The communion of saints finds itself an integral part of
God’s Kingdom, the Reign of God.
This is the one Sunday in the year when we
turn to our sisters and brothers and marvel at what God has given us in them.
Those from ancient times and those who share the peace with us today are all in
that great community of the living and dead through whose witness our own
witness is confirmed.
We give thanks today for all of them. And we remember that
saints are also simultaneously sinners. God calls normal human beings to the
communion of saints, not gods and goddesses. It helps to make our thanks all
that more meaningful when we hear about our ancestors and reflect on our
contemporaries with honesty.
Scripture’s stories are replete with those whose lives are
real enough to contain triumph and actions that make us cringe. Abraham tried
to give his wife Sara to the king. Peter denied Jesus three times. Moses killed
an Egyptian. Tamar slept with her father-in-law. Paul referred to his “thorn.”
Yet, through each of them–– and all the others––we catch a glimpse of God’s
desire for what is life-giving. This is true, as well, of our own lives and
those of our faith communities. We don’t always get along with each other, but
we are always brought together by the Holy Spirit for yet more inspiration and
hope.
On this Sunday, we hear Jesus’ words to the people who long
for hope in a tough world. It is a word for us, as well.
Matthew 5:1-12
Jesus is on the mountain teaching his disciples the
realities of the kingdom of God. However, they are the realities of being in
Christ's presence. The kingdom of God arrives with Jesus. To be in his presence
is to be in the presence of the kingdom. Everything that Jesus is teaching his
disciples in chapters 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount, is fulfilled in
what he himself actually does. The teachings describe Jesus: how he lives,
heals, relates to God and people; how he dies, how he is faithful in the Garden
of Gethsemane and the time of trial, the cross, the resurrection from death to
a life that is beyond and free of death, how the apostles share that
resurrection with him during the days before his ascension, how it passes to
his church to be the reality of saints in the world, those who have received
and been incorporated into the kingdom teaching. Above all, Jesus is faithful.
These are the realities of Jesus. Saints are they who know, are shaped by, and
rejoice in these realities.
This brings us to the other truth of the kingdom of
God. It cannot be Jesus alone. It must include saints, be passed on to the
saints. I knew a woman years ago who claimed that her father, long since
deceased, had been the last crafter of tortoise shell art in the world. When he
died, there was no one left who knew this once highly valued craft of working
tortoise shell into beautiful adornments. The art died with him, and is lost to
us. The point of Christ's coming to us, of his Incarnation, of his delivering
us from our captivity, is so that we too might be schooled in the arts of
living with God and each other in his kingdom. So there must be saints to
realize life in the kingdom; there have to be saints if there is to be a
completed communication, a coming together of heaven and earth. The saints
rejoice in the tangible union of heaven and earth.
The Sermon on the Mount ... describes
our freedom beyond the rule of sin and death and a promised destiny that Jesus'
atonement opens to us, one fitting for humans. The invitation is to take up our
cross and join him, follow him into his relationship with God and a blessed
life. Suddenly the Sermon on the Mount becomes the best we can imagine about us
and where we are going. It is a promise. Jesus leads the way, a gracious way.
Yes, we are to turn a cheek or two, to be forgiven and to practice forgiveness,
to practice peace even before the emperor, and to do it as a community
together—again and again and again, without giving in, hanging on like a
terrier to a sock. We are to live in Christ's gracious presence as witnessing
saints.
– John E.
Smith has served as a Methodist pastor for many years.
1 John 3:1-3 reminds us that we are children of God, and
that we are changing, always coming to know new facets of what God has wrought
in us. It is never-ending, this revealing. The saints, in this sense, are
always on the march.
And in Revelation 7:9-17 we receive the powerful vision of
the saints around the throne of God. For many of us, the words of the hymn “Who
is This Host Arrayed in White” are inextricably entwined with the vision. The
images of the heavenly throne, the suffering, the white robes, the singing, the
Lamb, and the tears wiped away all give heft to the abstraction of our
communion of saints.
The preacher is, today, free to lift up all the warts and
wisdom present in the assembly, and to name it all as precious.
Homily Service 41,
no. 4 (21 July 2008): 100-114.
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