Charlotte
Collins Reed
Christ
Church Episcopal
November
6, 2016
All Saints
I met Brittany one cold Saturday night
in January a number of years ago. She
had gotten my cell phone number off the church voice mail. Brittany was about 18 years old, married,
pregnant with her first child, and completely out of food. Something about her voice was compelling and
I knew that she was telling the truth when she said she had spent the day
looking for a place to get food, but there were no food pantries open on
Saturday. So, I called a parishioner who
is a retired social worker, and we went to the church, gathered up food, and
drove to the address Brittany had given me.
She met us outside of one of the scariest housing projects in
Springfield, took the food, thanked us over and over again, and we went on our
way.
Over the years, I would hear from
Brittany every few months. Her baby was
born and she and her husband realized they could not care for the little
girl. Rather than having the baby taken
from them by children’s services, they put her up for adoption and chose
parents for her. Brittany called me from
the Emergency Room one morning, where she had fled from her husband who was
abusive. She didn’t want anything
material. She wanted to know she was not
alone and to hear a familiar voice.
After her husband got the help he needed and they got back together,
they moved in with his mother and I would hear from Brittany every now and
then. Sometimes she needed something;
sometimes she just wanted to talk. The
last time I saw her, she brought her new baby by for me to meet. This time, she thought they might be able to
keep the baby. Brittany had a clear
sense of what she could and could not do for herself. What she could do, she did. What she could not do herself, she got help
doing. What she was absolutely certain
of was that she could not make it in this world by herself.
I think of Brittany when I hear Jesus’
words on this All Saints Sunday. “Blessed
are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you
will be filled. Blessed are you who weep
now, for you will laugh.” We might
squirm a bit at these words, but Jesus is not saying that it is good to be
poor, or that we should be poor, or even that only the poor are blessed. But Jesus is describing a reality that is the
Kingdom of God.
If we were not caught squirming by
these first sentences in today’s gospel, we most likely are very uncomfortable
by the end. “Woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
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.” While Jesus might not
have been recommending poverty before, he does seem to have harsh words this
morning for those of us with plenty. Couldn’t
we hear something else from Jesus on All Saints’ Sunday? Perhaps something about love, or good works,
or the merits of our ancestors? Why these words on the day that we remember
our loved ones and all who have gone before us?
What Brittany knows, that I tend to
forget, is that we cannot make it in this world alone. The poor know we are all connected. Those of us who are neither poor nor hungry
tend to think that our success is all our own, and we forget that we are all
connected. On All Saints’ Day, we do not
celebrate the accomplishments of individual saints. The Collect for All Saints’ Day begins
“Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and
fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord.” On this day, we
celebrate our connection with those who have gone before us in the faith, and
our connection with our own loved ones who have died. We also celebrate our connection with each
other and the whole human family. When
the Ephesians are commended this morning for their love toward all the saints,
they are being commended for their love and support of their fellow
Christians. And when the Ephesians are
reminded that all things are under God’s rule, they are reminded that God
connects us all with one another. Jesus
pushes us one step further in the gospel when he tells us to love our enemies,
do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who
abuse us. This does not mean that we are
to allow people to abuse us, which is a sermon for another day, but always
needs to be said when these words of Jesus are read.
Christ Church is an historic
parish. Next year, we will celebrate our
175th anniversary. We know
that we did not get here by ourselves.
Hundreds, actually thousands of faithful people came before us. They did not know exactly what they were
building for the future as they strove to be faithful in their present, however
long ago that was. We can read the
history and know that there are good times recorded in that history, and there
are hard times. As we strive to be
faithful today, to be good stewards of all that we have inherited from those
who have gone before us in this place, we do not know exactly what we are
building for future generations. But we
do know that we are creating what future generations will inherit from us. All Saints’ Day reminds us that we are knit together
with those who came before us and those who will follow, in our individual
lives, in our community, our nation, the world, and in this very church. What we are creating for those who will come
after us? On All Saints’ Day Jesus
tells us that in the Kingdom of God, we are all knit together, past, present
and future, and living faithfully in the Kingdom of God without each other is
simply impossible.
Amen.
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