Saintly Work
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One of the many aspects of this congregation that I have grown to love is the amount of ministry time we spend outside this space. Now don’t get me wrong, I love leading worship and preaching each week, but this time we have now is about renewing us for the next week and shaking off last weeks shortcomings. It’s about hearing God’s Word, receiving God’s forgiveness and being fed with a holy meal. But the real work to be done isn’t in this room it’s out in this world. What I love though, is seeing all of the events coming up that are focused on helping people who aren’t able to have meaningful meals around the holidays or on a regular basis. Just a few days ago we fed around 30 people who needed a meal. This church does that every other Thursday. The Matthew kits are ways for us to be able to help someone who walks into our church and give them some basic and immediate assistance. We recently had a ministry by the women who were raising money for the pregnancy center. And as I mentioned coming up we will make Thanksgiving boxes, Christmas boxes, a clothing tree and much more to help care for other people. Work outside of our walls for the sake of the poor and the outcast.
Just this last Wednesday in Confirmation class we talked about Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, one of whom was the worker bee and the other the listener. I bring this up to you today because one of the things we talked about was the town that they lived in which was Bethany. Bethany, like many Jewish names of people and cities, has a meaning behind it. Bethany literally means “house of misery”. So I asked the kids why would Jesus have gone to a place called the house of misery and why would he have friends that lived there and spent time there? Before I let them answer I explained to them that Bethany was on the outskirts of Jerusalem and based on the name was likely a place where the unwanted of society would be sent or live. They were probably the sick people, the homeless, or the poor. The class responded that he did that because he had friends like Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and because Jesus cares about those people.
Jesus does care for those people I agreed. Jesus cares deeply, I said, for the poor, the outcast, and the widow. I we were to spend time looking at the Bible and looked throughout the Old Testament we will see there were laws in place that protected those kinds of people. There were prophets that spoke up on behalf of those who were less fortunate than the rest of society. Jesus didn’t bring about a new notion or idea about caring for the poor, outcast, and the widow, Jesus continued the same agenda of caring for the least of these that God had been presenting for generations.
Believe it or not, these are exactly the kind of people Jesus is speaking about in the first part of the Beatitudes that we hear in Matthew’s gospel today. Oftentimes we take a look at the beatitudes as a whole and try to figure out what Jesus meant for us in terms of behavior and our interactions with other people. When we try to look at it that way we always struggle. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Why would God want us to be poor in spirit? Doesn’t Jesus constantly chastise the disciples for having little faith? Why then would Jesus bless people for being poor in spirit? It doesn’t make sense.
Again, if God desires for us to live good and prosperous lives why would we be blessed for mourning? On this All Saints Day as we remember the people in this congregation and in our lives who have gone before us and paved the way. For some that is still a new sorrow and for some that is a sorrow that never goes away. Why would that be something that Jesus would want for us? Again, it doesn’t make sense.
The meek are the ones who aren’t able to speak up for themselves and so they are walked on or over. Some people aren’t able to get away from that type of disposition or behavior and they know it and I doubt that anyone would say that they enjoy it or would think that it is a blessing to be that way.
Hungering and thirsting for something whether real food and water, or something else like righteousness. Looking for things in this world to make it a better place. They want to see God’s justice done. But the way this phrase is worded is that those things aren’t happening and these people who are hungering and thirsting for it are hungering and thirsting because they are unable to achieve or or do anything about it to quench that desire.
Mark Allen Powell, who was one of my seminary professors and a theologian of the New Testament, says that at this point we should stop with these four beatitudes and realize that they are not blessings on us who have those qualities or experience these things in this life, but that they are promises that when righteousness does happen and when God’s kingdom does rule, then they will be blessed because they will no longer experience those things. It’s through God’s reign and God’s kingdom that these people will experience a reversal of what they have been experiencing in this life. These people I would say are the poor, the outcast, and the widow. These are the people who are living in Bethany, and Jesus is telling them that there will be a day when there will no longer be a place called Bethany, there will no longer be a placed called house of misery.
Powell then points out that the next four beatitudes are blessings to the people who exhibit those behaviors and work for those things they are blessed for, because that means that they are working on behalf of those who are in the first four beatitudes. Jesus blesses those who work for mercy in the world and care for people who need a little love in their lives. Mercy can actually mean a great deal of things from the Greek. It can mean to forgive sins of others, it can mean to help those who are sick, and to care for those who are in need of care.
The pure in heart, you could say, are the people that we say have a big heart. They truly care for other people. They see the best in other people and want to help them because they see good in them.
The peacemakers are the people who who for the peace that God offers. Peace involves reconciling ourselves with one another. Being a peacemaker is to care for your neighbor and actively seek to have a godly relationship with them. It is about living a godly life and working to bring about God’s kingdom on this earth.
Finally we have the blessing that seems to be a blessing about being persecuted, but in reality, it is a blessing Powell says, about commitment. When we are committed to doing all these things, when we are committed to caring for the poor, the outcast, the stranger, the alien, the widow, then we will likely be persecuted for it because it is not what the world wants. It is what God wants though. When we provide lunch every other week to hungry people at the Free Outreach Lunch, when we purchase food to make the Christmas and Thanksgiving boxes, when we work with Cornerstone Mission, when we do all these things outside our walls that look are the people in the world who experience all too often and all too real the true hurts and pains of this world, we are working for righteousness and doing our part to spread the kingdom of God into all the world. Rejoice and be glad because that is what God calls us to do.Blessed are you when you give of yourselves; your time, your talents, and your money to care for other people.
Blessed are you when you give of yourselves; your time, your talents, and your money to care for other people. What is so powerful about hearing this text on All Saints Day for me, is that
What is so powerful about hearing this text on All Saints Day for me, is that we can look back at all the saints in our lives and see how they helped to pave the way to bring about righteousness in this world. We can see their examples of their faith in action and how it helped to bless the poor in spirit, the meek, the mourners, and those who hunger and thirst for a better world that more represents God’s kingdom. The saints are our examples, they are our paved way to help us and guide us on our own journey to bring about God’s kingdom and establish God’s peace to a broken world. Today we pause and give thanks to all those saints who have lived and worked to make this world reflect the light of Christ and have shown us the way to make it happen. I am so thankful for all the saints in my life who have changed me for the better, who have shown me what it means to be a disciple who works for peace and justice in a broken world.
Rejoice and be glad for all saints, for all who worked hard in this life for the sake of the poor, the outcast, the stranger, the alien, and the widow, so that they might experience peace and love from God. Rejoice and be glad that we too have the same great opportunity and gift to be a blessing to the world and to the people in this community so they too might see of the love of God through us. Blessed are you this day and forever.
Amen.