Revelation 7: 9–17; Psalm 34: 1-10, 22; I John 3: 1–3; Matthew
5: 1–12
This is the homily
by Fr. Gene Tucker that was given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday,
November 5, 2017.
“SAINTS:
THOSE WHO BRING HEAVEN TO EARTH”
(Homily texts: Revelation 7: 9–17 & Matthew 5: 1-12)
This
past week, I attended a wonderful lecture on the reformer, Martin Luther, which
was given at Juniata College.
As
part of the lecture, Luther was presented as an “Agent of Change” (the title
for this presentation, which was one of a series of similarly entitled
offerings on the campus).
Though
the lecturer told us, more than once, that he wasn’t a theologian, it is
impossible to talk about Luther’s work without delving - at least a little bit
- into theology.
I was
struck by how much Luther pondered the matter of predestination. Predestination
is that theological concept that understands that God, in God’s infinite wisdom
and freedom, deliberately chooses those who will be in communion with Him. (I
think this is a fairly-stated definition.)
Luther’s
understanding of the concept of predestination is often neglected today.
Instead, we more often think of Luther’s important work in reminding us that
our salvation is dependent on God’s grace alone (Luther’s phrase, given in
Latin, was “sola gratia”).
The
lecturer this past week correctly described the sometimes heated exchanges
between Luther and the theologian, Erasmus. These two men couldn’t have been
more different in some respects: Luther
was convinced that human nature is so tainted by sin that we human beings are
totally incapable of affecting our own salvation. Erasmus, on the other hand,
elevates human nature to a higher place.
As I
listened to the lecture, I began to think about the divine and human roles in
the interaction between God and people. Down through history, Christians have
wrestled with this question. St. Paul addresses it head-on in his letter to the
Romans. If I may summarize Paul’s argument, we might say that Paul maintains
that though God has revealed His righteous nature, we human beings have failed
to meet God’s righteous standards. As a consequence, God must act to bring
about our salvation, sending Jesus Christ to open the way to God.
St.
Augustine, that wonderful fifth century bishop and brilliant theologian,
follows in St. Paul’s footsteps. In his tenure, Augustine was dealing with a
movement called Pelagianism. Pelagianism maintained that we human beings have
all the tools we need to bring about our own salvation. God has shown us the
way, the Pelagians said, and we human beings, by being created in the image and
likeness of God, are equipped to do God’s will and to bring about our own
righteous standing before God. (Again, I think this is a fair summary of
Augustine’s position.)
So
it’s clear that Luther is siding with St. Paul and with Augustine in his view
of the human state.
Concerning
the idea of predestination, today we associate the reformer John Calvin with
this concept. But Luther adhered to it, as well.
All
of this brings us to a central question:
Just what and how much does God do, and what and how much do human
beings do in interacting with one another?
As we
said a moment ago, Christians have tended to fall on one side or the other in
this debate. Some Christians, even today, emphasize God’s omnipotence, God’s
omniscience, and God’s prerogatives in dealing with humankind. Still others,
however, put great weight on human beings’ abilities to effect change in the
world, often even to the extent (at least it seems to me), in some cases, of
excluding God’s empowerment to do the work at hand.
What
can be said about God’s role and our role in our relating, one to another, and
in the work that is set before us to do?
Perhaps
this truth is quite evident: God possesses the power, insight and wisdom to
guide His people. And we human beings are graced (as we said a moment ago) with
having been created in the image and likeness of God. This second fact makes it
clear that we are given tools to do the work set before us. It is also
abundantly clear that we human beings were not created to be automatons or
robots.
So,
we can safely conclude that God has a role to play, and human beings also have
a role to play.
Speaking
personally, I believe that God is the initiator, the prime mover, the inspirer,
and the One who empowers us to do all that He has in mind for us to do. So we
humans draw our power, insight, wisdom and abilities from God. We cannot draw
these things from within ourselves (here we come back to St. Paul’s,
Augustine’s and Luther’s basic position). Not only do we draw these things from
God at the outset of whatever it is that God has in mind for us to accomplish,
but we are in need of continually going back to God for course corrections,
fresh instructions, and so forth.
On
this All Saints’ Sunday, we hold in our thoughts and present to God our prayers
of thanksgiving for the saints of God who have gone before us, and for the
saints of God who are present among us today. In one sense, the saints hold in
mind that wonderful image that we read in this morning’s reading from the Book
of Revelation, where the saints are gathered around God’s heavenly throne.
Saints are those who hold this image ever before themselves, and who hold this
same image before the world. They live by the standards that Jesus gave us in
the Beatitudes, which we hear in our Gospel reading for this day.
All
of this is by way of saying that a saint is a person who has cultivated a close
and personal relationship with God, having been inspired and guided by the Holy
Spirit in the first place. A saint is one who then turns around and exhibits
those qualities to those around about. As St. James says in his wonderful
letter, “….faith by itself, without works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You
have faith and I have works. Show me your faith from your works, and I will
show you my faith by my works.’” (James 2: 17, 18)
James’
description of the relationship between believing and doing is just about as
good a definition as I can think of of what a saint is.
Put
another way, doing God’s will, and believing and relying on God’s leading, is a
wonderful definition of sacramental living, for with the saints, their inner
and spiritual reality is confirmed by their outward and
visible actions, bringing heaven down to earth, that God’s Name may be
glorified and that God’s work may be done.
AMEN.
