Revelation 7: 9 – end; 1 John 4: 1 – 3; Matthew 5: 1 – 12
As Stephen has already reminded the children, today is All Saints Day, when we remember those who have gone before us, the founders and the great heroes of our faith. I haven’t asked our candidates for admission to communion whether they have any particular favourites, but for many of us there are great Christians who inspire or encourage us. People who by their example show us how we might live out our faith. But it’s worth remembering that even those we honour as the greatest saints have never been ALL good, ALL the time. Even they make mistakes and get things wrong. That can be an encouragement to us too.
Our collect for All Saints Day also reminds us, as Stephen told the children earlier, that we’re ‘knit together’ in communion with those who have gone before us. Every week as we meet around God’s table we remind ourselves in the Eucharistic prayer that we are in the company of angels, archangels and the whole company of heaven, but we are perhaps especially conscious of this today. On this special day it’s very appropriate that we shall also be admitting Ava, James and Oliver to share in communion with us as well as with all the saints.
Quite soon, as we admit Ava, James and Oliver, we shall be saying these words:
“We are God’s pilgrim people. We share in the story of God’s love for the world, God’s love in Christ, calling us to himself, God’s love in the spirit, giving strength for our journey of faith.”
What does it mean, then, for all of us here in Hampstead Parish Church to be God’s pilgrim people? To follow the way of Christ as the saints tried to do? Jesus calls such people ‘Blessed’ or ‘Happy’ in our Gospel passage. What is it, I wonder, that makes us feel particularly blessed? For each of us it is probably something different.
But our Gospel passage gives us some rather surprising answers as to what it means to be blessed. First Matthew paints a picture of Jesus seated, in authority, like a king, on a mountain. Here is the new Moses, but one who is also greater than Moses. Moses gave the Law to the people of Israel, but Jesus speaks of how it will be fulfilled when the kingdom comes in its fullness. Next Matthew shows us the crowd in front of Jesus, the ordinary struggling human beings who made up the church for whom he wrote his Gospel. Jesus speaks to them as people who know they are needy, who cry out at so much that is wrong in their lives and in the world and who turn to Him.
1 They’re not the champions of faith who can rejoice even when things are really tough, but the ones who mourn over their own suffering because they know that they have perhaps brought it on themselves – or perhaps not – and over the suffering of others because that’s just the way it makes them feel to be in the same room with them.
They’re not the ones who are righteous or good, but the ones who hope they will be someday and in the meantime are well aware that the distance they still have to go is even greater than the distance they’ve already come.
They’re not the ones who have found peace in its fullness, but the ones who, just for that reason, try to bring it about wherever and however they can—peace with their neighbours and God, peace with themselves.
Jesus saved for last the ones who side with heaven even when any fool can see it’s the losing side and all you get for your pains is pain. Looking into the faces of his listeners, He speaks to them directly. “Blessed are you,” He says, “when you are persecuted for my sake”.
If we use our imagination we can perhaps see the people looking back at Jesus. They’re not what you’d call a high-class crowd—peasants and fishermen for the most part, on the shabby side, not all that bright. It doesn’t look as if there’s a hero or a saint among them. They have their jaws set. Their brows are furrowed with concentration.
These are ordinary people set on pilgrimage, on following the way of Christ. Their blessedness or happiness comes from a right relationship with God. They acknowledge their own vulnerability and dependence on God; they cry out against injustice. There’s nothing glamorous about them. They haven’t got everything sorted; they’re certainly not perfect.
We may be different from them in some respects; better fed, better educated, better off. So, how, I wonder, would Jesus tweak these famous phrases if He was standing where I am now looking down on the congregation of St John at Hampstead? What would He say to us; what would He say to Ava and James and Oliver?
We can’t know exactly, but certainly Jesus would have known Psalm 84, which says “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage” (Psalm 84:5, New International Version)
Blessed are you, Ava, James and Oliver as you take a new step along that road of pilgrimage today. Let us support them with our love and our prayers. And let us remember that together we are all God’s pilgrim people.
Amen
1 This and the following paras paraphrased from http://frederickbuechner.com/content/beatitudes-0 – The Beatitudes by Frederick Buechner