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.
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
Recently I received a video of a friend’s granddaughter being called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah. It was a privilege and a joy to watch this service, this rite of passage because it was so rich with tradition. I knew she’d had a long period of preparation as she approached her 13th birthday. She had been learning Hebrew. She actually lead the service helping to read and chant in Hebrew and English.
But she also received the gift of the family’s faith tradition. I watched as it was being handed down to her quite literally, through the generations of the family. Because as the Torah scroll is being passed down, the scroll from which she would read was passed by the oldest members of the family to the next generation to the next and finally to the youngest, passing from one set of hands to the next. Not only is it passing God’s word from generation to generation. It’s even more than that. It’s passing on the knowledge and tradition of faith. It’s a powerful experience.
As I was watching this sweet child receiving the Torah through the generations of her family and being vested with a prayer shawl that has been worn by 4 generations in her family, I thought about this day in the Christian church - this day in which we celebrate the saints who have come into our lives and who have handed down to all of us, generation by generation, God’s word and the traditions of our own faith. And I thought about how powerful that image really is.
We can think about Abraham and all of this progeny, about Moses, about all the prophets who foretold the coming of Jesus. We can think about the four evangelists who shared the story of Messiah. We think of the women who were witnesses to the resurrection and who spread the good news of the resurrection so all of us can live in that victory over death.
And then we get personal about All Saints Day and remember those people in our lives who have been our saints: we think about our parents, and grandparents and aunts and uncles, people who have been part of our church family, about teachers and friends and neighbors – so many people who have paved the way for us to walk in the knowledge and love of God.
We also think about Joseph Wardman, William and Charlotte Pritchard, Wayne Frei, Rhea Kirk, John and Charlotte Williams, Minnie Kellog Brown and Cornelia Swaine. If they don’t sound familiar to us in this generation, they likely did to earlier congregations here. Those are the names of the St. Matthias members for whom the stained-glass windows we see each week were dedicated long ago.
And when we stop to think about this, this day becomes a very emotional one. There are so many lives, so many people who have given so much of themselves so that God’s gospel message can continue through all the generations.
But there’s a piece of that that we cannot forget, a piece that today we need to claim. And that’s where we fit into that story. Because it’s not just about what we’ve been given that we celebrate today. It is also about what we have to give.
In someone’s life, we, too, are saints. We are called to help pave the way for all of those generations who will come behind us. Because without our commitment to keeping that story alive, it doesn’t stay alive. Every one of us is called to keep God’s story alive. And to keep that tradition alive in all the generations who will follow us. That’s a significant and high calling.
What words would we use? What would we say to the young person who is coming behind us wanting to know what is the message of God?
Two thousand years ago on a hillside, besieged by crowds that were following him, this incredible teacher named Jesus looked out and saw all those who had come to hear this story -- for any word of instruction, for any wisdom he could impart to them. They gathered. And Jesus began the incredible message that we see in Luke’s gospel today
Blessed are you when people hate you.
Blessed are you who are sorrowful.
Blessed are you who are hated.
Blessed are you who are left out.
Because your time of goodness is coming, the kingdom is coming. And all will be well with you.
And we imagine that for those who are living under the oppressive thumb of the first century Roman empire there just isn’t a more beautiful message. They’re likely saying that those folks who have been persecuting us are going to get theirs and all our troubles will be over. And this is the good news. Thank you, Jesus, for sharing this message with us. Because this is what we needed to hear.
Everything is really good. Until Jesus goes on with that message: oh yeah and how you get long together, how you live with one another, how everyone knows who you are - that’s the rest of this:
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 one also. If someone takes your coat, give them your shirt. If someone begs from you, give them what you’ve got. If they take what you have, let it go, it’s okay.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Or as one of the saints in my life would say don’t every think about repaying evil for evil. When they do evil to you, do better by them.
Can you imagine the confused looks in the crowd? Can you image they’re looking at each other asking, “what did he say? I can’t have heard that correctly…”
Did he tell us to love our enemies? Love those people who are hurting me and persecuting me and letting us die of starvation, you want me to love them? You want me to love people who have taken from me? You want me to take care of them.
There’s a scenario that makes its way around social media now and then warning us about what can happen at the gas station. We’re warned not to leave our purse on the front seat of our car with the car door unlocked. Because while we’re wrestling with the gas pump, a sneaky thief comes up and grabs the purse and is gone. Someone who was a victim of this theft and posted it on social media and has all kinds of 4-letter word descriptives for sneaky thief and fantasies about what evil things she’d like to happen to him.
It shouldn’t happen of course. Taking what does not belong to you in not okay. But that’s on him or her. For our part, we can’t imagine that if someone does something like this to us that we should look upon them with eyes of love and understanding. We can’t even begin to imagine that sometimes.
So here we are 2,000+ years later. We like the first part of this sermon. We might also struggle with the second part. But yet these are the people God has called us to be. And this is the message we are called to share. It’s a very different message than the world’s message.
It seems to me that its harder to watch the news these days than it used to be. It seems there is a lot less love in the world than there used to be, less tolerance of one another. It seems that people are angry and looking for vengeance. And that too many of us forget too often that even the sneaky thief from the gas station is a child of God, made in the likeness and image of God. We don’t know his story, we don’t know if there’s desperation. We don’t know what’s going on with him. But we do know that even the sneaky thief is a child of God.
So how do we respond? How do we pave this path for those who are going to follow us - to know how to love God and to love neighbor?
Here’s something we might think about as we approach our neighbors, that we can love even those with whom we disagree. We can love them fully and holy and perhaps when we are in disagreement we should be called more to prayer and seek reconciliation.
We can love those who have done us wrong. And pray for eyes that will help us understand and know that there is more than one side to every story. We can look with compassion upon those who are struggling. We can look with love and mercy on those who have been shoved to the margins and told that they’re not good enough to be with everyone else. Because now this message of love is on us. It’s on us to keep this story alive. It’s on us to share the message of God’s good news.
So we honor those who have come before us by allowing the light of that love to shine through us. And we honor those who come after us by making sure it radiates in us, that it’s not dimmed. We celebrate the saints as we take our own place among them. May God bless us as we pass on the knowledge and traditions of our faith to all those who will follow. Amen.