For All The Saints

3:1-9. Common English Bible (CEB)

3 The souls of those who do what is right are in God’s hand. They won’t feel the pain of torment. 2 To those who don’t know any better, it seems as if they have died. Their departure from this life was considered their misfortune. 3 Their leaving us seemed to be their destruction, but in reality they are at peace. 4 It may look to others as if they have been punished, but they have the hope of living forever. 5 They were disciplined a little, but they will be rewarded with abundant good things, because God tested them and found that they deserve to be with him. 6 He tested them like gold in the furnace; he accepted them like an entirely burned offering. 7 Then, when the time comes for judgment, the godly will burst forth and run about like fiery sparks among dry straw. 8 The godly will judge nations and hold power over peoples, even as the Lord will rule over them forever. 9 Those who trust in the Lord will know the truth. Those who are faithful will always be with him in love. Favor and mercy belong to the holy ones. God watches over God’s chosen ones.

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It may seem a bit odd to see me up here wearing a white stole today.  After all, white is generally only worn at times of great celebration:  Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of the Christ; and Easter, when we celebrate the resurrection, the re-birth of our Lord and Savior.  Today is All Saints Sunday.  We have lit candles in memory of those who have gone before, saints of the church, our beloved family members, and dearly missed friends.  It may feel sad.  It may not feel like a day of celebration, yet here I am, wearing white.  Because today is a day of great celebration - the day we celebrate their new life.   The day we celebrate their rising up with the Holy Spirit into the arms of our God.

This week, here is Selma, there were Day of the Dead altars on display at quite a few downtown businesses.  People wandered from altar to altar all week, admiring the different ways in which people were remembered and celebrated.  To tell you the truth, when I first came to California and learned about the Day of the Dead, I was quite confused.  I couldn’t understand the concept, really, of feasting in a graveyard, or building altars filled with things that were loved by  deceased family members.   While I was at Chapman University I attended several Day of the Dead events, to try to understand better.  Well, that and the fact that I went to all the multicultural events on campus, because there was always lots of food, don’t you know.  But even after that, I still didn’t quite get the celebration of life aspect.  In the tradition in which I was raised, we went to church on All Saints Day, and yes, the priest wore white, but it didn’t feel like a celebration.  It felt depressing.  Until, that is, I was in seminary.  In my very first preaching class we a local preacher come in to teach us about funeral preaching, an African American pastor who saw every funeral as a celebration, and who taught us to do the same.   After that, when I noticed the families having picnics in the cemeteries on All Saints Day I understood so much more.  

That’s not to say we shouldn’t mourn the loss of our loved ones.  One of my classmates in seminary told us about a conversation he had heard while sitting in on a meeting with his supervising minister and a family who had just lost their mother.   While the two sisters spoke eagerly of their plans for the funeral service, their brother simply sat there weeping.  Suddenly, one sister turned to him and said, “If you were really a Christian you would be happy!  She is with Jesus now.”   The pastor spoke to them then, of the need to grieve, using the words Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, reminding them that we do grieve, but not like those who have no hope.  His words - well, Paul’s words, really - comforted the brother and gave the sisters permission to allow their grief expression when they felt the need.  

Long before the birth of Christ, King Solomon wrote the words we heard earlier.  “3 The souls of those who do what is right are in God’s hand. They won’t feel the pain of torment. 2 To those who don’t know any better, it seems as if they have died. Their departure from this life was considered their misfortune. 3 Their leaving us seemed to be their destruction, but in reality they are at peace. 4 It may look to others as if they have been punished, but they have the hope of living forever.”   We tend to think of writings like this as being specifically Christian, but this is actually what Jesus and the other Jews of his time were raised to believe.  That those who were obedient to God’s will who have gone before were not truly dead, but that they would be at God’s right hand when the end of days came.  That death is not the end, not a punishment, but the beginning of something too amazing to understand.  “Those who trust in the Lord will know the truth. Those who are faithful will always be with him in love. Favor and mercy belong to the holy ones. God watches over God’s chosen ones.” 

“God watches over God’s chosen ones.”  It there is one thing that gets us in trouble on a regular basis, it’s that whole idea of chosen, and the elect, and who is righteous and who isn’t.  One of the earliest groups of immigrants to these shores took that idea to a disturbing degree.  The Puritans, who were Calvinist in their beliefs, believed that each of us was destined for heaven or hell before we were even born.  They said that no one knew for sure, so it behooved one to behave properly, but what they actually believed was that it would be easy to tell who the elect were by the way their lives played out. Unfortunately, we can also look to Solomon for this concept.  He wrote, “10 The ungodly will get what their evil thinking deserves. They had no regard for the one who did what was right, and instead, they rose up against the Lord. 11 Those who have contempt for wisdom and instruction will be miserable. People like this have no hope. Their work won’t amount to anything. Their actions will be worthless. 12 They will marry foolish people. Their children will be wicked. Their whole family line will be cursed.”   So the Puritans believed if someone was very successful in business, or had a prosperous farm, and all his children lived, and all went well in his world, then he was certainly one of those destined for heaven.  The poor and the unsuccessful, on the other hand, were almost certainly going in the other direction.   

Jesus disagreed with that concept.  In the 6th chapter of Luke’s Gospel he tells us that right after Jesus selected his first disciples, he stood in front of a large crowd who had come to be healed, and to hear him preach.  And then,

20 Jesus raised his eyes to his disciples and said:

“Happy are you who are poor, because God’s kingdom is yours.

21 Happy are you who hunger now, because you will be satisfied.

Happy are you who weep now, because you will laugh.

22 Happy are you when people hate you, reject you, insult you, and condemn your name as evil because of the Human One. 23 Rejoice when that happens! Leap for joy because you have a great reward in heaven. Their ancestors did the same things to the prophets.

24 But how terrible for you who are rich,  because you have already received your comfort.

25 How terrible for you who have plenty now, because you will be hungry.

How terrible for you who laugh now,  because you will mourn and weep.

26 How terrible for you when all speak well of you. Their ancestors did the same things to the false prophets.

There is a reason Jesus was not born to a royal family.  There is a reason he was raised by an ordinary family, near the bottom of the social scale in an oppressed nation.   Unlike King Solomon, who was raised in great wealth and privilege, Jesus understood what life was like for ordinary people.  He spoke as did the prophets of old. He said the same things that Isaiah and Zechariah and Micah and Jeremiah said.  But where they were prophets to the royal court and spoke primarily to the rich and powerful, most of whom didn’t listen, Jesus, a poor and ordinary man, spoke them to ordinary people who desperately needed to hear his words of hope.  Oh, the rich and powerful were there, and some listened.  Some heard what he said and took it to heart.  Some changed their ways, and their understandings of God’s will for them.  But his true message was to those who were considered less than.  His real message was to those who were outcaste and broken.  To the poor and disregarded.  To the powerless and unimportant.    Blessed are you who have nothing.  Who are depressed.  Who are frustrated.  Blessed are you, on the bad days.  On the days when you cannot see the point in going on, working day after day just to keep a roof over your head. Blessed are you, who are alone.  Whose children have left.  Whose family is gone.  Who have no one to turn to in times of trouble.   Blessed are you, for God is with you. God loves you.  God carries you through those times when it seems impossible to go on.  No matter who you are or what you have done, God loves you.  God doesn’t judge by your appearance, your relative wealth, or your status.  

Even his disciples had some trouble with all this.   “Who was the sinner, Lord, that this man was born blind?  Him, or his parents?”   No one!  It’s not anyone’s fault.  It just happened.  Stop blaming people for things they cannot help.  Stop chasing the children away. Let them come to me.  Let that woman who is crying my name come closer.  Stop thinking of them as unimportant.  Stop thinking of anyone as unimportant, or less than you.  All of you, you need to change the way you look at the world.  He told them they had to behave in exactly the opposite way to what the world taught and expected.  

“I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. 28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. 30 Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. 31 Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.”   

I think perhaps it is at the time of death that we can see most clearly the different ways the world and the church look at people.  In the public view, in the media, we read a about the death of important people and the description is usually about where they worked, and whether they had achieved success in that work.  We read about who their family is, and if they are related to anyone noteworthy.  The media will tell us about their generosity in endowing charities, universities, and so on.  And then we hear how the church speaks of people, of the saints of the church.   Often not terribly important in the eyes of the world, but very important to us.  The words used to describe these people tend to be about relationship, about who they touched with joy and love, how they moved others with laughter, how they taught others to be better people.  The world thinks that death is a loss, that it is a punishment.  As Solomon said, “To those who don’t know any better, it seems as if they have died. Their departure from this life was considered their misfortune.”  

But we know better.  We know, that the saints who have gone before are blessed.  We know that those who have lived by God’s will are with God.  Those who have asked forgiveness are forgiven.  Those who are faithful will always be with God in love.   We come here on All Saints Sunday to celebrate them, knowing that the Holy Spirit has carried them ahead of us to be by God’s side until we meet again.

May we live well and faithfully, with mercy and compassion for all others.  Without judging.  Treating all others as we wish would to be treated.   May we work hard to love everyone, even the people we dislike or who dislike us, even those who mistreat us and threaten us.   And one day, we too will join that great crowd of saints, shining with glory, celebrating our new life in God’s presence for all eternity,