“Blessed Are You.”

Sermon Luke 6:20-31 November 6, 2013 All Saints Day service

“Blessed Are You.”

Blessed are you! Blessed are you!

As I walk down the aisle and say to each of you, “Blessed are you! When is the last time you’ve heard that said to you? Or that you’ve said it to someone?”

It is a powerful art and an incredible opportunity to offer someone the promise of God through a blessing.

We are all capable of blessing one another each day and perhaps several times a day if we get really excited. It’s an ancient tradition blessing those who come and go from the home. It’s an Old Testament tradition for a father to bless his children just before he passes from this life to the next.

On this day of celebration of All Saints. We think of those in our congregation and in our family who have died this past year. We lift them up and we remember the blessings they brought us.

We remember the holiness within them.

We remember the goodness of their nature and their gifts.

We rejoice in the remembrance of their lives and their witness.

And we whisper in our heart, “Blessed are you!”

For in our memory we can only draw the finest moments.

We can only recall the times that brought joy and the moments that stir our hearts with good thoughts.

And so the hard times and the difficult experiences melt away.

Yes, the one we have lost was a dear saint.

Perhaps a diamond in the rough, but in the promise of God, a saint.

Our churches’ story is filled with curmudgeons turned saints.

None of us is perfect.

But all of us are perfected in Christ.

And it is often their story that inspires us to continue to be the church for the next generation.

Not only does their story inspire us, but it also convicts us to go on and to do and to live out the gospel message.

We receive a message of hope when we think about the hard work done by those who passed away this year.

And thinking of them brings us to the question we face as we read and listen to these from Jesus-as we hear about the blessed and the woes. What is the kind of living that these beatitudes are saying we should have?

Luke’s beatitudes are described as the sermon on the plain and we find the beatitudes in Matthew as well and there they are known as the Sermon on the Mount. Luke, being a physician and a cut to the chase kind of guy, is much more straight forward than Matthew as he shares the words of Jesus for us. A lot more literal and less ‘spiritualizing’ one might say. He doesn’t beat around the bush about what way of life will be blessed and the kind of life that will be a life of woe.

Jesus makes it clear that the poor, the hungry, the outcast, the sad, and the persecuted are rather special to God. God throughout the Old Testament has been proclaiming the freedom of captives and the blind receiving sight and the lame walking.

So, as we hear these proclamations again from Jesus what does it propel in us?

It is to remember those who God loves and for us to love them too.

The kingdom already belongs to those Jesus has just told us about.

And so we wonder where do we fit in the kingdom?

We fit in the kingdom through the way we live our lives.

The foundation for holy living is to have the blessed relationship with God in Jesus Christ.

Holy living begins when we open ourselves up to the opportunities to be led by God to care for those God has placed in our path. We are freed from selfishness and greed when we are willing to put ourselves at risk for the sake of another.

My son in law had a traumatic experience on his way to work this past week. As he was crossing the prairie swamp in Florida a car flew past him at a very high speed. The speed there is 65 and he is one who obeys the speed and even drives under the speed. So he was not surprised for a car to overtake him. The next thing, however, he saw was the car flipping over into the swamp and quickly engulfed in the water.

He pulled over.

Before he could think clearly he was calling 911 and diving into alligator infested waters to try to save this individual from his submerged vehicle. Officers and rescue crew were on the scene in minutes, however despite their efforts they were not able to save this person.

I share this with you this morning because I’m sure that all of us would also without hesitation jump into deep waters to seek to save a life.

The beatitudes are a foundation of faith and life in which we are to seek to live without hesitation.

We are to be willing to dive in to care for the poor and the downtrodden without judgment. Judgment is God’s job. If we’ve been bamboozled, or played, God will take care of it. But, we can know we’ve done the right thing.

We find all kinds of excuses not to live the foundational living that Jesus calls us to live.

We are busy. We really are busy-too busy. We are taking care of our own bills before we get in debt caring for someone else. We have a few dreams to fulfill before we can offer our time to help others.

Jesus gets it. Jesus gets us. Jesus gets it-he really does!

And so he turns out the woes to remind us of the risks of not living in relationship with God. If you are laughing and making fun of others now-you best look out-because you are the ones who will be suffering next.

These are some pretty harsh words coming from Jesus! Jesus is not meek and mild here-he’s telling it like it is!  

He doesn’t stop there either.

He goes on to put in some tougher rules to live by.

“Love your enemies,” he says!

“Pray for those who abuse you,” he says! Jesus should know better than to ask those who’ve been abused to pray for their abusers-but he does! How can this be possible? These prayers are possible when we are absolutely secure in the love of God for us-because nothing can separate us from God’s love.

And when we live in that security-then even the powerful can’t hurt us and we have the strength to pray for them.

Jesus finally finishes his talk, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

No matter what the risk you face-care for others with the kindness and love you expect to receive.

Which brings us back to the powerful gift of blessing others.

Parents can offer their children as they leave home each day, a blessing to send them off with God alongside.

Coworkers, neighbors, care givers, attendants, service workers, all can be recipients of blessings as we offer God’s peace to them.

You will be amazed at how much strength and nourishment comes to you as you offer and as you receive a blessing.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Blessed are you!

Amen.

Resources: Feasting on the Word; NIB 

A Second Chance

Sermon John 11:32-44  November 1, 2015 All Saints Day

A Second Chance

Today is November 1, 2015.

We have started a new month and in two months this year of 2015 will come to an end. The next year will begin and we will be on to the next year of beginnings.

We go from day to day, month to month, year to year, around and around, cycle after cycle, season after season.

Our lives move from one beginning to one end and then another. In this cycle of beginnings and endings we witness the joys of birth and experience the sufferings of loss. The church calendar acknowledges all our beginnings and endings with celebrations throughout the year in the same we experience the life. All Saints Day is an important day for the church to celebrate.

It allows each of us to come together in unity and rejoice in the lives of those we have loved and lost and yet continue to remember. It helps us as the church to know that the beginnings and endings of those precious to us remain with us in ways that mold us from day to day.

We recognize the importance of the cycle of life so much so that it has even appeared in movies for children such as the Disney movie the Lion King where the song Circle of Life was introduced:

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done

There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love

Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life.

Perhaps this song was a hit because of the music that Elton John composed to make it popular or perhaps the words ring true for all of us we hear them again. Our lives form a circle, a cycle that moves through our time here on earth and into our time in heaven.

So on this day of remembering the people we have loved and lost, we honor their memories. We do this not reopen wounds or stir up long settled grief. But, we do this because grief is a human experience. We name the elephant in the room. We take hold of grief and allow it to happen here in this sanctuary. And while grief is something we have lived through alone and in loneliness, here in the church we join together in the solidarity of our experiences, our memories, and our unity with Christ. We have a second chance and a third and fourth, from year to year to join in the unity of remembrance.

Here in the gospel lesson from John, Jesus enters the place where his friend Lazarus has died. We witness the raw suffering of one who has learned about the death of a dear friend. Jesus who has walked among so much pain and disease and hunger now breaks down and weeps at the tomb of his friend. Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah has entered into the human experience of suffering. Jesus, God with us, has come to the moment of loss and personal grief.

It is deeply personal.

And in this moment we too enter in with Jesus.

In this moment we enter the fullness of God with us as we witness Jesus among the people who are mourning.

He is there with Mary and Martha as they struggle to understand why Jesus was absent when they needed him.

He is there with the crowd as they struggle to come to grips with life without Lazarus.

He is there feeling as helpless as they do in their grief.

He has truly been with us in all of our moments for he too has experienced them.

SO, Jesus, in the depth of grief, cries out to Lazarus to come out. Jesus cries out to claim that even in this life God has the final word.

Even here on earth God has victory over death.

Jesus calls Lazarus out to remind us as we remember those long gone that God has claimed them and God has called them out.

And in the cycle of the church we call them out year after year to remember them as the saints of God. We call them out in the sacred space of the sanctuary of God.

Their lives are holy and our hearts renewed.

I was watching a clip from a PBS awards celebration where Fred Rogers was being honored for his years of service to public television. Many people came out to honor him and to share the joy of his gift through the show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. Fred Rogers responds to the crowd who has paid him homage with a speech about his service in the television industry. He invites the crowd to think about the future and how they can make an impact in the television in the age to come.

“How do we make goodness attractive?” He asks.

“By doing whatever we can to bring courage to those whose lives move near our own. By treating our neighbor at least as well as we treat ourselves and allowing that to inform everything we produce.

Who in your life has been such a servant to you?

Who has helped you love the good that grows within you?

Take ten seconds to remember those people who have loved us and wanted what was best for us in life.

Those who have encouraged us to become who we are now.

No matter where they are either here on earth or in heaven, imagine how pleased those people must be to know that you thought of them right now.”

We have this day to remember the One, Jesus, who is with us always.

Imagine how pleased he is to know we have thought of him.

And as we gather at the Table of our Lord we remember and we rejoice in the power of the resurrection and the power and wonder of the gift of life as we cycle and circle through from this life to the next. Amen.