"A Roll-Call of Saints"
Sermon Presented November 6, 2005 - All Saints Day
Matthew 5:1-12
Last week I told you I was skipping "All Saints Day" for the regular lectionary text. (And besides, All Saints Day was last Tuesday.) However, I decided later that it's important to celebrate the saints in our lives and in the world, so this morning we're going to look at the All Saints Day Gospel text - a familiar text called the Beatitudes. I used this same text last January, but this sermon bears no resemblance to that one. The text takes on an entirely different meaning because of the occasion being celebrated.
Matthew places these familiar words at the beginning of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and the text is held together by the word "blessed". People in the first century believed that language was so powerful that when it was spoken, it became reality. Thus these blessings are spoken to bring them to reality!
Hear this message spoken by Jesus to his disciples in Matthew 5:1-12. (Read text.)
In light of our cultural understanding of blessedness, what we read here doesn't make sense. Jesus' words clash with our understanding of blessedness. In nearly every case, Jesus speaks blessings to those whom society ignores. This is a radically different set of values from those that bombard us through the media, and even in many churches. We find here a radical inversion of the human condition for those who find themselves without worldly recognition.
This morning I want to present several people who are considered blessed by Jesus' standards and who blessed others in return. These were/are ordinary people who became extraordinary! Some of you may have been blessed by them. (I had help with this list of "saints" from members of the Vision Team when we met last Monday.)
Our first saint is Rosa Parks, who was buried last week. This humble woman was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capital Rotunda - a place usually reserved for former presidents. Unlike most saints, Parks was honored while she lived - but honor came to her many years after she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.
Ellen Goodman in an editorial in last Monday's Journal Sentinel wrote: "The 'humble seamstress' was a civil rights activist long before that fateful bus ride. The 'simple woman,' secretary of her NAACP chapter, attended a leadership conference the summer before her act of civil disobedience. As for those tired feet? Parks wrote, 'The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.' … Parks was 'unassuming' - except that she rejected all the assumptions about her place in the world. Parks was a 'simple woman' - except for a mind made up and fed up. She was 'quiet' - except, of course for one thing. Her willingness to say 'no' changed the world." Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for they bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.
Cliff Stringer was a local saint in the estimation of many Roundy people. In fact several of us will see his widow this afternoon at Tudor Oaks. Cliff was in a foxhole with bullets flying overhead when he made a promise to God. He said: "God, if you get me out of this, I will do whatever you want." And God did, and he did! Unlike many promises made in foxholes, Cliff kept his! He came home to serve God at Roundy by singing in the choir and serving on the Stewardship Board. He drew the picture of the church that graces the church stationary and the front of our bulletins (and this Website). He was present to serve whenever needed, and was always dependable. This saint had a sweet spirit and a loving heart. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for a right relationship with God for they will be filled.
This next saint may not be familiar to you unless you read this week's Time magazine (November 7, 2005.) Paul Farmer, America's most celebrated doctor for the poor, was made famous by Pulitzer-prizewinning author Tracy Kidder in his 2003 book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World. Farmer, whose showcase public-health system that delivers high quality medical care to 1.3 million peasant farmers in Haiti, was invited by the Clinton Foundation and the government of Rwanda to do for Rwanda what he and his team had done for Haiti.
When Farmer arrived in Rwanda, he chose to begin in the "worst, most rotten part of Rwanda." He was assigned an abandoned hospital in a rural providence with a population of 340,000 and no doctors. Today the wards of that hospital are filled with patients with AIDS, TB, malaria, typhoid, cholera, malnutrition and anemia. Some will die, but most will be cured. All will be treated with as much care and attention - if not more - as is afforded wealthy patients at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital where Farmer has joint appointments.
Farmer calls this approach the "preferential option for the poor." Every AIDS or TB patient is assigned a paid health worker or a friend, relative or neighbor who will handle the drugs and make sure they are taken on schedule. The patient is also given what the doctors hope will be enough food for a family of five. These meds must be taken on a full stomach, so they give enough food for both the patient and the family so that no one starves. Blessed are the poor in spirit for they bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.
And then there was Shirley Sleeper. She was a unanimous choice for sainthood by the Vision Team. Shirley made lists for her handicapped son Scott, who was the church janitor and then followed him to make sure that all of the dust and cobwebs were removed. She sang in the church choir and attended prayer meetings - and when she told someone she would pray for them, she really prayed. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.
When we think of "peacemakers" our thoughts immediately go to people like Gandhi and other Nobel Peace laureates. A few years ago, this famous prize was awarded to a group called Doctors without Borders. These medical "ministers of peace" risk injury and death by going into war-torn areas and providing medical care for the injured. These volunteers donate time from their medical practices to bring healing to those who would surely die without their presence. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
Jesus also tells us that those who mourn are blessed. Many who cared enough about the victims of the recent Gulf Coast hurricanes or the earthquake in Pakistan and India went to those devastated regions and shared their lives with them. Others sacrificed financially to help the victims. I was particularly moved by the news reporting of NBC's Campbell Brown as she visited compassionately with some of the victims in Mississippi. Her human life stories encouraged listeners to become involved as she put faces and voices to the needs. Harry Connett, Jr. and Oprah Winfrey gave extravagant amounts of aid and time to that cause. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
And then there is the virtue of showing mercy. In Christian Century, I read the story of the tragic death of Lynda Taylor, a woman who was 8 months pregnant when her car was struck by a truck driven by Billy Turnbow. Turnbow had been behind the wheel for 20 hours straight when he killed Taylor and injured her three-year-old twin daughters. The Taylor family had good reason to seek the maximum penalty for Turnbow, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter. But instead, they asked for leniency for the driver, who is married with two young children. Taylor's brother said: "Lynda's children have lost their mother, and we couldn't find a constructive reason for the Turnbow children to lose their father." Blessed are the merciful for they will obtain mercy.
We all have elements of sainthood in us, and we can become saints to those whose lives we touch. But there are also times when our humanity blares forth and we cease to show mercy, righteousness, compassion, peace, or a pure heart because our selfish egos get in the way.
When we keep these beatitudes before us, Christ's model for sainthood is in sight. And who knows, at your memorial service, the minister or your loved ones may say about you: "She (or he) was a saint!"
