Sunday after All Saints'
The Reverend Martha Frances
Sunday after All Saints'
2 November 2008
Text: Matthew 5: 1-12
Other: Revelation 7: 9-17; Ps. 34: 1-10, 22; 1 John 3: 1-3
On my trip to San Francisco while on sabbatical this summer, I worshipped one Sunday at St. Gregory of Nyssa, an Episcopal Church whose acting rector is Paul Fromberg who was previously rector of our neighbor church, St. Andrew's in the Heights. St. Gregory's is a parish we studied in liturgy class in seminary because of the amazingly inclusive worship practiced there. I'll leave a description of the Service of the Word to another Sunday, but when it is time for the Eucharist, the whole congregation, led by several drummers, proceeds to the open rotunda room with altar table in the center with a stately but joyful dance step. Gregory himself said, "Once there was a time when the whole rational creation formed a single dancing chorus looking upward to the one leader of this dance."
Up on the walls & ceiling of St. Gregory's is a double layer of 90 saints dancing with Jesus, the Lord of the Dance, leading the dance from the south wall of the rotunda. You have a sketch of a few of those saints in your pew bulletin today which I hope you'll turn to so you can fill in details as I lead you in our sermon today. After the Eucharistic prayer & reception of the Eucharist at St. Gregory's, the living, worshipping saints join those above them in a celebratory dance, offering themselves to God's love & service.
Surely it is this sense of our all being saints, joining with the communion of saints who have gone before us, of which we sang in our sequence hymn a few minutes ago. The song reminds us of the stained-glass saints who have made it onto our liturgical calendar which we commemorate through the church year—like St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, or St. John Donne, priest & poet—but each verse reminds us that each of us can mean to be one, too, God helping.
The Hebrew idea of holiness was having God's stamp on you, like a branded steer. Such is the New Testament meaning of saints regardless of which writer mentions them: those people called by God to participate in God's work who then actually do it. You may recall the words we say when anointing a person after baptism: "you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own forever." By our baptism we are called to become saints, a vocation it takes a lifetime to live into.
Today, instead of your giving me names of those who have gone before to name in our prayers at the altar as we usually do on the feast of All Saints', I want to encourage you to use your saints' page to identify those folks through whose lives you have seen the light of God's love shine, those who have modeled for you Christ-centered lives. I invite you to label the figures on your page, drawing more in if you'd like, coloring them in or drawing in personal characteristics, & then naming your own personal saints during the Eucharistic prayer this morning. Some of the saints who have influenced your spiritual growth may be folks who are in our official liturgical calendar as is St. Hildegard von Bingen for me, but you may add members of your family, friends, teachers, mentors—anyone who has allowed God's love to radiate from them to others.
Jesus introduces his Sermon on the Mount with a list of characteristics which are his criteria for sainthood—not the usual list for those who most win friends & influence people—but then Jesus usually threw in his lot with those who were marginalized for one reason or another, didn't he? Perhaps you know people who would make Jesus' list: those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek & merciful, those who hunger & thirst for righteousness' sake, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, & the persecuted.
To stimulate your imagination, let me tell you of a few of the folks whom St. Gregory's chose to dance with them on their rotunda wall:
Julian of Norwich, English mystic, anchoress, & spiritual director who spent years of her life living in an anti-room of the church at Norwich, survived the Black Plague, & wrote the first book in modern English.
Mohandas Gandhi, a martyred Indian spiritual leader who taught peace & reconciliation as he modeled nonviolent social change & led India to independence.
Sojourner Truth, an illiterate freed slave, eloquent critic of slavery & sexism whose "Ain't I a woman?" speech at an 1851 rally energized the abolition movement.
Charles Wesley, priest & hymn writer, who with his brother John, began the Methodist movement within the Church of England.
John Coltrane, a jazz saxophonist whose faith helped him overcome a heroin addiction.
An anonymous Alexandrian washerwoman who represents those who have prayed ceaselessly through the ages.
Thurgood Marshall, a supreme court justice who had a passion for fairness & justice itself.
Moses the Black, an Ethiopian thief & gang leader who, after conversion, became a Desert Father, an early monastic.
Jenny Read, a San Francisco sculptor who was raped & murdered while working on a sculpture of St. John of the Cross.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori, in her All Saints' sermon, reminds us that the Good Shepherd knows each of us saints by name even if we don't or if we just haven't learned them yet. She asks us to consider who are those who labor on our behalf or on behalf of those who are voiceless in our society. Such are those who are our fellow travelers who journey toward the City of God beside us & through whose examples we can renew our strength.
I'm reminded of the story of the college professor who once gave an exam which was pass/fail & had one question: What is the name of the person who cleans the classroom every day as we leave class? How many of us know our service people by name: the person at the post office, the bagger at the grocery store, the school crossing guard? Perhaps they are those whose names we simply don't know yet, but they may be anonymous saints of God.
You know, this God who is sovereign of the universe loves us each & knows & calls us each by name. In this world which is so polarized politically, in which there is so much criticism of our fellow humans, God is yearning to unite us, to woo us to love & live as God's own forever. The insightful Presbyterian minister & author Frederick Buechner tells us "In God's holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. The handkerchiefs are called saints." On this All Saints' Sunday, may we recognize God's handkerchiefs, celebrate them, & allow God to fashion them as God desires.
Sunday after All Saints'
2 November 2008
Text: Matthew 5: 1-12
Other: Revelation 7: 9-17; Ps. 34: 1-10, 22; 1 John 3: 1-3
On my trip to San Francisco while on sabbatical this summer, I worshipped one Sunday at St. Gregory of Nyssa, an Episcopal Church whose acting rector is Paul Fromberg who was previously rector of our neighbor church, St. Andrew's in the Heights. St. Gregory's is a parish we studied in liturgy class in seminary because of the amazingly inclusive worship practiced there. I'll leave a description of the Service of the Word to another Sunday, but when it is time for the Eucharist, the whole congregation, led by several drummers, proceeds to the open rotunda room with altar table in the center with a stately but joyful dance step. Gregory himself said, "Once there was a time when the whole rational creation formed a single dancing chorus looking upward to the one leader of this dance."
Up on the walls & ceiling of St. Gregory's is a double layer of 90 saints dancing with Jesus, the Lord of the Dance, leading the dance from the south wall of the rotunda. You have a sketch of a few of those saints in your pew bulletin today which I hope you'll turn to so you can fill in details as I lead you in our sermon today. After the Eucharistic prayer & reception of the Eucharist at St. Gregory's, the living, worshipping saints join those above them in a celebratory dance, offering themselves to God's love & service.
Surely it is this sense of our all being saints, joining with the communion of saints who have gone before us, of which we sang in our sequence hymn a few minutes ago. The song reminds us of the stained-glass saints who have made it onto our liturgical calendar which we commemorate through the church year—like St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, or St. John Donne, priest & poet—but each verse reminds us that each of us can mean to be one, too, God helping.
The Hebrew idea of holiness was having God's stamp on you, like a branded steer. Such is the New Testament meaning of saints regardless of which writer mentions them: those people called by God to participate in God's work who then actually do it. You may recall the words we say when anointing a person after baptism: "you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own forever." By our baptism we are called to become saints, a vocation it takes a lifetime to live into.
Today, instead of your giving me names of those who have gone before to name in our prayers at the altar as we usually do on the feast of All Saints', I want to encourage you to use your saints' page to identify those folks through whose lives you have seen the light of God's love shine, those who have modeled for you Christ-centered lives. I invite you to label the figures on your page, drawing more in if you'd like, coloring them in or drawing in personal characteristics, & then naming your own personal saints during the Eucharistic prayer this morning. Some of the saints who have influenced your spiritual growth may be folks who are in our official liturgical calendar as is St. Hildegard von Bingen for me, but you may add members of your family, friends, teachers, mentors—anyone who has allowed God's love to radiate from them to others.
Jesus introduces his Sermon on the Mount with a list of characteristics which are his criteria for sainthood—not the usual list for those who most win friends & influence people—but then Jesus usually threw in his lot with those who were marginalized for one reason or another, didn't he? Perhaps you know people who would make Jesus' list: those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek & merciful, those who hunger & thirst for righteousness' sake, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, & the persecuted.
To stimulate your imagination, let me tell you of a few of the folks whom St. Gregory's chose to dance with them on their rotunda wall:
Julian of Norwich, English mystic, anchoress, & spiritual director who spent years of her life living in an anti-room of the church at Norwich, survived the Black Plague, & wrote the first book in modern English.
Mohandas Gandhi, a martyred Indian spiritual leader who taught peace & reconciliation as he modeled nonviolent social change & led India to independence.
Sojourner Truth, an illiterate freed slave, eloquent critic of slavery & sexism whose "Ain't I a woman?" speech at an 1851 rally energized the abolition movement.
Charles Wesley, priest & hymn writer, who with his brother John, began the Methodist movement within the Church of England.
John Coltrane, a jazz saxophonist whose faith helped him overcome a heroin addiction.
An anonymous Alexandrian washerwoman who represents those who have prayed ceaselessly through the ages.
Thurgood Marshall, a supreme court justice who had a passion for fairness & justice itself.
Moses the Black, an Ethiopian thief & gang leader who, after conversion, became a Desert Father, an early monastic.
Jenny Read, a San Francisco sculptor who was raped & murdered while working on a sculpture of St. John of the Cross.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori, in her All Saints' sermon, reminds us that the Good Shepherd knows each of us saints by name even if we don't or if we just haven't learned them yet. She asks us to consider who are those who labor on our behalf or on behalf of those who are voiceless in our society. Such are those who are our fellow travelers who journey toward the City of God beside us & through whose examples we can renew our strength.
I'm reminded of the story of the college professor who once gave an exam which was pass/fail & had one question: What is the name of the person who cleans the classroom every day as we leave class? How many of us know our service people by name: the person at the post office, the bagger at the grocery store, the school crossing guard? Perhaps they are those whose names we simply don't know yet, but they may be anonymous saints of God.
You know, this God who is sovereign of the universe loves us each & knows & calls us each by name. In this world which is so polarized politically, in which there is so much criticism of our fellow humans, God is yearning to unite us, to woo us to love & live as God's own forever. The insightful Presbyterian minister & author Frederick Buechner tells us "In God's holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. The handkerchiefs are called saints." On this All Saints' Sunday, may we recognize God's handkerchiefs, celebrate them, & allow God to fashion them as God desires.
posted by
Hope Episcopal Church
at 12:46 PM
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