All Saints Sunday sermon

 Good morning, Church! Good morning Saints! Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints. Praise the Lord: Alleluia! It’s a day when we remember all God’s saints! So first off, what’s a Saint? Any thoughts? Or does anyone know the names of any saints?

Saints: people who have lived lives which especially show God’s love, and point other people to God’s love in a special way. People we can learn from. People who led very Jesus-Shaped lives. People who can be our heavenly friends. Inspiring us and praying for us in heaven.

Saints: all God’s holy people: the Letter to the Ephesians is addressed to ‘the saints in Ephesus’ and in Acts we hear Ananaias complaining about Saul (who became the Apostle Saint Paul) persecuting ‘the saints in Jerusalem’: God’s ordinary people like you and me: God’s extraordinary royal priesthood as our own patron Saint St Peter puts it.

And that example of Saul who was really really mean to the saints, the first people who believed in Jesus, and then became one of the greatest preachers and teachers of God’s love in Jesus of Nazareth is a great inspiration to us all..! Whatever our past or our present! We can become apostles too, people who are sent out in Jesus’s name to share God’s love wider and wider.

And you know, the word Saint also just means holy: and in lots of languages the words are actually the same ‘Santo’ for example in Spanish means Saint and holy - am I right?!

Our readings today remind us who we are meant to be as followers of Jesus, why holiness is so important, and how God calls us to live in the world. Basically, what does it mean to live a Godly life, a Jesus-Shaped life…

In the first reading from the Book of Daniel, Daniel has a strange dream about four great beasts rising from the sea. He is troubled and asks for the meaning. He’s told:“the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess it forever.” These holy ones are the saints: people set aside by God, to do God’s work, to make God known in the world. And friends, that’s what you and I are called to try to do every day, by God’s grace. Amen? Amen!

Daniel lived in a hard time. He was in exile, far from his home, seeing kingdoms rise and fall around him. But even then, God promised that God’s holy people—the saints—would have the kingdom forever. It’s a picture of hope which I hope encourages us in our troubled world today. No matter how scary or hard life gets, God’s kingdom will last forever, and his holy people will be part of it. ANd perhaps the best part is, we can actually help build that kingdom here on earth. When we pray the Our Father today, let’s let those words sink in when we say: thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven - and let’s ask God to show us what you and I can do to be part of revealing God’s kingdom here in Walworth, in our every day lives, every time we pray the Our Father this week: morning, noon, night, any time! They kingdom come: the world has perhaps never needed that prayer more than today.

In our second reading, from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about how in Jesus, we have been given an inheritance. God has marked us with the Holy Spirit—a  seal—like a promise that God will keep us safe and lead us to full salvation in the heavenly city, the eternal kingdom of God with all the Saints. Paul prays that we would understand this calling, that we would see the hope to which God calls us and know the great power God has for those who believe. Friends, as we seek to build God’s kingdom here on earth let’s remember: Nothing is impossible with God! Amen? Amen!

Of course, being a saint is not about being perfect. Look at Paul, look at Peter, look at Mother Theresa: only God is perfect. No, it’s about being chosen by God, marked by God’s Spirit, and living for God’s glory. It is a calling to live with hope and trust in God’s power, not in our own strength, but by God’s grace: and to constantly ask God, What do you want me to do? To say ‘thy will be done’ as Jesus taught and prayed himself.

And in our Gospel reading from St Luke’s account, we hear Jesus speaking to his disciples about what it means to live as God’s people today. He begins with the Beatitudes—the blessings. “Blessed are you who are poor... who are hungry... who weep... when people hate you... for yours is the kingdom of God.” Jesus turns the world’s values upside down. Being rich or full or laughing a hollow laugh now does not guarantee God’s blessing. Instead, God blesses those of us who suffer, as we all do, calling us to live trusting in God that all shall be well.

Jesus then tells us how to live in the face of difficulty: love your enemies, do good to people who hate you, bless people who curse you, and pray for people who mistreat you. This can be a hard teaching, but it is the heart of what it means to be holy and Jesus-shaped. We must of course, keep ourselves safe as we do so. Sometimes we can be called to pray for people who hurt us, while also keeping our distance, setting our own boundaries.

So what are we called to today, this week?

First, we are called to be saints. This means to be set apart for God. Just like Daniel’s holy ones, we are God’s people, a chosen generation, invited to live in His kingdom now and forever. Invited by God to live with Jesus shaping our hearts and lives: his teaching, his own generous heart, and his way of love and forgiveness. I wonder what that means in practice for you and me? Let’s pause for a moment and think about the week ahead, and about our lives this coming week…

Second, we are called to be holy. Holy means to live differently, not chasing the things the world tells us to chase in adverts and standards of success, beauty, wealth: but to show God’s love and truth and kindness in everything we do. It means living in a way that stands apart from the ways of the world—letting Jesus shape how we speak, how we treat others, how we face suffering and injustice.  I wonder what that means in practice for you and me? Let’s pause again for a moment and think about the week ahead, and about our lives this coming week…

And third, to be Jesus-shaped people. Jesus shows us how to live: the best way to live. He showed God’s amazing love to everyone: and especially to people who were poor, hungry, hurting. He met people where they were, even when others rejected them. Jesus endured suffering but never stopped loving. We are called to live like Him—to love, to forgive, to give, even when it is hard. By responding to JEsus’s invitation to be here in church, to hear God’s word, to be fed at this altar, we are opening our hearts and minds to become more and more Jesus-Shaped-People. Let’s pause again: take a moment just to speak to Jesus in your heart and ask him to help you, us, to be more like him, more Jesus-Shaped.

Remember friends, God has given us the Holy Spirit as a seal, a promise, to help us live this way. We are not alone: the Spirit, who is our advocate, our comforter, always walking alongside us, is with us in our every breath. God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. 

So let us pray that we will have the eyes of our hearts opened, as Paul prays, to see this great hope and live fully as God’s holy people: God’s saints in Walworth. When we sing that great All Saints hymn in a moment at the offertory, let’s make it our own: an anthem to inspire us, a vision to work and pray towards, because sisters and brothers, it is our story, our song.

So let us be saints who love and serve, who stand firm when times are hard, who follow Jesus in all things.

Let us be holy, changed by God’s Spirit and set apart from the world’s ways.

And let us be Jesus-shaped people, living out God’s kingdom here in Walworth.

Amen.