[Propertalk] All Saints - Sunday after - Part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's what I have for this Sunday, when we celebrate All Saints.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE SUNDAY AFTER ALL
SAINTS’ DAY (C) 

	DANIEL 7:1-3, 15-18 6th NOVEMBER, 2016 

	EPHESIANS 1:11-23 PSALM 149 

	LUKE 6: 2-31 

	 In the late sixties I sang in a choir that made a short tour. We
went to several cities, giving concerts in churches, and one of the
songs I remember doing was called, “Good news”. The refrain before
and after every verse was “Hey! Hey! Anybody listening?” 1 The
point that the author of the lyrics was trying to get across is that
there’s much in the Gospel, much in the whole Bible and in life,
that requires our closest attention. We can’t afford to be
selective. When you hear the words it usually sticks, for a while, at
least. One performance sticks in my mind, though. 

	 The song gets loud in places and in others it quiets down. Nobody
noticed that two people towards the back of the audience were talking
through much of the concert. They were engrossed in their own words
that they seemed quite unaware of anything else. And when that song
ended with the words, “Anybody listening?” their voices carried
loudly throughout the room. It was as if the choir and the rest of the
audience weren’t there. 

	 I bring this up because what jumped out at me from this morning’s
Gospel verses were the words of Jesus, “But to you who are listening
I say …”. 

	 What did He mean? He’d been talking for quite some time. Whether
what He’d said was as highly polished as the report we have in the
Gospel today doesn’t matter. He’d been talking. You’d expect
that He’d be given SOME respect, by at least some of the people. 

	 Then, all of a sudden, He said, “Hey! Hey! Anybody listening?
Here’s what you have to hear, to learn, to make a part of every
ounce of your body, mind and soul. Love your enemies. Do good to those
who hate you. Absorb that!” 

	 Just think what might have happened over the last eighteen or
twenty-four months if everyone in this country had listened to this!
Everyone! 

	 What a tremendous judgement that is, “… to you who are
listening…”. But this is exactly what we need to hear, again, and
again, and again. Clergy and laity in church; everyone who used to go
to church but who has been hurt, abused, and has stopped attending
church; everyone who’s never considered going to church, or temple
or synagogue because of what’s perceived as irrelevant hypocrisy.
“Listen up!” Even on Jesus’ lips, perhaps especially on Jesus’
lips, it’s not a throwaway line. No one can afford to let anything
slip away that might bring us healing, and energy, and hope. Not
peace. Not a million dollars. Neither of these are guaranteed. But a
sense of belonging, of being on the journey towards wholeness, a sense
that, despite doubts and questions, we’ll be enabled to overcome in
everything that matters – if we listen and allow ourselves to
wrestle with what Jesus’ words mean – THAT’S what’s important.
And, at the heart of it all, is this. “Love your enemies. Do good to
those who hate you.” 

	 The most incredible thing about the Christian life, as Jesus pointed
it out, is not that we are to be nice to our families, or to be sure
to remember our friends at Thanksgiving, or to treat the dog or the
cat with kindness. Usually, most of us can manage that. It’s the
folk that get our goat; it’s the people that say outlandish things;
it’s the family member, or the pet, or the friend who seems to know
exactly how to wreck the most joyful occasion; THEY are the ones on
whom we’re to lavish attention, and find ways to offer a compliment,
and forgive – time after time. 

	 Am I listening to that? 

	 Are you listening to that? 

	 Will you help me, will I help you, to be quiet, to be respectful
enough to absorb what Jesus says?  

	 Now we’re given some incentive in this. Jesus said that, if we do
our best to put into practice what He offers us, then we’ll be
blessed. 

	 A blessing is that gift which enables us to understand that we’re
on the right track, no matter what’s happening or being said around
us. A blessing is the feeling deep in the core of our being when we
experience love which seems so strong that we can face anything, and,
at the same time, which enables us to relax, to let down our defences.
And it’s probably in that state of grace in which we allow ourselves
to open up, to hear with our hearts and souls, that we can begin to
love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us. 

	 We’ve heard so often that it’s not easy to be a Christian,
especially in a culture which prizes talking over listening, pressing
one’s self forward rather than drawing the other out. Jesus knows,
life can be so hard sometimes. We want to blurt out when we hear
something which seems to contradict us. If we’ve been told something
often enough, we tend to begin to accept it without question, so if
another person, people of another nation, suggest a different route,
then it grates on us and we have to do a serious job of tongue-biting
just to keep calm enough to ask ourselves whether or not Jesus would
have said or done that under those circumstances. 

	 You know, it might be really helpful to us if we celebrated All
Saints’ Day every day. Certainly, we might run the risk of becoming
too blasé about it, but we need to think about all those whose lives,
whose behaviour, whose words have had such an impact on us. Some of
those folk rub shoulders with us often – in the office, at a coffee
shop, on the internet, at Diocesan Convention. Others we may never
have met, but newspaper and magazine articles, even Facebook entries
that have been reposted thousands of times, these can make us stop,
make us look, make us listen, make us think, “Wow! Did she say that?
Did she take that criticism, those vilely demeaning words and deeds?
Did he smile in that infectious way so often that it began to draw
others to listen themselves?”


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