Matthew 5:1-12

All Saints Sunday | November 5, 2023 | Matthew 5:1-12 | Ryan D. Mills |

¹When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²Then 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 on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you”

 (Matthew 5:1-12, NRSV).

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son +, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Well welcome to Trinity on this All Saints’ Sunday, we’re delighted you’re here as we give thanks for all the saints, all those who belong to God today. Earlier this month, one evening after Bible study, I decided to take a stroll across the New Haven Green. And as I walked past the back of Center Church, past the monuments to the Regicide Judges, I remembered that New Haven’s founders set aside the Green not only for their church, and to graze animals, and not only as a burying ground, where tens of thousands of people still lie buried; but also as the gathering place for all God’s saints, the place they believed that at the end of time all of God’s redeemed would be gathered together to go and be with the Lord forever.

            Except that when you actually walk across the Green today, you’re not immediately impressed by all the saints in their glory.  Instead you see folks who are poor.  People who are hungry.  People who are sick, and broken, and getting into trouble.  It doesn’t look like saints at all, it looks more like a hangout for sinners. And likewise you and me, when we look at ourselves in the mirror this All Saints Sunday, even if we hope for glory, to be honest we see few halos, but just our old, broken-down, sinful selves.

            But so it is this morning that Jesus sits down to give his Sermon on the Mount, and begins proclaiming the Beatitudes, his list of blessing the beata, the happy, the blessed.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” he says, “for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.  Blessed are you who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

            These are not a to do list, or a description of what we should become, but a description of the people Jesus is blessing and saving right now.  Blessed are the poor in spirit, they are blessed, you are blessed, and you are mine, Jesus says.  The world says, “if you’re poor, or poor in spirit, too bad for you; if you’re mourning, get over it, cheer up; if you’re meek be more assertive and stand up for yourself.”  But Jesus says, “Blessed are they, blessed are you, you belong to me, you are mine.”

            And Jesus here goes through a whole list, a list of people who are identified by what they lack, by what they don’t have or by what’s been taken from them, those who in this world who are spat upon, sat upon, and ratted on.  Because sometimes all the world can see when it looks at us is what you and I don’t have, right?  The world sees what we lack, sees how we fall short, sees what we don’t have, and judges us as losers. The world doesn’t say blessed are you, it shakes its head in pity and in judgment and says, “Pfft, too bad for you.”

            But in the eyes of God today, in the eyes of Jesus, we are not defined by what has been taken from us, we’re not defined by what we don’t have or no longer have or have lost, but instead Jesus says to you and I who lack, he says, “Blessed are you,” you are blessed whether you believe it or not, whether you feel it or not, as the old spiritual says “I am what He says I am.”  And he promises, promises, that in his Kingdom you will be filled, you will be comforted, you will be restored, you will be made right, you will be provided for, you will be taken care of, you will inherit the earth, you will be given what is needed and more, for the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God is yours.  God’s Kingdom, of justice and righteousness and peace, that Kingdom where all is made right and new, that Kingdom that is coming to us in Christ: it’s yours, Jesus says, you’re in it, because you are mine!  Because God’s Kingdom is not made up of those who have it all together on their own, but his Kingdom is made up of that which on its own is unusable.  Like a patchwork quilt, made from the leftover scraps, God takes you and me, in our situations, in our predicaments, with our pasts, in our brokenness, in our sins, we who seem of little or no use to any big master plan, God takes us and welcomes us and uses us right now, beginning today, for his Kingdom. “Blessed are they, blessed are you,” Jesus says to you and me today.

            “See what love the Father has given us,” 1^st John reminds us today, that amidst our poverty, grief, and pain, “we are called children of God, for that is what we are!”  Whatever tries to lay claim to us, to steal us away, or to tear us from God’s care, cannot have the last word, “for we are called children of God, for that is what we are!”  What we will be…that has not yet been revealed.  But when he comes again in glory, when he is revealed, then we will be like him, we’re told, and will see him as he is.  For just as God raised up the crucified body of his Son in glory on Easter morning, so he will raise us up, taking dead sinners like you and me and making us like him, new and beautiful and healed, and in my flesh I shall see God, we shall him as he is.

            And so today we lift up and give thanks for every sinner made a saint by the blood of the Cross, we remember all who have lived and died in faith in Jesus Christ. And when we begin to pan out that wide, this room begins to get more crowded than even the New Haven Green can even handle, Revelation describes it today as “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,” all God’s people of every time and place, all who have been baptized and believe, all those past, present, and even future who have trusted in him, who’ve been made saints by grace, who’ve been called by Christ to follow him.  Some are famous, and some are maybe just known to you and me.  Apostles and saints of old whose names we all know.  But also, our parents, our grandparents, our spouses, our children, our loved ones, the ones who have taught us, and led us, and comforted us, the ones we have held close in love and now ache for.  The ones we’ll remember out loud here in a minute, thanking God for them.  And the ones maybe no one knows but God.  And in Christ, in faith, in the mystical body of his Son they are all here this morning, we are gathered together: “I believe in the Communion of Saints,” we confess. I believe that a great crowd of witnesses surrounds us, is cheering us on, is encouraging us even now this morning, that we are not alone, for death does not have the last word for those who believe, in faith we have already passed over from death to life, so though it may not seem like it’s very crowded here, it is jam packed in here!  “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.”

I’ve said this many times, but I love our curved altar rail, because this half-circle we kneel at here continues on through the wall, and makes a complete circle on the other side, where now we can only see by faith, where that great multitude too many to count  joins us at the rail and completes the circle. And here in the Holy Communion, in the eating and drinking of the bread and wine, his risen body and blood, we join with all those saints who from their labors rest, all those we will hold again, we join together in this heavenly banquet with angels and archangels, in faith we receive with them every good thing that God has for us: “look what love the Father has given us!”

            And rising from this complete circle of heavenly communion, this complete circle of God’s love, made saints again by the body and blood of Christ, well then you and I will go out, knowing we are blessed, knowing that despite ourselves we are saints, that we are children of God.

So come join in the feast of All Saints, come complete the circle around the throne, come and be blessed, come because you’ve been made a saint.  And blessed are you…

And the Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

—

The Rev. Dr. Ryan Mills

New Haven, Connecticut

Pastor@TrinityLutheranNH.org