Saints My Eye!!

Luke 6:20–31

²⁰Then he looked up at his disciples and said:
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
²¹"Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
"Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
²²Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. ²³Rejoice 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.
²⁴"But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
²⁵"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.
²⁶Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
²⁷But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I wonder at this All Saints Day stuff. 

Where are these Saints, anyhow? Surely not in my congregation. 

Perhaps its a bit cliche to suggest that the Saints don't always look so saintly. . . 

but still, its true.

And so, I suspect, that as much as I don't think so, I think a preacher may need to remind the hearers of their saintliness. 

They won't believe it, and frankly, many of them shouldn't.

It was interesting - in workingpreacher last week, and I think on the podcast this week, were the comments - "Preach the text, not the day." 

Well.

Shall we ignore the day?

Won't the day shape our reading?

SHOULDN'T the day shape our reading, since the sermon will take place that day? And . . . 

Perhaps I'm just crabby because the lectionary committee gives us such crummy texts for All Saints Day.

I have to admit, that right now, I can't imagine what would be better. But something must be better. 

The blessedness of the blessed lies in most unexpected places, doesn't it? Makes me think of Mary - and Luther's reflection on the Magnificat - that what God "regards" in Mary - what he looks upon when he blesses her with the calling to bear the Christ Child - is her lowliness.

It is interesting to me that we have these two festivals in succession. Reformation and All Saints. 

The blessedness is given by God. It is announced by Jesus.

That's my Reformation reading.

I don't think this is especially fitting the texts, but I can probably wedge it in.

I have 3 kids receiving their First Communion on Sunday. . . 

I'm thinking of following a preaching path in which I speak about the disciplines of piety.
I know its a bit of a dicey path. Hard to speak of things we might do, without prescribing them as necessary, or somehow meritorious - not that anyone would use the term merit today.

I think I saw Stoffregen once ask - "What is it that Christians do that is unique to them?" 

And his answer was that Christians get together weekly, and have bread and wine and know God to be present in that simple meal. We might well add that it is unique to us, that we see that something that is done for the least of these our brothers and sisters, is done for Jesus.

There might be something to that. . . that a saints day sort of festival might invite us to ask who we are, and in light of this text, where Jesus announces the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated, blessed, that we might speak of how this meal- this announcement - this Lord to whom we belong - shapes the lives we lead.

Not that, hearing this, my congregation will look any more saintly on November 14th when we gather again. . .