Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 27
Year C

Haggai 1:15b-2:9
Psalm 145:1-5, 18-22
or Psalm 98
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Luke 20:27-38

Even as we are many years into the 21st century, there are still people who behave as if there are two kinds of citizens first class citizens and second-class citizens and that Blacks are second class.  Sadly, discrimination is still alive. There are clubs, places of employment, neighborhoods where if you are not their “kind” you are rejected.

Many people think the same way about the religious life.  They seem to imagine that there are two standards, one for the saints and one for ordinary people.  During the Middle Ages it was believed that the highest life was that lived apart from the world in a monastery.  Those living in the world could not expect to achieve the same standard of Christian life.

But in the Christian life, there is no division between citizens – no first-class citizens and second-class citizens.  No saints versus ordinary people. All Saints’ Day, which we recently celebrated, reminds us vividly of this. On All Saints’ Day we think of saints and give thanks for their noble lives and example.  We think of the faithful band of men and women who have followed Christ and the way of love.

Without a living faith, life is meaningless and under the conditions of modern life it becomes hell.   What greater calling can there be than that of being “called to be a saint”. To realize this brings the most wonderful sense of liberation, — “free at last”.  What really matters is a sense of holiness nurtured as we strive to be like Jesus Christ. There is no substitute for this.

How do we fulfill this calling if “I want to be one, too?”  God doesn’t ask the impossible. We cannot ourselves, in our own strength live the good life.  That is why Jesus came, to enable us to fulfill God’s purpose for each of us. All things are possible in Jesus Christ. As we follow His way, the Holy Spirit builds us up in the life of Jesus Christ and His likeness and we begin to fulfill our Christian calling to “become saints”.  We must grow in humility. There can be no boasting because it is the work of Jesus Christ in us and the wonder and glory belong to Him.

We are all different, with different talents and ambitions, but in Christ we are all one.  In the Christian life no one can think of themselves as inferior or underprivileged, unless we choose to be so.

The Book of Revelation has a glorious passage, a vision of heaven and the throne of God.  He looks out from the throne and sees a vast throng which no one can count. They are from every nation and tribe, people and languages, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.  They are the saints, who through the grace of Jesus Christ are victorious. They

Pinder

have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of Jesus and passed through the great ordeal. They have endured lives of great suffering and many trials and temptations.  We are similarly met with challenges – we may face ingratitude, rejection and hostility and we are tempted to give up. We must go on for love’s sake in hope to join the community of saints we remember today – a community where all are first-class citizens.

To follow Jesus Christ, we must die to ourselves and take up our cross as we follow the way of the cross. 

The Rev. Canon Nelson Pinder is rector emeritus of The Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in Orlando.