Ethics of God’s Grace

On All Saints’ Sunday we call to mind the size and solidarity of God’s people.  The people of God comprise a vast community that spreads beyond the boundaries of race, language, religion, and condition; beyond time and space, and across the divide of death.  In each faithful person, the Christian proclamation of hope and promise for eternal life is an actual reali

The hymn by William How that we sang as our processional hymn praises all the saints.  “From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast, through gates of pearl streams in countless host,...Alleluia.”  In singing praise to the saints and the faithful people of every age we praise God who has triumphed through them and whose bountiful grace and mercy we see in their lives.  They are examples of God’s grace.

The word “saint” means “holy.”  In the Bible, the saints are God’s holy people.  As we heard in the Book of Daniel, his dream was interpreted to mean they are the angels who share God’s divine nature,  “the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever—for ever and ever."

Christian orthodox churches list the saints of the Hebrew Bible in their liturgical calendars, and for all Christian teachers the holy women and men of ancient Israel provide a rich resource of illustrations for describing their sanctity or holiness.  The late William Stringfellow, an attorney and lay theologian who lived on Block Island, described saints as “those men and women who relish the event of life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away.”

The celebration of All Saints is not just a recollection of the martyrs and prophets of every age; it is a festival commemorating all who are faithful.  On All Saints’ Day we celebrate our lives and the lives of everyone within the vast community of God’s people today and every day throughout the ages and into eternity.

Our reading from the Gospel of Luke, called the Sermon on the Plain, is chosen for commemorating all the saints.  It is a shorter version of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount.  The sermon provides the basis of Christian ethics, how we are to act in relation to others.  It was addressed to the disciples and others in the hill country of Galilee in the early days of Jesus’ ministry.  A group of blessings begins the sermon, the Beatitudes, and then it deals with social duties in a series of contrasts between the teaching of Jesus and the ancient legal traditions of that time. 

Jesus directs his words, “Blessed are you” to the crowd around him, and he matches each blessing with a woe. The need for social change and transformation is apparent.  It may well be that Luke, in expressing both blessings and woes, is not making simple comments of joy and grief, but is stating prophetic words that are intended to bring to pass the things about which they give promise or warning.  Let’s look at each blessing in its particular situation:

“Blessed are you who are poor” reflects a strong characteristic of Hebrew religion in which God is the vindicator of the poor and the needy.  The ruler or government authority, as God’s agent, has responsibility for the poor.  In the time of Luke, in first century Palestine, a large class of destitute, unemployed, and landless peasants lived side by side with wealthy farmers, great landed proprietors, and rich bankers.  Do you see a similar situation in our cities today?  God’s kingdom belongs to the poor; the rich already have their reward.  The implication is that God is actively at work and will demonstrate his rule with power.  Those who heed the promise and warning will share in God’s reign.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now” reflects the ancient theme of God’s readiness to relieve both physical and spiritual hunger.  Throughout the gospels the actions of Jesus include a dominant focus on the importance of meals.  He shared meals with the disciples, he ate with sinners and tax collectors, he fed the multitudes.  In his teachings he referred to someone who gave a great banquet, and he told a story about a fatted calf and killing it so they could have a feast.  In these events both the spiritual and literal senses of being hungry are held together.

“Blessed are you who weep now” is a beatitude that must be seen against the actual distress of an occupied country.  Its roots are in the prophecy of Isaiah who proclaimed the promise of the new Jerusalem: “To proclaim the year of God’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”  The meaning is more inclusive than personal or individual bereavement.

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you.”  This beatitude predicts suffering for the disciples and draws an analogy with the fate of the prophets with whom they are compared.  The meaning is that when God’s kingdom is fully realized, God will give a great reward to those who suffer.  Those who suffer and are persecuted because of their faith will share the reign of God.

All four of these blessings are addressed to people who are poor, hungry, miserable, and expect to be treated harshly.  The kingdom of heaven is promised to them and it will be their happiness and satisfaction.  Both the physical and spiritual life is included in these promises. All of them form a revolutionary messianic proclamation.  The gospel has been called an ethic of grace.

The culmination of this ethic of grace is to “love your enemies, to do good, and to lend expecting nothing in return.... Be merciful, even as God is merciful.”  “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  “Blessed are you” who live in this way.

The beatitudes and woes provide us with the real meaning of sainthood.  The saints are those who possess the love and grace of God.  We celebrate the great women and men of the Bible and all those throughout history, as examples of God’s grace.  They are examples of this ethic of grace because they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, built houses for the homeless, freed those who were in prison or oppressed, comforted the broken-hearted, and worked for justice and peace.

Saints are all around us.  They are the teachers in our schools; the medical personnel in hospital emergency rooms and trauma centers; workers in assisted living settings and nursing homes; volunteers who tutor school children in need of skills to read and understand math and science; social service personnel who aid immigrants, the poor and downtrodden.  They are the people who have gone before us here at All Saints’ Memorial Church, and they are all of you who gather each week to worship and give glory to God.  Later in our service we shall “sing a song of the saints of God, for the saints of God are just folk like you and me.”   Amen.