Communion of Saints
with Rev. Laura Sherwood
November 5, 2023
On All Saints Sunday, we remember a foundational belief of the Church – that as God’s people we are part of that existence called eternity, begun long before any of us were born and which continues long after our earthly death, and which we celebrate in our reunion around the Communion Table.
The Scripture
Matthew 5:1-12
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Revelation 21:1-6a
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
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On All Saints Sunday, we remember one of the foundational beliefs of the Church that our faith is in a God who exists beyond time and in whom time and place have a completely different meaning. We also remember our belief that as God’s people we are part of that existence called eternity that was begun long before any of us were born and which continues long after our earthly death.
Jesus points us to that eternal existence – that breaks through the boundaries of time to give us hope in the present – even in the most dire of circumstances.
In our first reading, we here Jesus’ teaching during the Sermon on the Mount. He relays what are known as The Beatitudes – basically a list that describes those who are blessed by God. The Greek root that gives us the word Beatitude means fortunate, or even prosperous – characteristics of people who in that time and culture would have been considered blessed by God. I think that reasoning applies even today – when someone’s good fortune or prosperity is attributed to them being blessed by God.
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The original audience would have heard Jesus begin his list with the words, “Blessed are those….” and expected the next words to be something like – those who have much wealth, those who have great status, those who live long healthy lives, those who are well fed and have all that they need. That list would not have surprised anyone. What Jesus actually said was a surprise, perhaps even a shock. Blessed are those…who are poor, …who are meek, …who hunger and thirst. Blessed are those who mourn.
I can picture the question marks appear over the disciples’ heads as they try to comprehend Jesus’ meaning. Everything Jesus did and said pointed to the way God intended our lives with each other on this earth to be. An intention that our recent guest preacher Tom Cole described as “agape love” – true care and concern for others, for all of creation. Though that was God’s intention, it was not the reality for many people at that time, just as it is not reality for many people today.
Jesus needs the disciples to understand that much of what they see about how the world works is not what God intended. In fact, what God intended is so radically different that it could be seen as opposite – which is likely what the list of those who are blessed by God in the Beatitudes sounded like to the original audience. One writer suggests that Jesus’s Beatitudes are meant for us to imagine God’s intended kingdom as an inversion of the world’s usual standards and values. (David J. Lose at https:davidlose.net)
This inversion applies as well to something that all people experience, regardless of their worldly status, fortune, or circumstance – that is death and loss. Jesus speaks to that, too, Blessed are those who mourn. I think Jesus means this in at least 2 ways. When we are in mourning, when our lives are broken open by grief, God is with us. God not only hears our cries, but cries with us. Our heartbreak breaks God’s heart as well. When we are mourning those whom we have lost to death, Jesus also points us to God’s promise of a life that stretches beyond the boundaries of time and place, an eternal home that encompasses all of our existence from life to death.
Our verses from Revelation describe God’s promise of an eternal home as the new heavens and the new earth. This short passage employs vivid imagery to describe the glory of the age to come when the kingdom of God is realized in full and ushers in a new reality for all of creation which will be made complete in Christ. What Jesus on the cross referred to as the Paradise that was waiting.
This hope in a future time when God will permanently correct all injustices and inequalities, heal all brokenness and reunite all those who are separated by death has been a central part of Christian belief since the beginning. Hope for a time when, as Revelation says, God himself will be with them; 4he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
These inspiring words from Revelation keep that hope alive as they point us to all that will be because of Christ. But hope for the future is only half of the message, for we also believe that in Christ God’s kingdom has already been created. For us, both the future and the present hope are true. Christ not only pointed the way to the glory of what Revelation terms God’s new heaven, he also made it a present reality on earth – by living out the Beatitudes Inversion – through his loving actions toward all people, in his tireless works of compassion and justice, in his defeat over the power of death for all time. When God’s people follow Christ by living out the Beatitudes inversion – in their actions toward others, in the way they support one another, bear each other’s sorrows and share in each other’s joys, God’s kingdom is again made into a present reality.
People who follow God in Christ in this way are called saints – in other words they are all the people who make up Christ’s Body – the Church. They are the people sitting to your right and on your left; they are the people who shake your hand during the Time of Greeting. They are the people who throughout our lives have helped us to see that there is love and hope in this life and beyond.
One very old and still popular image of what a saint is can be seen in many paintings throughout the centuries – where people are pictured with halos around their heads to indicate that they are saints. The whole “halo” image emphasizes how people felt about saints, that they were closer to God than the average person and therefore separate and to be held in great reverence.
The Reformers in the 16th century, that we heard about last Sunday, were concerned about this lofty view of saints mainly because it led to the practice of saint-worship which had been going on from the first days of the early Church. Saints tended to be those who had been martyred or put to death for their Christian Faith. It had become very popular to have various kinds of images, such as paintings, of these saints in worship.
In order to avoid saint-worship in the new Reformed Church, the leaders employed their own kind of Beatitudes Inversion by deeming all true believers as “saints.” They declared that the very profession of saints is to come together in holy fellowship to worship God, to serve one another, and to be built up more and more into Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. We proclaimed this belief last week when we recited from the ancient Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the communion of saints.”
On All Saints Sunday – we give thanks to God for All the Saints and take time to especially remember those whose lives have help make the fullness of God’s kingdom a present reality for us. We acknowledge that the influence and participation of these saints in our lives of faith has not ended because of death. We give thanks and praise that their witness and the countless ways they touched the lives of others will live on through our memories, in the way we live and through the on-going testimony of our faith community.
As we celebrate communion today we are gathering around the table in our promised eternal home – where time and place cease to exist and where we are brought together with those who have gone before in a new kind of existence, an inverted reality, where all the saints are joined together through the fullness of God in Christ. This is why it is important in our faith tradition to always have the Communion Table present in our worship space because it reminds us that around the Table of our Lord, we are all remembered in Christ and reunited in the timelessness of God, joined forever in the Communion of Saints. To God be the glory, forever and ever. Amen.