All Saints Sunday – November 6, 2005

Matthew 5:1-12

            It is a great privilege for disciples of Christ to be a blessing to others. On this All Saints Sunday we are once again reminded that we are blessed to be a blessing.

            In recent reading I noticed that while we feel busier and busier in our time we actually are working less and enjoying it less. In 1863 the average work week was 76 hours. By 1950 the average work week was 39 hours. In 2003 the researchers discovered the average American work week to be 34 hours.

            Less work hours means more leisure hours. It is well documented that we get busier and busier trying to fill those leisure hours with recreation, hobbies, learning, and many other pursuits. Most people, though, report they are enjoying it less.

            The irony is most interesting. God has blessed us such that we are working less than 50% of the time put in by our great grandparents. We are blessed to be able to enjoy our leisure pursuits, but we are no happier. In fact, we may be less happy with life than when folks worked more than twice the time we do.

            All this points out once again that while we are so richly and lavishly blessed by God we have a hard time dealing the gifts of God. In the Beatitudes today you read that God is blessing the less with more. Certainly that has been the story of our lives.

            Why, then, are we less satisfied with our lives and try to find meaning by becoming more and more busy?

            The answer to that question begins for me in the most basic relationship we have, our relationship with God. God blesses us daily and if we don’t believe that we need only go out into the parking lot here at church on a Sunday morning. Look around at the cars we drive. They tell you quickly we are blessed people. God is good, and God has been good to us.

            Yet, in our sin, we think we have done it all ourselves. And not only have we done it all ourselves, we actually feel we deserve more. We never seem to be satisfied. And through our insatiable appetites for more we subtly send a message to God that the blessings we receive are inadequate. We do not receive the gifts of God with genuine thanksgiving.

            So it is then that we live in a stressed and strained relationship with God. As St. Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they rest in God. When we feel we have been short changed in the blessing department by God, we are never at rest in God. When we are in an endless pursuit of things we miss the meaning and purpose God gives us. Our hearts remain restless.

            God then acts before we do. God comes to us in Jesus and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus blesses us with life and forgiveness. This blessing, in the cross, is more than any other blessing we have ever received. It is a gift of grace, God coming to us and making us saints, that is, redeemed people of God set aside for holy things.

            Once God heals our stressed and strained relationship through the forgiveness of the cross we are able to be the hands, hearts, legs, hands, feet and much more, for Christ by blessing others.

            In the cross, you see, we are blessed to be a blessing.

            The cross gives us transformed vision. Faithful eyes see people in need, and rejoice in all the gifts God has given us to share with others. Faithful eyes are satisfied eyes that look not to accumulate more for yourself, but look for creative ways to serve others. This is what the saints of God do. We look through the cross and see how blessed we are and then look to see how we can share those blessings with others.

            Speaking of sharing blessings, today I have been specifically asked by Judy Matthews to talk about feeding others. Knowing that most of us worry about the extra five pounds we have, there is little question we have some food to share. Judy pointed out to me that each Sunday in November special opportunities will be given you to feed others. Today it is the ELCA World Hunger Appeal. The next three Sunday’s will include the Food Bank, SACRA and the Verona Food Pantry. The Social Ministry Committee has also made available to you a special thirty day booklet of devotions to support this effort.

            Judy has grasped this opportunity for us. Our Lord himself tells us to feed the hungry in Matthew 25 when he says, “…just as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to me.”

            Even in Deuteronomy 8 we read, “When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them…then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God…Do not say to yourself ’My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’" The people of Israel learned early on that God blesses us richly. We who are part of the new Israel, the church, know we are blessed to be a blessing. Let us not forget that in the cross we are given a blessing that opens our hands and hearts to share our bounty with others. Then, support feeding the hungry.

            You saints of God are blessed to be a blessing. Thanks be to God. Amen.

• Pastor Robert F. Holley