Sunday of All Saints 2024

Last week's celebration of Pentecost was beautiful,

truly lovely. I want to thank those that spent

so much time and effort and expense to decorate

the church, to sing, to bring food to the potluck,

to barbecue, made a wonderful, wonderful feast

day celebration. Today is All Saints. It follows

naturally. From Pentecost, of course. All of

us know when the Western non -Orthodox Christians

celebrate All Saints. Yes, All Hallows Eve, Halloween

on November 1st. There's interesting reasons,

historical reasons for that date, but it's not

important right now. But in the Orthodox Church,

we have this Feast of All Saints on the Sunday

after Pentecost. Why? Why after Pentecost? Because

the Spirit of God is given to those who confess

the Lord's name, to those who are baptized. It's

to make saints. It's to make saints. God is glorified

in his saints. The Spirit is given to us for

our sanctification. And so, on this day well

we remember that the word saint holy hallowed

sanctified all these words mean dedicated which

we are set apart which we are consecrated offered

up to god and this holiness the source of holiness

when we say spiritual it's from the holy spirit

And so today we remember all saints, known and

unknown, young and old, men and women, rich and

poor, every nation, every people upon earth.

There are more unknown saints than there are

saints that we do know. And when we remember

that, it should give us comfort that, as I said

last night, sanctity is not some kind of graduate

course of studies. For a small few. Yes, we have

these up here that we see the church glorified

because of their faith, their commitment, their

love, their magnificent example of life. But

each and every one of us is a humble offering

to God. Each of us to be sanctified. What happens

when you receive communion? You are sanctified.

You're saintly at that moment if your heart is

full of faith in God and if you give room for

the Lord to work in your heart. It's for all

people. The Gospel reading today offers us on

this Feast of All Saints one of the most difficult

sayings of Christ in the entire Gospel of St.

Matthew. Earlier in the 10th chapter, before

what you heard today, which comes from the 10th

chapter, St. Matthew records the Savior as emphasizing

how much the Father in heaven loves us, cares

for us, and knows when each and every hair is

numbered on our head. Each person. The message

there is, of course, it's trust in God. And then

immediately, immediately Jesus says, therefore,

because you accept this, because you know that

God has this love for you and care for you. You

heard the reader. Many are the afflictions of

the righteous, but the Lord will deliver them

out of them all. We believe this and we trust

this. There will be afflictions, but the Lord

will deliver. Out of those afflictions. So then

Jesus, after this message of trust in God, he

says, therefore, therefore, whoever confesses

me. To confess means what? It's not just with

the lips. It's with one's whole heart to profess,

to believe, to trust, to live according. Whoever

confesses me, I will confess before my Father

in heaven. Whoever denies me, I will deny. Whoever

loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever

searches for his life will lose it. And so on.

Including the invitation to take up the cross

and follow him. Which was a vivid, and for those

people listening to him, an alarming illustration.

They had all seen people on the road. to Jerusalem,

crucified. Sometimes in many, many dozens. What's

this about? If you confess me, I will confess

you. If you deny me, I will deny you. If you

don't pick up your cross, you're not worthy of

me. This is a hard saying. This is not a warning.

This is not a threat of punishment. It's a description.

Of what being a disciple of Christ looks like.

It's an affirmation that the holy martyrs did

it. It's a prescription of how we ought to live

our life. That God is glorified in the saints.

And the martyrs who embody these verses. Well,

we find it daunting. We find it daunting. But

it's a choice. The Lord gives us a choice for

freedom in him who is the only free entity. If

you can call Jesus an entity, that's not right.

He is the only free one. And the rest of us are

not. It's a choice between what is true and real.

What is godly and what is in opposition to that.

What is false and fleeting? What is corrupt?

Christ is telling us why if love of God is not

first, then all the other loves we have will

be dysfunctional and corrupt and probably idolatrous,

including the love for ourself. He who does not

take up his cross and follow me is not worthy

of me. This is indeed a challenge. And the world

certainly rejects this message about the cross,

which means reject self -denial. Perhaps we misunderstood

this as well. Let me give you an illustration.

The prophet Hosea was told to find a woman that

was unfaithful. And to love her. And to pursue

her. And to give his whole life, his whole heart

to that woman. Why? It was an image, an illustration

of how God loves us. Now you might say, loving

a woman who prostitutes herself and is unfaithful

to us, well that's pretty dysfunctional. But

maybe that's the only image we can have of how

deeply God loves us. that he will go to every

length, and he has, even to depths and the depths

of the grave, to save you and me from destruction

and annihilation. That's what these words mean.

They express God's profound arrows for us, a

love that we would say is probably dysfunctional

and wrong. But that's how God is. He is that

giving to us. And these words then are a reminder

of God's love for us. Someone's car alarm is

out there going off. Then Peter answered, hearing

all of this, and said to Jesus, well, look, see,

because Peter thinks it's transactional. We do

this, you're going to do that. But that's not

the way God's love is, is it? God doesn't, his

love for us doesn't depend upon you and me. And

St. Maximus says, my love for you should not

depend on you. That's how deep it should be.

So Peter, thinking, well, it's a transactional

thing. What am I going to get? We've left everything,

which they did. We have followed you, which they

did. Therefore, what shall we have? So Jesus

said to them, Amen, I say to you, that in the

regeneration, that is the renewal, the resurrection,

when the Son of Man comes and sits on the throne

of his glory, you who have followed me will also

sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes

of Israel. Well, that sounds great for Peter.

What about us? St. John writes, In the book of

Revelation. That he was in the spirit. And he

saw this magnificent and amazing vision. He says

behold. A throne stood in heaven. And one seated

on the throne. And he who sat there. Had the

appearance of Jasper and Carnelian. And around

the throne was a rainbow. That had the appearance

of an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones,

and seated on the thrones were 24 elders, clothed

in white garments and golden crowns on their

heads. Think of the martyrs at the back there,

the 40 martyrs with the crowns. That's where

this comes from. And around them were a vast

multitude of the faithful, all in white. It's

good to remember, brothers and sisters, that

those words and the words of the gospel were

written and read originally to those who were

not just oppressed, but persecuted, for whom

the Beatitudes about being poor, about persecution,

about hungering, the words about crucifixion,

about martyrdom, were very real and sometimes

immediate. With all saints, will it be just something

up in the sky for us? Or just in a book? Too

far to see, too far to inspire us. The thrones.

God is surrounded. He's not by himself. He's

surrounded by the faithful, by those whom he

loves, those who love him. It's the promise of

what Jesus told the apostles. I mention this

not as a Bible study, but to encourage you. And

all the divine services, the vigils and the liturgies,

what we do here today, are not... Religious services,

in quotes. They're divine. Lifted up to the throne

of God where we are with him in his kingdom,

at his table, with the angels and the archangels

serving him and glorifying his goodness. That's

what we do here. The vision of Revelation is

a vision also of the divine liturgy. And yet

to be given, still in its fullness to us. This

is wonderful, but I, and I hesitate to say, but

our daily experience is not this vision. Nor

do we usually meditate on this. Nor do we remember

how deeply God loves us. Remembrance of God's

love begins with intentional thanksgiving to

God every day. intentional reading of the scriptures,

and intentional prayer to him. But what we see

and what we learn daily, most often, comes from

those most unreliable of sources, not the scriptures,

not the saints, but the news and the social media,

which one writer in an article I read a couple

of days ago, described as a mental intravenous

drip of hell that comes from the screen. And

an acid bath of political machinations. All that

distorts us and us and our vision and blinds

us to that which is really holy and around us

in God's world. The world is not evil, says...

The recent saint, Arseny Popachuk, a Romanian

saint, he says, the world is not evil, but we

don't know how to love. That's why we see it

that way. Of course, there is violence and division

and poverty and injustice and political confusion

of the highest order and war all over the place.

And this is what we see, and it comes to us in

a rush. And great waters and great noise. Instead

of the noise of the Spirit, it's the noise of

all of this. All saints is the antidote. The

portrait of the saint. Just look around. There's

many of them. Some of them are sitting on the

floor today. Look around. The portrait of the

saint. His, her life. The child of God. As Father

Stephen Mahalik said in a sermon, here's a portrait

of me as I could be, as I should be, as I must

be. Careful attention to our spiritual state,

not blaming others or the world, or indeed God,

allows the Holy Spirit to teach us in our heart.

Not to be conformed to this world, but transformed

by the renewal of our mind. The saints offer

the antidote to our current state so that we

can love God above all others. This radical love,

which then makes all the other loves we have.

Not to be sick, dysfunctional, and idolatrous,

but to be full of grace and compassion and the

holiness of God. This difficult passage today

from Matthew challenges us. Are we prayerful

enough to enter into it? To our Lord be glory

now and ever to ages of ages.