Brad Sullivan
All Saints’ Sunday, Year A
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 34:1-10, 22
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12
For the past several weeks, we’ve been talking and preaching about stewardship, how we are to live as caretakers of God’s kingdom here on earth. Today, we are also remembering all of the saints, whose lives and teachings we look to for inspiration and for examples of how we too can live lives seeking God’s kingdom and following Jesus Christ. So, I’m going to follow these two ideas of stewardship and the examples of the saints in looking at the passage from Matthew.
First, we’re going to look at today’s Gospel reading, the sermon on the mount, in the context of the prophet Isaiah. Now, the sermon on the mount was Jesus’ first big teaching moment. Just before this, he was healing, doing some teaching, he called his disciples before that, he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness before that, and just before his temptation, he was baptized by John. Remember what John said before beginning his ministry of baptism, “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” (Matthew 3:3) That’s a passage from Isaiah 40:3. Jesus was fulfilling that passage, and really, the whole beginning of Isaiah chapter 40 frames very well Jesus’ ministry and the sermon on the mount. So, we’re going to take a look at the beginning of Isaiah chapter 40. It begins:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. (Revised Standard Version)
Like this passage from Isaiah, the beginning of the sermon on the mount, the beatitudes, sound to me like words of comfort. “Blessed are you…” Jesus says. There was gathered before Jesus not only his disciples, but a whole crowd of Israelites to whom Jesus was speaking these words of comfort. He was also speaking words of instruction, especially later I the sermon, but he was definitely comforting the people with the promise of blessing.
Going back to Isaiah, we then hear the verse which John quoted:
A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (RSV)
In Jesus, the glory of the Lord was revealed. We’re still waiting for the final time when God’s glory will be revealed, the end of all time when God’s glory will fully be revealed to us, but God’s glory was revealed and began to be revealed in Jesus. In Jesus’ teaching and in his life, we saw who God really was lived out in a human life. God’s glory was revealed in all that Jesus said and did, and what did Jesus say in the beatitudes this morning?
Looking again at Isaiah, the prophet continues:
A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever. (RSV)
“The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.” In other words, our lives are fleeting, but God is with us forever. Our joys and our pains are fleeting; they will not last forever, but the word of the Lord will stand forever. That, to me, is a comforting thought, and very much what Jesus is saying in the beatitudes. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Mourning will not last forever, but God’s word, the comfort he promises will stand forever.
The promises God gives, that the merciful will obtain mercy, that the pure in heart will see God, that the peacemakers will be called sons of God, etc. these promises will stand long after our lives or any afflictions in our lives are past. “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.”
So, what then does this have to do with stewardship and the saints? Looking at the first and eighth blessings, those who are poor in spirit and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, we see the same promise given. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. All of the other promises are given some time in the future. They will be comforted, they will inherit the earth, but for those who are poor in spirit and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Jesus also said at another time that the kingdom of heaven belongs to children. What do these all have in common? They all share a dependence on God and others.
The poor, at least in Jesus’ time, I think today as well, depended on the charity, the love, of others. The poor in spirit, then, may not lack daily bread, but recognize their dependence on God. The poor in spirit know that even if they have a job and can provide for their families, all that they have is from God, and without God, they have nothing, they are nothing. The poor in spirit have the kingdom of God as stewards, as caretakers, of God’s kingdom, and living as a faithful caretaker of God’s kingdom is the life of a saint.
The saints’ recognized the fact that they were utterly dependent on God, and they rejoiced in that fact. Like children, utterly dependent on their parents, the saints realize that while they no longer have their earthly parents to take care of them, they still get to depend on God as though they were children. The saints were poor in spirit.
The saints were often also persecuted as so often happens when people stand up for what they believe in, when they say unpopular things or live a different way of life than those around them. We too if we’re open about our faith, if we don’t do certain things because of our faith, or if we miss certain activities because we’re gonna be at prayer, or in church, or serving the poor, we too might be persecuted, or at least shunned or left out, but if we are shunned, or persecuted, or left out, we’ll be comforted and satisfied, and see God, and be called children of God.
When we look to the example of Jesus and the examples of the saints, when we become poor in spirit, even with persecution, ours is the kingdom of heaven, and we are stewards of that kingdom. So, finally, how do we live as stewards of God’s kingdom?
Well first, we become poor in spirit, recognizing our dependence on God and our interdependence on each other. Then, we begin caring for God’s kingdom with love.
We comfort those who mourn. We raise up the meek. We support those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and pick each other up when we fall. We show mercy. We purify our hearts. We make peace as not only the absence of conflict, but the presence of love, and if we get shunned or persecuted, we rejoice for ours is the kingdom of God, and great is our reward from God.
Looking then, more concretely, what can we do in our communal life as members of Christ’s body here at Emmanuel? We can support the ministries of Emmanuel, and we can become ministers of Emmanuel.
We’ve talked quite a lot over the past several weeks about supporting Emmanuel’s ministries through your time, talent, and treasure, and through these gifts, you truly can help support the ministry that is going on here. There are several ladies whom I visit once a month to bring communion. They are largely homebound, so getting out to go fix houses in Galveston, or make hospital visits, or lead a Bible study here aren’t exactly things they can do, but each time I go there, they have checks ready for me, made out to Emmanuel. They are supporting the ministries here, even though they can’t be ministers here. They minister to each other as well, but they also do what they can to support the ministries of their church community here.
I know times are tough right now, and may be getting tougher. You may not be able to give a huge amount to support the ministries here. Give what you can to support the ministries.
Then, in addition to supporting the ministries of Emmanuel, you can become a minister of Emmanuel. You can be a minister in the service here on Sunday mornings as a greeter, an usher, or a minister in the service. You can take a trip to Galveston to help rebuild or help in other outreach efforts. You can join Special Projects or Social Life. You can help lead a Bible study or other small group. You can teach classes for our children and youth or help with the youth group.
In these and other ways, you can be ministers as well as support others in their ministries. You can be stewards of God’s kingdom, living out the blessings Jesus promised in the Beatitudes, and if you run into some persecution or are shunned in some way, remember that any trials we face are temporary. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God [the blessings of our God] will stand forever.” Amen.
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