Feast of All Saints’, November 6, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

Merciful and Generous God, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

Today we are observing All Saints’ Day in the Church – and we are sacramentally full to the brim with baptisms and Holy Eucharist. Liturgically, our cup is overflowing. Our Eucharistic Prayer will include the names of those in our parish who have died since All Saints’ Day in 2015. After the beautiful Durufle requiem, and before the final blessing, we will pray for our nation, marking the beginning of our election vigil.

When I read Duruflé’s own program notes for his requiem this week, this jumped out at me: “I have done my best to reconcile, as far as possible, the Gregorian rhythms…with the demands of modern meters.…The strong beats had to lose their dominant character to take the same degree of intensity as the weak beats, [so] the rhythmic Gregorian accent of the stressed Latin syllables could be placed freely on whichever beat of our modern meter.” [1]

Our Gospel lesson from Luke seems like a perfect accompaniment to a piece of music in which “the strong beats had to lose their dominant character to take the same degree of intensity as the weak beats.” Across two millennia, Luke and Duruflé seem to be cautioning us fervently against self-congratulation. Today’s Gospel lesson is perhaps the best known collection of sayings from Jesus, except that they are Luke’s versions of the famous sayings. We are more familiar with Matthew’s version that just lists the blessings and not the woes, the blessings and not the demands.

In Luke, the setting is a level place. It’s not the Sermon on the Mount; it’s called the Sermon on the Plain. Jesus has come down from the mountain (where God is in ancient topology) – where he’s been praying — down to where the regular people are – down to their level, which is also our level. And he has met a large crowd of his disciples and a great number of people from many different places who have come to hear him and be healed by him. Jesus has a lot to teach them. And notice how he starts. He starts with blessings. Jesus declares God’s blessing on those who are poor, those who are hungry, those who are weeping, those who are hated and excluded and rejected. Jesus starts with blessings.

This rag-tag group from all over the place is actually blessed many times over. “Rejoice and leap for joy,” Jesus says, “for you are incredibly blessed.” Do you hear the good news in that? Rejoice and leap for joy, for you are abundantly blessed. You who are poor, who are hungry, who are weeping, who are rejected are indiscriminately blessed. You are generously blessed by God.

What comes next was scandalous – and the Church has been trying to soften the blow ever since, because it’s still scandalous. Jesus says: “Woe to you who are rich. Woe to you who are well fed, satiated, satisfied. Woe to you who laugh. Woe to you when people speak well of you.” Ouch. And then Jesus tells both those disciples who are happily surprised and those disciples who are sadly scandalized, this is what discipleship means –here is what discipleship looks like. “Love your enemies, he says. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. Give to everyone who begs from you. Lend and expect nothing in return. Be merciful just as God is merciful.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I find discipleship instructions like this unbelievably difficult, especially in a week like this last one (well, any week actually). And the place I immediately go when I hear these instructions is thinking about how hard it is to love my enemies, to turn the other cheek, to give to everyone who begs from me. It’s not just hard. It’s impossible. I hear from others of you the same thing, and it occurs to me that when we hear this difficult text, we imagine ourselves in the position of people who have resources, who struggle to love our enemies, who struggle to bless and pray for and respond to those who hurt, abuse, steal, and beg. And I think that perhaps Jesus is hoping that we might pause a moment to shift our understanding, to widen our perspective.

What if we understand ourselves to be other people’s enemy? What if we understand ourselves as people who curse? What if we understand ourselves as people who, if not personally violent, have violence done on our behalf – both locally and globally? What if we understand ourselves as people who take and use more than our fair share of resources in the world, including clothing, fossil fuels, water, and so on? What if we understand ourselves as beggars who must recommit ourselves to doing to others as we would have them do to us, understanding our own desperate need for mercy and love, for compassion and generosity?

This is when a church holiday like All Saints’ Day comes in very handy. All Saints’ Day calls us to reflect on those faithful disciples of Jesus who have gone before us. We celebrate and give thanks for the saints – known and unknown. And we pray for grace to follow their examples, because Lord knows, sometimes it’s just too hard to follow Jesus directly. So we have faithful Christians whose witness can help us follow.

• Take a minute right now and think about some of the people who have modeled faithful discipleship for you.
• They might have been aware that they were modeling discipleship for you – or they might have been totally unaware.
• Name their names in the silence of your hearts.
• Call the spirit of those people into this place, into this time because we need their help.
• Feel how much fuller this sanctuary is now. Feel how much fuller your hearts are.

Remember: you are, we are incredibly, abundantly blessed and you are, we are, in need of mercy and love. So let’s act like it. Let’s live as if we are incredibly and abundantly blessed because we are. Let’s live as if we are in desperate need of mercy and love, of compassion and generosity, because we are. This Gospel message applies to each of us individually, and as importantly, this Gospel message applies to us as a faith community.

This message reminds us to count our many blessings where we are poor and hungry, weeping and excluded; and warns us when we are rich, well fed, laughing and highly regarded that Jesus calls us to live much closer to the edge, away from self-sufficiency and toward dependence on God. This Gospel message reminds us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who mistreat us. Give to everyone who begs from us. Lend and expect nothing in return. Be merciful just as God is merciful. Jesus is reminding us as a gathered community, “We are incredibly and abundantly blessed. We must act like it. We must live as if we are indiscriminately and generously blessed because we are.” Our attitude must humbly recognize our own need for mercy and forgiveness and love. As a faith community, we need grace to follow the saints who have gone before us, who have entrusted this parish to our care – to our stewardship. Pray that God grant us that grace so that we can become an even bolder witness to God’s love for all people.

1 Duruflé Requiem and The French Century

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