After coming down from the mountain where he was praying with his disciples, Jesus meets a crowd who have gathered from many lands, eager to hear him and receive healing. Jesus describes to them a world very different from the one we know. A world where blessing is not reserved for a few, but is showered on us all – like that candy cannon we described last week. A world ruled not by power and strength but by mercy and compassion. A world where every human being has worth and deserves our attention and care.

The world Jesus describes is the kingdom of God, and it’s not in some heaven light years away. The kingdom of God is here. When the saints of God – the holy ones – live in the God’s way of love and mercy, we make God’s kingdom more visible.

Seeing God’s kingdom requires adopting a different perspective. Pastor David Lose suggests that Jesus is inviting us to see the world through God’s eyes. (Read his whole reflection here, which includes a powerful example from Schindler’s List.) He writes, “And this includes our view of those we have loved and lost in the previous year. Indeed, my very word choice seems suddenly inadequate in light of the kingdom Jesus’ proclaims. We have not “lost” those who have died. Rather they live now in the nearer presence of God, beyond our immediate reach, yet connected to us through memory, faith, and love. Part of what we do when we celebrate All Saints’ – and, indeed, at all memorial services – is to participate in the inversion of the kingdom of the world which believes that all we can see, hold, control, or buy is all there is. When we commend those we have loved to God’s care, we proclaim that God’s kingdom is not some distant thing or place but rather exists now, exerts its influence on us now, transforms our reality now. All Saints’, along with all Christian funerals, is a repetition and rehearsal of the Easter promise that there is something more, something that transcends our immediate experience, and this proclamation is rooted in the confidence that God’s love and life are more powerful and enduring that the hate, disappointment, and death that seems at times to surround us.”

Thanks be to God for all the saints who have lived with this hope and confidence and shown us the way!