Sermon 1/3/2019 “Stay in the fight”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection at Immanuel Chapel, Virginia Theological Seminary
Text: Daniel 7:1-3,15-18
Day: All Saints Sunday, Year C
We have three things to talk about today: The Washington Nationals, our Old Testament lesson, and Amelia’s baptism, all connected by the thread of All Saints Day.
First, the Washington Nationals. At the end of game 6 of the World Series, when the Nats had lost three straight games and were on the brink of elimination, I read something like this about them. “The Nats,” an article said, “really just like each other. They play for each other and to have fun, for the love of the game, and for their legacy as a team.”
“They played for each other and their legacy as a team.” This sounds like our Resurrection community. I’ll come back to that in a minute. But also, this attitude of team contrasted with an article I had read the previous day after the Astros had taken the lead in the World Series. The article was an interview with the Astros’ manager, who extolled the benefits the wins would have for his career. His attitude was all “me,” versus the Nats’ “us.”
There’s something endearing AND enduring about team spirit. This is the way things should be: us, in community, together, working to accomplish whatever mission God has given us. Whether we win or lose isn’t what’s truly important. God loves us even when we lose—and we each lose something important at some point in our life. God loves us when we are injured or deeply disappointed with life or even when we doubt God exists. At such moments our team holds us up, lets us lean on their faith. Of course, members of a team also cheer each other on, relish each other’s victories, and help each other deal with their successes.
In our tradition, we view those Christians who have lived before us and died in the faith as part of our “team,” encouraging us to thrive in this journey we call life. We call these team-mates “saints,” not because they were exceptionally holy but because they were faithful. We know from scripture that God counted Abraham’s faithfulness as righteousness, leading us to believe that God will do the same for us.
Today, All Saints Sunday, is when we remember we are all saints—aspiring saints. Not perfect people, not winners but winning. Not alone in life, but in a team of saints—past, present, and possibly even future people—who surround us and encourage us, who are with us when we stumble, who help us continue, and who cheer us on when we keep the faith.
Today, All Saints Sunday, is when we acknowledge the collective of people who have gone before—not any particular one, but all of them, ordinary people who somehow overcame every adversity life threw at them and remained faithful to our creator to the end of this life and beyond.
Saints are communal. While it is possible to be a solitary saint, this concept has very little meaning or appeal. We need other people to help us test and perfect our relationship with God, to increase our joy in life, and to remind us we exist for something beyond ourselves.
The second of our three “All Saints Day” topics is today’s lesson from the apocalyptic Book of Daniel. This lesson tells of four scary “beasts,” four monsters arising from the chaos of the waters of the earth. When the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar originally dreamed of these beasts, they represented the four superpowers of his day vying for dominion over the Middle East and were part of a prophecy about the outcome.
In today’s lesson, though, the Jewish saint DANIEL is now dreaming of these four beasts. And to him, in exile in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, he sees these four beasts as large tribulations his people couldn’t see coming, couldn’t defeat by themselves, that threaten to squash all the little people in their path while the tribulations play their world domination games. The end of Daniel’s dream was the assurance that those who were faithful to God would prevail, that they just needed to do whatever was necessary to “stay in the fight” to remain faithful to God.
We Christians have reinterpreted these four beasts yet again. We understand them as the future forces that will challenge OUR faith and announce Christ Jesus’ second coming. The passage continues to assure us, though, that we, the Holy Ones of the Most-High—the saints of God—will prevail. All we must do is persevere.
This is our assurance that we will not be overwhelmed by whatever this life throws at us. The open secret of our success is that we live for each other, in and through the Spirit of God that unites us. This isn’t a club, but a God-team that wins the World Series of life each and every day. This makes us, Church of the Resurrection, the holy ones of the Most High, a mission outpost for God’s love. We will endure to the end, and beyond, for each other and for the legacy we have in Christ Jesus.
Our final All Saints subject today is Amelia’s baptism. Today we will welcome Amelia into the communion of saints. Oh, she’ll still be the little girl who is learning all the real basics of life: how to operate her body, how to channel what she’s feeling to get what she wants (OK, maybe she’s learned that already!), how to connect with the people and things around her. But she will learn how to tell us about God. And through her, we will experience God anew. Today, a new saint is born, and we and the whole communion of saints rejoice.
