All Saints' Sunday: November 7, 2004.

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18

Psalm 149

Ephesians 1:11-23

Luke 6:20-31

First Reading

The First Reading for this Sunday abounds with images that are uncomfortable for this preacher and I am sure for many of you. To step into the dangerous world of Daniel's visions and prophecy and attempt to explain and interpret them is intimidating work, especially in a North American "popular religious" context ripe with images of those "Left Behind" and fears about what might happen "The Day After Tomorrow."

Daniel receives an interpretation of his vision in verses 17-18 of our pericope: "As for these four great beasts, four kings shall arise out of the earth. But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever--forever and ever." These verses contain the key to this passage for us, especially if we allow them to be interpreted by Scripture, using the other readings from the lectionary.

Daniel speaks the truth of this world, a truth that remains for all time and is not reserved for some future (or imminent) end-times. Kings, beasts, destructive forces, and structures of evil arise out of the earth. They are a reality. They were a reality in Daniel's time as they are a reality in our own. Daniel's interpreter says simply and powerfully that they are not the final answer. The holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom in the end. The forces of destruction represented by four kings are not the final answer for the world of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Daniel, the God of Paul, and the God of Jesus Christ.

In the Ephesians reading, Paul (or pseudo-Paul) also proclaims the superiority of the power of God revealed in Jesus Christ for life (v. 20) over the powers of this world that would pretend to exercise authority and dominion (v. 21). This immeasurably great power was made real in the world by the resurrection of Jesus and the seating of Jesus at a position of power and honor in the heavenly places. This movement of Jesus from a place of degradation and shame (the crucifixion) to a place of power and honor is the demonstration of the power of God and the victory of God over the structures of evil in our world. Paul reminds us that this victory of God in Jesus Christ is done "for the church" (v. 22). On behalf of the church, for the sake of the church, for the sake of those who have obtained an inheritance (or been chosen as God's own people: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) in Christ (v. 11), God has defeated the powers of destruction and death.

Here then is the key to our Daniel passage. We are now part of the promise, we who have been ingrafted into Israel, who have been [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] by God's grace in our baptism into Christ. We are the holy ones of the Most High who shall receive the kingdom. This should be a word of hope of us, not a word of fear. Into this place come the familiar words of Jesus and his Beatitudes. Just as Daniel and Paul have told us, Jesus says that the powers and the priorities of this world are not the final answer in God's kingdom.

Jesus proclaims a kingdom and a reality with upside-down priorities (More clearly, perhaps, Jesus proclaims that our world's priorities are upside down). The poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated are lifted up just as Christ was lifted up from the grave to a place of power and honor in the heavenly places. And just as Paul proclaims Christ's place of honor over the powers and authorities of this world and Daniel told us that the four kings would not rule forever, Jesus himself tells us that the rich, the full, the laughing, and the popular will be brought low.

Pastoral Reflection

Many of the readers of these Preaching Helps will have preached the Beatitudes dozens and dozens of times. Have you gone back and forth between emphasizing the "blesseds" and emphasizing the "woes"? Or have you tried to balance the two in one message? There's so much grist for the mill in the Gospel lesson, have you ever reflected with your congregation on Daniel or Ephesians?

As I reflect on these passages and think about preaching a word of hope and promise, the context of preacher and of hearers takes center stage. These passages carry us through All Saints' Sunday. Most congregations use some liturgical form on this day to remember the saints of God, most often those of that congregation who have died in the past year. These include naming them in the Prayers of the Church or at some other time in the service, tolling the bell, lighting special candles, and other practices. Whatever the liturgical practice of your congregation, consider how your preaching might become part of the integrated whole of this day. Perhaps you could preach in specifics about some who have died, sharing stories from their life and ministry in the church. How did these saints of the church feed the hungry, laugh with the weeping, or share joy with the hated during their lifetime? Proclaim how we the church can now laugh with joy even as we weep knowing that it is on behalf of these, our brothers and sisters, that God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him in the heavenly places.

This year, All Saints' Sunday is also the first Sunday following presidential elections here in the United States. Perhaps there would be room in this sermon to thank God for those who are willing to guide and lead nations in service to the common good, to pray for wisdom and justice, and to remind us that no kingdoms or systems of governance are of God and that, ultimately, the power of God rules over all kingdoms and authorities.

Ultimately it seems to me that there are two dangers worth avoiding in these texts. One is to focus on the "woes" of Luke 6:24-26 and to proclaim God's judgment on the lives of our congregations. While there is surely a place for the law as a mirror to show us the ways in which our lives do not conform to God's plans and designs for the world, the ultimate task of the preacher is to proclaim God's good news. "Woe" without "blessed" can produce just as much hope-lessness and paralysis based in fear as "blessed" without "woe" can produce the complacency of "cheap grace."

The other danger to be avoided is triumphalism. When we hear Daniel's proclamation that the holy ones of the Most High will receive the kingdom and the call to wars of vengeance and justice of Psalm 149, we risk a proclamation that God is on our side exclusively. However, Paul tells us that Christ is seated in heavenly places over the powers and authorities "on behalf of the church." It is not the church seated over the powers and authorities. This should help us avoid triumphalism. But do not be so afraid that you neglect to proclaim God's victory over death and over the forces of evil in our world. Take a risk toward triumphalism. Proclaim that the military-industrial complex, movies and music that celebrate violence and misogyny, and the abuse and exploitation of children (to name a few) are not God's will and that the resurrection and ascension of Jesus mean that God has defeated them. That seems like good news worth proclaiming! SM-K