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Foundry United Rev. |
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“The Simplicity of
Sainthood” All Saints Sunday – Sunday,
November 4, 2007 |
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Luke 6:20-31
Rev. |
Sainthood
isn’t complex; it is just difficult. Today
we remember the saints who have touched history and we remember the saints
who have touched our lives. Later in the service we will name out loud those
people of our congregation who have died since last All-Saints Sunday and
those whose funerals and memorial services we have conducted here. There will
be a time when you will be invited to say out loud the names of the saints in
your life…those who throughout the years have touched your life, and who have
died, and whom you are mourning. Some of
us, as we listen to this requiem, may need to grieve the deaths of loved ones
whose deaths we have not adequately grieved. Our society gives us very little
help grieving. Our church doesn’t help us enough. So for some of us today may
be a day to grieve. We may
even find ourselves thinking about our own lives, which will end one day, and
what they will add up to…who will care when we are gone…who will remember
us…whose saints are we? Being a
saint isn’t complex; it is simple, I think, just not very easy. Jesus, in the beatitudes in the Gospel of
Luke, says blessedness or sainthood is about sharing in the poverty, hunger,
sadness, and persecution of life in this world. It
seems to me that it is this sort of thing that makes saints. Saints are
people who manage to share in the poverty, hunger, sadness, and persecution
of the world. Our personal saints are those who share in our personal
poverty, hunger, sadness and oppression. To be a saint to someone else, more
than anything, means managing to be there at the places of pain and hurt. This is
not a complex thing to do but it is hard, because we so badly want to make
things better, don’t we? We want to cover over the pain…to laugh away the
grief. Who wants to touch the hurt within another? Who wants to put their
hands in the wounds? Who wants to sit with another in grief and despair? Who
wants to taste another’s depression and sadness? We want
to make each other feel better. We are in such a rush to make someone who is
hurting feel better…to reassure each other that everything will be okay. “Don’t
feel bad,” might be the mantra of our society. But
sainthood is about poverty, hunger, and weeping. The greatest gift we can
give the world is not to hide from the poverty, hunger, pain and oppression
of our world. The greatest gift we can give one another is to be willing to
share another’s pain and grief…to stare into the depths without trying to
make it better...to be there without trying to fix things. This is
sainthood. It is not complex…it is just not easy. And this is what our choir
does for us this morning…they face the pain and the beauty of our grief. Let
us open our hearts to poverty, hunger, tears and oppression of our world and
our lives as they sing and as we share in Holy Communion this morning. www.foundryumc.org |
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