Beloved we are God’s children now
A little boy and his father had gone down into town to watch a parade. As the time of the parade got closer more and more people gathered around, each of them trying to find the best place to watch. Before long the little boy was standing in the middle of a crowd. He couldn’t see the parade, but he could hear that it was getting ready to start. Just then his father picked him up and put him on his shoulders. From there, the little boy could see everything—the cars with people waving, the marching bands, the horses, and the floats. A woman looked up at the little boy and said, “Well, you sure are tall today!” The little boy looked at her and said with a flushed smile, “Well, this isn’t all me!”
This is true of each of us. Much of who we are, what we have to share with others, how we see the world is due to people who loved us, offered us care in times of need, supported us in our learning and growth, and sheltered us when we were overwhelmed by the chances and changes of life. Each of us stands on the shoulders of others. And from this vantage point we are able to see lives that reflect God’s love. These people may be our parents, grandparents, or other family members, dear friends, teachers, colleagues, or even a stranger who came along at a time when we were in need and left their mark on us for good.
Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day. It is a special day in the church when we celebrate those whose lives have shown forth the love of God through their dedication, their example, and their service and as a result have transformed our lives.
These saints may live among us now or they may have gone on before us to live with God. Today is a day when we remember them with prayers of gratitude. We know that without these people, our lives would be diminished. We would not be who we are or who we are becoming. They continue to love, inspire, and support us as we strive to be instruments of God’s grace and mercy in the world. Through them we are able to glimpse what it means to be God’s beloved children because they showed us love and faithfulness.
I am grateful to have saints in my life. I was lucky to have a grandmother who was exceedingly generous with her time and her gifts. She would teach Sunday School at her Baptist Church on Sunday morning, somehow prepare a full meal for us at lunch after church, and then lead a youth group at night at another church. She worked regularly at a local shelter and collected clothes and food to share with others. She seemed energized in service to God. And yet with all her responsibilities, she always had time for me. She showed me the importance of presence.
My grandmother stood on the shoulders of her mother, who cooked and cared and loved endlessly. My great grandmother was a legend for offering a place where every person was welcome.
She was known to rise before dawn to begin cooking for her family and friends. She was often the first to bring a meal when someone was ill or had a death in the family. She could be counted on to welcome in everyone who appeared at her door. Being a farming family, times could be hard, but about her was an air of generosity so that no one felt that they were imposing or taking up space reserved for another. She made everyone feel as if the plate of food and the place at the table was intended for them.
I know that each of us has a story of someone who gave of themselves in small and large ways so that our lives or the lives of others were made better, greater, kinder. These people who are the saints in our lives give of themselves because they are inspired by love—they seem to realize that giving is a gift that replenishes itself.
Frederick Buechner says that “to be a saint is to live not with hands clinched to grasp, to strike, to hold tight to life that is always slipping away the more tightly we hold it; but it is to live with the hands stretched out both to give and to receive with gladness.” The people in our lives who we see as being saints are people who have learned to trust in a greater reality—whose love provides a depth that can renew and restore.
In our reading today from the Gospel according to Matthew, we hear the Beatitudes from Jesus’ teaching on the side of a mountain. We know it as the Sermon on the Mount and it is such a familiar teaching that it can lull us into seeing these words as simple nuggets of wisdom rather than the astonishing statements of an unexpected Messiah.
The people who gathered around Jesus that day on the mountain were looking for a different kind of hero. They hoped for someone who would lead them in revolt against their Roman oppressors. They were looking for someone who would help to reestablish the reign of King David when Jews lived in a united kingdom and controlled their land and their destiny. They were expecting someone who would bring down fire on the wicked and set things right once and for all. But then Jesus begins to speak and they hear, “Blessed is 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.” These words must have landed like a blow. Blessed are the poor in spirit? What we need and hope for is confidence, strength, certainly of mind and determination in getting what we set out to achieve. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth? The only thing the meek inherit is injustice and humiliation. Blessed are those who are persecuted?
But listening to these words, we are called to remember who is speaking them—Jesus, the Son of God who is making all things new. Jesus who calls us to see the world from the vantage point of the promised kingdom. This sermon is not about requirements for us to complete in order to be Christians—it is about God who can be trusted—God who will bless us when we are empty, when we have nothing left to give. God who will comfort us when we mourn. God who walks beside the meek, the persecuted, those who work for peace. God who will fill those who hunger and thirst for that which seems beyond their grasp. Jesus sees the world for what it is and recognizes that each of us will experience times of loss. That each of us will mourn the pain of the world. That if we truly try to live lives of compassion and mercy, leading with love, that we will face times of persecution and God will be there beside us blessing us.
This sermon is not a heroic ethic for an individual, but rather it reminds us of our dependence on God and on each another. These teachings are a description of the life of a people gathered by and around Jesus. Because this is the way of God, then we as persons who follow Christ can trust the love that enfolds us and live fully engaged, sharing this love with others.
When we listen to these teachings of Jesus we can hear the lives of the saints. People who trusted that they were God’s beloved children, they worked with others, offering sacrifices of time and treasure so that gifts were shared, shoulders were offered, and lives were changed for the better.
Sometimes they chose to step away from what is recognized by the world as being a success and dedicated themselves to service. They were able to do this by recognizing their need for others. They were able to do this because they too experienced a transforming love. They did this because they witnessed the power of sacrificial giving. They trusted God who would accompany them and renew them as they gave themselves away.
Saints can be found everywhere. They are not just those who are well known or remembered in books and on church calendars. Saints can be found in classrooms working tirelessly and often sacrificially so that their students are able to realize their potential. Saints can be found in homes, apartments, and shelters devoting their lives to loving and caring for children.
Saints can be found healing others who live in places without adequate sanitation or access to rudimentary medical facilities. Saints can be found volunteering to help those without competent legal support. Saints can be found generously working to support their communities. Saints can be farmers, grocery clerks, bakers, bankers, or accountants. All of us are saints because of what God has done in us and through us.
In the first letter of John, we hear that we are God’s beloved children now–just as we are. We do not know how this love will be ultimately revealed in and through us, but because we are God’s children, each of us are endowed with the ability to open our hearts and our hands in ways that allow others to depend on us, to stand on our shoulders.
Sainthood is not something we do, but something we accept. We can do this not because of our greatness nor our righteousness—but because we are the beloved children of a God who blesses us when we are poor in spirit. Who comforts us when we mourn. Who will hold us close when we are broken. Who is always close by when we yearn for love. Who when the world scorns us, stands as our Advocate. Whose mercy never ends.
On this All Saint’s day we give thanks for the saints in our lives. We can give ourselves to others because we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who are the embodiment of God’s love. Through their example and living in God’s love, we are invited to share what we have been given with others so that all may believe that we are beloved children.
Through our Community Network Dinners we have listened carefully to the needs of our neighbors and today we will be asked to consider where we hear God calling us to connect and serve alongside those in the Southern Berkshires. We are participating in God’s new creation here at Grace Church. Rather than simply collecting a check or gathering items to be sent to a place disconnected from ourselves, we are discovering partners to serve alongside so that we will be transformed along with our neighbors. Together we can participate in God’s work in the world. God is already at work in our community. Everyday we should remove our shoes because we are walking on holy ground. We are asked to join in.
God’s work is alive in Gideon’s Garden. We go into the garden. We plant seeds in many ways– with and through the children and young people who come to the garden to witness and experience God’s love. At our Lee Pantry and People’s Pantry, we love and serve others as they teach us about ourselves and God’s work in us. We touch lives and are touched by others as we provide the basic food of life. There are many such opportunities for us to heal and be healed in sharing God’s love, but we cannot do it alone. God is out ahead of us making all things new. Working together we are called to this good work.
Next week we are invited to gather together the fruits of our labors and offer them at the altar of God in our Ingathering. You are asked to prayerfully consider your financial contribution (gifts) to this place. You are asked to give from your abundance not simply to keep the lights on, but to give freely (exuberantly, lavishly, sacrificially) so that we can spread the light of Jesus Christ into the lives of our neighbors. I ask you to be the shoulders that support the mentoring of young people, to be the light that shines in the life of someone who is isolated and without the care of another, to be the Good News that offers welcome to someone who needs a community.
Each of us giving of ourselves from the abundance God has given to us has much to share with the world. Each of us are called to be the saints of God—named, broken, blessed and sent to love and serve God and to serve each other. May God who has given us every good gift, working in and through us, show us the way for us to share all that we are and all that we have with the world.
On this All Saints’ Day, we remember and give thanks for those on whose shoulders we stand. We give thanks for all those who have gone before and now pray for us as we accept our calling as saints. Let us with one voice worship God who calls us beloved children and bear witness with our lives to the love of Jesus who blesses us all.