A Sermon for All Saints' Day

Ecclesiasticus 44:1-10,13-14
Psalm 149
Revelation 7:2-4,9-19
Matthew 5:1-12

"There is a time to speak" and not "to keep silent" if one has any ability in speaking; since a certain heresy is threatening us, barking at the truth, and frightening unstable minds by its empty noise. . . . Therefore, inadequate as I am, . . . yet relying on the prayers and urgings of the saints, I will speak.

The heresy is violence against images of God. You have it here today here just as I had it more than a thousand years ago in Constantinople.

I, sinner that I am, am known as Saint (ha!) Theodore of Studios. and I'm an iconodule. Do you know what that is? No? It's someone who really understands about and values icons. Now, you do know what an icon is, don't you? Sure. One of those little pictures on your computer screen, right? Is the computer icon the whole program? Does it do the job for you? Of course not! But it gets you to the program. It opens the program for you It's an image of the program --"icon" is another word for "image" but it's more than just a pretty picture. It is part of the program. It links you to the full program.

Only a madman would want to destroy the link to the program. And that's just what those foolish heretic iconoclasts want to do. The iconoclasts want to smash the icons. But they don't mean the computer ones. There's another kind of icon. These icons are wonderful images of Jesus or the saints. These iconoclasts talk absurdities. The mad heretics confuse icons with idols and like the devil they quote scripture to meet their own absurd ends.

"Thou shalt note make to thyself any graven image," they say. "thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them.' Now I'm the first to tell you that if you let one dot or squiggle of the law slip, the whole thing falls down, but I ask you when and to whom were these words spoken? [They were spoken] Before the age of grace, and to those who were "confined under the law."

In the age of grace, the Word became flesh. Jesus was born and in him God is with us. The fullness of God lived in Jesus. Jesus was fully God and fully human. We can make pictures of humans. Sudden grace and the law is made new! God was born in a baby ... and we all like to have pictures of babies.

Listen, my children: the blessed apostles saw Jesus. If they'd had cameras, they could have taken his picture for us to see. And the iconoclasts say we cannot have pictures of God. Who would not be amazed at their witless wisdom?

All of us may be depicted, for the one who cannot be depicted is not a person, but some abortive creature; indeed every living thing that has seen the light of day is naturally depictable. Hence Christ too may be depicted, even if the godless [iconoclasts] think otherwise a and so deny the salutary Incarnation.

So images of Christ are not contrary to the law. And with those images, just like your computer icons, we can connect to God. We reverence the icons because they are like God. They show us something of God.

Even your American kids understand this. One boy when asked in Sunday school, "What is a saint?" Looked at the stained glass windows in his church and answered "The saints are people the light shines through." That kid must be an iconodule, he understands about icons. They let the light shine through. We call them windows to heaven.

In pictures of Jesus and the saints. we get a glimpse of God. Now it's not that we saints are perfect. You don't have to have our pictures to know that one. You just need to have more sense than an iconoclast and look at the things the saints have written. Like today's reading about praising famous men? Even my limited intelligence tells me that women are deserving of great praise for all those same gifts and maybe more. You only need to consider my sainted mother or my young friend Casia who as a maiden of 16 was the most gifted poet in all Christendom. "Famous men." Humph. Even I must admit that a dot or squiggle to change that bit of scripture wouldn't hurt. God won't be limited in God's choice of saints. Some of your kids here even have buttons that say "I am a saint in training." That's what we all are: children growing more and more in the image of Christ.

And see where logic has brought us: We find a third kind of icon besides the computer kind and the picture kind. The other icon of Christ, another image of Christ, is you. You are made in God's image. Christ lives in you. And the light shines through you like a saint in a stained glass window. Can you see it? Look around you. See the saints? See the images of Christ in the seat next to you? See the icons?

You don't have to pretend to be a saint: you yourself are an icon of God.

You see Christ in icons. You see Christ in the saints. My beloved children, look for the image of Christ in your sisters in brothers. Reverence them and love them because in loving them you are showing your love for God. My saintly children, Live your life in a way that others can see Christ in you.. Be an icon of Christ. When you see someone shattering another image of Christ whether next door or in Wyoming, whether a foreigner or a spouse, or a gay or lesbian person, confront the violent heresy with love Know that whoever dares violate the image of Christ shatters themselves on the rock of Christ.

For this reason Jesus says to the victims of violence, "even when they revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you, you are blessed" because they are icons of Christ. They can link others to God.

Before God, here in God's sanctuary, it should be safe to be all of who we are created to be. Here is a place where it is safe to throw away all the masks we hide behind. and be loved just as we are. We and all who come here, whoever they may be, need not hide behind the saints or in the closets any longer.

Here is the place to celebrate our saintliness and to ask for healing where we are wounded. Here is the place to be fed and strengthened and to find new life. Here is the place and now is the time to speak and not keep silent-- To tell the world that we will not tolerate the violence, and that the images of Christ cannot be shattered. Because those who live in Christ will never die.

Neither one.

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." If we define ourselves by judging the sin of others and hide our sins behind theirs, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

The picture Jesus paints is familiar because we continue today, like the pharisee in the temple, to put others down as a way of making ourselves look good. If we shine the light on someone else's problem, we hope ours stay hidden in the dark. And the sins grow there, as Jesus reminds us elsewhere, from tiny specks to blinding logs. They trip us up on our journey home to God.

Jesus paints picture of self-righteous judgmentalism. I don't like that pharisee. So I'm being judgmental about judgmentalism. We fear something in ourselves, so we search it out in others. A good psychologist, or a wise old women, can tell you that those things you find most upsetting in others are often the truths you fear most about yourself. It's there like a shadow. I'm judgmental about judgmentalism. See the shadow?

What we fear and deny about ourselves inside shows up in that which we most want to condemn: Hear the pharisee: "I give my 10% and secretly I think about money all the time; but I'm glad I'm not like that tax collector. Our faith feels fragile inside, so we set out hunting heretics. Our marriage is a bit shaky, so we obsess about our president's intrigues. Our culture raises hard questions about sexuality, so we crucify gay college students on fenceposts in Wyoming.

We don't want to look in the mirror, it's easier to look at the tax collectors & gays, or the fundamentalists & politicians, and give thanks that we are not like "them."

Jesus tells us that it is the one who sees his or her own sin who goes home justified, who is "home free" and made right with God. The one pointing the finger is only right with himself or herself -- and that is self deception, empty of the truth. Jesus is asking us to take a long hard look in the mirror. Rather than looking at others to decide for ourselves who we are not, we are to look at OURSELVES to find out who we are.

That's true humility. That's what Jesus is talking about. "Humility": You know the root word means "earthy, grounded." Solidly grounded, connected to the earth, not climbing on the backs of others, the humble person doesn't need to put anyone down to look good before God. And God reaches down and lifts them up -- justifies them.

Humility. It doesn't mean groveling. It means standing securely where you are. It means knowing the truth about yourself -- the truth about your sins AND about your gifts -- and about who you really are. Being humble, accepting the whole truth about yourself, means not putting yourself and your gifts down either: Humility might then include celebration, even pride. It means facing the truth about yourself -- the good and the bad --and walking with integrity. Today's psalm tells us:

But facing the truth and walking in integrity is hard work. It's easier to be a pharisee -- to know all the rules and to use them to make judgments about others. Facing ourselves with humility is hard.
Trust in God, not in ourselves, today's readings remind us. We don't have to do it ourselves. Yet God sends us into the world to do the work of love and forgiveness, but God is in the driver's seat. We don't need to be sidetracked by passing judgment on other people's journeys. Let us be humble enough to trust God at the scary turns in the road and leave judgment in God's hands. It's like that that old bus jingle: "Go greyhound, and leave the driving to us." God's driving. Relax.

If we live in true humility we don't have to do it all or understand it all. God is with us and willing to help. If we leave God's work to God -- and the judgment is God's work -- then God strengthens us "like a mighty warrior" so we are able to give help, to do what God has told us to do, to love as God loves us. Then the mirror into which we look to know ourselves is not a reflection of how we differ from our naughty neighbor, but a reflection of ourselves and our neighbors as images of Christ.

So we've got a variation on the greyhound theme, as we travel with our neighbors through life toward home: "Go love them, and leave the judging to Christ." Then we are home free.