed' in Jesus' life, overwhelmed by it. Those who are baptized have disappeared under the surface of Christ's love and reappeared as different people. The waters close over their heads, and then, like the old world rising out of watery chaos in the first chapter of the Bible, out comes a new world. So when the Church baptizes people, it says what it is and what sort of life its people live. Baptism is an event in which the 'sharing between holy people' comes to light and we see what the Church really is, a community in which people are constantly being brought into new life by being given a new relationship with God and each other.

It is also the community of those who are invited to eat with Jesus. Just as, in his earthly life, Jesus expressed his promise to create a new people of God by sharing meals with unlikely people, just as, after the resurrection, he shares food with his disciples as he re-calls them to their task, so it is with the whole Church. We are in the Church because we have been invited, not because we have earned our place. And so when the Church gathers to eat and drink with Jesus in Holy Communion, the Church once again says who and what it is. In baptism and Holy Communion, the nature of the Church is laid bare for us. What is the Church? It is simply those who have been immersed in, soaked in the life of Jesus, and who have been invited to eat with him and pray to the Father with him.

~ Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust (2007)

hat tip to Creedal Christian

All Saints Day

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. 
  -- All Saints, Holy Women, Holy Men, p. 663


hat tip to The Episcopal Church's website  ... http://ecusa.anglican.org/

Blessed are the cheesemakers (and all the Saints!)

Today is All Saints Day.  November 1st, and November 2nd is known as All Souls' Day.  Most often, these two days are merged together and observed on the first Sunday after All Saints.  So, next Sunday, we'll be celebrating All Saints and the gospel reading will be from the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5: 1-12) - the "Blessed are the ______" reading that is quoted so often.

Of course, it is also a good time to watch Life of Brian, or at least the "Sermon on the Mount" clip from it!

Humor is good medicine,

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

All Saints Sermon - 2010

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

All Saints Day, 2010 Sermon

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Greenwood, VA

In the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia

Very often on All Saints Day a person in the pew may hear stories of saints from years past – of St. Francis who stripped off all the clothes his earthly father gave him and said he would turn to his heavenly father to robe him and care for him – of St. Martin who tore his cloak and gave half of it to a beggar in need – of St. Mary who was the God-bearer and the mother of our Lord.  We might also hear of contemporary people who exhibit saintly behavior, Mother Teresa who cared for the dying in Calcutta, of Jonathan Daniels, gunned down for his work for Civil Rights – of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was killed for standing up to the NAZI regime. 

So, where does this leave us.  We who are weighed down by the daily tasks of caring for loved ones, of feeding ourselves, of rousing up the family to get on to work and school, to weekend activities, to church, to family obligations.  We who are weighed down by the changes and chances of our lives.  Where does this leave us?

The monk and writer, Thomas Merton had this to say about being a saint:

“We can only become saints by facing ourselves, by assuming full responsibility for our lives just as they are, with all their limitations and handicaps, and submitting ourselves to the purifying and transforming action of the Savior.”

You see, our job is not to become St. Francis, St. Martin, St. Mary or even to live the life of Mother Teresa, Jonathan Daniels or Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Our job is to face ourselves, to assume full responsibilities for our lives just as they are.  In short, we need to step up, and grow up.  Recently, a friend of mind heard a line that stuck with her:  “Americans have become consumers, rather than citizens.”  We have, in many ways lost our deep commitments to one another. “E pluribus unum.”  Out of many, one.  We are meant to be one – not to bounce from brand to brand, not to always be looking for where the grass is greener, where the fashion is hipper, to where the school has better test scores, or even where the church (!) is healthier, more welcoming, or “better”.   To step up, and to grow up, might be, in fact to commit to who we are, where we are, and what we are as a citizen of this place in this time.

Being a citizen is fine, and good, and worthy.  But God wants more. Here we are drawn into a whole multitude of saints who have gone before, and we are one with one another in the Body of Christ.  “Citizens yes,..but also Saints! But what might this mean.  Well, it certainly means not being ever-cynical, ever the critic! As Teddy Roosevelt reminded us:

It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worth cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. 

And it certainly means living a life as a grown up, as Paul reminds us:

4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13 And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (King James version with "charity" rendered as "love")

So we are to grow up, to put away the childish things of being ever the critic, ever the fickle consumer, ever the cynic.  We are to step up into the arena, and what do we bring with us there?  Faith, hope, love.  And this love is a love that is tough love.  It is love that stands on the side of justice.  It is love that stands on the side of the whole Body of Christ.  It is a love that stands on the side of those who are in need.  It is a love that stands on the side of the oppressed.  It is a love that does not tolerate childishness and a culture of cynicism, fear and hate.  It is a love that abides.  Out of many, one.  E pluribus unum.  And the one to which we belong is God, in Christ.  We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, bound to one another in love.  So step up! And grow up into the love of God.

Come visit us at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Greenwood, VA!

www.emmanuelgreenwood.org

For all the saints

Happy All Saints Day!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey


For all the saints

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
who to the world their steadfast faith confessed,
your name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

You were their rock, their refuge, and their might:
you, Christ, the hope that put their fears to flight;
'mid gloom and doubt, you were their one true light.
Alleluia! Alleluia! 

Still may your people, faithful, true, and bold,
live as the saints who nobly fought of old,
and share with them a glorious crown of gold.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Ringed by this cloud of witnesses divine,
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet in your love our faithful lives entwine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
then hearts are brave again, and faith grows strong.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Tune: Sine Nomine, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906 

Blessed are the Cheesemakers, and all the other Saints!

Today is All Saints Day. November 1st, and November 2nd is known as All Souls' Day. Most often, these two days are merged together and observed on the first Sunday after All Saints. So, tomorrow, we'll be celebrating All Saints and the gospel reading will be from the Sermon on the Mount, (Matthew 5: 1-12) - the "Blessed are the ______" reading that is quoted so often.

Of course, it is also a good time to watch Life of Brian, or at least the "Sermon on the Mount" clip from it!

Humor is good medicine,

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

(hat tip for the reminder goes to Frank Logue at Irenic Thoughts)