Lord of the Streets, Houston
November 2, 2025
All Saints’ Sunday, C
Ephesians 1:11-23
Psalm 149
Luke 6:20-31
My son, on Halloween afternoon, said he was going to eat all of his Halloween candy that night and make himself sick. I didn’t point out that he was going to get sick if he ate all of his Halloween candy, mind you. He said, “I’m going to eat all of my Halloween candy and make myself sick.” I asked him not to, pointing out that if he did that, I’d have to take care of him, so really, he’d just be making life difficult for me, not to mention that he’d feel terrible and regret the decision. Grudgingly, he agreed to have mercy on his dad and not eat all of his candy in one night.
So, my darling angel chose to care about someone else and get a little less pleasure for himself. What a saint, and truly isn’t that the way of the saints? How blessed are you who don’t eat all of your Halloween candy in one sitting, for you avoid a tummy ache, as well as your father’s displeasure. That’s from an older version of scripture.
Seeking a little less pleasure for yourself so you can care more about other people and not get a tummy ache. That really does sound like what Jesus was talking about in the blessings and curses we heard him give in our reading from Luke 6 today.
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God…But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” Woe to you who eat all of your candy all at once and even take more of other people’s candy, so they don’t have as much and eat all of that too, but blessed are you who have just enough candy to enjoy and not get a tummy ache. It’s not the best analogy, but the point works.
Woe to you who have far more than you need and tend not to be all that bothered by the struggles of those around you. Woe to you who have far more than you need and end up relying almost totally on yourself and your money, seemingly without the need of anyone else.
That’s not how God made creation, for us to depend on ourselves alone with our stuff. We were made to depend upon one another.
So, Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God is present when we are in love, and peace, and service with one another. When we are not rich, we kinda have to depend on one another, and Jesus calls that a blessing. Sharing what we have with one another, living with trust, and care, and concern for one another, that sounds like the kingdom of God. Sharing what we have with one another, living with trust, and care, and concern for one another, that sounds like the lives of the saints.
Put that way, being a saint sounds kinda good, and not terribly hard.
I knew a young man when I was a youth minister, many years ago. He said he didn’t want to be a saint because it seemed too much like work. There were too many things he thought he’d have to say “no” to. He felt there was too much pleasure that he wouldn’t get to have.
So, he went another way with things, sought a lot of pleasure real fast, ate all of his candy at once, and he struggled quite a lot for many years. He’s doing well now, and it took a lot of work with his parents and others to help get him back on track.
Unfortunately, when he was younger, he had this notion that being a saint was all about behaving well, being good, and not enjoying life too much. He had this notion that following Jesus was all about not going to hell and having to be miserable in this life to avoid hell. Trouble is, both those notions are wrong.
Following Jesus is not about avoiding hell or being miserable in this life. Jesus never said, “Be miserable, or God will be displeased with you.” Following Jesus is about living and receiving a life of love, peace, and kindness with one another. Following Jesus is about living with trust, walking with God, and having hope for life abundant even after we die.
Being miserable is not part of the bargain.
Being beloved and trusting how beloved we are, now that is part of the bargain.
Trust your belovedness, and then live in a way that brings love, peace, and kindness. Do not fear getting everything right. Just trust that you are beloved, and then live out that same love towards others. So, when Jesus said, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God,” he wasn’t saying, “Make sure you’re poor so God doesn’t hate you,” Jesus’ teaching was more like, “Wait a sec, guys, you think you’re poor because God hates you? Look despite what others may say, you who happen to be poor are 100% beloved of God. Despite what others may say, you who are poor are not cursed by God. In fact, you who are poor are blessed by God, and the kingdom of God is yours to live, and love, and enjoy.
Also, if you’re terribly jealous of those who are rich, who look down on you and think of you as cursed, God’s got some words for them, and they aren’t going to enjoy those words.
Now, to be clear, there’s nothing particularly saintly about being poor, all by itself. Think of a guy who is angry and mean to everyone he sees, who then asks, “Do you think Jesus is cool with me? I mean, I’m a total jerk to everyone.” “Well, are you poor?” “Yeah.” “Ah, well then, you’re good. Don’t worry about it. Jesus is cool with you.”
Obviously, that’s not the case. You can be a hateful, mean, evil jerk, so long as you’re poor, of course not. Jesus wasn’t making a list of how to trick God into being on your side.
Jesus was teaching us to trust that we are beloved, and then to live out that same love towards others. Think about the people we consider saints in our lives.
I’m thinking of one of our kid’s teachers, Saint Rachel. She was so good with our kiddo and strove with him when he was having an enormously hard time. She may never be in a book of saints or have her face on a medallion in a Christian store, but our family will always be grateful for Saint Rachel.
When we talk about people in our lives and say, “She was a saint,” we’re talking about how they were with us, the impact they had on us, the kindness, caring, and love they showed. They weren’t perfect, but they were saints to us, living the love of God and making that love real in our lives.
That doesn’t mean perfection. It does mean habits and practices of doing good for others, treating other people as beloved. That’s part of what having faith in God is. We believe we are loved, and we let that belief be real enough to change our lives. See, we cannot separate what we believe from what we do. If we say we love God, but hate people, then we are lying to ourselves. We cannot claim to love God while hating people, and we cannot claim to love people while treating people terribly.
Having faith means we treat people well, and when we don’t treat others well, we work to repair any damage done. We see a beloved one whom we have harmed, and we work to help them heal. That’s having faith. Faith is not just what we believe with our minds, but also what we do with our bodies.
God became human. So, our human bodies and what we do with them matter immensely. When we seek too much pleasure for our bodies all at once, eat all the Halloween candy in one night, we get a tummy ache, the people around us suffer, and our faith suffers. Our ability to receive God’s love and then love others in return suffers. So, being a saint is about living a faith of belief and action. Being a saint is not about being perfect. Being a saint is about believing we are loved, as Jesus taught that we are. Being a saint is about living out that love towards others, as Jesus taught us to do, and being a saint is about practicing that belief and way of living.
Even as saints, we still get to have candy. We still get to enjoy life, and we get to do so with love and concern for others, trusting that we are loved.
