Readings

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, the last of the Principal Feasts in the Church Year. On the one hand, a celebration. God’s mighty acts celebrated at Christmas, Epiphany, Holy Week, and Pentecost have borne fruit. We’re surrounded by—as Hebrews puts it—“so great a cloud of witnesses.” Hallelujah? Hallelujah! On the other hand, as today’s collect reminds us, our race isn’t over. “Give us grace—we prayed—to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living,” And today’s readings encourage us to think about what that following involves.

Our reading from Ephesians is perhaps the most straightforward. Paul often works with the triad of faith, hope, and love. He celebrates his hearers’ faith and love, and then focuses on encouraging their hope. So the reading and today’s hopeful feast flow together nicely.

Aside from the obvious challenges posed by today’s Gospel, today’s psalm presents its own challenges. It’s probably included because older translations offered “saints” rather than “faithful” in vv. 1, 5, and 9. But there’s no consensus among scholars regarding how it was used, how it was understood. Those beds in v.5: are we to imagine the nave filled with beds? Unlikely. If the beds are in homes, are the two-edged swords metaphors for their tongues? (Recall that in one of Isaiah’s servant songs we hear “He made my mouth like a sharp sword” [49:2].) We don’t know. All we have is the text itself, about which more in a bit.

Our reading from Daniel: older translations like the RSV offered “saints” rather than “holy ones” in the last verse, which perhaps explains its inclusion. I wish the lectionary had given us a longer reading. In the vision itself the four beasts dominate the stage until the “Ancient of Days” cuts it short and gives eternal dominion to “one like a son of man.” Jesus paid particular attention to this vision. He cites it at his trial (he is “coming with the clouds of heaven” [Mk 14:62]), and it’s almost certainly the inspiration for his use of “the son of man” as a self-designation. In the interpretations of the vision that follow in the chapter it’s unclear whether this “son of man” is an individual or collective figure or both, but it is clear that considerable suffering is involved, the fourth beast making “war with the holy ones and…prevailing over them” (v.21). Between this chapter, the songs of the suffering servant in Isaiah to which Jesus also paid particular attention, and the way this world’s politics typically play out, not surprising that Jesus’ faithfulness involved cross and resurrection, ditto his followers’ faithfulness (these saints we’re celebrating).

In preparing this sermon I was reminded of the multiple decisions Jesus had to make. There was that voice at his baptism: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Lk 3:22). And immediately afterwards, led by the Spirit into forty days of temptation, of decisions. How to respond to “You are my Son, the Beloved”? How to enact, for example, today’s psalm (“Let the praises of God be in their throat * / and a two-edged sword in their hand; / To wreak vengeance on the nations * / and punishment on the peoples”)? The Zealots, for whom the only good Roman was a dead Roman, would have been happy to help Jesus figure that one out. Multiple decisions, some of them reflected in our Gospel reading.

The first part of our Gospel reading, the paired Beatitudes and woes: I’d guess that he got it as much from his mother as from multiple Old Testament texts: “He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * / and has lifted up the lowly. / He has filled the hungry with good things, * / and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:52-53 // BCP 92). Sing that often enough at home and it’s going to shape a kid! So, “Blessed are you who are poor…” That’s good news for our world. We’re getting a better future than we have any reason to expect, one shaped not by Daniel’s four beasts, but by the Son of Man.

The thing is, the Zealots would have been quite happy to say “Amen!” to those verses. It’s in the next verses that things get interesting: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you…” Where is Jesus getting that? “Love your enemies” comes from a careful reading of Moses. From Exodus: “When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back. When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free” (Exod 22:4-5). That’s love: not an emotion, but seeking the other’s good.

And that command and the rest are grounded even more deeply. On the one hand, the alternative is to simply perpetuate the cycles of violence, pointless reruns of Daniel’s four beasts from the great sea. Paul captures Jesus’ alternative: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). On the other hand, love your enemies because that’s how God acts. A few verses after today’s reading: “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (6:35-36).

The “ungrateful and the wicked:” in Scripture that would be usually God’s people, as another bit from Isaiah reminds us (God speaking): “I have not burdened you with offerings, / or wearied you with frankincense. / You have not bought me sweet cane with money, / or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. / But you have burdened me with your sins; / you have wearied me with your iniquities” (43:24).

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (6:35-36). Why that adjective? Not only does it capture what Jesus has been saying, but it’s the first adjective used in God’s self-description to Moses, easily the most important description of the divine character in Jesus’ Bible: “”The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious… (Exo 34:6). ‘Merciful’, in Hebrew raḥḥûm, from reḥem ‘womb’. (For some of us it pretty much takes a lifetime for that to sink in.)

“Let the praises of God be in their throat * / and a two-edged sword in their hand; / To wreak vengeance on the nations * / and punishment on the peoples.” After Jesus, the Zealot reading of this text is a non-starter. But what of those swords that are our tongues? I brought in Paul a bit ago; let’s hear a bit more of that exhortation from Romans 12: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.… Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (12:14-18).

Early in our marriage one of the best pieces of advice I got was from a Jewish friend that went something like this: “When you’re angry with your wife, remember that the next day you’ll probably want to reconcile. Try not to say things that will make the reconciliation more difficult.”

In today’s collect we prayed “Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.” In today’s world, whether in face-to-face conversations or on social media where our words and likes go instantly around the globe, that “virtuous and godly living” is intimately tied to our decisions about that sword that is our tongue. Probably can’t hurt to remember that as we continue our Feast of All Saints.