Luke 6:20-31
So today is All Saints Day, or if you prefer it's also the fourth Sunday before Advent. The church quite often likes to give us a choice and when we have that choice sometimes there's a bit of confusion as there is this morning because we have the colours for the fourth Sunday before Advent [Green] but the readings for All Saints Day [Red]. So, that's because I like All Saints Day.
The reason I like All Saints Day is it is a glorious reminder that we do not do this business of Christian faith and Christian life by ourselves this church we we have a particular interest in our history this church was built in 1860 by a woman who didn't like any of the other local churches, so she's built her own - that's my kind of woman - but it means we have a great understanding, an abiding sense of being in the presence of those who have come, before us and this is what All Saints Day is designed to help us think about, that in this Christian life we are in the presence of all those who have gone before us.
The scriptures talk about a “great cloud” of people who are witnesses that means all the “saints” all the people that have died and gone before us, so on this day I am particularly reminded of all the feet that have walked to and through this church since 1860. it is a glorious thought…
But to look back to our Gospel reading, when you heard those opening words about being blessed, you might have thought “oh I know this one, this is the Sermon on the Mount, well nearly but not quite; the Sermon on the Mount comes in the Gospel of Matthew [Matthew 5:1-12] - it's a glorious. sermon by Jesus who went up onto a high place so that people could hear and see him.
I’m a bit past the age where I go to pop concerts but if you've ever been to a pop concert and seen those thousands of people - that would have been what it was like - thousands of people listening to Jesus, so he went up on a mountain so that people could see and hear what he said.
It would have been as startling then as it is, I hope now. Because the blessings he was pronouncing were not the ones that his Jewish listeners would have expected. Christian faith constantly, the words of Jesus constantly challenge us about what is just and what is wrong. He constantly turns everything on its head.
This version in Luke (known as the sermon on the Plain) has a little bit of sting in the tail. It begins with blessing, and you think, oh that's nice, because I fit into that category, I can feel warm. But these blessings are not the blessings you would necessarily think of as blessings, which might peak our interest And then there's a little bridge (like lots of pop songs) and then when you pass the bridge, the tone changes. He says, but woe to you who think you are cosy now. Oops, sorry, [sits up straight] he's talking to me.
And he says, woe to you who think you are cosy now, because you've already had your reward. So these two passages taken together are a reminder that what we might think is cosy and right might not be what Jesus thinks. Those words, by the way, at the end, were particularly aimed at the leaders of churches and people who thought they had a social position, who thought they were in right.
So it was all splendid.
But Jesus a particular concern for those who are marginal for those who are “on the outside” and you might be thinking “yes yes but you always say that - we know that Jesus was always saying that” But here's the thing – he really meant it so for those people who you think are on the outside or behave a bit oddly or sometimes do things which are downright awful - the choice Jesus doesn't mean that i have to be nice to them because i'm outstanding i'm not like them that the blessing may be being conferred upon people you don't think. And you, who might think I am right, because you've never done anything really wrong, actually, Jesus might be tapping us on the shoulder and going, I'm talking to you.
The purpose of those moments is to ask us to take a proper look at our own behaviour. Because Jesus, from time to time, and this is a lifetime's work, may be occasionally just tapping us on the shoulder and going, what was that?
Now, the glorious thing is that because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Not because we always get everything right, because sometimes even if we do get it wrong, we know that when we die, we will be numbered amongst those who have gone before us. We will be numbered amongst those who in generations to come, and I love this idea, that one day we will be looking down on the next incumbent and the next congregation of this place, and we can go, it's okay, keep going because Jesus loves you, and we, part if this “great cloud of witnesses” that has gone before, are all behind you.
It means also that in this life, while we have an opportunity, we need to be behind each other. We need to be “saints” now, not just when we get to heaven. Sometimes the gospel can appear as if it is saying it's all jam tomorrow, that for the really good stuff, the really good stuff, we need to wait until we die. That's not really true, because if you read the words of the Lord's Prayer, which we will do later, you will see that the line in the Lord's Prayer says that we should live now as if we are in heaven.
We should try and bring about what we will find in heaven, which is simple, right (!) but it's also glorious. That's our job, it’s to give the people who come through these doors, like all the people did before and the people who are out there who are too scared to come through these doors because they think that we're all a bit strange, is to give them a foretaste of heaven.
So I pray, when it is chucking it down outside and doesn't feel particularly heavenly -I pray that we will go from this place knowing that amongst our friends and amongst people that we see in church, we can be the ones who give people a foretaste of heaven. A taste of the gospel, a taste of the promise we have in Christ and I pray all of this in Jesus’ name
Amen