Remembering Sunday: All Saints Day / Sermon On the Plain (Anglican)

synopsis

On the occasion of All Saints’ Day, we read the Sermon on the Plain (Lk 6 NRSVA 17:31). All Saint’s Day started because the Diocletian persecutions created so many martyrs that there were not enough days to remember them individually. Today, it reminds us both that we are all saints by virtue of our Baptism, and that when we worship God and act in Christ, we do so in the company of not only the Angels and Archangels, but all the faithful departed. This is true at any time, but especially in the celebration of All Saint’s day. It is a time and place where that which separates us from the spirit world draws thin.

It is important to contrast the sermon on the Mount, in Matthew, with its “Christ as Moses” and the symbolic language of the Mountain, with Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. Gentiles are there, from Tyre and Sidon, and everyone is on the level.

Firstly, note that there is no “if” in these lists of blessings and woes. It is descriptive, not prescriptive. This is not calling us to make ourselves poor, make ourselves weep, or make martyrs of ourselves. For, in doing so, we would become not martyrs but Pharisees. “The goal of Chistian spirituality is not inward or upward focused. The goal of spirituality is outward focused.”

Secondly, he is speaking to his disciples as he says this, and is describing the life of a Christian. It is not an exercise in abstraction, talking about “those poor people, be like them” or the like. We need to remember when nothing else is going right in life that God is blessing us at that moment, and we are blessed to be a blessing to others, not to receive them. And when things are going right, when many people would describe their lives as “blessed” materially, that is when we need to hear the “thundering voice of the law” and know the fear of God.

Thirdly, the Christian life, which is often seen as impossible, is challenging but ordinary. The first step to take with Christ is always there, right in front of us, if we see with the help of Jesus.

Reflections

I benefited greatly from hearing this sermon, and will do well to remember it. It’s interesting to reflect on what in this bible passage is really particular revelation and which is just good sense, or general revelation.

One often hears similar things from the spokesmen of modern folk religions like Online Fitness Industry, The Celebrity Navy SEAL Extended Universe, or Wantrepreneur Grindset Hustle Cult. “When you’re at your lowest, that’s when you can grow the fastest, keep grinding”, “Don’t get cocky, your status now is a result of the work you put in six months ago”. Even a proclaimed nihilistic materialist like Alex Hormozi would agree with “Give, and you will receive”, and that it is better to create value than take it, because natural law makes that the best option over the long term, even if you only care about your own material gain.

There are, however, situations that only MOSTLY align with what we understand today about natural law. My basic understanding of game theory tells me that, in environments with cooperators, defectors and “mistakes”, the optimal strategy is something like “copykitten”, basically a forgiving version of “tit for tat”. So, modern science proves the sermon on the plain wrong, right? Checkmate, theists? NO! I believe there is something deeper and more complex going on here that is possible in our world, but not the simplified world of prisoner’s dilemma games. We choose the games we play, we make up the rules. We’re not locked into a paradigm, like in these experiments. Christ is Lord, and he is the Logos, he is the natural law. So though our mental model of the Gospel will always be flawed, and our understanding of natural law will always be flawed, in reality there is no disagreement — we just need to do metanoia and figure out what we were missing.

My penultimate comment is on UNDERPANTS GNOMES SOTERIOLOGY. I think the protestants have just painted themselves into a corner on this one. I agree, with basically all modern Christians, that Faith is primary and incredibly important, and that true faith necessarily will produce works. It is our orientation towards the divine that puts us in right relation, not any earthly thing, as explained in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. The protestant Sola Fide commitment often leaves them unable to describe right action at all. The argument goes something like this:

1. We are called to live in God’s perfection

2. We cannot, because we are fallen and made of flesh

3. So, we Accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Personal Savior

4. ????

5. SALVATION

Our friends, as far as I can tell, still have a five-century-long hangover from indulgences and works justification. They are stuck in the unenviable position of having to characterize the entire sermon on the mount as basically rhetorical, rather than the greatest syncretic exposition on virtue ethics the world has ever known. So, friends, as St. Paul did, I exhort you: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

Finally, there are so many things I love about this Church, but I especially love the slogan, “Enjoy your Forgiveness!”