All Saints Sunday, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

All Saints Sunday, Yr A (2023)                                               The Rev. Karen C. Barfield

Revelation 7:9-17                                                               St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Matthew 5:1-12

In the name of the one, holy, and living God:

            Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifying Spirit.  Amen.

Visions….

            the Bible is filled with them!

But in today’s Western world,

            it seems that visions are looked upon with suspicion.

Why is that?

What have we lost?

     Why do we relegate visions to the “abnormal”…the “out of the ordinary?”

Or… do we have them, too,

but are afraid to say anything for fear of what others might think?

The mystics had vision upon vision…

we can read about them in volume after volume of the recordings of their lives.

When we think of All Saints’ Sunday,

we often think of – and even honor – these mystics:

      Therése of Lisieux, St. Francis, Catherine of Sienna, Julian of Norwich.

So, let’s take a moment and listen again to John’s vision in Revelation,

perhaps listening with new ears:

In the great heavenly throne room,

there was a huge gathering of people –

      so many people gathered together that you couldn’t even see the perimeter!

There were people from big cities and small towns…

from the mountains and the coasts. 

There were wealthy people

and poor people. 

There were people from every nation on the earth…

people of every race and class and language and hue of color. 

People of every mental and physical ability.

They were all robed in white,

waving palm branches in the air,

and they were all standing before the throne of God

and before the Lamb. 

Surrounding the throne were the elders and the four living creatures,

and angels were everywhere!

And even though there were so many different languages,

a beautiful, melodic, and unified voice rose up and filled the air:

“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom

and thanksgiving and honor

and power and might

be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Can you see it?

            The heavenly vision?

Do you ever see that vision or something resembling it as we gather at the Table and say,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, God of power and might. 

Heaven and earth are full of your glory. 

Hosanna in the highest.”

As I have journeyed with folks at the end of their lives,

 I have heard stories of heavenly visions…

        seeing family members who had died years ago. 

One gentleman told me that the night before I saw him,

Jesus had come to visit him and had told him everything would be all right…

he should not worry about his sons… they would be fine. 

      After this vision, he experienced a profound Peace.

My husband has told me that as he cared for children who were dying,

some reported to their parents seeing family members that had died long before they were born…

family members whose pictures the children had never seen

              and yet they were able to describe these family members in very specific detail.

In the book of Revelation,

John says that in his vision one of the elders addressed him,

asking him who were all these folks,

       robed in white.

They are the ones, the elder said,

who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

And because they have washed their clothes in the blood of the Lamb,

they gather around the heavenly throne and worship God day and night.

And, in this relationship, God will shelter them.

            They will no more be hungry or thirsty.

      Their skin will not be burned by the heat of the sun.

            They will receive guidance from the Lamb who will be their shepherd.

      They will drink from the springs of the water of life.

            They will suffer no more…

God will wipe away their tears.

All of these people and heavenly beings are unified in one thing:

            they know that “salvation belongs to our God.”

Salvation,

wholeness,

healing belong to our God.

What great news!

But, it is not a passive healing.

Those who stood before the throne of God washed their own robes in the blood of the Lamb. 

They took action. 

They were active participants in their own salvation – their own healing.

Many in John’s day were persecuted and martyred by the Roman authorities for their Christian beliefs.

While Christians in some areas of our world are today martyred for their faith,

that is not likely for us…

or is it?

Perhaps some of us might be called to stand up for our neighbors who are seen as less than, and perhaps it will cost us our life.

For most of us, however,

            we could take a cue as to how to participate actively in seeking our own salvation

      by looking at the vision of the Kingdom of God as cast by Matthew.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,

those who mourn,

the meek,

        those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Blessed are the merciful,

the pure in heart,

the peacemakers,

       and those who are persecuted and reviled for righteousness’ sake.

In other words…blessed are those who seek to live into the image of Christ:

            those who serve in humility,

those who act on behalf of the poor and dispossessed.

Blessed are those who seek reconciliation and peace,

      those who serve God and God alone,

those who enact mercy and grace through their lives,

who join in and mourn for the sufferings of their neighbors and the whole of creation.

If we were to wake up each morning and orient ourselves toward the throne of God –

from whom comes our hope, our strength, and our healing –

      might we orient ourselves a bit differently

toward the people and the situations we encounter each day?

If we began our day with a vision of the heavenly hosts singing:

“Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving

and honor and power and might be to our God…”

and then join our voices with theirs in their unending praise,

might we be raised up with and strengthened by the Communion of Saints

      to live into the vision of the Kingdom of God here on earth?

If we take seriously the commandments to love God with all that we are

and to love our neighbors as God loves them,

       might our lives enflesh a little more the Kingdom of God?

What a glorious vision that is!

So, my friends, I pray that we may have the courage to wash our robes

in the blood of the Lamb…

      to wash our robes in the loving grace and forgiveness and reconciliation of the Lamb

                  who provides for our own healing and the healing of the world.   Amen.