And I Mean To Be One Too (On Tuesday)

An icon of all the saints (those known and unknown to the Church)

 

 Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44

 

© 2024, The Rev. Seth Olson

 

This sermon was preached on All Saints' Sunday (November 3, 2024) at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Apostles. Video of the sermon may be found here. 

Holy God, Sanctifier of all the saints, let my words be your words and when my words are not your words, let your people be wise enough to know the same. Amen.

 

Happy All Saints’ Sunday! 

Now, when I say “saint” who comes to mind? No, I am not fishing for compliments. Maybe it’s someone like former Archbishop Desmond Tutu who was instrumental in overthrowing the apartheid government of South Africa. And, who along with South Africa's First President Nelson Mandela developed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to bring healing to a hurting nation. I once met Archbishop Tutu who was maybe 5 feet tall but whose presence was enormous!

 

On his visit to Sewanee (where I was working at the time) he greeted every student, faculty member, and administrator he met. This was nice and pro forma for most honorary degree recipients, but Archbishop Tutu also intentionally sought out kitchen workers, maintenance men, and the cleaning crew to tell them thank you. He went out of his way to express gratitude for them and to share about the interconnectedness of our lives. I am sure some of those workers who lived in rural Franklin or Grundy County, TN had no clue who that man was, but to a person they were all smiling after he spoke with them. 

 

Desmond Tutu is a Saint. The Church agrees about this. All Saints’ Day though is not for Archbishop Tutu. Well, it’s not JUST for him. All Saints’ Day is different. It’s for ALL the saints. Not just the ones that the WHOLE Church recognizes or remembers. So, if this is the case, what’s it mean to be a saint?

 

Saint, as a term, has gotten confusing, layered with unnecessary guardrails and guidelines. In the New Testament, the word simply meant a member of the Way of Christ, the nascent Church, which was living in the light of the Resurrection. Every “parishioner” so to speak was a saint. 

Nowadays we have mixed up this term. We tend to think it means someone who is “perfect” (by worldly or otherworldly metrics). Truthfully (and more to the point), the root word for saint connects to another familiar Church term “Sanctus,” the hymn of praise that we join the angels, martyrs, apostles, and heavenly hosts in singing every Sunday during Holy Communion. What are the first words of that unending anthem? Holy, holy, holy. What does it mean to be a saint? It means to be... you guessed it... holy, holy, holy. However, if you think that to be holy means to be an antisocial hermit that spends all day praying in a cave, you may have conflated the term pious with holy. To be holy means to be set apart. Sure, hermits are set apart, but that’s not the only way for God to distinguish you. Our Holy God calls us into work fit just for us—that's right, there are missions set out only for you to complete.

 

Are y’all with me still? 

 

Maybe the best way to understand all this is to indulge in some beautiful theology within one of our Communion hymns for today, “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” by Lesbia Scott. Some do not like this folksy tune, but the hymn writer created it as a children’s song to teach about the lives of the saints on All Saints’ Day, so taken in that light, what’s not to love?! 

 

It begins, “I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew.” Then, it subtly hints at some Saints of the Church—a doctor (Luke the Evangelist and Physician), a queen (Elizabeth), a shepherdess on the green (Joan of Arc). All of these folks were saints of the Church. Then, comes something important for us to understand hagiography (the study of saints): “They were all of them saints of God, and I mean, God helping to be one too.” God is helping them to be saints. Hmm?... Interesting, I wonder, does God help us in the same way... hold onto this.

[A brief aside here: Through the stanzas, then other saints are listed. And, the best bit of this hymn may very well be in the second stanza, when “And one was a soldier (Martin of Tours), one was a priest (take your pick), and one was slain by a fierce wild beast (Christopher)”[1] is sometimes switched to sing, “And one was a soldier, one was a beast, and one was slain by a fierce wild priest.” I give you permission, even blessings, to sing this today and into the future! Here endeth the aside.] Alright, so the lyric that may very well turn our understanding of being a saint on its head comes at the very end of stanza three, “For the saints of God are just folk like me, and I mean to be one too.”

 

See saints aren’t just the Desmond Tutus, Queen Elizabeths, and Joans of Arc of the world. Although maybe we should remember that all these were just folk just like me (and you). Instead, all of us are called to be set apart for God’s work. All of us are to walk Christ’s Way of Love. So, what might this look like? Do we have to greet every person we meet with a smile, be burned at the stake, or get slain by a fierce, wild priest... I mean beast? Maybe, but our Holy Scripture for this day truly give us a better glimpse of how to be one too.

 

Our lessons give us powerful visions of what it means to be God’s saints, a people set apart. Not in the sense of some unreachable perfection, but as ordinary people called to live anything but ordinary lives. Isaiah speaks of a feast prepared for all peoples, a world where God will wipe away every tear. We are to be compassionate and caring for one another in good times and ill. 

 

John’s Revelatory Dream for the End of Days promises a new heaven and a new earth. We are to be a part of making this world look more like God’s Dream and less like the nightmare it often is to quote Saint Michael Curry now retired Presiding Bishop of Our Church. The Psalm reminds us that “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,” which helps us see that we aren’t in this alone, but participating with God in this holy work. And in John’s Gospel, we see Jesus calling Lazarus from the tomb, bringing life where there was once only death. The saints of the Way of Christ though were the ones who unbound the once-dead Lazarus to restore him into holy community. This is our work as saints too. 

 

Taking into consideration these readings and what we’ve learned about saints, what does it look like for us, in this time and place, to be ones who are set apart for God’s work? 

 

First, consider your closest relationships: family, friends, and this church community. Being saints here means showing up with love, forgiveness, and compassion. It means working toward the common good in our neighborhoods, choosing the hard work of community over isolation. It means holding each other accountable, but also holding each other up in prayer, kindness, and encouragement.

 

Next, expand wider. In the book of Revelation, John envisions a new heaven and a new earth, one in which God declares, “See, I am making all things new!” To be a saint isn’t just a far-off hope; it’s a present call to action. We are invited to participate in God’s work of renewal now, to help bring about that new creation. And that extends into how we engage the public sphere. We can’t separate our faith from the rest of our lives—not from our workplaces, not from our schools, and certainly not from our responsibilities as citizens. 

 

This week, many of us will exercise one of those responsibilities as we go to the polls to vote. As we prepare to do so, may we remember that our call to be saints includes this responsibility, too. Saints aren’t called to retreat from the world but to engage it, to bring the values of God’s dream into every part of it. 

 

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus stands at the tomb of Lazarus and calls out, “Unbind him, and let him go.” This is Jesus’ work—to bring freedom, healing, and wholeness. And as saints, this is our work too: to bring life where there is death, to unbind where there is oppression, to heal where there is pain. This work includes every choice we make in our lives and every vote we cast.

 

We will not agree on every political issue. We will not all vote for the same candidates. And, friends that is okay, for I believe we can all agree on this: as saints, we are called to align ourselves with values and virtues that reflect God’s dream for this world. Values of compassion, justice, humility, and love. Values that lift up the vulnerable, care for God’s Creation, and protect the dignity of every human being.

 

It is no small thing to be called saints. And it’s not easy. It requires courage, sacrifice, and discernment. It means sometimes having difficult conversations, choosing the path that is harder, being willing to make decisions that go against the grain of our own interests for the sake of loving God and loving neighbor. And yes, sometimes it means making choices that challenge the status quo and disrupt patterns that keep us bound in cycles of injustice and suffering.

 

As saints, we don’t just live for ourselves. We live for others. We live for God’s vision, for the world that is possible when people walk the Way of Love. We live for that day when we will all sit down together at God’s great feast, every tear wiped away, every division healed, and every injustice made right.

 

So, this week and always, let us go forth with the courage of saints. Let us live and act as people set apart—not for our own sake, but for the sake of the world God loves. And let us remember that we do not walk this path alone. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses—saints past and present; saints in this room and beyond—cheering us onward, guiding us forward. For the saints of God are just folk like you, and I hope you mean to be one too! Amen.

 

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[1]Pam McAllister, “What hymn celebrates lives of courage and generosity?” on Ask Her About Hymns Blog [https://askherabouthymn.com/what-hymn-celebrates-lives-of-courage-and-generosity/, written: October 27, 2016; accessed: November 1, 2024].

Knit Together

Sometimes during sermon prep, I overlook the collect. If you are unfamiliar with the term, a collect is a prayer said at the beginning of a Holy Eucharist service with the purpose of drawing together or collecting the concerns of the people, the liturgical flavor of the season, and the themes of the readings. When writing a sermon on a given week, or when writing a blog about the upcoming Sunday’s liturgically assigned readings, I often skip right to the Gospel lesson—only later do I check out the First Lesson, Psalm, and Second Lesson. I almost never even consider the collect as a part of sermon prep, but this week is different.

Many churches throughout mainline Protestant Christianity will celebrate All Saints’ Sunday this week. (The actual celebration is on Friday, November 1st, but the Episcopal Church also encourages celebrating this occasion on the following Sunday.) The collect for All Saints’ Day captivates my attention and my imagination because of the descriptive language associated with God, the important role of all the saints, and the aim (or telos) of us as followers of Christ. Before going any further though, here’s the collect in its entirety:

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. (The Book of Common Prayer, 245).

Taking a look at the descriptive language in this prayer, we discover God’s intimate role in the lives of the saints. After the opening address, “Almighty God,” which provides a powerful portrayal of the Divine, the collect turns to a much softer active verb to depict God’s role in tying the saints together. “You have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship…” (italics added for emphasis), the collect says. Here I imagine the Thursday knitting group, which meets here at All Saints, as they make prayer shawls that will be taken to sick babies, worried parents, and aging parishioners alike. God as Creator is not bringing us, the saints, together via thunderbolt and lightening (very, very frightening), but instead through calmly weaving us into a pattern beyond our comprehension. What’s the pattern? Our Almighty Knitter binds us together such that we actually become the Body of Christ. To borrow one of my liturgy professor’s favorite questions, “Isn’t that RAD?!”

This form that God weaves us into has the shape of the Mystical Body of Christ, but we see this pattern not only in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, but also in the lives of all the saints. Our collect does us a disservice when it says, “Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living.” Why is this a disservice? Well, when we describe the saints as blessed and when we say that they live godly and virtuous lives we mistakenly discount our own experiences as saints.

Recently I’ve been on a tear trying to hear as many parishioners’ stories as I can. Using Mary Parmer’s Invite Welcome Connect model as inspiration, I’ve been asking people what brought them to God or the Church, or when they have felt welcomed or like they belong (either in the Church or elsewhere). The powerful responses in the form of life-altering stories help me to see the shape of Jesus’ life and the shape of the Saints’ lives in the lives of everyday, ordinary people. I believe this is true precisely because the capital S Saints “are just folk like me” and you, to borrow a line from Lesbia Scott’s famous hymn. Virtuous and godly living then is not something that was only aspired to by people who lived a long time ago or those who currently reside in a hermitage, but rather as we become students or disciples of Jesus, we learn that we too can walk this way (talk this way) of love. We too are called to journey with Christ, Saints, and saints into abundant life, what we sometimes call the life eternal.

Finally, the collect provides us who pray these words with an aim for our lives. Virtuous living simply put is rightly aimed living. The way we find our aim is by living together in community, studying Holy Scripture and other texts, worshipping God by participating in Holy Sacraments and sacramental rites, and by allowing God’s grace to penetrate even into the most broken parts of our existence. When we take part in communities that work, pray, study, eat, and worship together, then one beautiful outgrowth we receive is values by which we can live our best life (a phrase that has seeped into the parlance of social media).

Within the All Saints (Sun)Day collect we discover that the aim of us the pray-er is to be knit into the Mystical Body of Christ (full stop). The mechanism through which this happens is God’s grace—God unconditionally loving us first. And, our response is to follow the pattern of the Saints who followed the pattern of Jesus the Christ. We follow this pattern best by becoming part of a community with virtues that align with the life of Christ and the lives of the Saints (and the saints). The by-products of this type of living, according to the collect, are ineffable joys and a full life prepared by God. (These joys by the way are unexplainable happiness, not something else, like was thought on an episode of How I Met Your Mother). So, you may be wondering though, what’s the catch?

It’s easy to read this collect and feel a bit inspired. Still, there’s the reality that, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. So, how do we get this life with indescribable happiness? How do we become like the Saints? How do we model our lives in the form of Christ? How? Well, I do not know for sure, but I do know two things. First, the good news is that God loves us first. There’s no way to opt out of God loving us. God's love is unconditional, all-encompassing, limitless, timeless, and beyond measure. Second, our response is to do to God and neighbor exactly what God does to us—love without limit. This second part can be tough though, and this is where the saints come into the picture.

The Saints of the Church and the saints in your church are folk just like you and me. And, they didn’t always get loving God and neighbor right. What matters is that we continue to practice. When we mess up we turn back to God and reconcile (when possible) with our neighbor. But, just because we mess up it doesn’t mean we stop loving. For God who loves us completely inspires us through the lives of each other and on All Saints Sunday we are reminded that each one of us is a saint to someone else. So, don’t ever give up. Don’t ever stop receiving and giving the love of God because our Almighty Knitter is always weaving us together through the fabric of Christ’s self-giving love.

Pray Twice

Our Church has been gifted mightily by its musicians and our Hymnal is a treasure trove of these gifts.

This sermon was preached on the Feast Day of William Byrd, John Merbecke, and Thomas Tallis. The readings which inspired the sermon were the following:

Revelation 15:1–4

John 15:1–8

Psalm 47

When I say “meeting” what words come to your mind? Boring. Excruciating. Awful. Waste of time. Too long. These are some of the words that typically pop into my head when I think of most meetings. And, I think this is often the case. I know I have been in meetings that make it feel like time itself is standing still. However, there’s one meeting I have always enjoyed since getting here to St. John’s: our music planning meetings!

Now, when Evan Garner was still here I loved these meetings because watching Foster Bailey and Evan negotiate hymn selections was like watching two seasoned boxers go toe-to-toe for twelve rounds. I often felt like the underqualified referee who tried desperately to keep the fighters from taking any low blows, punching after the bell, or biting anyone’s ear off. The conversations now are a little less lively, but nonetheless they are times when I genuinely look forward to attending a meeting. Why is this? I’ll give you three reasons.

First, and please don’t tell him this, but I have learned so much about church music from our organist. I say don’t tell him because he’s insufferable already. Still, he has always been brutally honest with me about things I can do better, and he’s also shared so much about what makes for good church music—most notably, that people can actually sing the hymns we choose! So, during these meetings I joyfully look forward to figuring out what pieces both apply to the church season or day and get people singing.

Second, I look forward to attending our church music planning meetings because it is amazing to watch how we can weave together music, readings, prayers, and eventually sermons to fit a day or a season perfectly. Sometimes parishioners remark about how great everything fell into place on a given day. Well, I am sad to break it to you but there is a lot of prayerful planning, probably a couple of arguments, and of course God’s Spirit that leads to making those selections. In other words, our liturgy doesn’t magically fall into place. Still sometimes even I am taken aback at how perfectly our songs reflect everything else in the liturgy.

Finally, I happily anticipate music planning meetings because in them I am always reminded that to sing is to pray twice, as St. Augustine is supposed to have said. Yes, sometimes I needed to pray not twice but continually when Evan and Foster were arguing over hymns. And yet, so often during a service I get most lost in prayer when I am singing. During other parts of the service I might be so focused on what I need to be doing (“Am I holding my hands right?” “Did I annunciate that prayer well?” “Was I smiling or frowning during the Eucharistic Prayer?”). However, when we sing I receive the great gift like the rest of us to pray doubly. And, we not only have our own church musicians to thank for that, but also those who came in ages past, like the saints whom we celebrate today.

John Merbecke, Thomas Tallis, and William Byrd were church musicians in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Merbecke composed a musical setting to accompany the 1549 Prayer Book. Tallis survived four monarch shifts back and forth from Catholic to Protestant, and all the while he provided for the changing needs of the Church of England. Perhaps that is why he is known as the father of English Church music since the Reformation. Byrd composed mass settings, motets, graduals, psalm settings, anthems, and hymns for the great feast days of the Church. Tallis and Byrd even combined for some years and held the Crown Patent for the printing of sheet music. These musicians and so many others have given us a treasure trove of songs to sing. And, they have been ones who help our music and our liturgy to be a sacrifice of praise, worship, and thanksgiving.

As we celebrate the feast of Thanksgiving tonight and tomorrow, may we with joyful hearts be grateful for Church musicians throughout the ages. They may at times be insufferable, pigheaded, irreverent prima donnas. However, they help us to pray twice as we sing songs that bring us into not only describing who God is, but also participating in the wonder, love, and praise of Our Lord. And for that, thanks be to God. Amen.  

Friends for the Journey

We all need friends to help us read the map of our Faith journey.

This sermon was preached on October 31, 2018 during the transferred Feast of Saint Simon and Saint Jude. The readings that inspired the sermon were the following:

Deuteronomy 32:1-4

Ephesians 2:13-22

John 15:17-27

Psalm 119:89-96

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.” These words ended today’s Gospel lesson. In the Episcopal Church we do not often speak of testifying or that dirty word “evangelizing.” And yet, Christ foretells not just for his disciples, but for all his people that we are to share His Good News, even to the ends of the earth. So, how do we do this? I’ll tell you how… WITH FRIENDS! More on these friends in just a moment.

As a kid, I often heard stories at home and at Camp Winnataska about King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. I loved these stories of bravery, perseverance, chivalry, and seeking Christ—and His Holy Grail. You know, the Grail is the chalice that Jesus and His disciples drank from at the Last Supper? Legend tells us that Joseph of Arimathea caught some of Jesus’ blood in that cup and it became forever sanctified. Allegedly it even helped Joseph survive for decades in prison even without food. At some point the Chalice was lost and King Arthur sent his Knights on a quest to find the Grail. This is where the going with friends comes into play.

Two of my favorite characters in the Arthurian Legend are Sir Bors and Sir Percival. They were the best of friends—they fought together, prayed together, and sought the Grail together. Even when Percival died, Bors struggled to continue and it was only the search of Christ’s Cup that spurred him to keep going. Hearing of their sort of Christ-focused friendship inspired me as a youth to seek that sort of friendship in my own life. And, as an adult I have found other examples of Christian friendship, like in our saints for today.

Saints Simon and Jude were disciples of Our Lord. Upon Christ’s death they were terrified, but through the power of the Resurrection and the imparting of God’s Spirit they shared Jesus’ Good News all the way to Persia (over 1,000 miles away). They supposedly did this work together. They preached together. They traveled together. They even died together as martyrs in the young Church. Throughout the New Testament Scriptures describing the Early Church we hear of saints like Paul and Timothy as well as Peter and John working together for Christ. And, these ones would not have been emboldened to do God’s work of sharing the grace of Christ with others without each other. Yes, this was true then, but it is also true now.

Today more than ever we need one another. In a book called Christians Among the Virtues Stanley Hauerwas and Charles Pinches speak of the friendship required for our life-long journey. For us to grow to trust God more fully we need friends who will walk with us, friends who have walked before us, and friends who will walk after us. This is to say that in this journey with Jesus we need companions and contemporaries who will be the Simon to our Jude. We also need those who have journeyed before us and who know how to read the map so to speak. Finally we need to pass along our wisdom with those who will walk the journey with Jesus after us. So how do we find these fellow travelers?

Well, you who are sitting here in Church are already surrounded by some fellow wanderers. Still there are more ways to find other pilgrims. One way to sprout new spiritual friendships is through the Cursillo Movement—can you tell I just came off that mountaintop experience myself? I’d love to talk more with you about that. Or, about Spiritual Direction if you want another perspective on reading the map for your journey of faith. Another way to make new spiritual friendships is by coming to Bible Studies, Sunday School classes, or other Christian Formation opportunities here at St. John’s. There are retreats at Camp McDowell, in Sewanee, and in Cullman. Also, you might want to share wisdom you have with others by teaching a class—Harry Moore would love more Christian Formation volunteers. Or, you could serve with our Children’s or Youth Ministries or at Banks-Caddell. The ways to be friends with saints around us is innumerable.

We all need a Bors to our Percival, a Jude to our Simon. Each of us needs spiritual friends that connect us both to older and younger generations. We all need companions for our lives of faith. Who are your friends for the journey with Jesus?

Blessings

What do Presidential motorcades, celebrity sightings, and court-storming fans have to do with Jesus?

This sermon is based on these texts:
Revelation 7:9-17Psalm 34:1-10, 221 John 3:1-3Matthew 5:1-12

I have never personally witnessed a presidential motorcade; however, I have watched enough West Wing and House of Cards to know what happens when the commander-in-chief rolls into one’s city. I have never been present for a massive celebrity sighting; however, I have paid attention enough to the publications in the checkout line at the grocery store to know what happens they venture out into public. I have never attended a game when the underdog pulled such an upset, still I have watched enough sports of TV to know what happens when the clock strikes zero and Goliath has been slain. In each of these cases the response of those surrounding the leader, the star, or the game-winner is the same, namely pandemonium—blocked off streets, people fainting, and fans rushing the ones in the spotlight. So, of course, this was the response when Jesus began his ministry long ago too, right? Hmm…

You may have noticed that we are not where we last left Jesus. It may feel like we have whiplash, as we shift from the culminating moments of Matthew’s Gospel account during Holy Week back to the start when Jesus strolled onto the scene. Before we dive into this almost-too-familiar text that we commonly call the Beatitudes, it would do us some good to explore the build-up that Matthew provides us in the opening chapters of his telling of the Good News.

If this were a movie the narrator would give away a crucial detail about the story even before the opening credits finish rolling. Matthew begins his story by telling us that Jesus is the Messiah. This may not seem weird to us, but imagine being a hearer of this story long ago. On the one hand this seems anticlimactic especially since what follows is a dull genealogy tracing Jesus back to King David. However, on the other hand this crucial detail begins to build up the anticipation around Jesus.

Building upon this proclamation Matthew points out the universal nature of Jesus’ kingly status by describing the journey of the Magi from the East to see the newborn king of the Jews. In the early moments of the tale, the gospel writer also tells of angelic visitors coming to Joseph, the holy family escaping to Egypt, and King Herod viciously murdering the first-born-sons of Bethlehem. If the dreary listing of whom begat who lulled the original audience to sleep these dramatic twists and turns surely would woke them from their slumber. Eventually Joseph brings his family to Nazareth where Jesus grows up. By the time he matures into an adult John the Baptist is venturing out into the wilderness to send the hype surrounding Jesus to atmospheric levels. Soon though it is not only human voices that shine a light on the majesty of Jesus, but God’s own voice also.

God announces at Jesus’ baptism that he is God’s Son, the Beloved, with whom God is well pleased. Instead of dwelling on this proclamation Matthew seizes on this moment to describe Jesus’ flight to the desert and his fight with the Devil there. By the time Jesus calls his first disciple there is so much excitement surrounding him that it puts presidential motorcades, paparazzi, and field-storming fans to shame!

With all this attention, all this build-up, and even the voice of God inaugurating Jesus as God’s beloved Son what might we expect from Jesus’ first public statements? What will be his first teaching? Probably big pyrotechnics through a miracle of some sort, right? Or if not that words that rile up the crowd to get them to change the world. Or, if the crowd got its way some words about overthrowing the occupying Roman forces! Right?! Surely, his words will be about the power that has surrounded the hype of his ministry. Well, none of these things happened. In fact, after the crescendo that built throughout the first four chapters of this Gospel account we may feel like Jesus made his initial public offering through a whimper.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” While this first statement sounds counter-cultural to us, it would have been even more shocking to those who first heard it. Jesus then offers eight other statements about what blessing looks like—not according to the world that props up kings and queens, high priests and governors, gladiators and celebrities, but according to God’s beloved Son.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

So what does Jesus mean by blessed? Someone who was blessed was one who was spoken well of, fortunate, or even happy. In what world are the mournful happy? How are those who are meek fortunate? Are you really telling me Jesus that someone who is persecuted is spoken well of? This is all a little shocking—it is all a little disorienting—but this is the direction of Jesus’ ministry. Think back over the last few weeks’ Gospel lessons.

At the end of this same Gospel account Jesus focuses his teaching energy upon those who were in power—the presidents, the stars, and the celebrities of the day. Jesus challenged them and he challenges us to see things not through the eyes of the world’s elite, but through the eyes of God—who by the way is quite often viewing things from the outsider perspective of the tax collector, prostitute, or poor beggar.

On some level I hope this is not too shocking to us, I mean this is Jesus. Plus, we have heard Matthew’s upside-down telling of the story since last December. And yet, if we are still not hearing Jesus’ words as outlandish, appalling, and counter-cultural, then your clergy are not doing their jobs the right way. Jesus called his followers and still calls us into a way of life that sees blessings where we ought to see tragedy.

God’s way of blessing sees the mournful receiving comfort, the meek inheriting the earth, and the persecuted dwelling in heaven. Today, we remember all those followers of Jesus—the meek, the mournful, the persecuted, and all the rest—who walk along this way past, present, and yet to come. The world says that people with power or privilege, fame or fortune, stardom or celebrity are blessed (sometimes even #blessed). But, Jesus did not inaugurate his ministry by telling those who surrounded him, “Blessed are the 1%ers for they will get even richer, blessed are the movie stars for they will garner even more fame, and blessed are the politicians for their corrupt way is the right one.” Still, there is one more twist on this audacious way that Jesus walked, the way of all the saints, the way we are invited to walk as well.

A blessing is not something that is earned or achieved, but rather it is something given to us. None of us gain God’s blessings by something we have done. Instead, all are saints by receiving the blessings—as counter-cultural as they may be—from God as complete and total gift. And, no blessing transforms us more than the grace of God’s beloved Son. So on this All Saints’ Sunday may we be saints too, may we receive the blessings of God as hard as they may be, and may we most of all receive and share the unconditional love of God through Christ—for certainly that and not the love of politicians, celebrities, and sports stars is worth celebrating and going crazy over!

#Blessed

What makes a saint #blessed?

This Wednesday we celebrate All Saints’ Day and on Sunday we will again commemorate this festive day with All Saints’ Sunday. If you are unfamiliar with this occasion, it is a time when we remember all those saints who may not have a particular day for us to otherwise think about their witness of the Good News of Christ Jesus. Strangely enough the day falls right after Halloween—that spooky time when we think about unrestful souls—and right before All Souls’ Day—that hallowed time when we recall all those who have died, especially in the last year. What strikes me about this three day period is that the church attempts to intentionally lift the veil between the living and the dead as we put ourselves in a thin and holy place of remembrance. We might wonder though what these days really signify? And, more importantly how do these times point to the Good News of Jesus? This makes me think in what ways do the lives of those around us help us to know the transforming power of God’s love?

Often when perplexed as to the deeper meaning of a Church-wide celebration I turn to the Holy Scripture for that particular occasion. When we are in Year A of the Lectionary we hear primarily from the Gospel according to Matthew. For All Saints’ Day/Sunday that means we hear some of Jesus’ powerful words from the Sermon on the Mount. In particular we hear the Beatitudes, which are those markings of blessing that we may or may not actually see as being a good thing. 

Here’s the Gospel lesson for Wednesday/Sunday (Matthew 5:1-12):

“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 

‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 

‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 

‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. 

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 

‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’”

The refrain of blessing stands out to me because these blessings do actually not appear to be blessings—at least to most of us in this world. Being poor (in spirit), being sad, being meek, being hungry, being merciful, being pure in heart, being a peacemaker, and being persecuted do not sound like the recipe for modern day success. Sure some of these things seem nice, but on the whole they sound like the undesirable half of either/or choices. Would you not prefer to be rich, happy, bold, full, and cutthroat (at least in business or sports). And while no one wants to be merciless, impure, or a bully, if it leads to being #blessed isn’t it all worth it in the end? Well, the ways of this world and the ways of Jesus often run at odds of one another, don’t they?

This week as I prepare to preach, I am thinking about the lives of those saints from my own life who will never be commemorated by the Church and how they might be the key to understanding these odd statements about blessing. Those souls who have recently passed through the veil, which separates this mortal world and the immortal realm of God, may have a clearer vision of what truly matters than I do. So, “What does blessing and being blessed truly look like?” 

The great cloud of witnesses around us and even including us see through the veil of this world. Saints are able to point with their lives to true blessing—i.e. what Jesus speaks in the Beatitudes. They communicate with their lives the Good News of God’s transforming love. They become for us signposts on our lives’ journeys, so that we might know more fully life in Christ. It is not about spiritual achievement or earning some wreath of glory rather, it is about living into really being blessed.

In all of this I think being blessed by God looks different than being blessed with riches, privilege, power, comfort, or fame. Saints are blessed, but they are blessed in knowing Jesus. They are blessed by being transformed through God’s love. They are blessed in sharing the Good News. In this way, I think I know a lot of saints and a lot of people who are #blessed.

The Giver Unseen

Like all grad school students who struggle to make ends meet my time in seminary pushed me to my financial limits. Days in Austin, Texas are not often like what we are experiencing outside today in Decatur, Alabama, but for large stretches of the year the heat exceeds what mortal human beings can easily endure. I attempted to be as stingy as I could, still sometimes my electricity bill was larger than I wanted it to be.

During my first couple of semesters I learned how to cook random dishes using an app called “Cook by Number,” which would create a recipe for whatever I had on hand or whatever was on sale that week. I even became what some people call a “freegan” meaning I would eat any food that was free or left-over from seminary events. There were days when I would pray for a staff member to bring in breakfast tacos to share with the work study students. One time that prayer was even answered.

Over the course of three years I applied for countless scholarships, which helped. But, even after a Dave Ramsay financial peace university course I could not make all my ends meet. Air-conditioning, food, and seminary rent are not cheap.

Right about the time when I was getting worried that I was going to be just short on my electricity bill, that I would have to call home to figure out what I would do to get everything paid off for my first semester I went to check my mail. In my postage box on the second floor of the apartment building was a small, white envelope with no return address merely my name and seminary address written in plain black ink. Intrigued, I used my finger as a makeshift letter opener. Marvelously the package contained a couple $20 bills, no note, just cash. I looked around as if I was being filmed for some hidden camera show, but alone I stood in the breezeway full of gratitude.

Certainly, that was not the end of the financial challenges of seminary, but on a few other occasions some kind soul mailed a white envelope with a little extra cash in it. I never found out who did this, but I am grateful for this anonymous giver. Over the years in school I tried to repay that kindness in the seminary community by preparing meals for friends or filling the laundry machines with quarters for the next student, but those envelopes and the giver unseen I will never forget. 

Today we celebrate another anonymous giver who became less obscure through the years. Happy St. Nicholas Day! Nicholas was a bishop in Myra during the Fourth Century. While we remember many fabulous and fantastic stories of this giant of the Christian Faith—think: punching a heretic in the face, saving some children who were about to be pickled, and healing a withered hand—perhaps most notably though we think of him for one story. 

Three daughters lived in his town. They were unmarried and had a poor father, so none of them would have been able to get married for they could not afford the dowries. Women without husbands in those days had to turn to horrible methods to make ends meet, so this situation was not just dire because they were without love. Their lives would have turned awful if they could not afford a bride price. On three consecutive nights Nicholas walked by their home and threw a sack of gold through their open window. This saved the women from a life of shame and allowed them to get married. 

Nicholas was the forerunner of our own tradition of Santa Claus, but more than the modern adaptation St. Nicholas showed a rare affinity for anonymously giving. While I would love to know who sent me those white envelopes during seminary, something marvelous happened when there was no return address. I began to treat everyone around me as though they might be the generous giver. To give so freely without need for credit does something not just for the giver and receiver, but for a whole community.

What Nicholas and other anonymous givers show us is the epitome of gracious stewardship. To give so freely these followers of Christ have to be secure in their trust and belief in God’s abundance. So sure and confident in their own giftedness from God they are that they are willing to drop gold through a window, send money to a seminarian, or secretly take care of a need within a community. These stories are not just supposed to be far out of reach for us. No, each of us is called to grow deeper in our Faith in God, such that we trust God fully. And, when we do we will begin to recognize everything is gift, which frees us up to give freely ourselves.

In this season when we wonder what to get everyone and struggle to put together a list of presents for ourselves I invite us to look at the life of Nicholas and other anonymous givers. What is a need you know of in this community, within the schools nearby, within Decatur, or elsewhere? How might you give freely like Nicholas? We are all so gifted by God who provides for our every need, like Nicholas let us give without need for credit, and as we do we will grow closer to Christ who gave all of himself to unite us to God!