All Saints with All Souls 2017
I grew up in an Anglican Catholic Church. I was attracted to the church first by the basketball club attached to the parish where many of my friends played and then one Sunday I attended Church out of curiosity, not belief or commitment to Christian faith. My family was not church attenders and the closest they came to church was for the occasional wedding, baptism and Funeral. On the other hand every Sunday morning around 11am my father and his friends gathered in the backyard for what they called the catholic hour. It had nothing to do with religion but rather cold ale as we say and a sense of mateship and community. It was what could be called a gathering of the clan.
The street we lived in was very cosmopolitan with new arrivals from Greece and Italy, and hospitality was a key attribute of all who lived in their small houses close together. Our community was very supportive of each other and stories abounded of loved ones left in Greece or Italy while the Aussies lamented their Irish or Scottish forebears. The new arrivals were very religious being catholic or orthodox and they brought with them new cooking methods and cuisine. Children would play cricket or football in the street with watchful eyes from every house. Broken windows were not uncommon, along with braised knees and sore backsides. Central to our shared living was community and relationships.
I was reminded of these occasions as I thought about the Festival of All Saints with All Souls we are observing today. It is also somewhat fitting that we are doing so the Sunday after Fr. Stuart has completed his ministry among you and a new day has emerged in the life of the parish. All Saints is about the community of the faithful.
On Tuesday I read with interest David Morgan’s History of the parish from 1963-2013 titled “Christ Is Made The Sure Foundation “ that describes with references to the faithful people of God who have served the Church, this parish and their faith with passion, love and commitment. It is a story about community and the place of relationships in our mission.
I began my faith journey out of curiosity and found to my surprise that I even liked Church, the colour, the music, the smoke and the fellowship. My senses were stimulated and the mystery that surround the experience has stayed with me . On some occasions on great feast days one could not see the sanctuary due to the level and intensity of incense.
At the centre of the celebration of All Saints is community and our connectedness to each other It is an occasion to recall those special in our own faith journey. It is a great occasion to remember the faithful people of God, not just those who have celebrity status such as Peter, Paul, George, Mary or John but rather the unknown and the often neglected. They remind us of our connectedness to a great company of God’s people throughout generations and they provide a context and mission imperative for our own journey of faith.
I am sure you can recall individuals by name. I remember Ms. June our next-door neighbour who offered to take me to Sunday school at age 4 who introduced me to Jesus.
I remember Agnes Smith, a short lady of 4’6”, who lost both her sons in World War 1, her husband some time later. I remember her optimism, her hope, and her deep compassion for others and in particular her tenderness and gentleness. Each Sunday and most holy days, Agnes would be in Church irrespective of the weather or health. I found Agnes inspiring. Likewise Catherine Smith social worker and advocate for justice.
Today’s celebration in such a consumer and present day orientated society, eager so often to forget the past, do not any longer study history, relegate faith to the status of myth and so often unwilling to face an uncertain future, the theme of community, past, present and future, provide a focus for us here at St Georges, as we ponder and reflect upon our own individual and parish journey. We are reminded that as a fellowship of believers we are not a “Johnny come lately” event but a movement a radical movement that began at the time of God breathing life as we know it today into the creation. We are reminded that from love we come and to love we return.
In the passage from the book of Revelation we hear the promise of God ‘s salvation and redemptive act. Though they are themselves people who have suffered, the saints take delight not in what they have achieved but rather in God to whom their salvation belongs. The community of saints is diverse. Its members are drawn from every nation, people and language and yet they speak a common word. They share a common song.
Our Gospel reading describes the focus of God’s blessing, and we are reminded that it is the poor in spirit, the meek, the hungry, those who seek after justice, the merciful, the peace maker and the persecuted who get the “Guernsey or Jumper”, or as one commentator on the passage says, “the apple of God’s eye”, or “God’s preference for blessing”.
Jesus does not ascend the mountain, to escape the crowd, nor should we try to identify a real mountain somewhere in Galilee, as the gesture is symbolic. Nor should we suppose that Jesus delivered all these sayings at the same time. They are probably a collection of sayings. In the biblical tradition the mountains are places of revelation. Jesus ascent of the mountain evokes Moses ascending Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah and with unparalleled authority that belongs to him as God’s son, he now imparts a new sermon and interpretation of the sacred text.
Sadly and accompanied by much suffering and exploitation these promise and blessings have been misused both inside and outside the Church to justify the exploitation of the poor and calling on them to accept their lot as their reward will be in heaven. This is both a false and simplistic reading of the text.
They are promises that are to a have a profound affect now as in the future on each and every one of us. As we have heard all year from reading Matthew’s Gospel Jesus speaks not only with authority but also with a radical ethic for living. This is an ethic that has serious implications for all who call themselves believers and followers of Christ. The requirements stand in contrast to worldly values and expectations. They are the demands for a just and ethical society for today. To be gentle, to mourn, to thirst for what is right, to be merciful, pure in heart and a peacemaker is to show in our own lives the presence of God and signs of his kingdom. We are all diminished and our own redemption at risk when we fail to hear the cries of the poor and disposed for justice.
In a letter I wrote to the Age a few months ago I asked the question where is our moral compass for today? I was reflecting at the time on statements from politicians and other leaders in our community who claim to be Christian, enacting and supporting policies that will impact on those least able to bear the brunt while ignoring the failures of the powerful. Compassion and justice ignored at the expense of political expediency and economics.
Most of us throughout our life will have times of struggle, hurt, failure and disappointment. Very few of us will escape such experiences. The saints we recall today experienced such times. They stood alongside those who were voiceless and powerless and like wise we are called to do the same at this time of anxiety and confusion in many aspects of our common life.
Matthew’s sermon, like Luke’s account, has the power to undermine any truce we have made with the world of today and to awaken us to life under God. It is a risk-filled and precarious existence the one Jesus calls blessed. It is a call not to see the world purely through the lens of present but through the eyes of God. This is not an easy task, as the issues we are confronted with are challenging, and appear often without simple solutions.
There is much for all of us to ponder and reflect upon as we all struggle with the issues of the day that affect who we are as people and our relationship to God.
Amen