11/1
All Saints’ Day.
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| Home Communion |
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| Jazz band |
As I am leading the Beverley Heights worship service, I hear the wonderful sound of the Saints, second line style, coming through my window. At first, I assume there isa Saints Day parade dancing its way down Adam Clayton. But when the service is over and I actually go outside, turns out the band is there to cheer voters. Their truck proclaims “Joy to the polls: Election Defenders.” That’s the difference: the President sends armed militia guise in camo. We send jazz bands. They play in the chill drizzle, warming the waiting voters.
This is my sermon for the day:
Yesterday was Halloween. But it was so strange going around and seeing so few people out. Some people sitting on their stoops with candy. Just isolated small family units out for tricks and treats. A friend had his first live gig in 7 months. I was afraid with the capacity restrictions it would be hard to get in. But only 3 or 4 other people were there. We’re still being careful. A friend from my old Pittsburgh church is in the hospital with covid and pneumonia. He’s my age so I worry. No, except for careless young adults, most of us don’t want to come out even for Halloween. Nevertheless, it was the scariest Halloween I can remember, Not from ghosts and goblins but from what surrounds us and lies ahead.
SO if yesterday was Halloween, that makes today ALL SAINTS DAY. And what does that mean for us today? The gospel passage chosen for ALL Saints Day is Matthew 5:1-12, what we call the sermon on the mount. We find the same sermon in Luke but with two important differences. I always used to prefer Luke because I thought Matthew spiritualized things too much. Luke just came right out , the poor. The hungry, very existential and concrete. Plus he throws in a bunch of curses at the end and who doesn’t like that? But one time a friend pointed out that in Luke, it’s all second person, he’s speaking to the crowd at the foot of the hill. And in Matthew, he has left the crowd and gone up the mountain with his closest friends, his disciples. He is speaking only to them. And he’s speaking in the third person. You can see him sitting there, point to the crowd, “the poor in spirt,” “those who mourn,” “the meek”… It is only at the very end that he addressed the disciples directly in the second person
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
What he is says is that it is our calling as followers of Christ to walk with, to be in solidarity with all those he has described in the crowd. And the inevitable consequence of doing that is that you will be persecuted, for that is the life of prophets and in the you are blessed.
Let’s take a look at these:
+ poor in spirit…how often have you felt that these last seven months? I think of my 92 year old mom in her rehab facility, trying to stay patient while her hip heals. Often left alone in the hall for hours…how do you keep your spirits up? How do you keep your spirits up?
+ those who mourn…do we know mourning? How many of us have lost loved ones? Over 230000 of our fellow Americans have died …we know mourning
+ the meek….literally, the powerless…how often do we feel powerless? So hard to control our own destiny. And when Jesus says “inherit the earth,” it’s not a metaphor, he’s using the word “land” as in the “land” God promised to Abraham…he’s saying to an oppressed people under occupation, you will have your land again, and to us, the people will be housed, the people will have health care, the people will have a vote the counts
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| Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. |
+ hunger and thirst for righteousness? I live between Adam Clayton Powell, Jr and Fredrick Douglass…all summer long there was marching…Black lives matter, no justice, no peace…the people hunger…and still even last week in Philadelphia it happens again…the people hunger
+ merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers…we need some of all of that…God knows in this nation…how about mercy for the children who’s parents were separated from and now we can’t find? For the asylum seekers languishing in tents on the other side of the border? For the parents who lose children to gun violence and even worse police violence?
And my Lord how we need peacemakers, not only in this divided nation but sometimes in our families, yes, our Presbytery and even our churches. Those who make peace will be called children of God, literally sons of god, the same title as the emperor, as Jesus…a true child of God is a peacemaker…
This is not a metaphoric utopian vision..this is the fulfillment of the Old Testament jubilee, the every 50 years reboot intended to keep any famines form being partially rich or excluded. Jesus says make it real. His kingdom, his kindom, his beloved community always has an already and not yet quality to it. Our community are intended to be living signs of the already part if that equation.
SO why this passage for ALL Saints day?
Well, first I want to say, the other day I was walking from East Harlem into West Harlem and I saw posted on a wall portraits of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Lewis and I thought, ‘Yes, All Saints day…”
But back to my point, we read these passage because here are the saints….the mourners, the sad, the sick, the oppressed, the organizers, the marchers, the compassionate ones …all these named by Jesus are the saints, and by extension, this means us as well….we together are the communion of saints…
Today when we celebrate our communion, bring to mind that great cloud of witnesses, all those saints who made Beverly Church what it was and is…remember all who came before us, remember those who we miss, see their faces invite them to be with us in the breaking of bread and the sharing of cup. Invoke their presence. Let them surround us, be with us. Today in our communion and in the week ahead of us.
For theirs, and ours, is the kingdom of heaven…..
New Revised Standard Version
The Beatitudes
5 When Jesus[a] saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely[b] on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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Our family time is off. We’re all in not so good places. Germany is going back into a quasi lockdown. My son is trying to make logical sense of it and can’t. That is, with what they leave open. And what they close.The election has everyone anxious. So much uncertainty. And the accumulated weight of seven months of Covid is a lot to drag around. We one by one leave the conversation. On edge.
Today. And Monday. And that’s it.
