Sermon for Sunday, November 2, 2025 || All Saints C || Luke 6:20-31

Today, on the day we celebrate all the saints, I’d like to talk to you about one element of sainthood that binds together nearly all the saints – their utter dedication to the words Jesus speaks in this morning’s Gospel lesson. The people we honor as saints were not superheroes of the faith; rather, they were ordinary people who trusted God to shape their lives into vessels of justice, peace, and love. The saints who were martyred could have fought back, but chose death instead of abandoning their commitment to nonviolence. The saints who modeled the values of God’s reign could have shrunk into the scenery of their centuries, but chose instead to speak out about the injustices happening around them. The saints who were denigrated in their time could have reflected the hate and fear and indifference of their societies, but chose instead to shine brightly with the light and the love of God.

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This word – instead – is the all-important word when it comes to the saints. Instead of acting as the suicidal machinery of the world would have them act, they chose God’s movement and threw wrenches into the the machine. We may not be destined for sainthood, but we can follow their example by challenging the ways of a violent world and by embracing the justice, peace, and love of God. We begin following the saints’ example by starting with ourselves.

We’ve witnessed in recent years and in recent months a rising tide of hate, indignity, and violence in our society. Even as I’ve witnessed this rising tide, I can feel these evil chemicals building up in my system. In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus is intensely aware of the potential for the infection of hate to enter the human bloodstream. Remember, Jesus is speaking to an oppressed group of people. His country is under the thumb of the Roman Empire. And while the empire preaches peace, the locals know that the Peace of Rome – the Pax Romana – comes at the point of a sword. It would have been so easy for Jesus’ followers to hate the Romans, to hate the Israelites who worked for the Romans, even to hate themselves for having been conquered in the first place. I’m sure Jesus saw such hate infecting his people every day. Jesus came to bring abundant life, and here was the disease of hate ready to strike.

So Jesus says this: “I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

I can imagine the looks he got for that statement. I can imagine what people said: “You want me to love the Roman soldiers who occupy my town? You want me to do good for the Jewish tax collector enriching himself on the Roman payroll? You want me to bless those who trample us underfoot and leave us hungry and naked?” I have the same reaction I imagine his first listeners had. “You want me to pray for those who are abusing power?”

Why is this the path Jesus leads us down?

I can see Jesus in my mind’s eye pointing down the path in the opposite direction and saying, “Because you don’t want to go that way.”

I look that way, and I see myself not just allowing the infection of hate to invade me. I see myself injecting it into my veins. I see myself engaging in the opposites of each of Jesus’ commands.

Instead of loving my enemies, I fear them, since the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s fear. I fear my enemies, and the fear shackles me and keeps me from standing up for the side of love.

Instead of doing good to those who hate me, I do evil to them. I perpetuate the machine of violence and degradation instead of throwing the saints’ wrench of goodness into its gears.

Instead of blessing those who curse me, I curse them right back. And whenever a curse curls on my lips, I live the effects of it long before it reaches its intended target.

And instead of praying for those who abuse me, I shut myself off from giving to God the power that the abuser is trying to take. The abuser seeks only to dominate, while God seeks to liberate, and when we give our power to God, God sets us free.

I look that way, and I see myself succumbing to the death-dealing ways of hate, indignity, and violence. Then I look back at Jesus. He gives me an inviting smile and beckons me to follow him the other way instead, along the Way of Love. And I realize that the reason he calls us to walk this way is that it is the only life-giving way. The only people we can change is ourselves, and Jesus shows us the way to healing the disease of hate. We can’t change others, but with God’s help, we can purge ourselves of the infection. And we can beckon others to follow us – to follow Jesus – along the Way of Love, so they too might be changed.

Inoculating ourselves against the disease of hate frees us from being cogs in the suicidal machinery of the world. With this freedom, we can practice the nonviolence that Jesus preached and the saints lived out. Jesus says, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.” Then Jesus concludes these words with the golden rule that resonates down through history and harmonizes with every other religion in the world. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

In each of these commands, we have a choice whether or not to embrace generosity, abundance, dignity, and nonviolence. When we choose to embrace these lifegiving ways, we break the machine – just a little. A little rust here, a bent gear there. Or to turn the metaphor back to infection, we each become a white blood cell ready to protect the body from disease. A single cell can’t do much. A few million can. But there won’t be millions without each person making the choice again and again to live into God’s lifegiving ways, to live into God’s mission of healing and reconciliation, to live into the justice, the peace, and the love of God that will change the world.

Everyday, each of us has a choice. We can choose love or fear. We can choose healing or violence. We can choose blessings or curses. We can choose liberation or domination. Jesus beckons us down the path of love, nonviolence, blessings, and liberation. This is the Way the saints followed. This is the Way we follow for our own transformation and for the transformation of the world.