A Sermon preached in
Christ Church, Grosse Pointe,
Michigan
by The Reverend Vicki Hesse, Associate
by The Reverend Vicki Hesse, Associate
All
Saints Sunday (Year C)[i]
6 November 2016
6 November 2016
May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of all our hearts be always acceptable to you O Lord, our strength
and our redeemer. Amen
Listen here
For the last four weeks, we have been
offering “Baptism Preparation” at the Sunday Rector’s Forum, learning with our
four candidates’ families what it means to live the baptized life. It seems fitting that today’s gospel offers
us a final lesson from Jesus himself.
In scriptural context, this lesson came
after Jesus’ over-night prayer vigil on a mountain. When morning came, he called his disciples
and chose 12 apostles. As he went from
the mountain to level ground, he looked up at them and began teaching them in
front of the crowd. Like our baptism
prep, the lessons were directed toward the disciples but held in front of the
gathered community.
In these verses, we hear the standard
toward which every disciple can strive to live.
“Blessed are you who are poor… and woe to you who are rich.” The Beatitudes,
the blessings and the corresponding woes, were (and are) meant to strengthen
the lives of Christ’s followers.
We hear the sharp edges of Jesus’
teaching about God’s commitment to the poor & the oppressed, echoing the Magnificat that we recite at Evening
Prayer: God lifts up the lowly. We
hear not a glorification of poverty but a declaration of God’s prejudicial
commitment to people who are poor. We hear and respond. We who are not
poor – not really – are confronted, then, with what it means to live the
baptized life, to align ourselves with God’s priorities.
Our response to this scandalous teaching can
be to repent and re-order our lives and priorities, with God’s help. This hard
work can be done in our community, which is what we vow to do, with God’s help,
as we renew our baptismal covenant. The Beatitudes:
One of the most complicated teachings of challenge and blessing that Jesus
offers.
It seems to me that we have lost the art of
blessing: how to bless others through the warp and woof of life, with honesty
and vulnerability in ways that sanctify.
The late Irish priest and poet John O’Donohue’s proposes that blessing is a way of life.[ii] In a world that is harsh and negative, notice
how kindness arises and what happens. Not saccharine kindness, but kindness that
“echoes compassionate goodness” and “resonates within the depths of your
own heart…” Kindness that suggests that your vulnerability, somehow exposed, is
not taken advantage of but has become an occasion for dignity and
empathy.” {repeat}
This kindness is the heart of
blessing, where vulnerability connects to divine grace.
Where more obviously does vulnerability
meet divine grace than in birth, “…the first gift, the primal blessing…To be
born is to be chosen. To be created and come to birth is to be blessed.”[iii]
Blessings awake a future wholeness and open a window to the eternal time: God’s
time, Kairos.
Through the Beatitudes, Jesus proclaimed a
blessing, a future wholeness woven from divine favor. And today, we will, with
God’s help, bless those with vulnerability among us who begin their life in
Christ. Also today, we will receive blessings, too, from all the saints
in our lives. Saints who have blessed us
from their soul to ours.
One of those saints, for me, was my
mother. In the last week of her life, in
a fog of Lewy Body dementia and pharmaceutical halidol, she offered me a
blessing, but not with words. That day,
she gingerly made her way to piano at the hospice home. Sitting in her
wheelchair, slightly slumped over, she played for us Debussy’s Clair de
Lune. By heart. She blessed me that day,
with music… and she blessed my life. Her music is in my bones, in my cellular
make up, in my soul, in some inarticulate way.
My mother was not perfect, but she is one of my saints who offered me a
future wholeness.
What about your
saints? Tell us how they blessed you, from
their soul to your soul, towards a future wholeness. Share about how they lived the sacred
baptized life or were witness to scandalous teachings of Jesus.
From these
scandalous teachings, Jesus wraps up his talk with one of the hardest
teachings: Love Your Enemies. These
words mold in us a Christian ethic that leaves no room for vengeance or
retaliation. Love Your Enemies. If you want to know more, look to the next
three sentences: do good, bless others, pray for abusers. Such peacemaking partakes of the very
character of God, for God’s love is indiscriminate. This hardest teaching offers us peace that
the world cannot give. Love your enemies.
Today we
celebrate the circle of life: a start of life in Christ for those being
baptized and a reception of blessing by all our saints. The good news is this: God redeems us, God
blesses us, God calls us to know and receive Divine love. So, here is your charge, Josephine, Aidan,
Evan and Camden:
Hold us
accountable to uphold you in your life in Christ.
Remind us what
it is like to hear God’s whisper.
Laugh when the
Holy Spirit arises in your heart.
Cry aloud when
injustices happen.
Recall for us
what it is like, literally, to be hungry, to weep, to mourn.
Teach us how to
be completely dependent upon God.
Know in your
bones, in your soul, that God loves you.
You bless us
with your presence, little saints.
Today’s epistle
reading, the letter to the Ephesians, summarizes our prayer for you: Today, you will be marked with the seal of
the Holy Spirit.
We pray
that you know deeply God’s pledge to be redeemed as God’s own and to live to
the praise of God’s Glory. We pray
that God gives you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Jesus,
with the eyes of your heart enlightened.
We pray that you know God’s power in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heaven.
We welcome you
to the body of Christ, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Amen
[i] Sermon inspired by the Holy
Spirit with assistance from the commentaries “New Interpreter’s Bible” and
“Feasting on the Word,” with guidance from the book “What Makes This Day
Different” and with clarity from John O’Donohue’s book “To Bless The Space Between
Us.” Thanks be to God for this village.
[ii] “To Bless The Space Between Us”
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