A sermon in 2 parts for All Saints Day

 Reading one: Luke 6: 20-31

Talk 1

You don’t need me to tell you it’s a difficult time of the year – as the evenings get dark ever more quickly, the weather gets more wintry, and as we face news of the death of loved ones, and our diaries seem to fill up with funerals.

 

In all that gloom, All Saints Day (which was yesterday) and All Soul’s Day (which is today) shine like a beacon of hope.

 

We might sometimes feel that saints are people we put on a pedestal, to be looked up to and admired. The sort of people – whether official saints or people we admired – who make us say “we could never be like that”. They were blessed, they were a blessing to us, and when we sing the hymn ‘For all the saints” we sing with real feeling the line  “we feebly struggle, they in glory shine..”.

 

An extraordinary example is of one of the most recent and youngest saints – St Carlo Acutis: an English-born Italian Catholic who died of leukaemia in 2006, at the age of 15.

Carlo had a very special love for God from a young age and encouraged his parents to attend Mass in Italy where they lived. His witness of faith led to a deep conversion in his mum. He loved to pray the rosary, went to Mass daily, to confession weekly and asked his parents to take him on pilgrimages. He also had an interest in gaming and computer programming, although he only allowed himself to play video games for an hour a week.

He used his knowledge of programming and the internet to create websites to spread his faith.

 

Surely we are left feeling inadequate that a 15 year old could achieve such things in his short life.

 

But look at how Jesus talks about the people of God’s kingdom. He doesn’t place some on a pedestal and demotes others, he talks instead about how ordinary people are blessed.

Jesus says blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated.

 

Jesus promises us that our gloom, our greyness and our tears will not have the final word:

 

“Blessed are you who are poor,  

for yours is the kingdom of God.

 Blessed are you who are hungry now,            

for you will be filled. 

 Blessed are you who weep now,           

for you will laugh. 

Blessed are you when people hate you  

surely your reward is great in heaven”

 

Jesus reminds us that we are united with all the saints and souls who have gone before us: united in the love of the God who will never abandon us.

 

Jesus also reminds anyone who will listen to him that when we remember how loved we are we remember that we are also united in the way we seek to live in this world.

 

“I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

 

We might look at our lives and feel that we could never match the lives of the saints. But Jesus teaches that the life of even the holiest saint is based in simple teaching – love even your enemies; give to those in need; help to build a kingdom of mutual respect.

 

When we do those things we are one in Jesus Christ, with the saints we admire and the family of God we are blessed to live beside. That is the simple truth of our journey of faith.    Amen.

 

Reading two: Ephesians 1: 15-23

 

Talk 2

The first words we heard from St Paul almost summarise our first reflection, on the words of Jesus from St Luke that we often call ‘the beatitudes’. Paul writes:

“I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.”

 

Yet Paul doesn’t stop at the way our following Jesus helps us to live well. Paul builds on the teaching of Jesus about how to live, as he has first-hand knowledge of the power of God shown in the risen Christ.

 

“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.. may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.”

 

The God whose power raised Jesus Christ from death is able to give us the gift of wisdom so that hope can be kindled in our hearts. How wonderful to know that our ability to get through the difficult days of life doesn’t rely on our strength. Instead, God gives us wisdom and light and hope.

The risen Jesus Christ is far above all earthly powers, God  “has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body”.

 

As we have faith in Jesus Christ and love the saints (and Paul means all God’s people who follow Jesus when we uses that word ‘saints’) – as we seek to follow Jesus  - the power of God makes us part of the body. God’s spirit reminds us that we belong to the body of Christ.

We may feel that we cannot be as holy as the saints, but Paul is clear that we still belong to the body, whatever part we may play in the life of the church, however unimportant we might feel.

It is God’s power in us which will enable us to do something – however small – for the kingdom of God.

 

And we can draw comfort, as we lose people we love, that death does not separate us from God’s love, that we are a part of the body of Christ with all who seek to follow Christ, both from the past, and now, and into the future.  

 

The love of God which raised Jesus from death offers eternal life to each one of us, as the body of Christ in all its parts spans all time and space.

 

To the glory of God. Amen.