All Saints Sunday | November 1, 2026
It is our practice to read the Beatitudes on All Saints Sunday,
Practice is another word for discipline…
Something we do because it is good for us to do, repeatedly, no matter how we are feeling at the moment…
Something we do because we have made a commitment to put faith into practice…
To discipline ourselves, to manage the inner conflict
of following a practice
when it feels like the very last thing we want to do…
Inner conflict..
Inner conflict is the beating heart of the beatitudes…
If we could take a birds-eye view of the beatitudes…
the specific details of individual beatitudes becoming small…
blending together…
what comes into view is their structure,
their movement,
each addressing the inner conflict of
experiencing one thing yet believing another.
Structurally, in the movement of each…
they are all the same…
Those times when we are praised,
when everything is going swimmingly…
Those times we feel we don’t need help from God,
when our own power is enough, no need of God…
We are cursed.
Those times we feel cursed, abused, outcast, exposed, victimized, persecuted….
We are blessed,
Here is the practice and discipline:
To believe Jesus when are hearts are broken,
when it seems life going in the wrong direction,
Just then, in the worst times…
Beautifully, unexpectedly, faithfully and always, God blesses us,
Transforming moments of suffering into blessing…
This is the inner conflict we all know well….
Of experience one moment in time,
Believing eternal time in God.
Blessed are those who
…are poor in spirit
…those who mourn
…those who are meek
..who are hungry.
God transforms cursed moments into blessing…
…this we believe, and if this is true, so too is the opposite,
..which truth be told, is harder for us to believe.
Yet the transforming power of God flows in both directions:
Blessed are you..
When people revile you
Utter all kinds of false things against you..
Rejoice and be glad..
For in the same way, Jesus says,
They persecuted the prophets before you.
Today, on All Saints Sunday…
we read the beatitudes as a practice, a discipline
to remind ourselves that death is yet another transformation of God….
Death is a gate, the end is the beginning,
In the same way, with the same power that God transforms the momentary suffering of our lives,
Transforms curse into blessing…
so also God transforms death into life…
So also God transforms common people,
sinners like you and me into saints.
Close
Today we say the names of our Saints one last time together…
we light a candle to represent the light that shone in each of their beautiful souls,
we ring a bell to mark their transformation from this life to life eternal, to unbind them and to let them go.
Praise God for the gift of these good people, our saints; may God bless all of us who loved them, and who were blessed by the light of love reflected in their lives. Amen.
