Readings for Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday, November 26, 2017

• Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 and Psalm 95:1-7a  
• Ephesians 1:15-23  
• Matthew 25:31-46

"Welcome to the Haven of the Servant of All," Pastor Kinsey
There was a time, when for every spring vacation, Kim and I went all the way from the UP down to Panama, Florida.  We always went a week or two after Easter, to miss the college crowd, who famously take over the beaches at spring break (how smart were we, right?!) – and, it also gave us an opportunity to stop in to see Kim’s grandparents, who lived in the Orlando area. 
 
Ted and Esther Beckmann lived in a Lutheran retirement complex, called, Luther Haven, a beautiful little paradise, with their own grapefruit tree in the back yard, which we enjoyed every morning at breakfast.  Ted and Esther bought-in early to the Haven, when it was still very affordable.  And because both of them lived well into their 90’s, they made the most of their investment.  Once you were admitted into the Haven, you paid a very nominal monthly fee, and never had to worry about your accommodations again.  They started in a nice 2-bedroom home on the Haven property, which is where we visited them for many years.  And if they ever needed it, there was two more levels of care, assisted living, and a nursing home facility.
 
For them it was ideal.  Kind of like universal housing, for the well-off! 
 
Plus I think you had to be Lutheran to get in!  The Haven was a Lutheran built facility, and Ted and Esther were devout Missouri-Synod Lutherans.  In fact Ted & Esther were both teachers in MO-Synod schools, and Ted was a principal, for a good part of their careers.  Every morning at the Haven, at 9AM, someone came on the loudspeaker, in everyone’s home or room, in the whole complex, and gave announcements, and then devotions, which we sat and listened to with Kim’s grandparents.  It felt a little Big-Brother-ish to me at first, but was also very touching that we could have this family worship-time together. 
 
The MO-Synod is what we in the ELCA would call, our conservative cousins.  Kim grew up in that branch of Lutheranism, but when she was called to ordained ministry, she had to leave all that and switch over to the ELCA, because the MO-Synod doesn’t allow women pastors.  Women aren’t supposed to have leadership positions in the church at all, though, local practice can vary. 
 
We used to have some very uncomfortable discussions with them back in the 1990’s about opening the ELCA up to having LGBT marriages and ordained pastors, which they were convinced was against what the Bible taught, in their literal interpretation of it.  But then we’d go to church on Sunday with them, and when it came time for communion, even though we pointed out to them in their own worship folder that we weren’t allowed to commune, as outsiders – they just said, ‘come up with us.’  They were long-time members, and the pastor wouldn’t pass us over.  Ted & Esther wanted their family to commune with them, even though we didn’t profess all the right creeds and beliefs they thought we should! 
 
In Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats, the criteria for entering God’s New Age, also, doesn’t depend on your confession of faith. 
 
And this is the crowning one!  The final parable from Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – aren’t you glad!! – which takes place just days before the Passover in Jerusalem and Jesus’ final journey there: Maundy Thursday-Good Friday-Vigil at the tomb, and Easter morning. 
 
This is the climax of 3 chapters of parables, in a series of 7, all about the end times – what it will look like, and what that means for followers of Jesus. 
 
Jesus is the Son of Man, the Son of Humanity, or, the New Human Being, who comes at the eschaton in the glory of a King who sits enthroned over the whole world.  And all the nations are gathered before the King – for this “just ruler” will separate the nations like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 
 
As the New Human Being, separates the nations, whole peoples are waiting for their assignment.  We often hear this passage as the separating of “people,” good and bad, sheep and goats.  But the meaning can be quite different when we recognize that Jesus is talking about whole groups of peoples: Romans, Israelites, and Gentiles of various nations.  Who is it that each of these worship?  Who do they call their king?  There are pagans and Jews, and Zoroastrians, and Greeks, and Egyptians, and Persians, and on and on. 
 
Jesus on the throne says that “the blessed” will inherit the kingdom and realm of God, because when I was hungry you gave me food; when I was thirsty; something to drink; a stranger, you welcomed me; naked, you clothed me; sick, you took care of me; imprisoned, you welcomed me.  But those from the just nations were perplexed because they didn’t ever realize or remember when they did this!  But Jesus tells them, yes of course, “just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
 
“The unjust nations” who didn’t care for these members of Jesus’ family, “the least of these,” were equally surprised they had not done these things.  But they will also be judged on the same criterion – the ways their nations institutionalized and glorified, those who already had the power, the abilities, and privileges, leaving the poor and powerless to suffer and die on their own.  So, the nations of goats “will go away into a time of punishment, but the just nations into life in God’s new age," says the King.
 
Maybe the surprise, on the part of both sheep and goats, is that they were expecting the Son of Humanity to make the final decision based on their creed, their clan, and nationality. 
 
It’s just as easy to think that way, today, if we consider the zero-sum game all the nations play.  Who is the most successful?  Who has the most feared military?  Who is the richest? 
 
But when the New Human Being comes in glory, and all the angels, they will sit on the throne and gather the sheep close to their bosom.  Why?  Because caring for the homeless, the sick, the imprisoned and the immigrant, is caring for Jesus himself!  They will enter “the new life of the age to come,” not because of their creed or their strength to be #1, but because they actually care for “the goats!” the ones who we normally shun, and shove out of the way. 
 
In the realm of the glory of Jesus the King, all will receive a “Haven” of respectable living quarters, each with a grapefruit tree in the back yard.  There will be no separation of goats and sheep there, because the power to separate into favored and stigmatized, or powerful and downtrodden, will not fly there.  The realm of Jesus’ kingship is founded on caring for, and lifting up, those who are most vulnerable, those who have been used and scapegoated, for the few to profit and thrive.  No society or culture is truly healthy, safe, and free, until it is a culture based on, and following, the New Human Being, who is a servant of all! 
 
But the age is coming, and indeed is already here in Christ Jesus, where this ethic and egalitarian Haven, is taking root in and through us, the followers of Jesus.  And this universal Haven, this kingdom and realm of God, it turns out, is based more on sheep and goats recognizing their need for one another, not on the criteria of creeds of faith.  “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” 
 
Today, right now, we are invited into that new life in God’s age!  

Readings for November 19, 2017, the 24th Sunday after Pentecost 

• Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18 and Psalm 90:1-8, (9-11), 12  
• 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11  
• Matthew 25:14-30

 "Deep, Deep Hole!" by Pastor Kinsey
In 8th grade, I dug myself into such a deep hole that my dad had to come pull me out!  It was all because of Algebra.  Me and Algebra didn’t get along.  I didn’t seem to have much of an aptitude for it.  You won’t find one bone of empathy in my body for Algebra! 
 
It’s not because I skipped class.  I just kind-of  lost interest, I didn’t really apply myself, I guess.  So as it got progressively harder, I found myself in a hole I couldn’t get out of.  Even though I studied for the tests, my grades were sinking.  I didn’t ask for help when I should have.  Didn’t really care, ‘cause, well, I had stuff to do that I did liked!  Marching band, jazz band, basketball, the dance at the YMCA on Friday night, and, Confirmation class.  I loved Confirmation Class!  Got straight A’s there.
 
But in Algebra, when I got a D-, because I had dug myself so far in the hole, they called my parents.  I guess my dad was the one who got elected to come in with me early, before school started one day, ‘cause, my mom didn’t know math either! 
 
It was so embarrassing!  First, my dad was wearing a nice suit like he did to go into work everyday, and that just made it seem all the more serious.  But mostly, it was because my dad probably knew Algebra better than my teacher.  He could do it in his sleep with his hands tied behind his back.  When he was in grad school at Northwestern, he taught college level Algebra as a TA!  And now I had dragged him back to 8th grade, and he had to try and say something nice on my behalf – for his son, who was about to flunk out of Algebra 1! 
 
So I sat there in my little desk, between the two adults in the room, the two experts in Algebra, in their suits and ties, and it was decided that, Algebra wasn’t that hard – as long as you kept up with it every day!  You can’t let yourself fall behind, they told me.  And that part was certainly true, I hadn’t been keeping up for weeks now.  So my dad became my tutor at home.  He would catch me up, and get me back on track.  And if I did catch up, then the teacher would consider passing me. 
 
My dad, and my teacher, helped me dig out of a deep hole, because they had enough empathy to give me a second chance.  I think I got a C, or maybe even a C+.  But my dad found out I was really bad, at his best subject! 
 
We need empathy today, more than ever before!  But because we often can’t empathize with those who are not like us, we dig ourselves in a hole, a hole so deep, maybe we can’t even, get out of it! 
 
Well, we’re deep, deep, into Matthew’s gospel on this pen-ultimate Sunday of the Pentecost season.  And Jesus’ parables have been our guide of late – seven in a row, all about the end times, the coming of Christ, and what we do while waiting! 
 
Most of these parables function as warnings to be alert, but today, this parable, like the one two weeks ago, these two of seven parables, explain the meaning of the warning, “to be alert,” and what we’re supposed to do with this interim period, and, it’s not a passive waiting, but a responsible action, which directly corresponds to the realm of God’s justice and mercy. 
 
“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them.”  He doesn’t tell us, or the slaves, where he’s going on this trip.  Is the master going around the world, or traveling on business, or any number of privileged excursions?!  Theirs was simply to hold down the fort; keep doing their chores; and take care of his property in his absence.  They, the slaves, would never go on vacation, or be wealthy enough to go out on a business trip. 
 
But they do receive a surprising charge in the master’s absence: he entrusts them with a huge sum of money!  “To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one,” Matthew tells us.  Now, a ‘talent,’ is not a symbol for ability in this parable – at least, not originally.  A talent was the name of a huge sum of money, an actual weight measuring about 50 lbs., and equal to, something like, 15 years of wages!  So even one talent was like winning the lottery! 
 
What do you do with that as one of the slaves?  It must have been overwhelming!  It’s no wonder that we empathize with the first two slaves in this parable.  They’re the ones who get more, and make more, for their master! 
 
The first and the second do what the master does.  They take the capital, trade with it, and double it.  And when their master returns he tells them, “well done, good and trustworthy slaves… I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.”  That feels good, and has been pretty much what most preachers have commended us to do, too.  And from a position of dominance, or privilege – if you come from that, like I do – we see this as the reward for investing well, whether in a money market fund, the stock market, a bank account – or whether it means investing in people, making more of whatever talents we have.  We want to do good with what our master has entrusted us to. 
 
But unfortunately, this is not how the disciples of Jesus and his followers would have felt, or how they would have interpreted Jesus’ parable!  They would have identified with the 3rd slave, every time, the one who not only received just one talent, but who carefully decides to bury it in the ground, for safe keeping. 
 
To 1st century Galileans, the master was indeed “harsh,” as the 3rd slave describes him.  And the master, in fact, never denies that he isn’t!  “You knew, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter, did you?”  “He openly acknowledges that he steals his wealth, by co-opting the labor of others,” as Richard Ford says.  “His behavior is completely criminal [and] he is an unmistakable personification of Roman imperialism.” 
 
It’s a system, you could say, that upholds and insures the continued fortune of slavery.  It’s venture capitalism; usury; the work of insipid hedge fund owners.
 
And that this 3rd slave is afraid, is a very rational reaction!  He’s afraid of trading the money and losing it, which would be a disaster.  But also afraid if he buries it, without increasing its value, the master will bury him!  “It is a lose-lose predicament,” as Audrey West says, “damned if he digs, damned if he doesn’t.  He is so far down in the hole, there is no way out.” 
 
That’s the powerless situation all 3 slaves are in.  And the decision of the first two, is to “go along, to get along,” with the empire – they’ve lost their ability to empathize.  They don’t rock the boat.  But they commit the same sin as the master, bowing down to the false gods who rule the kingdom of this world! 
 
The third slave resists the this evil empire – pledging allegiance to the coming kingdom (of Jesus), and pays the price.  He doesn’t lose his empathy, for all those other slaves being victimized by the empire of Rome.  And his one talent is not only taken away, but to his shame, he sees it given to the one who has the most, the slave with 5 talents (enough for more than 2 lifetimes of wages).  “For to all those who have, more will be given,” says the master, “and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”  In the fallen empires of this world, as we know, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. 
 
But of course, this is exactly where we’ll find Jesus!  There among those cast-out, like this 3rd slave.  The empathy of Jesus, is unbounded!  Jesus, was born in a stable, being cast-out of the inn-keepers motel, and spent his life healing the sick and possessed, he stood up to the powerful being exploiting by the poor, and willingly let himself be handed over to the authorities to be crucified like a criminal. 
 
This, is the penultimate parable of seven, the next to last story, when the night is darkest before the dawn.  But the story of Jesus does not end in the deep dark grave, the hole dug for Jesus in an attempt to bury who he was, and his mission of bringing the realm and kingdom of God, to the world, and to us! 
 
The moment of redemption, lies in the power of the powerless and cast-out.  In the moment of deepest darkness, a light shined!  God will resurrect this project of the kingdom, and let it lose in the world, revealing the abilities of God’s people to live for others, and to live into the power, and promise, of the new-reality of life, on this side of the grave!
 
With the empathy of Christ Jesus at our side, we will never be lost or forgotten.  No grave could hold him.  No hole is too deep.  Christ is coming!  And as St. Paul said, “we are all children of light!”  

Readings for November 12, 2017 + 23rd Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 32)

• Amos 5:18-24 and Psalm 70  
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  
• Matthew 25:1-13

"Wedding Banquet Entrance," Rev. Kinsey
Jesus uses the anticipation and celebration of a wedding, as the setting for his latest parable in the Gospel of Matthew, about the kingdom of heaven.  Weddings are such weighted occasions in our lives, full of nervous anticipation – but also symbols of great joy, and markers of perhaps the greatest transitions of our lives!  Then, and now, weddings can be, and often are, lavish affairs, with significant resources devoted to them.  Planning can run into many months, or even years.  Brides and grooms can have dreams for what the day will look like, that have formed them up to that moment, and will continue to form their new families, all their lives! 
 
One of the expectations I had for my wedding was that, my bride, be on time!  And that was only because, the one I loved – was, nearly perfect in every way, I believed, except one – she was never on time!  Maybe I feared being left at the altar, stood-up!  And what I imagined was – just waiting, and waiting, as the organist played the Prelude, one more time, or three or four!  Actually, I’ve officiated at plenty of weddings since, where that has happened – so perhaps I was over-reacting, at my wedding! 
 
But, for Kim and me, we had agreed on a kind of unwritten pre-nuptial agreement.  We could each have one, non-negotiable demand, for our wedding day.  Kim’s was, I absolutely could not smash the wedding cake in her face!  And mine, of course, was, she couldn’t be late, not one minute!
 
Perhaps I got that from this parable – I never thought of that before, so it wasn’t conscious, if I did.  And, I had no intention of shutting the door on her, if she was late, or of keeping her out, like the five foolish bridesmaids in the parable.  And in the end, I didn’t have to worry.  Though it wasn’t easy for her, Kim kept her promise.  She was ready and waiting at the ‘doors’ – at least one, or two minutes, before the Processional! 
 
Their was somebody who was late, and that was my college friend, Roland.  While Kim stood ready in her beautiful white, wedding gown, just outside the church doors of the University of Chicago’s Bond Chapel, all alone with her 2 female and one male bridesmaids – Roland, the guy who had fixed my beater-car in college, more times than I can count, and whose passion was tinkering with his diesel Volkswagen, showed up out of nowhere, Kim said, asking in his awkwardly gregarious, way, where he could change out of his greasy-oily auto-mechanic clothes before entering the church and joining the wedding celebration?!
 
(Thanks a lot Roland!)  Mostly, Kim was just hoping he didn’t want to shake hands or give her a big hug!  They had never met before, and this was their introduction!  So Kim pointed Roland in the direction of the Men’s changing room.  And Kim was whisked in by her bridesmaids, through the opened church doors, followed a few minutes later, by a somewhat cleaned up, Roland the auto-mechanic.  No one was shut out!
 
‘The best laid plans,’ as they say…  And it seems like, there’s always a moment, an incident, some unplanned thing that happens at weddings, which may seem tragic in the moment, but usually you end up laughing about, when you tell the story over and over again, through the years. 
 
The wedding parable Jesus tells is no exception.  Why, in the first place, are the bridesmaids, 10 young women, dressed to the nines, going to meet the bride-GROOM?  Shouldn’t they be attending the bride?  Shouldn’t the bridegroom be surrounded by his male attendants?  This was a strictly binary-ordered society, which makes this all the more crazy!
 
And then we are told that five of them are foolish and five were wise.  The foolish took only their lamps with them, but the wise took flasks of extra oil, as well as their lamps.  Which seems to be pretty smart, when the bridegroom is delayed for hours.  And the delay was so long that they took a nap while waiting.  And like a sleep-over, I picture them splayed out all over the place.  But finally at midnight, the announcer shouts into the sound system, ‘he’s here!  Get up, it’s time to greet the bridegroom!’  And that’s when we find out, the foolish bridesmaids lamps, are about to go out – while the wise bridesmaids are refueling, ready to party!
 
So maybe the moral of the story is that when the foolish bridesmaids come back after shopping for more oil, and they can’t get in to the eschatological Banquet because the door was shut, that like them, we have to be ready for the kingdom, by staying alert!  “Keep awake,” says Matthew, “for you know neither the day nor the hour.” 
 
But, 2,000 years, is a long time to, ‘keep awake!’   That’s how long we’ve been waiting, as the Church, for day of the Lord.  And, isn’t it true that the wise bridesmaids had been napping too – but they get in – how alert do you really have to be?
 
And another thing!  The wise bridesmaids might be wise, but they are hardly a model of Christian fellowship!  They might be smart enough to have brought extra oil, but they certainly don’t act very charitably when the lesser prepared bridesmaids ask them to share!  ‘Shoo, shoo, get away,’ they say, ‘there’s not enough for all of us’ – even though they’re about to enter the well-lit banqueting hall, and presumably five less lamps wouldn’t even be noticed! 
 
And, not only that, but which “dealers” were these other five bridesmaids supposed to go to at midnight?  No one was open for business then!  Or, how were they supposed to light their way, with their lamps, all but out?  And, we don’t know if they found any or not when they returned.  Only that, when they came, the doors were closed and locked, and they were pounding and pleading, “Lord, lord, open to us!” 
 
So, what alternatives do we have, to try and make sense of this parable?  …I mean, I’m not sure I know what this puzzling riddle means exactly either!  I know it wakes me up, and it creates tension for me, deep down inside.  And once again, Jesus surprises, and stirs us up, and challenges the way we look at the world, much less weddings! 
 
It brings to mind too, how Jesus concluded his other wedding banquet parable, with the saying that, the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of heaven, ahead of the traditional religious folk!  Jesus seems to favor people we usually don’t!
 
One thing we do know about these parables about the eschaton, the end-time, is that they were meant to point us back to our lives, we’re living, right now.  They were stories about what would happen if things continue on as they are now, giving us an opportunity to repent, and turn around, as the word repentance means – like the Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, do – so that we can finally clearly see, that to follow, this Lord, the Messiah, is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life.’ 
 
So, what about this!?  What if the wise bridesmaids had decided to, share their oil, with the foolish bridesmaids? 
 
Or better yet, what if the foolish bridesmaids had taken responsibility for themselves, and not assumed they were unwanted at the wedding banquet?  What if they walked right up to the doors, along with the other five bridesmaids, apologized for their unlit lamps, and assumed the Lord, our good and gracious Lord, would let them in! 
 
How often do we exclude ourselves, assuming we are not worthy?  When is it that we have denigrated ourselves, not stood up for ourselves, maybe because someone has told us, somewhere along the line, we are not in, the in-group? 
 
But our God doesn’t work like that!  God knows that, none of us, really can carry enough oil to be perfectly prepared.  None of us is perfect enough to curry God’s favor.  But, Thank God, the bridegroom, our Lord Jesus, is at the door.  And the only way any of us gets in, is by grace alone! 
 
And that promise, frees us up, to be our best selves!  Come, the table is set!  Hunger no more. Thirst no more.  Welcome to the banquet of life!

Readings for All Saints Sunday, November 5, 2017

• Revelation 7:9-17 and Psalm 34:1-10, 22  
• 1 John 3:1-3  
• Matthew 5:1-12

Looking in the Mirror, Pastor Fred
My mother and father continue to surprise me, even in their deaths!  That’s right, surprise me from beyond the grave.  Not like ghosts, like we just celebrated on Halloween.  But like how they shared their DNA with me; like how they gave me birth, and somehow still live-on in me – give and sustain my life now, even today.  Like scatterers of seeds, or farmers, who watch their fields grow – and I am the harvester of their free gift – I take up the fruits, of their labor. 
 
In my family now, by which I mean me, and my partner and spouse, Kim – we don’t have any family pictures on our walls.  We’ve just never gotten into those kind of galleries.  Whereas, in my parent’s house, they had a whole room full of family photos going all the way back to our immigrant ancestors who arrived from Germany and Wales in the 1850’s. 
 
So, the year my parents gave all 4 of us kids a portrait of them for our Christmas present, we just smiled and said thank you.  And looked at each other knowingly, like, where are we going to put this?!  It was an ‘good’ picture.  Not their best, I don’t think.  But it would turn out to be their last formal photo together, about a year before my dad died in 2010, which gave it special significance for me. 
 
I think it sat in a pile of papers and things on my desk at home for that whole year, awaiting my decision.  I couldn’t bear to get rid of it – but I didn’t know where it rightly belonged either!  Kim and I, still had no desire to start a family gallery, and didn’t really have room for that anyway. 
 
But a funny thing happened one day.  Because, in our apartment we have two bathrooms, one for each of us, it worked out.  Out of the blue, I noticed for the first time that there was a thin little nail on the bare wall opposite the sink, that must have been there from the last tenants – and I thought, that’s it, it’s made for the picture, that’s where it goes! 
 
You can tell I’m not much of a decorator, right!?!
 
But now every morning and every night as I brush my teeth, I can look in the mirror, and right over my left shoulder, their they are, together, and smiling at me, just as I remember them! 
 
It still took a while to fully appreciate – I wasn’t sure it was appropriate at first.  But gradually, unexpectedly, they seemed to come alive, more and more.  And now I remember new things, like the ways I’m like them – sometimes for better, and sometimes in ways I’m trying to change!  And that inspires me to redouble my efforts to be my best self.  The self God gave me, through my parent’s gift of birthing me – the self I have become, with their help, and, on my own.  And especially their gift of bringing me to the baptismal font on Thanksgiving Day, when I was a month old, which set me off on this incredible faith journey! 
 
“Blessed, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said to his disciples, and the surrounding crowds, in his Sermon on the Mount.  These, and the 7 other Beatitudes, were a gift he gave them, and us – that at first, is not all that easy to understand – but definitely is a nice picture to have hanging on your wall, that you can go back to, again and again!
 
Part of the mystery of the Beatitudes is how to translate them.  Some say “blessed are you”, others say, “happy are you,” while other suggest, “honored are you…”  But all agree, and point out, that they are declarative!  The first one pronounces a state of blessing, or honor, in the present tense – right now.  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs IS the kingdom of heaven!  Then, ‘blessed are those who mourn; honored are the non-violent; happy are those who hunger and thirst for justice; blessed are the compassionate; honored are the contemplative in mind; and happy are the peacemakers; for they WILL’ – in the future – ‘be comforted; inherit the earth; be filled; receive compassion; see God; and be called children of God.’ 
 
We pray today, for these blessings for ‘all the saints’ we know, and remember, on this All Saints Sunday, just as Jesus taught his Disciples, including us, to pray, that God’s kingdom and realm of heaven, where these blessings live already, would come to us and live on earth, through our community of faith.
 
The Beatitudes are the characteristics of God’s kingdom and realm, among All the Saints.  And as such, they are a radical departure from the expectations we normally encounter in our lives.  When we look in the mirror, we usually look for the face of success: for riches not poverty; for self-assurance not mourning; for strength and social status not meekness or non-violence; for abundance not hungering, thirsting or sacrificing for justice; for power and a charming wit not compassion; for the readiness to strike back when attacked not working for peace. 
 
So, the beatitudes are Counter-cultural.  The agenda and values of the kingdom Jesus inaugurated, are ‘not of this world.’  They are the blessings of ‘Life,’ and not temptations towards the culture leading to death.
 
Brian McLauren describes the Beatitudes, which are the opening salvo of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, in this way: “Jesus has been speaking for only a matter of seconds, and he has already turned our normal status ladders and social pyramids upside down.
 
“Our choice is clear from the start: If we want to be his disciples, we won’t be able to simply coast along and conform to the norms of our society. We must choose a different definition of well-being, a different model of success, a new identity with a new set of values.
 
“Jesus promises we will pay a price for making that choice.  But he also promises we will discover many priceless rewards. If we seek the kind of unconventional blessedness he proposes, we will experience the true aliveness of God’s kingdom, the warmth of God’s comfort, the enjoyment of the gift of this Earth, the satisfaction at seeing God’s restorative justice come more fully, the joy of receiving mercy, the direct experience of God’s presence, [and] the honor of association with God. That is the identity he invites us to seek.” (We Make the Road by Walking, pp. 127-29)
 
How can we live well in this world God created for all people?  How can we honor the gifts of our parents and grandparents and ancestors in the faith?  How can we live with ourselves when we look in the mirror? 
 
On All Saints we remember and celebrate, how thin the veil is that separates us in this world from the next.  And that baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, we no longer have to fear death, but live in the kingdom and realm of God already.  The older I get, the more I feel that I am closer to my parents, who are now on the other side of the veil, who, like all our ancestors in the faith, have gone before us in the cloud of witnesses, and who seem more real to me, in a new way, all the time. 
 
And so as the children of Abraham and Sarah, we all live by faith, as St. Paul says, which makes us, siblings of our true family.  And as sisters and brothers, we all walk a journey of faith together – a journey that comes from God and is going to God.  Let us chose this path of life!  A path that joins all the saints who are gathered ‘before the throne of God, where in our white robes washed in the blood of the Lamb,’ as Revelation says, we live in the realm of God where ‘there is hunger no more, and thirst no more, …and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.’
 
May we be blessed by the rich mercy of God, and joined to each other in faith, wherever we are on our spiritual journeys!