How lovely. God has such love for us that we are called children of God. How beautiful. When God appears we will be like God because we will see God for who God is. How utterly astounding and good. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the peacemakers, those persecuted for righteousness. How hopeful and powerful. The texts for this Sunday, this All Saints’ Day, resound with glory and grace, unity and belonging, blessing times blessing times blessing. The contrast of such language cannot be denied when laid alongside the bombardment of political ads and fearmongering and social media yelling coming at us mere days before the election.
A picture of every tribe and nation united in worship seems naïve if not laughable. Envisioning each other as God’s children feels all but impossible when the message of our culture is one of winning and losing, for us or against us, completely right or completely wrong. Even Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount riff with blessings comes across as more fantasy than the living, true word of God. What do we do with such a stark rift between the signal of the Bible and the noise of our world? Can we really look like the God we profess to follow when we are so shaped by our professed secular tribes?
I listened to the podcast “Crackers and Grape Juice” recently with Douglas Harink as the guest. Harink he discussed his book, “Resurrecting Justice: Reading Romans for the Life of the World.” Harink, a Canadian commenting on the American political landscape said: “Both sides are thinking that somehow or another getting this or that party elected is good for Christians. I think my point of view is neither side is good for Christians. Because effectively they have become idolatrous powers that Christians are looking to for salvation.” He went on to say that he in no way believes Christians should not engage in politics and that there is an important role for such engagement. However, again and again, he emphasized that Christians look only to Jesus Christ for salvation and that justice is accomplished by God through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our focus, our ultimate hope, ought to be the same as that of every tribe and nation in Revelation: Jesus Christ.
I appreciated the conversation and it caused me to examine my own anxiety and hopes around this year’s election. Unquestionably, much is at stake and I believe it is incumbent upon people of faith to participate and vote. But regardless of outcome, Jesus will continue to be Lord of all, the Lamb on the throne of heaven, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel and God Incarnate. We do not need to forget or discount this irrevocable truth. Further, we will still be called the children of God and Jesus’ blessings of the meek and the mourning and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will not be rescinded nor prevented.
All Saints’ Day this year provides me with a sure and certain hope that is embodied not solely in Jesus Christ, but made tangible in the people of faith who have gone through many ordeals and remained steadfast in their loyalty to Christ and their love for neighbor and world. I do not want to tether my hopes too tightly to any earthly power because to do so is to diminish the providence and omnipotence of the Triune God who has no equal.
This Sunday, this All Saints’ Day just days before our presidential election in the year of a global pandemic, I need to worship the Lamb who died that we might live, the Messiah who ate with sinners and told us to love the unlovable and the unlovely in order that the world would know that we are his followers. I need to remember the great cloud of witnesses and the members of every tribe and nation over the vast expanse of time who refused to succumb to the lesser (but so appealing) gods of vengeance, hate and cynicism. When I picture that glorious heavenly worship, I see some of the saints who entered the Church Triumphant this year. Saints like John Lewis who said at Montreat in 2015, “Never, ever let someone pull you down so low you hate them.” The saint who said to all of us in words published in the New York Times the day of his funeral: “Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”
When I think this All Saints’ Sunday about the children of God who resemble the One they follow, I think about an elder in a church I served who worked tirelessly for equity in education, who when he could no longer speak, used a letter board and his pointer finger to slowly spell out “I love you” at the end of what would turn out to be my last visit with him. I think of so many who have endured so much and yet kept the faith, living the faith, focused on the saving power of Jesus Christ. I think of them and know they would tell me they were blessed through it all because they served a loving God who kept them from sinking so low that they hated another but instead had a good hope for all.
I do not know what we will wake up to on Wednesday morning — or any morning for that matter. I do know, though, the Lamb sits on the throne in heaven, Jesus came to save sinners, Christ will come again and nothing will be lost to the One who came to save the world. This beautiful, glorious truth enables me to worship this Sunday and tomorrow and the next day, even as I seek to do God’s will, however poorly, but surely with the promise that I, that you, that we, are so beloved we are called children of God and so we are.
This week;
1. In this very anxious time, how can you focus on Jesus Christ and act out of your faith in and love for him?
2. Who are the saints you are remembering this year? What do you remember about them? For what about them do you give thanks?
3. What comes to your mind when you envision the heavenly worship described in the Revelation text appointed for this week? What feelings does that scene evoke?
4. What does it mean to you to be called a child of God? What difference would it make if you understood everyone to be a child of God?
5. What does it mean to be blessed? How is that term misused in our culture? What do you think about the hashtag #blessed?
6. As you read the Beatitudes in Matthew, read them slowly, and picture those whom Jesus described as blessed. Are there particular people or groups of people who come to mind?
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