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All Saints Sunday
November 5, 2006
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10,13-14
Psalm 149
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-17
Matthew 5:1-12i
AGED TO PERFECTION!
My Father has just turned 80 years old. This week Matt and I will be traveling to England for his birthday celebration. In fact I won't be at church next Sunday but David will be holding down the fort. Thank heavens for priestly husbands! As I was looking for decorations for 80th birthday parties I came across a banner that said Aged to Perfection.
Not only did it seem like the perfect banner for my father's birthday it also provided a great title for an All Saints Day sermon. Aged to perfection! Isn't that what life is all about for those of us who call ourselves Christians? We are supposed to spend our lives trying little by little to become more perfectly the person God created us to be. Which is rather exciting! We don't all have to be little Saint June - perfect church musicians, because some of us can't hold a tune to save our lives! We don't all have to be like Saint Wendy - who spends so much time in the church kitchen preparing wonderful food for our church celebrations. We don't all have to be like Saint Barb who picks up all the food you drop at the altar on the first Sunday of the month, carries the shopping bags to her car and drives to St. John's church in Waterbury where she delivers them to the food pantry. We do however have to be willing to discover the gifts we have been given, no matter how small and insignificant they may seem and be ready to use them in whatever way we can to usher in the kingdom of God's love right here and now.
Jesus tells his disciples to "be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect." Now I don't think for one minute that he expected each one of his disciples to miraculously turn into perfectly righteous holy people. He knew them too well - their petty arguments, their misunderstandings, their fears and their imperfect dreams. Perfect in this case doesn't refer to something without blemish. For example, a spade would be considered perfect as it was being be used to dig a trench in the dirt. The spade's perfection results from the fact that it is being used for the purpose for which it was created. Wendy is growing in perfection as she uses the gift of hospitality she has been given by God. Jeanne Morris is growing to perfection as she creates hospice programs that help people reach the end of their lives gracefully. Jeff is growing to perfection as he works carefully and diligently on his patient's teeth while they're sitting in his dentist's chair. We are perfect in God's eyes when we are using the gifts we have been given to glorify God. One of the church fathers' Saint Ignatius said: "the glory of God is a person who is fully human, fully alive." Not fully righteous or fully in control of their faculties, but fully human - living life to the fullest. The question we should consider today is simply our willingness to use our God given gifts to the glorify God as we participate in the coming of God's kingdom of love on earth.
In some ways it is unfortunate that the people we think of today as saints are mostly people who were spiritual giants - like Saint Frances who gave away everything he had and lived a life of total simplicity in order to follow Jesus with all his heart, or Saint Peter who left his career as a fisherman to trail around after Jesus, and was later in life crucified for his efforts because what they did with their lives is unattainable to most of us. We're not going to leave our families and our careers to live a life of extreme poverty. We're not even going to go to Africa or India as missionaries for the gospel because that's not what God has called us to do with our lives. But we are called to sainthood - every single one of us. We are called to use whatever gifts we have been given in extraordinary ways - for God's glory, - right here among our family and friends and work mates.
The portion read in our gospel lesson today commonly known as the Beatitudes gives us a picture of what it might look like to live a saintly life, what we might strive after if we want to become more Christ-like in the way we live our lives. The blessed ones, the holy ones, the ones who are beloved by God are those who recognize their imperfections and are willing to admit their failures and ask for God's forgiveness much as a child who has knocked a glass of milk all over the dining room table quickly turns to his Dad and says sorry while his Dad whips out his napkin and begins mopping up the mess. The blessed ones are those who listen carefully to the sadness in the hearts of those who are suffering and seek to alleviate their plight. Holiness is found where God's people are willing to act as consoling brothers or sisters to those who are crushed by loss or despair. The blessed ones are those who are ready to use whatever power they have to empower others rather than to intimidate. They commit themselves to working for justice not only for themselves but for all human beings regardless of where they were born because they recognize the image of God in every human face. Such compassion might even cause them to experience persecution they could have avoided had they not involved themselves in the plight of the poor, but they accept such treatment gladly because they are involved in doing their part to usher in God's kingdom of love.
One of the qualities that is looked for if a person is to be officially declared a saint is joy. A saint is someone who expresses deep joy no matter what difficulties they may be experiencing in their own lives or in the lives of others. Ignatius Loyola says the hearts of the saints are full of faith and fun. Theresa of Avila taught her Carmelite nuns to dance on holy days and gave them castanets to play as they danced. I thought about that as those of us who came to the stewardship dinner last weekend laughed until our sides ached as the comedian made one joke after another about the strange things we Episcopalians do! The kind of joy God wants each of us to have in our lives comes as we use whatever gifts we have been given to benefit the lives of those around us. I remember thanking someone who was preparing food for a reception after a concert at the church. "Oh don't thank me," said this person. "It gives me great pleasure to see all these people enjoying the food." She experienced the joy that comes from doing her part in God's kingdom of love. She couldn't sing but she could participate by making a beautiful place for the singers and their audience to relax and enjoy one another. We are being aged to perfection as we offer our gifts freely because we love to do the things we do.
This Summer I heard the Preservation Hall Jazz band on the green in New Haven. As a finale they played that wonderful "When the Saints go marching in" in the way only they can play it. The audience went mad, everyone dancing in a long line, having a great time. I think that might be the way the saints will gather when the trumpet sounds on the last day and the dead are raised to new life. I want to be a saint. I want to join the crazy group of people from all over the world and from all walks of life who have dropped whatever they were doing to fall in behind the band as they dance their way into heaven. I want to pick up the castanets and dance with the Carmelite nuns. I want to join Miriam as she sings the Song of Moses in celebration of the previously unimaginable event of God taking the side of the forgotten, dispossessed slaves and leading them to freedom. I want to join Frances of Assissi, Paul of Tarsus, Martin Luther, Li Tim Oi, Julian of Norwich, John XX111, Thomas Merton, Moses the Black, Florence Nightingale, Samuel Joseph Isaac Schereschewski who spent much of his life paralysed in his body, translating the Bible into Chinese, Theresa of Avila, Charles Wesley, and Symeon the Greek Orthodox monk mystic and poet.
When the saints go marching in I want to be dancing with Wendy and Norm and Ronnie and Van and Nancy and Juliette and Pat Trickie, Mike Baker, and Connor and Christopher, Sam, Anna, Kim and Jim. I hope that when the time comes we will all have aged to perfection like the cheddar cheese I love to buy in the cheese shop in Mount Carmel. It tastes so much better than anything you can buy in the supermarket because it has been aging to perfection for 15 years!
When the final trumpet sounds and the saints go marching in it's going to be a blast. Be sure you're among the blessed!
For Jesus' sake
Amen
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