OUR JOB DESCRIPTION

 Sermon preached by the Rev. Michael Anderson Bullock

[Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31]

We are gathered on a day that overflows with life – God’s life.  We have a lot going in church today; and I not only want to give this day’s many wonderful elements their due, but I also want to identify the thread that (like a necklace) strings and holds this day’s precious pearls together.

Among this day’s many pearls, the largest is the celebration of All Saints Day.  The occasion of All Saints Day is among the most significant and essential avenues, by which followers of Jesus recognize who we are and Whose we are.  Through the reality of All Saints, we can see clearly what God-in-Christ has done in and through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and, thereby, we can recognize what this demonstration of the God-life has to do with us.  And even more to the point, the astoundingly Good News of Easter is that what we see in the Risen One is exactly what God intends to see in us.  That’s the main pearl on this holy and hopeful necklace.  “In your infinite love, [you,]God, [have] made us for yourself.”[1]  Today, we remember that we have a job to do and that job is to be the “Saints of God”. – ALL of us!

And the way to become what God calls us to be begins with Baptism.  You see, Baptism is the R.S.V.P. we make to God’s invitation to us to come home.  Baptism is the action the faithful take so that we can begin to receive into our own lives what Christ makes so clear: that nothing can separate us from the love [and life] of God.[2]

St. Paul sees Baptism this way, saying: "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ".[3]   This means that believers who are baptized have symbolically "put on Christ," that is, we have identified with Christ and his life .  (As a seasonal aside, perhaps in this insight we have a life-time of ideas for a costume we can wear that is more profound and long-lasting than the ones we use for Hallowe’en.)

In any event, in Baptism we pledge ourselves to learn how to take the life we see in the Risen Jesus as our own.  And let me hasten to say that contrary to so much that passes as an understanding of Baptism (for instance, that it is a cleansing, in which case we’d give Jim Frukin the gift of a stiff brush and strong soap).  But the reality of Baptism is that we follow Jesus in his death so that there is room in us for the new life of his resurrection.

Saying this as straight as I can to you, in Baptism we promise God and one another to learn how to die with Christ.  The waters of Baptism are not about being washed clean so much as they are waters in which our lives are drowned so that the life that is stronger than death can take root and emerge in us.

Learning how to die with Christ: Who’s responsible for this marketing plan?!  And clearly what “sells” in terms of “popular” notions of Christianity offers a life that avoids death and its pains, ensuring that if you are good enough, you can “go to heaven when you die” – as if heaven were exit 3 off the Mass Pike!

Learning how to die with Christ should give us all pause because it is so counter-intuitive.  For instance, folks like me waffle between learning how to die faithfully with Christ and trying to avoid death and all it entails.  But the profound and honest truth is that we only need to die once – die once to the fear of death and the anxious terror it affords – die only once to be free of that continuous bondage and suffocation.  That’s Easter’s promise.  That’s Baptism’s hope.  Yet, there are times in my own life when I retreat from the once-and-for-all dying to my fear and choose instead to die by 10,000 paper cuts.  Like many, I still have “miles and miles to go” before I sleep well with Christ, but with God’s help and your helping hand, I am committed to finishing well.  And you are, too.  This is one notion of what the church is about.  Why else would you be here?

Baptism is often referred to as a “christening”.  That term comes from the Old English word that means “to be made Christian: to be made in Christ’s image, which, after all, is God’s image.  However, it is sad and revealing that so many would rather “christen” a boat than our own lives.

Jim Frutkin’s baptism on this occasion provides us with a concrete example of what is quite literally his “Christening”, his “Christ-en-ing,” his choice to “put on Christ” as the new template for his life and work.  And Jim’s baptism also provides us with the necessary opportunity to renew our own promises to God – because (God help us) we do waffle in our God-commitment.  So, as with any relationship, we keep at it; and we join Jim in our ongoing commitment so that we can and do bear the Light of Christ in a world desperate for illumination and deliverance.

As I said, this is a big day, full of the abundance of the “gifts of God for the people of God”.[4]  But I would be remiss if I didn’t also tie all this in with this day’s gospel lesson because the reading of the “Beatitudes” on “All Saints Sunday” comes with a clear and penetrating “job description” – one that we are given at our baptisms.  It is a “job description” that contains our marching orders as followers of Jesus – if our Baptisms are more than churchy words.

It is significant that this day’s gospel lesson comes directly after Jesus calls the Twelve disciples.  In today’s episode, Jesus is teaching his core discipleship team so that they might live what they learn.  He is conveying the job description for those who follow him and those who will also represent him.

I mentioned the fact that to some extent I and most others waffle when it comes to honoring our relationship to God.  If upon hearing the “Beatitudes” (the “blessed are’s”) you don’t wonder about fulfilling the job of representing Jesus in the world, then I fear that you haven’t been listening.  The “Beatitudes” are as counter-intuitive a proclamation as one can imagine.  Yet, they are part and parcel to what it means to “put on Christ”.  In the briefest way, I want to take a closer look at their meaning as a way of revealing not only their truth but also their surprising practicality.

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.

Blessed are you when people hate you,

          and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of

Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven;

for this is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

But woe to you who are rich,

          for you have received your reward.

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.

Woe to you when all speak well of you,

         for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.[5]

Be clear: There is nothing automatically “blessed” about being poor.  Remember in another teaching session, Jesus instructed his disciples to pray to the Father, “…give us our daily bread.”  Nonetheless, believe the poverty that brings blessing has to do with creating room in one’s life for the reality and presence of God, which conversely then speaks to the reason that there’s trouble brewing for those whose life-compass is a function of what they can provide for themselves.

It's the reason that being hungry is a blessing, not that we don’t have enough calories to live on but that our deepest hunger – a hunger for true “soul food” -- will be satiated only by God and not what we addictively stuff into our bellies.

Jesus teaches that we are blessed when we weep because our tears are signs that we have dropped our defenses in order to embrace the presence of God and the presence of others.  How hard this is for most to allow love in is enough to make anyone – including God – sob.  Yet, to avoid being charged as a “loser”, we ignore our need for vulnerability and live the life of an emotional clam.

Jesus finishes his discipleship tutorial with strikingly clear words: to love our enemies; to avoid violence by turning the other cheek; to give to everyone who begs from us.  As I say, who developed this marketing strategy?  This is not practical.  This is not how the world works.  And that is the entire point!  This is the way the world works, but there is another way: God’s way.  And God’s way is opened up in a most sobering practicality in the words of the last line of the All Saints gospel:

Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

How much more practical does life get than this?  Which begs the fundamental question that each of us – baptized or not – is responsible for answering.  The question is: What is the source of your life’s standards?  This question is, in fact, the unavoidable religious question because the fact is that everyone is religious.  The problem is what we worship, what we hold at the center.

And if we dare not put ourselves or any other facsimile of ourselves at the center, then the reality of God must be delt with.  And that brings us back to how we started this day: With the hope, life, and job of being God’s saints: ALL of us – no matter what!

Alleluia! Thanks be to God.  Amen.

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[1] Book of Comon Prayer. Eucharistic Prayer A, p. 362.

[2] Romans 8:35-39.

[3] Galatians 3:26–29

[4] Book of Common Prayer. Eucharistic Words of Invitation, p. 364-365.

[5] Luke 6:20-31.