All Saints Sunday, Year C

A POOR SOUL’S GUIDE TO SPOTTING SAINTS

Luke 6:20-31 
All Saints Sunday, Year C 
Analysis by Fred Niedner   

20Then looked up at his disciples and said:  
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  
21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. 
“Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 
22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 
24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.  
25“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.  
26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. 
27“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

“Whatever else it might be, the ‘kingdom of God’ Jesus talked about manifests itself in the life and habits of that crucified-with-Christ crowd scattered about the world among the rich and poor of all nations… ‘Take heart, my friend. Today you’re with us.’”

DIAGNOSIS: Woe to Those Who Revel in Their Own Blessedness 

Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – Practical Beatitudes 
Common sense suggests we can easily enough tell saints from sinners, who’s blessed and who’s cursed in this world, or at least whom God has looked out for and who seems to have slipped off God’s radar. Hence, when we prosper, our health is sound, and all’s right with our world, we give thanks for all our “blessings.” What a comfort to be among God’s favored ones! However, when the hurricane strikes, our bodies fail, and the world blames us even as it betrays our children, we cry out in protest. “You’ve not merely forsaken us, God. You’ve shat on us! WTH?????” 

Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – Homemade Theology 
Despite knowing better, we succumb to the temptation to let economics and the vagaries of nature serve as revelatory signs of who God is and what God is up to in our lives and world. Hence, weal and woe become the fodder for nearly all the bad theology that our self-worshiping, control-seeking hearts and minds concoct. When we’re rich and healthy, we trust we are deserving, and we’re pretty sure those whose lives have crashed drove themselves carelessly into the ditch. They smoked, drank, drugged, gambled, and believed everything they saw on social media. They have only themselves to blame. We will, however, offer them the same comforts Job’s friends kept handy for such occasions. Everything happens for a reason. It could have been worse. God only whacks those whom God loves. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. On the other hand, when we’re among the poor, downtrodden, and God-forsaken, we brood and our hearts feed on the bitter grist of resentment. God’s justice is bent. Like our brother Cain, we can’t wring God’s neck, but we can squeeze the breath out of God’s happy, cheerful pets. Take that, God!  

Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – For Want of a Paraclete, Advocate, or Friend…  
Cain and his spiritual progeny only succeed in living by themselves, bereft of siblings or friends with whom they might laugh or weep. Hatred that makes an enemy of everyone with more than we have, even if it doesn’t lead to murder, leaves us alone in the world. We languish in isolated cells whose bars and locks are our own jealousies and the certainty that we could run the world more justly than God seems to manage. Jesus warns that the rich, too, end up with no one, sans consolation or paraclete, and instructed by Jesus’ parable later in Luke about the man who feasted sumptuously every day while a poor man languished on his doorstep, we know very well how desolate and friendless all the money and power in the world can leave someone. The curse that brings woe on all of us rich, satisfied, and adored folks of this world is our well-layered insulation. We cleave to our trusty security blankets that save us from ending up like ‘those people.’ We need no one, except perhaps for a respectable number of fans to worship us, but we keep even them at a distance. Poor and angry or rich and satisfied, we’re all dead to the real world – not to mention the alternative realm of lives we ignore even though they are scattered all about us – well before we take our last breath. Then we do just that. Alone. 

PROGNOSIS: The Realm of the Blessed in Wherever He Finds You 

Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – Never Alone 
Alone, that is, except for the truth that we never suffer anything totally alone, for the one who calls us impoverished folks “blessed” when we hunger, weep, and disappear into the ranks of the reviled, shunned, and buried is in fact the “lord” of that realm. He’s the king of the crucified, the trusty companion of all who have nothing left but a few remaining breaths. And to all who find themselves nailed with him there in that company that seems for all the world to epitomize woe, he gives them all he has—his life, his breath, even his very body and blood. When left in God’s hands, his life, and that of everyone else to whom and for whom he gave his life, continues on in the exercise of love, mercy, charity, and forgiveness that knows no bounds or end. Most remarkably, perhaps, the crucified one waits patiently for the rich, the satisfied, and all of us careless revelers until the day of woe inevitably surprises us. Then, just barely above the din of weeping, we hear him. “At last, I’ve found you. Come with me,” he says. 

Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – In Weal or Woe, Trusting His Promise 
And so we do, whereupon we find ourselves embraced in a community whose love and faithfulness is a gift of the Holy Breath that births within us a simple trust that whether we find ourselves in green pastures or barren stretches of wilderness, whether the world currently praises or mocks us, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord whose last word to us is always, “Today you’re with me, and together we share the life of the blessed.” 

Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – Blessed Saints 
Whatever else it might be, the “kingdom of God” Jesus talked about manifests itself in the life and habits of that crucified-with-Christ crowd scattered about the world among the rich and poor of all nations. Extraordinary things happen among them. Sometimes people are stunned to find themselves loving their sworn enemies and praying for those who have hated and even persecuted them. Such things usually happen when one party finds the other nailed to the same cross or cut down by a common nightmare that’s come to life, but not always. Miracles, heroic virtue, and even martyrdom, the signs of a “saint” whose heart God has gotten hold of and used for some holy purpose, can be as simple as words from one lonely, hungry, forgotten, dying soul to another. “Take heart, my friend. Today you’re with us.”