THE KINGDOM SEASON BEGINS....

All Saints marks the beginning of the Kingdom Season and it’s a season full of remembrances - of those big name saints, of those we knew and loved, of those who were killed in war... and we’re challenged and reminded that there are two “branches” of the Church if you like: the Church Militant here on earth and the Church Triumphant in glory. The dividing line may be death, but it’s not the finishing line - the party goes on!

This time of the year is a chance to remind ourselves of the other branch of the Church, to rejoice that death is an interruption, not a final destination. We go through the valley of the shadow of death...(Ps 23.4)

The scriptures talk about US as the saints of God - it’s not just the big names, not just those who have passed through death; but us here and now. And in the gospel reading Jesus lists the qualities of those who live in the kingdom of God, under the King... They have been called the attitudes of righteousness, they have been called beautiful attitudes, and they are most commonly known as the Beatitudes.

The structure of Aramaic in which Jesus spoke them doesn’t always come through in our translations. The Beatitudes are not a series of optimistic pious hopes for the future - not some nebulous future vision of future bliss; they are exclamations about the here and now - exclamations we are designed to live.

When Jesus spoke them the closer phrases would have been “Oh the blessedness of the poor...” The Beatitudes are congratulations on what is - but also challenges to our way of behaving!

The beatitudes remind us that there is tremendous joy and blessing and happiness in following Jesus now. The word ‘blessed’ is a state, rather than an aspiration - as Christians we are blessed, fortunate, happy - we have deep, serene joy - not dependent on outward circumstance or the whims of Fate or whatever. So as Saints of God we are called to realise our helplessness - our dependance on God’s grace and mercy and to trust in him - OR - “blessed are the poor”

And in all these beautiful attitudes we are being transformed from the divine image towards the divine likeness. So to help achieve this moulding we enlist the help of our prayer-partners the Saints: those around us today, and those cheering us on from the stands, both big names and little names!

We live a very spartan - even unthinkable - life if we ignore the saints, big and small. For the big name saints there is so much to gain from looking at their lives, their examples of holiness, their struggles with problems which confront us, their attempts to make sense of life and faith in the face of a hostile world, but not as dry dusty forgotten two dimensional characters - as people who live now in the closer presence of God and cheer us on as we struggle to walk the Way of Christ.
 

Fr Andrew Perry

Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea