"Communion of Saints"
Sermon of
The Rev. Dr. David A. Killian, Rector
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
Feast of All Saints
November 5, 2006
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
I
On these autumn days when I go for a walk with my dog Logan, I sometimes pause and look at the trees. Some like the mighty oaks in Dean Park that form a phalanx around our church, are proud, tall, and strong. These oaks have weathered many storms and stand like sentinels guarding the open, grassy areas. Other smaller trees bend around bridges and trolley tracks. They may be twisted and curved, but they are survivors. They flourish sometimes in the strangest place. There is a uniqueness with each tree. No two trees have exactly the same number of limbs or branches. No two trees grow in exactly the same configuration. Each tree, in its own way, gives glory to God simply by being alive, sprouting new buds in the Spring, displaying magnificent color in the leaves of fall. Each tree, by being itself, magnifies the Creator.
So it is with all of us. Each of us in unique. No two of us are exactly the same. Each of us has our own history with its defeats and victories. All of us have suffered blows that have scraped bark off our branches. We each have private wounds and personal sorrows known only to ourselves.
Scripture has a name for us that might surprise us. Scripture calls us saints! It is a title, perhaps, that we think should be applied only to truly heroic people like Mother Theresa, St. Francis of Assisi, or one of the apostles. Yet, we are all part of the communion of the saints. We are all holy and beloved by God. Each of us is called to praise our Creator just by being the person we are called to be. So today is our feast day - a day to rejoice for the gift of being alive and called to serve God.
II
Today, we remember the people who founded our parish 112 years ago. We give thanks for the lay people who first saw a need for a parish in 1894 and for the first Rector of All Saints, the Rev. Daniel Dulaney Addison, and his wife, Julia DeWolf Addison, who worked with the architects, artists, and stained glass makers to build this beautiful church. The Addisons served this parish for 25 years. Today we give thanks for them and all the people who have been a part of this parish community for the past 112 years.
A mystery of our faith is that God chooses weak, fallible creatures like ourselves - with problems, worries and struggles - to show forth God's presence in the world.
So it was from the beginning. Jesus chose very ordinary people to be his apostles - fishermen, tax collectors, publicans. So it was with the early Christian community in the first generations. They were ordinary people who were often persecuted and even put to death for their beliefs. No wonder that at times they might get discouraged. Today's reading from the book of Revelation speaks to those persecuted Christians who have been bruised and battered and nearly crushed: "they will hunger no more and thirst no more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb ... will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to the springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
When I hear those comforting words in Revelation, I think of people who suffer in our time, people with life-crippling illnesses, children who die of cancer, people struck down too soon. I think of the people in Iraq caught up a war not of their making, of women and children in Darfur who daily are slaughtered. Surely these are the ones that the Lamb will guide to the springs of the water of life and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.
III
Today's Gospel passage is a message of hope to those who suffer injustice in this life: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, those persecuted for righteousness' sake, those who are reviled and slandered. Jesus's words are a call for us to become peacemakers in our time, people who stand for justice, people who lift burdens off the oppressed. It is a call to do practical things to show our love to those in our families and neighborhoods. It is a call to take our citizenship seriously and to vote conscientiously in Tuesday's election. It is a call to live our baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being.
III
In a few moments Caroline, Cornelia, Hannah, and Tatum will be baptized into the Christian community. In Baptism, they will become members of the communion of saints that includes the mighty oaks who are the great men and women heroic in their service of others and also the scrawny shrubs who were unknown and unheralded in their quiet witness.
During the baptismal ceremony, I will ask you, the congregation, "Will you do all in your power to support these persons in their life of faith? You answer: "We will." With those two powerful words, "We will," you express your solidarity with the parents and newly baptized and profess your willingness to be an active force in the communion of saints.
May God bless these newest members of our Christian community that we baptize today and help us all us to be examples of courage and faith to them.
Amen.