Today we are celebrating All Saints Sunday. We’re taking a bit of a break from our long “green season” after Pentecost; we’ve brought out the special festival white vestments and hangings, and we’re treating today as a special day. All during Ordinary Time from Pentecost to Advent we read Gospels and lessons that emphasize Jesus’ teachings, his ministry, his parables, his sayings, his miracles. Today, on this special Sunday in the middle of Ordinary Time, we back up, as it were, and look not just at a specific teaching of Jesus, but at a wider theme and a bigger picture. Today we stop to ponder the mysterious and astonishing Good News that we are all called to be saints, we are all called to be Holy Ones in the Name of Christ, we are all called by God and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to do as Jesus does, and live as Jesus lives, and love as Jesus loves, and to be holy as Jesus himself is holy. Today is our day to celebrate, as our Collect says, that we have been “knit together in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of God’s Son Christ our Lord.”

And if there is one particular meaning that All Saints Sunday has for us in this November of 2002, I think it could be put into words something like this: it is the reminder that we are part of something larger than ourselves: the reminder that we live a life, and draw on a strength, and serve a purpose, that goes beyond what we can see and hear and feel and understand in our own immediate context, the reminder that our lives and our ministries and our services are taken up and made part of Christ’s own work for the working-out of God’s will in the world. We are part of something larger than ourselves—the Letter to the Hebrews calls it a great “cloud of witnesses”; the Apostles’ Creed calls it “the communion of saints”—we are part of something larger than ourselves, and that makes us able to do more in Christ than any of us could ever expect to do alone.

That’s certainly what Jesus is talking about in this Gospel lesson from Luke this morning. In some ways, these words of Jesus that describe the blessed life have become so familiar to us that we don’t always hear them in their depth, we don’t always hear them as a real challenge to do real things in our real lives. Listen again to what Jesus calls us to do: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” And then Jesus sums it all up with a phrase that is almost frightening in its direct simplicity: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Be like God, Jesus says, in mercy and generosity and love.

But the problem with Jesus’ description of the blessed life is that it is clearly impossible. Most of us have a hard enough time acting human, let alone acting like God. Most of us have a hard enough time being genuinely loving, genuinely compassionate, genuinely generous, genuinely good, with those who love us, those who are like us, those who are closest to us—let alone loving and caring and doing good for those who are different, those who are antagonistic, those who actively wish us harm. If it were just up to us, this image of the blessed life that Jesus gives to us, this calling to saintliness that Jesus puts before us, would be clearly and totally and completely beyond our reach.

But the Good News is that it is not just up to us. The Good News is that we are part of something larger than ourselves; and, in that larger life we share in Christ, the call to the blessed life is not beyond our reach. Jesus says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”—and the deeper meaning there is not just that we have to act like God, but that God will act in us, so that God’s mercy informs and empowers our mercy, God’s justice informs and empowers our justice, God’s love informs and empowers our love. St Paul puts it this way in our Epistle lesson today: he prays that we may have “the eyes of our hearts enlightened, so that we may know what is the hope to which God has called us, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe.” For Paul, what makes us saints is not that we do glorious acts of witness or powerful works of service to impress God, but what makes us saints is that we believe in God’s saving love, and through our believing God is able to work in us, to manifest in us the glorious inheritance of the saints, to be powerful in us for justice and for peace. We are saints not because of what we do for God, but because of what God does in us. God takes us up into the larger life of Christ, God invites us to be part of something larger than ourselves, God fills us with the strength to love and do good and bless and pray and give in a way we could never do on our own.

And that invitation to be part of something larger than ourselves seems to me to be especially important for us here and now, at this moment in our history and our society. In so many ways, I think, the culture all around us invites us to turn inward, to concentrate on ourselves, to put our own wants and desires and ambitions at the center of our concern and make all the rest of the world revolve around us. Our consumer-driven economy wants us to believe that all that matters about us is what we can acquire; but the invitation to the communion of saints reminds us that we are part of something larger than ourselves, and our economic decisions are not just about what we get, but how we contribute to the work and wealth of a whole community of many people. Our foreign policy acts as if we as a nation can do whatever we want, can act unilaterally wherever it seems to serve our national interests; but the invitation to the communion of saints reminds us that we are part of something larger than ourselves, and our nation is part of a larger community of nations in which we must work for justice and well-being for all the peoples. Even in our church life, we can be tempted to focus on our own congregation, our close-knit circle of friends and warm family feeling that we share; but the invitation to the communion of saints reminds us that we are part of something larger than ourselves, and our mission as a congregation in Christ is to reach out beyond ourselves, to go out among people who aren’t part of us, people who aren’t just like us, and to invite them to come in and know community and compassion and well-being in Christ as we have come to know Christ here. To be a saint means to be counter-cultural: in a culture that tells us to focus on ourselves, the call to saintliness is an invitation to be part of something larger than ourselves, to be participants in the larger mercy and love and blessing that come through us from God. That is what it can mean for us to be Christ’s saints today. 

Today we celebrate that we are all called to be saints. Today let us pray that God will give us grace to go out and really be Christ’s saints, for the peace and well-being of the world Christ died and rose to save.

Readings For Sunday,

The First Lesson                                  Ecclesiasticus 2:7-11

You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; do not stray, or else you may fall. You who fear the Lord, trust in him, and your reward will not be lost.  You who fear the Lord hope for good things, for lasting joy and mercy.  Consider the generations of old and see: has anyone trusted in the Lord and been disappointed? Or has anyone persevered in the fear of the Lord and been forsaken? Or has anyone called upon him and been neglected? For the Lord is compassionate and merciful; he forgives sins and saves in times of distress.

The Second Lesson                              Ephesians 1:15-23

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. 

The Holy Gospel                                          Luke 6:20-36

Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. "Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. "Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. "Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.