All Saints Day

A sermon preached at St Martin-in-the-Fields on 1 November 2020 led by Revd Richard Carter.

Readings for this address: Matthew 5.1-12

Blessed are the poor in heart

Today we celebrate All Saints Day. But  how can we celebrate- how can we sing God’s song in this strange land – with the news we have heard last night of another lock-down still ringing in our ears: more isolation, more economic hardship, more sickness, more loss of freedom, and according to the statistics the threat of many more deaths. Doesn’t celebrating the saints seem to belong to a different world order? Today we heard in our Gospel Blessed are in the poor in Spirit, those who mourn, the meek- well for many it certainly does not feel like a blessing. We have realised we are not the self-sufficient, independent, invulnerable masters of the future. Rather we are mortal, dependent, unknowing- and full of doubt- and our lives at this time seem more like those disciples caught in a storm which threatens to sink the boat. It’s not halos and those clad in shinning white that seem very relevant. But perhaps it is at times like this that we need this great cloud of witnesses more than ever before to remind us of the very substance of what it means to live by faith. When Julian Norwich wrote her Revelations of Divine Love. She was a locked-down achoress in a tiny cell, it was the time of the black death which killed over a third of the population of Norwich and it was in the midst of the 100 years war which must have seemed never ending- it was. And Julian wrote this:

And the Lord showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball. I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered “What is this?” And the answer came. “It is all that is made.” I marvelled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small. And again my mind supplied the answer. “It exists both now and forever, because God loves it” In short everything owes its existence to the love of God. In this little thing I saw three truths. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it and the third is that God sustains it.

God made us, God loves us, God sustains us.

She writes:  Jesus said not ‘Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be dis-eased’; but he said, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.” And then later the words for which she is always remembered: all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner [of] thing shall be well.

Saints become real when we discover they are not perfect human beings up there on a pedestal  but human beings like you and me who must have struggled with life , death and the real suffering of their times and yet in the midst of life inspired others with a greater love of God and humanity. Think of saints for our times -people like Ettie Hillesum  who could keep a “piece of God” alive in herself even in the most brutal of a concentration camps. In his lecture for St Martin’s in October Trusting in God  Rowan Williams speaks of the importance of trusting in the shared narratives of our faith that can bring hope. What are those narratives today I asked him? Well Rowan Williams sighted our raising up of the NHS. No one is saying that the NHS are all saints but through their lives they excited and inspired us with a vision of a greater humanity. “Come on NHS!” What was that humanity- well compassion, sacrificial service, the healing of the sick and a willingness to put their own lives on the line for the good of others. Each one of those characteristics Gospel values.

What often inspires us is not a cult of holy celebrities, but the example of genuine humility and selflessness- a selflessness that is even prepared to risk its own life for another. Meister Ekhart describes this movement in this way: “Our work is to be empty enough to make room for God to fill us entirely with love and when God does, to discover there is room for all.”Today I have chosen just two charisms we learn from the saints which for our time are life changers. The first is friendship. The second is obedience.

FRIENDSHIP
The saints celebrate not isolation but friendship, fraternity  relationship, a unity with our God even in the midst of overwhelming odds. St Francis of Assisi as an example to guide us.  In his latest encyclical entitled Fratelli Tuti.  Pope Francis talks about St Francis’ call to fraternity that transcends the barriers of geography and distance, and declares blessed all those who love their brother and sister “as much when he is far away from them as when he is with them”  When we are called “to love our neighbour as ourselves” we have been learning our neighbour is not just our bubble, our neighbour is our family, our friends, our neighbourhood, our community, our supermarket, our church, our nation, our neighbours in  Europe, our neighbour is also Wuhan in China, our neighbour is Syria or Iraq and those refugees who with their families that are trying to cross the English Channel or our neighbour in Yemen  whose child is dying of malnutrition or Turkey after the earthquake, our neighbours is the USA on the eve  of an election which will affect the future of the entire planet- our  neighbours is the rest of the world. Our neighbour is the one of different colour, or culture, or faith, and our neighbour is every living creature, tree and plant, our neighbours is the whole created world. Brother sun, sister water, mother earth.

Pope Francis sites an episode in the life of Saint Francis that shows this openness of heart, which knew no bounds and transcended differences of origin, nationality, colour or religion. It was his visit to Sultan Malik-el-Kamil, in Egypt, which entailed considerable hardship and a long journey into unknown territory. Unconcerned for his own safety Francis went to meet the Sultan with the same attitude that he instilled in his disciples: if they found themselves “among the Saracens and other nonbelievers”, without renouncing their own identity they were not to “engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake.” He called them to show humility. Francis did not wage a war of words aimed at imposing doctrines; he simply spread the love of God. He understood that “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God” (1 Jn 4:16).

Pope Francis writes that the present epidemic has revealed that “the frantic pace of the modern world prevents us from listening attentively to what another person is saying and from building true and lasting relationships which honour difference and build trust. We must not lose our ability to listen”. Saint Francis “heard the voice of God, he heard the voice of the poor, he heard the voice of the infirm and he heard the voice of nature. He made of them a way of life.

If we have learnt anything in the enforced isolation of the last 8 months it is how much we need each other and cannot live alone. Strange isn’t it that it has taken lock-down to realise our interdependence. That without people we can turn in on ourselves, lose our sense of self, our mental health our well- being, our purpose. We need our relationships with the elderly and vulnerable to sustain both them and us. They cannot be locked away in care homes or be looked after by strangers providing for their physical needs alone.  We need our children and our young people to be meeting and growing and learning, laughing, and playing together.  We need the communities in which we live and work, our markets, our community centres our cafes and shared meals.We need our choirs, our art and music and stories to unite us. We need face to face meeting and real touch and presence to heal and sustain our souls. We need the kindness of the person next door or the cashier at the supermarket, or the friend who phones you.  And we also need relationship with the natural world- how many of us have been sustained through this time by parks, or gardens or sunsets , or rain or sun or wind in the trees. How many of us have realised the miracle of creation that sustains us. We need to be with. How strange that the greatest lesson of social distancing is our need for a closer friendship with one another and with creation.

OBEDIENCE
The second  charism of the saints I want to celebrate is the spirit of obedience. Yes obedience. Not a popular word because we assume it means the denial of freedom, something imposed- like Boris Johnston last night telling us what we all have to do. But the saints show an obedience which is a submission to the very one who brings freedom. An obedience which is a deeper listening, a poverty of spirit which allows for abundance. Blessed are the poor in heart, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are  those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the peacemakers. Not because of what they get-  the blessing is in the openness to the love and relationship with a God beyond self. Think of a runner in training. The first  tough days of couch potato to 5 km, then through discipline and practice, the easing, the unlocking, the freedom as the distance and  fitness increases and becomes a spontaneous rhythm within. Then the solidarity with other runners Think of a pianist and the first painful scales and renditions of three blind mice- but after years practicing the freedom of fingers dancing over the keys in a piano concerto and the whole orchestra taking up the tune. Think of obedience like the strictly, in the Strictly Come  Dancing– without the strictly we cannot learn to dance.

This is the wisdom St Benedict offers to using his rule of life which for 15000 years has been one of the most influential texts in Christianity providing  the structure for an active school of love. This rule is an urgent call to realign our lives with God:

To show equality of love and care for the whole community.

For compassion and care for the poor- ‘

A special concern for the elderly, the young the infirm, the sick and the guest at the door.

For the community to listen to the wisdom of the youngest member

He creates the structure  for a deep obedience to God through the rhythm of the offices of daily prayer

What we have learnt in the last eight months is how much we all need those structures of a deeper obedience. The need to listen not just to the news, the hype,the anxiety but to listen to the spirit of our souls. The Spirit of God within us. Why are so many people tuning in to live-streamed services or meditations or communicating messages of thanks and support for the simple rhythms of prayer- I believe it is because that this is what ultimately sustains us- an obedience that sets us free and becomes a blessing, an anchor, and a corner stone: a friendship with God one another and creation. The blessing that we are made by God, loved by God and sustained by God.

“Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.” That  is the blessing of the saint’s worth celebrating.

Jesus said not ‘Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be dis-eased’; but he said, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.” All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner [of] thing shall be well.