Today, on All Saints Sunday, we remember church members, family and friends who have died over the last twelve months. And as we recall them and their lives and their significance to us, we also remember the gifts they shared with us, especially those gifts we continue to carry into the world in their honor. Their spirits live on in their children, families and friendships.
Author Alice Walker once wrote a short essay called “A name is sometimes an ancestor saying, “Hi, I’m with you.” Across cultures indigenous peoples call the people who lived before us throughout history our “spirit helpers.”[i] Because her name comes from the Greek word for “truth” Walker names Sojourner Truth as one of her own spirit helpers, writing,
She smiles within my smile. That irrepressible great heart rises in my chest. Every experience that roused her passion against injustice in her lifetime shines from my eyes.[ii]
Walker writes, “The spirit of our helpers incarnates in us, making us more ourselves by extending us far beyond.”[iii]
She then suggests that this is how we might understand the transformation we experience through faith, a way of becoming not only “like” Jesus but embodying Jesus to the people we meet.
In today’s gospel, Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Plain, and while we often hear the language of blessing and woe as language of divine favor or damnation, it’s hard to find the good news in that interpretation. Luther Seminary New Testament professor Matt Skinner suggests that the meaning changes when, instead, we hear “blessed” as “satisfied” or “unburdened.” Skinner also translates “woe” as “yikes” or “look out!”, and Eugene Peterson writes in his Message paraphrase, “There’s trouble ahead!” The word is like a bright yellow traffic sign or flashing lights.
With these woe statements, Jesus cautions us to be alert for those things in life that are distractions that divert us from following Jesus and from being Jesus to those we meet.
The poor, the hungry, the grieving and those who have been discarded by the world are people who trust God because their other options have been stripped away. Trusting God is more difficult for anyone who still thinks we can stand on our own or make our own way; it is more difficult when we only look for God’s mercy after we’ve exhausted every other possibility, instead of beginning on our knees at the foot of the cross with God.
Addressing “those who are listening” Jesus seems to acknowledge that some won’t listen, even among those who are close to him, even among those who profess to follow him.
And then Jesus gives a rapid succession of commands to the disciples, instructing them to live in faithful obedience with their eyes set on Jesus, saying:
Love. Do good. Bless. Pray. Submit. Give. Serve.
Just like six of the ten commandments Moses received on Sinai, these commands are focused on our relationships with the people in our lives. Jesus tells us to be motivated by the love and mercy of God to be Christ to them:
- Love your enemies; love the very same people you despise or you think are unlovable.
- Do good regardless of whether you will reap the benefit or your good will be appreciated or even acknowledged.
- Bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you; importantly, Jesus doesn’t say to subject yourself to continued abuse or continue in relationship with the abuser, but we are called to see each person — no matter how much it upsets our dual-thinking — as someone whom God can love and redeem.
- Jesus then says to offer your other cheek to one who slaps you and offer your coat to the one who would take your shirt. He commands us to adopt a posture of humility in the world, to submit to God’s care and provision.
Give to those who beg. - And “do to others as you would have them do to you,” an instruction to serve others selflessly, entering into relationship with them and addressing their needs as brothers and sisters.
But just as Walker suggests that our “spirit helpers” empower us to be more ourselves, who we are created to be, Saint Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians that we have been “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit” (v. 13) — that we are no longer trying to imitate Christ by our own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, given to us.
This process of becoming more Christ-like, of being made holy and righteous, through faithful obedience is sanctification.
As Martin Luther wrote in the explanation of the third article of the Creed,
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but [the Holy Spirit] calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies [or makes righteous] the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith...[v]This is faith active in our lives, transforming us, setting us apart, sanctifying us or making us holy, and empowering us.
Too often we live out of our brokenness, and when we do that, we will have trouble ahead.
But, from Jesus we hear the Good News that through faith, we can live in a world in right relationship with God and with each other.
Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are called to live holy and perfect in an imperfect and broken world. We have a great cloud of witnesses who went before us and whose memories continue to sustain us even as we follow Jesus now.
Let us pray…[vi]
Holy and Redeeming God,
We give you our thanks and praise that through your Son Jesus you make us holy and count us among your saints;
By your great power you have called us to a rich hope and given us the word of truth that gives us life in Christ.
Send us out as your witnesses, confident that we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, that we may love others and live out Your Good News in the world.
We pray in the name of Your Son Jesus, our savior and Lord. Amen.
[i] Alice Walker. Living by the Word. 97.
[ii] ibid
[iii] Walker, 98.
[iv] David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. Feasting on the Word: Year C, Volume 4: Season after Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ) (Kindle Locations 8521-8522).
Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition.
[v] “Small Catechism, Book of Concord, 355-56.
[vi] adapted from Laughing Bird Liturgical Resources, http://laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html
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