A Sermon for the Sunday after All Saints' Day
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie
Ecclesiasticus 2:1-11
Psalm 129
Ephesians 1:11-23
Matthew 5:1-12
Blessed are you when you are miserable, because you're gonna get the good stuff later.
Is that the message of the beatitudes? -- hungry now, filled late; mourn now, be comforted later; reviled and persecuted now, reward later; so, then, cheer up! "Blessed are you", we're told, "rejoice and be glad. God's blessing is yours right now in the middle of all your miserable troubles."
Well, life sure doesn't feel like that for most of us. We don't usually feel blessed, or happy (which is what it means), when we're hungry, or mourning, or people are picking on us.
Do we have this reading today, when we celebrate All Saints' Day, because the saints are the ones who manage to be happy in their misery? Is optimism during suffering a sign of sainthood? Just what are we supposed to learn from all those saints from ages past? Have the saints of the church got anything at all to teach us today? Can anyone possibly be expected to live like them today?
We look back at these holy people with their glowing halos, and it just isn't us. Earlier this week, I sent All Saints' Day greetings to a friend; and her reply was "YOU Saint. ME Aint" Actually, I could easily say the same thing back at her. "YOU Saint. ME Aint" Although my friend had the theological sophistication to add "yet" after the "ME Aint," she's right that somehow in our guts, most of us just know we ain't saint material.
We look at the saints in the stained glass windows and think "good, holy, loving, forgiving, compassionate ...." and so on. And that's just not us.
But, you know, you don't have to look very far to see something more. These holy people are far from perfect. Look at the people Jesus chose to be saints: St. Peter who denied knowing Jesus. St. Thomas who doubted. St. Paul who persecuted the Christians. And any number of scandalous women.
Jesus's Father's track record looks pretty much the same -- just look at the Hebrew people God seems to favor: David the adulterer and Abraham the liar. Moses the murderer and Jacob the deceitful. Sarah who laughed at God's messengers and Rebecca the schemer.
And it doesn't seem to improve much once people have the Bible and the church. The church calls holy St. Jerome the wrathful and St. Augustine the lustful. St. Theresa the stubborn and St. Gertrude the frivolous.
Then and now, separating saints from sinners is difficult business. To make it worse, God appears, more often than not, to choose saints from among the most disreputable folks around.
So just what do those we call saints have in common? What does it take to be a saint? It's not that they are without sin, either before or after God called them. Perhaps it is that, even in their sin, they keep turning back to God. They doubt and deny . . . . and then they call on God. They break commandments and hurt others . . . . and then they turn back to God.
In the words of our reading from Ecclesiasticus, these sinners "set their heart" on God and "cling to God." Again and again, the sinful saint returns to God. And, being human sinners like the rest of us, this isn't always easy. They are indeed "tested in the fire" – so that the cruddy mess of sin is burned away. Although not pure in themselves, God purifies them. Again and again, they make messes of their lives; and again and again, the saints return to the Refiner's fire, to be purified. And they are blessed with God's light in their lives again, perhaps shining brighter than before.
There's a lovely church that has a bank of stained glass windows that runs the entire length of the nave; those windows depict many great Christians throughout the centuries. Among them are martyrs, bishops, priests and nuns, to be sure, but also artists, poets and politicians. The rector of that parish tells a story of a young boy whose mother explained the windows to him, saying that the people pictured there were saints. The little boy quickly responded, "Oh, I get it. Saints are people that the sun shines through."
God's light shines through the saints.
On the other hand, people who have their act together, people who seem perfect – even "perfectly saintly" – and don't let the cracks show, often don't let much light through.
But those whose lives are broken, have open spaces for God's light to shine through. Broken places of hunger and mourning, places of abuse and suffering, when taken to God are blessings. They become saintly places where God's light shines through.
That doesn't mean the grief or suffering or hunger or abuse is good. It means that when that brokenness is held up to God's light, it can be transformed into a blessing. Our brokenness -- our suffering, and yes, even our sin – can open us up to let God's light through. Each broken place can be transformed – made transparent so that God's light shines through us to others. Each broken life, like each saint, may be uniquely colored and may be used by God for unique blessings: shining joy, healing, or peace; bringing the varied colors of light, love, or forgiveness to others.
There are unique broken places in each of our lives that God can shine through. The most beautiful stained glass windows are often those with many, many colors – in this case the light shining through many, many lives. It's not only those the church calls "saints" who are called to be transparent, shining windows for God's light. We're all called to be saints, to let God's light shine through us. Our own particular story of brokenness, our own unique color, may be just what God needs to light up someone else's life.
We may not see who will be blessed by the light God shines through us. We may not even always recognize when someone else has been a shining saint for us. The saints are still hard to tell from the sinners. Because God's light shines in and through some surprising, unexpected, and unseen places. We are not able to judge others – to separate the saints from the sinners.
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There is a story of two men who were shipwrecked on a small island.
The two men were there for some time,
and each determined that the other was unworthy of being saved.
So they decided that their only recourse to help was prayer. In order to determine who's prayers were being answered. they divided their small island in half and each would stay on his half. They both prayed for food and found it in a crate that drifted to their shores landing right on the dividing line. The second man felt he was lonely and prayed for a wife. The next day, a ship sank off his side of the island, and the only survivor was a single woman, who then stayed with him. The first man stayed by himself. The second man prayed for a home, which all seemed to appear as if by magic, while the first man's side remained barren. Finally, the second man and his wife prayed for a ship, that they might leave the island. A boat appeared the next day, and he and his wife boarded it to leave the island. Then a voice was heard to say, "What of your companion on the other side of the island? Are you going to leave him?" The second man replied "He and I had an agreement to stay apart. None of his prayers have been answered, so he must be unworthy of being saved." The voice came back, "Think again, small man. All this time, he has had only one prayer, and it was answered." "What is that prayer? "said the second man. "He prayed," said the voice, "that all your prayers would be answered."
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God alone knows through what saintly sinner the light that we need may come. God alone knows when our own brokenness may be transformed into the light another needs.
We need all the light we can get. We're all called to be saints, to be transparent, shining windows for God's light. All of us have broken places in our lives - hurting places, sinful places, empty lonely places. Let's name them in our hearts today. And hold them up to God for the light to shine through.
Blessed are you who are broken, for you will be windows for God.