All Saints’
Today the Church celebrates the feast of All Saints when we think of, and give thanks for, the Saints of God who have gone before us in the faith of Christ as we, together with them, wait for the final establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God (I am using the terms interchangeably). We meet a group of these saints in the book of the Revelation dressed white robes and praising God.
An incident from my time working in parishes in rural mid-Wales left me with a lasting and vivid impression of the connection between us and the Saints in glory. One of the parishioners used to pray regularly in the village church, which was absolutely freezing in winter and when asked why bother going there alone to pray, she responded: ‘gyda’r holl gympeini’r nef’, or I think that is what she said, meaning: ‘I together with the whole company of heaven’; I have never looked at small churches in the same way again.
In approaching the Beatitudes in the Gospel reading, I was guided by the very helpful framework the Precentor gave us two weeks ago – in which we consider the text first as it was received by those to whom it was spoken, secondly what it means to us, and finally any eschatological or end time implications.
In order to identify the first hearers of Jesus’ words we need to look at the final verses of the previous chapter where it states that the multitude included those from Galilee, the Decapolis (the ten cities), Jerusalem and Judea and beyond the Jordan; Jesus’ teaching on the mount appears to be directed specifically at his first disciples, although it is assumed that the crowd was also listening which is why he went up on the mountainside in the first place. They had been following Jesus as a result of his teaching, his healing ministry together with driving out demons, all of which had grabbed their attention and his reputation was spread throughout Syria. Jesus took this opportunity to bring various strands together in order to explain the significance of what he had been saying and doing – in short, this was his introduction to the kingdom of God – it might be thought of as his inaugural lecture, the first part of which was the list we call the Beatitudes.
The repeated word ‘blessed’ in English sounds rather stilted and religious as a translation for the Greek ‘makarios’ which really means ‘happy’ or ‘fortunate’ and is related to the Hebrew word ‘Asher’ of Ps 1 ‘happy are the people who…’, happiness coming from a right relationship with God.
In any case what Jesus had to say would have appeared revolutionary to his hearers and contrary to their experience at that time because this was a proclamation of the kingdom of heaven breaking in to earth, a kingdom in which the oppressed, the meek, the marginalised, the powerless, will be happy and blessed. Those listening must have wondered ‘when will these things happen?’ as the disciples were later to ask Jesus and it is easy to see why they might have had expectations of a more immediate fulfilment of these promises.
For us, the beatitudes should not be read as a list of prerequisites to enter heaven; they are, rather, promises of the blessings of God poured on his children. I recall in Scotland the view that the more miserable you were, the more Christian you were thought to be; ‘we’re here to suffer’ was the phrase used. But that is not what we should be aspiring to; we are already citizens of the kingdom of heaven through Baptism and faith but we recognise that are a work in progress; Martin Lloyd-Jones puts it as follows: the kingdom of God in one sense has not been established on the earth yet… but it is also a kingdom which has come; the kingdom of God is among you and within you; it is in every true Christian and in the Church.
Nevertheless in this in-between state many of us feel overwhelmed particularly by what we are experiencing in the post-Covid world and we do not necessarily feel that we benefit from the blessings; but we should not be surprised by this. In the letter of John he states that we are not recognised by those of the world because they do not recognise God. At the moment, I feel that Christians are experiencing an increased level of cognitive dissonance as a result of our counter-cultural position (by that I mean that we are having to put up with, do or say things with which we do not agree because of our faith we but dare not do otherwise; perhaps we should! I include myself very much in this). For those who do take a Christian stance some are being criticised or worse (I do not think that persecuted is too strong a word in this context); I am thinking, for example, of the woman arrested for praying silently in the street; of the teacher dismissed for not teaching what she felt she could not on the basis of her Christian principles; of the minister removed from ministry for quoting Scripture in relation to gender and the politician who felt obliged to leave her political party who was pilloried because of her Christian faith. And what is more – that is just in the UK; think of the atrocities which our fellow believers in other other parts of the world are suffering – but again we should not be surprised at this.
So to summarise – we have looked at the Beatitudes as they would be heard by the first audience and we have looked at their significance for us as believers at this time.
Considering the current precarious situation facing the world at this very moment, I feel that we must go full circle and revisit the geographical area in which Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of heaven, to encounter the current inhabitants of the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza – and to consider the relevance of the the teaching of Jesus for that area. You may be asking yourself, as I am, where is God, where is Jesus in this most desperate, apparently hopeless situation? In wrestling with this my attention was drawn to the incident towards the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth and I quote from (Lk 19: 41): “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.” – there is a poignant ring of relevance of His words today.
So what has this got to do with us? Well first I think it imperative that we recognise the significance of this geographical area for the peace of the world and its role in the end times and this highlights the eschatological significance of the Beatitudes because they will only be fully realised when God’s kingdom is finally a reality. Several times I have heard commentators from both Israeli and Palestinian sides stating that only a miracle will put an end to the conflict, although I am not sure quite what they mean and they certainly do not mean the same miracle but their analysis is absolutely right.
This Middle Eastern conflict is no ordinary conflict; it is central to the peace of the world and the future of civilisation and the whole world is looking on in fear and horror at the horrendous reality and very real danger of escalation.
It is my firm belief that there exists a very special relationship between the Church world-wide and that whole geographical area into which God chose to enter history and until the final appearance of the Messiah, we, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, are called to be engaged. We need to inform ourselves, to challenge our prejudices, and above all to implore God to intervene. We must continue to stand for truth, justice and peace acknowledging our individual and corporate roles as citizens of heaven. We remain confident that God’s sovereign plans will not be knocked off course; Jesus will be returning to Jerusalem in God’s time to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven when we, together with the saints who have gone before and those yet to come, will be finally blessed. AMEN