All Saints Sunday: Looking More Like Jesus
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Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford, CT
All Saints Sunday – Year C – November 3, 2013
Sermon by The Rev. Donald Hamer, Rector
Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
Last weekend your elected delegates – Janet Wilkinson, Alternate Casey Rousseau and Alternate Marie Alford-Harkey joined Deacon Bonnie and me in representing Trinity at the 229th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut in Stamford. The theme of this year’s convention was: The Way of Jesus: Growing in God’s Mission.
As we celebrate this All Saints Sunday, 2013, the passages from Ephesians and from St. Luke’s Gospel point us again to “the way of Jesus” and what it means to grow in mission. And as we renew our baptismal vows and, at the 10 a.m. service, welcome two new infants into God’s household, we can remember once again what it means to be a saint.
Let’s look at the passage from Ephesians. The first thing we see in the very first line is that we have obtained an inheritance from God. Now, aside from the fact that it usually means someone has died, getting an inheritance is generally regarded as a positive thing. I mean, who here does NOT want to get a large inheritance? In 25 years of practicing law and 14 years presiding over cases where people were clamoring for their inheritance rights, I can tell you I have yet to see the person who says, “No thanks, you can have my share.”
But this inheritance is not an inheritance like the one we might get from rich Aunt Matilda. This inheritance is not a pile of money we can run out and spend on ourselves. Ephesians tells us that our inheritance from God through the life and death of Jesus Christ is so that WE might LIVE to the PRAISE OF GOD’S GLORY. The writer repeats that one line later: we have been MARKED WITH THE SEAL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT – NOTE TO SELF – THAT IS WHAT WE RECEIVE IN BAPTISM --and that is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of God’s glory (vv 13-14).
And a couple of verses later we read that with our hearts and minds enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we will know THE HOPE to which Jesus calls us, and we may know the RICHES OF HIS GLORIOUS INHERITANCE AMONG THE SAINTS.
So let’s see. We have this inheritance from God – that means God has given us something of value. And with that thing of value, we are supposed to take it, and use it to praise God’s glory – that’s shorthand for using the legacy that God has given us to glorify God, and what’s more, to make sure that God is glorified among the saints!
Now, who are the saints? Really holy people, right? They write stuff that appears in the Bible. They perform miracles. They distinguish themselves in history somehow. If you look up the word “saint” in the dictionary, the first thing you see is something like “a person formally recognized by the church for exceptional holiness in their life” or “a person of great virtue, holiness or benevolence.” They get a day named after them and, in the Episcopal Church, get an article printed about them in Holy Women, Holy Men. These are exceptional, one-of-a-kind people. It takes someone like them to make sure that God is glorified. We begin to think of saints as someone whose performance and sanctity of life is unattainable for us. And we begin to think of saints as someone else.
And that, my friends, is a mistake. Because when we start thinking that only someone else can be a saint, it is the beginning of giving up that special inheritance that God gives to each of us. And how does God give us that inheritance? Well, in a lot of ways, but the first one is through our baptism. It is through our baptism that we join the community of saints – those who have gone before us, those whom we have loved and see no longer, all of us who are part of Christ’s church, and those who will follow us. All of us form “the communion of saints.”
And what is our task as one of these saints? The Prayer Book – and if it’s in the Prayer Book it’s got to be true, right? It may be in Scripture and we’ll find some way around it, but if it’s in the Prayer Book it has to be true. The Prayer Book sets it out on page 855: It is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever {we} may be; and, according to the gifts given [us], to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take [our] place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.
Representing Christ. Bearing witness to Jesus Christ wherever we may be. What does that look like? Well, a lot of things, but Luke gives us some ideas in today’s Gospel in the sermon on the Plain: Whenever the poor are blessed, whenever the hungry are fed, when those who mourn can laugh or have their burden lifted, whenever we can make the world a better place even in spite of those who may stand in the way. When we love our enemies, when we do good even to those who hate us, when we can bless those who curse us, when we can pray for those who abuse us, when we can give without ceasing – when we do any of these things, Luke tells us that we are representing Christ. We are bearing witness to Jesus Christ – following his way – and when we do that the world cannot help but stop and take notice.
That’s what each one of us is called to do, whatever our gifts may be. We need to use the gifts we’ve got to look more like Jesus. St. Paul tells us that all of our gifts are different, but Ephesians also promises us that each and every one of us has gifts through our baptism.
When we think of saints as someone else, as people set apart, as people with extraordinary abilities, it is so easy for us to tell ourselves, “Someone else will do it.” Someone else can have my share of the inheritance. Someone else will give glory to God. Someone else will feed the hungry, lift up the poor, educate the children, soothe the afflicted. Someone else will help teach church school. Someone else will bring that dinner to the sick person or give the person who doesn’t drive a ride to the doctor’s office. Someone else will step up and tithe to the support of the church. Someone else will bring communion to the person who can’t get out. Someone else will be a witness to the way of Jesus.
And that, my brothers and sisters, is when we begin to walk away from that blessed and abundant inheritance that God has offered to us in the person of Jesus the Christ. And when we do that, we sell ourselves short of the people God has made us to be. And not only do we sell ourselves short, we sell our church short, and the Body of Christ doesn’t look so much like Jesus any more. And when we’re not living up to our inheritance, we’re also selling God short. We fall short of the glory God has set for us, and the world – whatever our world is and whomever is in it – misses the opportunity to recognize Jesus in its midst. We don’t do it for our own glory. We don’t do it for the glory of the Episcopal Church or even the Christian church. We do it for the glory of God – the God who has a mission in the world and who has adopted us – who depends upon us – to be a part of it.
So on this All Saints Sunday, we celebrate our day! We renew our baptismal promises, and remind ourselves that we – each of us – are heirs to God’s grace and blessing. And that inheritance brings with it a responsibility – our responsibility to look more like Jesus, to witness to his love, to shine the light of Christ into the darkness of the world. I pray this day that each of us will look a little more like Jesus every day.
And so I’d like to close as we did at the Eucharist during Convention, by singing together that wonderful children’s song that we all know so well.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
AMEN.