Citizens Of God's Kingdom
Sermon
A SEASON OF SAINTS
Sermons For Festivals And Commemorations After Pentecost
All Saints' Day seems a proper day to conclude this series of commemorations of saints of the church. Today is a day to remember the saints who have preceded us in the faith as well as a time to celebrate our own sainthood, the transformation the Holy Spirit began in us at our baptism and will complete in us on our last day.
All Saints' Day originated as a day late in the year to commemorate all the anonymous martyrs and heroes of the church who didn't have their own days on the calendar. In more recent times it has become an occasion to remember all people who have died in Christ, especially our own loved ones. But we also look forward today toward the fulfillment of the promises Jesus made to the church and toward our own resurrection to eternal life. In each of these different ways we are reminded of the way our baptism into Jesus Christ shapes our lives and our expectations: we are reminded, in other words, of our sainthood.
Today's gospel, the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, is also about sainthood. "Blessedness," Jesus calls it, and he means much more than mere happiness or good luck. The blessedness Jesus describes in his Sermon on the Mount is the blessedness experienced by people whose lives have been entirely redirected, who have found a new source of value and object of devotion.
That new source and object is the kingdom of God. In the previous chapter Matthew summarized Jesus' preaching this way: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (4:17)." And in a verse that leads directly to his account of Jesus' great sermon he tells us that Jesus "went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom (4:23)."
Apparently, then, the sermon that follows in chapters 5 through 7 is an example of the "gospel of the kingdom," and the saints Jesus is talking about are "blessed" because they have begun to live under God's rule.
Past, present and future are all united in the kingdom of God. The kingdom was inaugurated by the coming of Jesus into the world, and has been perpetuated in the church. It is present now as believers encounter Jesus Christ in the church and respond to him in faith and obedience. Most important, it is eternal, and Jesus' promise that all who believe in him will share the joy of life in the kingdom is the source of all Christian hope.
All saints - the great heroes of the church, the ordinary men and women who fill its congregations, you and I - have staked their lives on that promise. Some have already experienced its fulfillment and we celebrate their triumph; our own triumph, though yet to come, is just as certain. Who is a saint? A saint is someone who knows he will inherit the kingdom, who knows she will see God and lives as though those future events had already happened.
Anyone who enters the kingdom of God receives a new identity as a citizen of that kingdom. Saint Augustine, in The City of God, wrote that there are two great "cities:" the city of God and the city of earth. Christians, he wrote, are citizens of the city of God and only sojourners in the worldly city. They derive their loyalties and values entirely from their heavenly citizenship, and they always hope for the end of their sojourn and their final entry into the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city. Thus, even though saints live and work in the world under the power of the Holy Spirit, they are not worldly. Their vision always extends to horizons far beyond the world.
Paradoxically, the citizenship of saints in a kingdom beyond the world is precisely what allows them to live and serve in the world following Jesus' example. Saints don't depend on the standards of the world for their sense of self-worth or for their judgments of the worth of things around them. They are free from legalism, free from the need to prove their worth by their accomplishments, free from attachment to wealth and power: free to be humble, to make sacrifices, to follow the narrow and difficult path, to bear the cross of Christ.
Citizens of the kingdom of God also have a better perspective on the world. They can see the world better from the vantage point of the heavenly city; they can see it as it really is. The pure in heart, Jesus promises, shall see God: in other words, they will know the truth about God, as well as about themselves and the world. And knowing the truth they mourn. They mourn for their sinfulness and morality, for the corruption of human nature, for the cruelty and violence that persist in our society, for humankind's alienation from God, for the hopelessness experienced by people whose vision is limited to the world. But they will be comforted, Jesus says: their sorrow will be relieved in the coming age when the rule of God is complete.
Pictures taken by astronauts during their space travels often show a reversed perspective on the earth and its environs. Half the world looks upside down. The earth appears in the sky above the surface of the moon, shining brightly in the lunar night. Things look the opposite of the way they look to an earth-bound observer.
The citizen of the kingdom of heaven sees things in a similar reversed perspective. Things assume a different significance when they're illuminated by the light of Christ. The scale against which we measure the importance of things is inverted. While the world rewards pride, strength, cunning and assertiveness, saints of God desire poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy and peace. While the world teaches us to seek comfort and avoid pain, Jesus declares us blessed when we are persecuted. While the world praises nothing so highly as a good reputation, Jesus promises to reward those who are slandered and insulted.
So, is the life of saints a grim battle against the temptations of worldliness? Not at all. It is a joyful celebration of freedom from worldliness. Jesus doesn't suggest that his followers grit their teeth and endure persecution; he tells them to "rejoice and be glad." We can loosen our grasp on the world and its treasures because we have been given something much more precious. And once we escape our dependence on the world, we are free to love and enjoy our life in the world the way God intends us to.
All the saints we have honored in this series have exhibited the gifts of vision and freedom God gives citizens of the kingdom. We have remembered truth-seekers, peacemakers, agents of mercy. We have followed pilgrims on their quest for blessedness. We have learned to recognize the shape of a life that conforms to the will of God rather than the standards of the world. We have witnessed the ability of people who are free from the world to change it. We have seen men and women driven by their hunger for righteousness, and we have seen that hunger satisfied.
We marvel at those saints. We're humbled by their example, and we doubt that we can follow in their steps. Today we are reminded, however, that you and I are also saints. We have received the same baptism, the same Spirit, the same promise, the same faith that worked such wonders in their lives. We are members of the same communion, citizens of the same kingdom, children of the same God. We are reminded, too, that sainthood is not an honor to be achieved, but a gift to be received; men and women are made saints not by their piety, courage, or wisdom, but by the love of God. And in the new world that is coming we will join with all the saints in enjoying the glory of the kingdom.
G. K. Chesterton, the English novelist and biographer, offered Francis of Assisi as a model of a life lived by the light of the dawning age. Le Jongleur de Dieu, he called the saint: God's juggler, acrobat, jester.26 Like an acrobat who sees the world upside down at the peak of a somersault, Francis saw the world with its purposes and values inverted. Seeing the world upside down makes everything appear to be hanging: so Francis saw all things suspended, dependent on God's grace. This reversal blessed Francis and his friends with what Chester-ton called "a freedom almost amounting to frivolity."27
"Freedom almost amounting to frivolity" is an apt summary of the life of a saint: a holy joy that arises not from ignorance of the world, sin and death, but from knowing the truth about them and from knowing that there is more beyond the world. The kingdom of heaven is at hand today and blessed are those who live in it. Amen.
All Saints' Day originated as a day late in the year to commemorate all the anonymous martyrs and heroes of the church who didn't have their own days on the calendar. In more recent times it has become an occasion to remember all people who have died in Christ, especially our own loved ones. But we also look forward today toward the fulfillment of the promises Jesus made to the church and toward our own resurrection to eternal life. In each of these different ways we are reminded of the way our baptism into Jesus Christ shapes our lives and our expectations: we are reminded, in other words, of our sainthood.
Today's gospel, the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, is also about sainthood. "Blessedness," Jesus calls it, and he means much more than mere happiness or good luck. The blessedness Jesus describes in his Sermon on the Mount is the blessedness experienced by people whose lives have been entirely redirected, who have found a new source of value and object of devotion.
That new source and object is the kingdom of God. In the previous chapter Matthew summarized Jesus' preaching this way: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (4:17)." And in a verse that leads directly to his account of Jesus' great sermon he tells us that Jesus "went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom (4:23)."
Apparently, then, the sermon that follows in chapters 5 through 7 is an example of the "gospel of the kingdom," and the saints Jesus is talking about are "blessed" because they have begun to live under God's rule.
Past, present and future are all united in the kingdom of God. The kingdom was inaugurated by the coming of Jesus into the world, and has been perpetuated in the church. It is present now as believers encounter Jesus Christ in the church and respond to him in faith and obedience. Most important, it is eternal, and Jesus' promise that all who believe in him will share the joy of life in the kingdom is the source of all Christian hope.
All saints - the great heroes of the church, the ordinary men and women who fill its congregations, you and I - have staked their lives on that promise. Some have already experienced its fulfillment and we celebrate their triumph; our own triumph, though yet to come, is just as certain. Who is a saint? A saint is someone who knows he will inherit the kingdom, who knows she will see God and lives as though those future events had already happened.
Anyone who enters the kingdom of God receives a new identity as a citizen of that kingdom. Saint Augustine, in The City of God, wrote that there are two great "cities:" the city of God and the city of earth. Christians, he wrote, are citizens of the city of God and only sojourners in the worldly city. They derive their loyalties and values entirely from their heavenly citizenship, and they always hope for the end of their sojourn and their final entry into the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city. Thus, even though saints live and work in the world under the power of the Holy Spirit, they are not worldly. Their vision always extends to horizons far beyond the world.
Paradoxically, the citizenship of saints in a kingdom beyond the world is precisely what allows them to live and serve in the world following Jesus' example. Saints don't depend on the standards of the world for their sense of self-worth or for their judgments of the worth of things around them. They are free from legalism, free from the need to prove their worth by their accomplishments, free from attachment to wealth and power: free to be humble, to make sacrifices, to follow the narrow and difficult path, to bear the cross of Christ.
Citizens of the kingdom of God also have a better perspective on the world. They can see the world better from the vantage point of the heavenly city; they can see it as it really is. The pure in heart, Jesus promises, shall see God: in other words, they will know the truth about God, as well as about themselves and the world. And knowing the truth they mourn. They mourn for their sinfulness and morality, for the corruption of human nature, for the cruelty and violence that persist in our society, for humankind's alienation from God, for the hopelessness experienced by people whose vision is limited to the world. But they will be comforted, Jesus says: their sorrow will be relieved in the coming age when the rule of God is complete.
Pictures taken by astronauts during their space travels often show a reversed perspective on the earth and its environs. Half the world looks upside down. The earth appears in the sky above the surface of the moon, shining brightly in the lunar night. Things look the opposite of the way they look to an earth-bound observer.
The citizen of the kingdom of heaven sees things in a similar reversed perspective. Things assume a different significance when they're illuminated by the light of Christ. The scale against which we measure the importance of things is inverted. While the world rewards pride, strength, cunning and assertiveness, saints of God desire poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy and peace. While the world teaches us to seek comfort and avoid pain, Jesus declares us blessed when we are persecuted. While the world praises nothing so highly as a good reputation, Jesus promises to reward those who are slandered and insulted.
So, is the life of saints a grim battle against the temptations of worldliness? Not at all. It is a joyful celebration of freedom from worldliness. Jesus doesn't suggest that his followers grit their teeth and endure persecution; he tells them to "rejoice and be glad." We can loosen our grasp on the world and its treasures because we have been given something much more precious. And once we escape our dependence on the world, we are free to love and enjoy our life in the world the way God intends us to.
All the saints we have honored in this series have exhibited the gifts of vision and freedom God gives citizens of the kingdom. We have remembered truth-seekers, peacemakers, agents of mercy. We have followed pilgrims on their quest for blessedness. We have learned to recognize the shape of a life that conforms to the will of God rather than the standards of the world. We have witnessed the ability of people who are free from the world to change it. We have seen men and women driven by their hunger for righteousness, and we have seen that hunger satisfied.
We marvel at those saints. We're humbled by their example, and we doubt that we can follow in their steps. Today we are reminded, however, that you and I are also saints. We have received the same baptism, the same Spirit, the same promise, the same faith that worked such wonders in their lives. We are members of the same communion, citizens of the same kingdom, children of the same God. We are reminded, too, that sainthood is not an honor to be achieved, but a gift to be received; men and women are made saints not by their piety, courage, or wisdom, but by the love of God. And in the new world that is coming we will join with all the saints in enjoying the glory of the kingdom.
G. K. Chesterton, the English novelist and biographer, offered Francis of Assisi as a model of a life lived by the light of the dawning age. Le Jongleur de Dieu, he called the saint: God's juggler, acrobat, jester.26 Like an acrobat who sees the world upside down at the peak of a somersault, Francis saw the world with its purposes and values inverted. Seeing the world upside down makes everything appear to be hanging: so Francis saw all things suspended, dependent on God's grace. This reversal blessed Francis and his friends with what Chester-ton called "a freedom almost amounting to frivolity."27
"Freedom almost amounting to frivolity" is an apt summary of the life of a saint: a holy joy that arises not from ignorance of the world, sin and death, but from knowing the truth about them and from knowing that there is more beyond the world. The kingdom of heaven is at hand today and blessed are those who live in it. Amen.
