I Sing A Song of the Saints of God

 Who needs some humor this morning?

I remember a cartoon strip in the newspaper, Frank and Earnest.

One cartoon showed God on a cloud with a couple of smaller angels

            and they are looking down on the earth.

God says, 

“Arrange for the meek to inherit it – I don’t want a lot of complaints.”

 

Another memorable Frank and Earnest cartoon 

            could have come the next day in the paper.

In that cartoon, God is there on the cloud with the same angels 

            and a bunch more figures have showed up as well.

The spokes-angel says to God,

            “It’s the meek.  

            They want to know if maybe they could inherit Saturn instead.”

 

The Beatitudes and All Saints Day go together, 

            and this is a time when we remember 

            those who have gone before us in the faith.

The operative word here is “in the faith.”

 

Tomorrow we have All Souls Day when we remember all those who have died, 

and we are adding them to our intercessions for today,

                        this year including all those who have died of COVID,

            but that is not main focus for the All Saints celebration.

 

All Saints is for especially recognizing those who have given us             

            faithful examples of living out lives in discipleship to Jesus.

This is not just looking at the obvious Saints,

            the ones that are given special feast days on the calendar,

            ones whose example of faithfulness shine brilliantly for us all.

These Saints, like Francis of Assisi, 

                        and you can name your personal favorite, 

            are larger than life, spiritual giants.

 

The All Saints Day celebration is for those less prominent

            but who nonetheless influenced us significantly, and directly,

                        perhaps those with whom we have had a relationship,

            the saints who have been the living example of faith in action

                                                            that have challenged us personally.

 

Think of someone you have known.

I think of Dave Knight (may he rest in peace), 

            the priest at the church where I grew up.

When I was in a particularly difficult and questioning time 

                                                                                                of my adolescence

            he was the first adult who listened to me and responded to me 

                                    as though I were an adult.

That kind of respect and regard for me as a person, and not just a child,

                        made a big impression on me.

He was honest when he didn’t know an answer to my questions.

He shared what was important to him 

                        in his own wrestling with the same questions.

His honesty and way of speaking to me 

            showed me that here was someone who was truly authentic.

 

Ever since I have gone around looking for others 

                        who are also truly authentic human beings.

People like that are attractive, magnetic, in that their lives exude truth.

 

That I think is one of the criteria for getting labeled a saint – 

            that we see Jesus clearly in them,

            and that we hear Jesus through them.

 

But how about some other objective criteria

            to help us recognize the saints.

That’s where the Gospel selection for All Saints comes in: the Beatitudes.

We don’t have time to do an in depth study of the Beatitudes here,

            although that would be good to do,

                        because there is SO much packed into these words.

But I will say a couple of things.

 

Notice in these Beatitudes that Jesus did not say 

blessed are those who have kept the Ten Commandments.

He did not say blessed are those who came to church every Sunday.

Or those who did many good deeds, 

or were generous in their charitable giving, 

or who preached great sermons, 

or who wrote books full of inspiring words.

 

He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,”

those who are not full of themselves, 

who are not ego-invested in everything they say and do.

 

Blessed are those who mourn, 

who grieve, like those who have lost a loved one,

those who see what there is to mourn about.

 

Blessed are the meek, 

that is, those who are gentle, kind, 

humane, considerate and unassuming, 

those who are so totally absorbed in the Divine Presence

that there is no room for violence in them.

 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst 

for justice and holiness and the righteousness of God, 

which is that state of wholeness and integrity;

blessed are those who realize that they have been starving for these things

             and haven’t been getting enough of them every day.

 

These Beatitudes all describe those who have deficiencies, 

who are not complete within themselves, 

who need something more than

                        the standards of the way the world looks at 

success and strength and being victorious.

This describes the essential attitude of those who are being blessed.

 

The key to being included in the Reign of God, the Kingdom of Heaven 

is to know your own need and be open to having that need met, 

not through your own efforts solely,

but through the mercy of God.

 

All who are poor in spirit, 

who mourn, 

who are meek, 

who hunger and thirst for righteousness

are given the Kingdom of God, 

are comforted, 

inherit the earth, 

have their hunger and thirst satisfied.

 

Knowing your own poverty, 

you then have the humility to accept 

what is freely offered to you by God.

 

Recognizing and suffering your own grief, 

not being in denial about the grief, 

opens you to being able to recognize and respond to 

God’s most incredible expression of love, 

for which there is no greater comfort.

 

The attitude of meekness is the attitude of a servant, 

one who takes the lower position in society, 

who lets others go first.

A servant is not usually noticed if the servant is doing a good job.

 

Jesus modeled for his disciples the role of being a servant, 

and again and again he said that if we were to be his disciple, 

we should also be servants of one another.

 

The process of blessedness offered by Jesus comes in this listening to his voice, 

because when we listen to this voice 

we move from where we are in our own ego-centered self identification 

to the realization of where he is,

to the realization of a new self-identity,

            identity in Christ.

That is our baptismal identity.

 

We have ears to listen when we recognize this as truth.

We recognize truth as a matter of awareness; 

it is not a matter of information, but of awareness.

 

So being blessed by God is a matter of grace, 

not as a result of any great heroic effort on our part.  

It is God who does the blessing within us. 

 

That means that any of us can be described as Saints.

Do we have the attitudes described in these verses? 

Do we realize our baptismal identity, that we are one with Christ?

 

Baptism is the sacrament that declares that we are one with Christ, 

that we are in Christ.  

 

Baptism is the statement of our calling to be Saints.  

 

All Saints Day 

we remember this great truth by reaffirming our own baptisms,

and as we do this,

            think about how we answer the questions posed to us

                        regarding our actions 

                        that give evidence to our baptismal discipleship

            that we say, “I will with God’s help.”

 

Then we have a chance at becoming pure in heart and merciful,

            of being transformed so that we might be peacemakers

            and so significantly Jesus-like that it attracts attention.

Then we can sing a song of the saints of God

            and realistically mean to be one too.