Scripture can be found here…
Meditation
We have two very different scripture passages this morning. Most Sundays we have one passage that informs most of the content of the meditation or sermon, and it is usually paired with a psalm that holds some of the same key ideas as the sermon passage. Today, it’s very different. These two passages seem incredibly far apart in theme and content. Despite that fact, it’s actually as if the two passages are two views of one thing, two sides of the same coin: the saints of God, what we call the communion of saints.
The passage I’ve just shared, a look back at an early moment in Luke’s gospel, has Jesus in the midst of a crowd—a fairly commonplace situation for him as the gospel stories unfold. But there in the crowd, in addition to people who are following Jesus around, to hear his teaching and in hopes of being healed in some way, we also have the people who have already made a life-decision to follow him—a group within the crowd, known as his disciples, people hoping to learn from him. Then, there is also the inner circle he has chosen: the twelve, known as the apostles. Three interconnected groups: the anonymous crowd, the ones close to Jesus, then the ones who are closer still.
After a time of healing, he speaks. We are familiar by now with the kinds of things Jesus says in Luke’s gospel. One of his strongest themes is that of great reversals. How those who are on the top of the world looking down on creation will find themselves on the bottom of the heap, and the ones who are on the bottom of the heap will find themselves on the top of the world. Jesus says confusing things to them, like, “Blessed are the poor,” and “Woe to you who are rich,” things that, then and now, don’t make a lot of sense to us… unless we look to the very last portion of the passage. Beyond the blessings and woes, Jesus gets to the nitty gritty of the actions he wants his followers to take.
Jesus says, “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you… Do to others as you would have them do to you.” ~Luke 6:27-28, 31
The great reversals are the outcome of this kind of love. This is how we get there. To the poor, Jesus is saying, once everyone gets on board with this commitment to loving wholeheartedly, you will be blessed. And he’s saying to the rich, “In order to participate in this kind of love, you’re going to need to live a different kind of life.”[i]
This is an account of a moment in Jesus’ ministry 2000 years ago, and more than five thousand miles from our little corner of the church. But it is also a glimpse of the communion of saints here and now—people seek and follow Jesus in different ways and for different reasons. Some are curious, wanting to know more, maybe find healing from some hurt. Some have opened their hearts to his teachings. Others have already made a life-changing commitment to follow in his Way. This is, in many ways, a vision of us: the ordinary saints of the here and now.
And then there’s that glorious assembly in chapter 7 of the Book of Revelation. It comes at a tense moment in the book, a moment when the reader or listener is anticipating something dreadful. Instead, we are offered what one commentator calls, “a salvation interlude, assuring God’s people that they are protected.”[ii] Before our passage begins, there is a listing of God’s covenant people, all the members of the twelve tribes of Jacob’s sons. They are all present, standing before God’s throne, the throne of the Lamb. When our passage begins, though, God’s people are expanded to include “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev. 7:9). This universal assembly is robed in white, carrying palm branches, also standing before God’s throne. God’s people are no longer a single nation, but all nations. And they are held in the palm of God’s hand. In a world filled with fear, they have nothing to fear.
This, too, is a vision of the communion of saints… a “someday” vision, a moment when all people are swept up in God’s love and glory and power. This is the other side of the coin—a moment so sublime, it seems to represent universal hopes and dreams of peace, unity, and worship in God’s very presence. But those great reversals can be found here, too. What is the chorus of multitudes singing? They are singing a stinging rebuke to the Roman Empire. All those attributes usually assumed of the Roman Emperor? Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might? They don’t belong to any mere mortal, but to God and God alone.
Saints, here among us and saints in realms of light we can only imagine. In a few moments we will be sharing the photographs and names of our very own saints, those individuals whom we, members of this community, have lost over this past year. Saints are not only those who sing out God’s praises those luminous white robes in a story from scripture. Saints are also the ordinary folk, our kin. A cousin. A sibling. A parent. A child. Perfect people? No such thing. But there is something to be said for ordinary goodness. The communion of saints, the church of Jesus Christ, this church, right here, is filled with ordinary, good people. And while we strive to grow in wisdom and holiness, none of us is truly finished with that task until we are the ones in the white robes before the throne.
Meanwhile, we grieve the ones we love, but we rejoice that, for them, death is past and pain has ended, and the realms of light and perfect love are theirs. Join me, will you, in this prayer.
O God, who gave us birth,
you are ever more ready to hear than we are to pray.
You know our needs before we ask,
and our ignorance in asking.
Show us now your grace,
that as we face the mystery of death,
we may see the light of eternity.
Speak to us once more your solemn message of life and death.
Help us to live as those who are prepared to die.
And when our days here are ended,
enable us to die as those who go forth to live,
so that, living or dying,
our life may be in Jesus Christ, our risen Lord.[iii]
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] Debra J. Mumford, “Commentary on Luke 6:20-31,” All Saints Sunday, November 6, 2022, Listening with different purposes, Working Preacher. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-day-2/commentary-on-luke-620-31-5.
[ii] Barbara Rossing, “Commentary on Revelation 7:9-17,” All Saints Day, November 1, 2020, Working Preacher. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-sunday/commentary-on-revelation-79-17.
[iii] Funeral: Witness to the Resurrection, Book of Common Worship: Prepared by the Office of Theology and Worship for the Presbyterian Church (USA) (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 783.