All the Saints

Luke 6:20-31

Then Jesus looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I think my favorite image for All Saints comes from Isaiah. “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.” In my mind this looks like the sort of table that a single dining room just can’t contain. It bursts through the walls of both sides of the house, down the street, and out farther than the eye can see in each direction! Everyone, in all of creation is gathered at the table… the saints who are living… all the saints who have gone before us… and those who are yet to be… all included… all fully able to be themselves… all whole, and all enjoying, with full throated laughter and joy, God’s feast of “rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.”

And while the FULLNESS for you and me sitting at that feast is yet to come, God’s Table exists now and each week we are offered a momentary seat at that table when we come to Holy Communion. In some mystical way, our little bit of communion rail, in our little town, in our little corner of the world, becomes woven into God’s Table. As we stand or kneel there, I like to think that if you look carefully, not with your eyes but with your heart, you might even catch a brief glimpse of God’s Kingdom Table stretching out right through the walls of our church and off into infinity. Because in that moment we are... RIGHT THERE... at God’s Table, side by side with those who have gone before us.  It happens in a mystical, but no less real way, than when we sat with them at the feasts we shared with them while they were alive.

It’s with that vision in mind, that I wonder if the Blessings and the Woes that Jesus shares here in Luke’s Gospel are not so much about who is “in” and who is “out” at the end of time, but more a declaration of Divine Truth and Hope for how we choose to live today. I think these blessings and woes tell a powerful truth about how, when our lives are lived one way we are able to see more clearly, far down the length of God’s Kingdom Table… AND conversely when we live in other ways, our ability to see down that table becomes much more clouded.  

When we feel poor, hungry, anguished or despised… in THOSE times… times of deep vulnerability, we look down the rail… down the length of God’s Kingdom Feast Table to the right and to the left and we are able to see more clearly that great cloud of witnesses sitting beside us. In those times of vulnerability we are blessed with greater clarity ... the cloud of our ego doesn’t get in the way. In those vulnerable times we are truly blessed to see friends and family and colleagues and mentors beside us at the rail… those who have gone before us… there, present, with us... caring for us in those darkest of times. But then when are rich, full, happy and popular, is it simply the truth that in those times, we are much more likely to have our ego clouding that vision and we are more likely to look left and right and see, not a great cloud of witnesses, but just a whole lot of cloud. 

God ALWAYS, CONTINUALLY, UNCONDITIONALLY and DEEPLY desires for ALL of us to come to God’s Table.  God invites us ALL to come, regardless of whether we’ve been able to do the past week’s living in a way that has led to more blessings and clarity or to more woes and clouded vision.  Either way, God WANTS us at God’s Table, regardless!  God wants us to come... to look to the right and to the left.  God wants you to SEE the great cloud of witnesses that are always there, whether this is a time we can see them clearly or not.  God wants us to believe, and if possible to even SEE that they are there, giving us their care and support. It is BECAUSE that is God’s DEEP and CONTINUAL desire, God sent Jesus to teach us the way to live our lives so that we might have the greatest possible clarity of vision each time we come to God’s Table.  

Clarity of vision happens, Jesus teaches us, when we love our enemies, when we do good to those who hate us, when we bless those who curse us and pray for those who abuse us.  We come to God’s Table with more clarity of vision when we stand up to abusive power with the creative but non-violent power of the Holy Spirit. We grow in clarity of vision when we live lives of generosity and when we refrain from seeking revenge for the times when we have been wronged.

In some mystical way, God in Christ has given us the incomparable gift of being fully included at God’s Table IN THIS LIFETIME, if only for the time it takes to receive the bread and wine. There, God invites us to look up and down the infinite length of that feast and see just as far as we can possibly see… see all those who have gone before us… parents and grandparents… back countless generations… husbands, wives, partners and children… friends and siblings and those family members who don’t share blood, but something much deeper. Then, with that powerful image of infinite love and support from every age and time, from up and down that table, firmly embedded in our souls, Jesus calls us to go out and do unto others as we would have them do unto us, inviting them to join us at God’s Table so they too may be blessed and strengthened in their lives by All the Saints. Amen.