All Saints Sunday October 31, 2010 “The Joy of the Saints” Reverend Michael D. Powell Matthew 5:1-12

This morning is All Saints Sunday. Morningside has been a guiding, nurturing and empowering place for generations of United Methodists. Our church came into being as a vision of the saints, and has been the spiritual home of countless saints down through the years. We’re gathering this morning to not only pay our respects to those whom we have loved and lost, but also to honor those living saints who have been among us from the very beginning, those few charter members who still worship here every Sunday. There are obviously a lot of others here this morning who have been here almost from the beginning, and we honor their presence and contributions as well, but this morning we’re focusing on the charter members. I’ve got a brief slide show to share with you, but before going to that I want to focus for just a few minutes on the gift of happiness.

Happiness is a good thing! Everyone on earth wants to be happy. It’s just part of the human condition. What are some of the happiest moments you’ve ever experienced in your life? (Allow time for answers) I’ll tell you some of mine: The day Anni and I were married; the day our daughter, Chalice, was born; the day Chalice and Shawn got married; the day Morgan was born.

Here’s another question: What are some of the places (not people) that make you the happiest? (Allow time for answers) I’ll tell you mine: The beach – Anni’s mother’s ashes are scattered in the ocean; The mountains - Anni’s father’s ashes are scattered on Mt. Hood; Our home - I love working in the back yard, being out on our deck, or walking in our woods.

Final question, and I’m not going to ask you to answer this time, I’ll just throw out some options. What are the ingredients that make for happiness? There are the basics, of course: good health; decent food; adequate clothing; a roof over your head; a little money in the bank. And then there are the intangibles: good relationships; family; friends; knowing that you’re loved. The answer, of course, is “All of the above!” All of these things make for happiness, and that’s a good thing. Thank God for the measure of happiness you have been provided!

This is the background against which we read our traditional All Saints Sunday lectionary scripture, called “The Beatitudes.” Jesus has gathered his followers. In Luke it’s on the plain, in Matthew it’s on the mount. And he begins to teach them the fundamentals of living with God. In both the King James and our New Revised Standard Version Jesus uses the word “Blessed,” but Today’s English Version uses the word “Happy.” And that’s not a bad translation. Happiness is a good thing! But happiness is not exactly what Jesus is offering his followers in this case. The Greek word is Μακάριος makarios (mak-ar'-ee-os) which is translated, “supremely blest; by extension fortunate, well off: - blessed, happy.” So, the Greek text is better served if the word “Blessed,” or “Joy” is used.

As we saw last week, happiness is taken from the Latin root, hap. So, haphazard is something that is dependent upon or characterized by mere chance. Likewise, happenstance is a chance occurrence. Happiness is characterized by good luck, or being fortunate. So happiness is not exactly what Jesus is talking about.

To be blessed is to know the deep joy of God’s presence, regardless of the circumstances, chance occurrences or lucky breaks that come your way. In fact, it’s possible to know the joy of blessedness in exactly those circumstances that normally cause unhappiness. That’s because joy is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Trusting that God has a purpose for your life and believing that God is in control brings an awareness of joyful blessedness.

Jesus actually lists nine beatitudes, but I’m going to very briefly focus on just three of them this morning and talk about their connection with what it means to be a saint.

Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus says. I’m one of those types who dislike conflict, especially in the church. But I’ll never forget a very stressful church council meeting in one of my former churches. The tension was running high and afterward one man, who happened to have a background in Child Protective Services, was actually excited about the meeting. He was enthusiastically saying to me, “Yeah, I know it’s hard, but this is great stuff. This is the stuff that peace treaties are made of.” He was talking about negotiations, coming to the table and working through our conflict and disagreement. I still don’t like conflict, but I’ve never forgotten that attitude. He approached conflict with the perspective of a peacemaker, a negotiator who saw it as an opportunity to work on communication skills and compromise. The church, of all places, ought to model that kind of attitude. I felt blessed that night, and I always remember his attitude when I hear this beatitude, “blessed are the peacemakers.” He was a saint to me that night.

Blessed are those who mourn. This sounds strange, like a contradiction, doesn’t it? How can you be joyful and in grief at the same time? But today we’re honoring the saints, both those living saints who are still among us, and those whom we have loved and lost. I’ve done a lot of funeral services over the years, sat with a lot of families sharing memories and preparing memorial tributes. And there’s something interesting that I’ve learned. I love weddings, and I love baptisms. They make me happy. But funerals and memorial services bless my soul on a whole other level. We’re standing on holy ground when we tell the stories of the saints, of those who have blessed us, those whom we have loved and lost.

There is a deep joy that comes with the recognition that we are all connected, that we’re one people, brothers and sisters in God’s family. With a sense of connectedness comes empathy and compassion. Compassion literally means to suffer with. To feel compassion for another and to offer consolation is one of the deepest joys a human being can feel. Saint Francis prayed: “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled and to console . . . for it is in giving that we receive.

And, finally: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. This beatitude is a natural expansion beyond personal empathy to a more universal awareness of how the whole human family is connected. We are a global neighborhood, and a saint is one who cannot help but experience a breaking heart as they absorb the world news. God’s heart is love, and violence, pain, suffering and injustice break God’s heart. A saint is one who strives to live in the heart of God, and to have an interior awareness of God’s presence in the human heart. To be a person of compassion is is to suffer with the world, and to feel the depth of that suffering is what makes us human. It is a blessing.

I’ll close with this: Karl Barth once said, “A generation that has no great anguish in its heart will have no great music on its lips.” Morningside has a long tradition of sharing the great music of compassion, of peacemaking and reconciling love in this community. We give thanks for the spiritual gift of joy, and for the blessing of being in ministry as servants of Christ. So now let’s pause for a few moments and relive the blessings of those early years when first the charter members, and then those of us who followed, began building on the vision that became Morningside United Methodist Church.

Click here for a pictoral PowerPoint presentation. This is a large file.