Sunday, November 2, 2025
Ephesians 1:11-23
Luke 6:20-31
There’s a popular practice these days which seems like a game but can often become a huge culture change. It’s a word game and it is called semantic change. But its not really a game, it is a tool which has come from the study of words, etymology is the fancy word for this. This tool is one in which people smarter than me observe how words evolve naturally. And words can change meaning just naturally in culture.
But his has become a tool which can be used intentionally by small groups and political parties alike to change the definition of a word for the benefit of their agenda.
Think of the word “woke” which, regardless of your opinion about it, used to mean something else. The meaning of the word “gay” has also changed. Or think of more simple words like “mouse” which has shifted from a small rodent to a computer input device. Or maybe "awful" which once meant "awe-inspiring," but now means “terrible”.
My last bishop had a campaign for a couple of years in which she asked very focused, two-word questions. It was a similar practice to semantic change because it makes you stop and think about what you mean by the use of certain words. But this two-word question practice is a somewhat different thing. I don’t think we are trying so much to change the meaning of the words as to ask ourselves what they mean to us.
These questions are very simple and are meant to make us think. They are probing, pointed and open ended questions so they are good for prompting deeper conversations.
The questions Bishop Rehberg asked are these:
“Why Jesus?”
Just sit with that for a moment. Why Jesus? Then, when you’re ready, think on the two questions which follow.
“Why Church?”
And the third question is “Why this Church?” That last one meaning, for us, the Lutheran Church or maybe Redeemer Church.
I think we could just stop there. It is the stuff of discussion and I hope we can discuss it but I want to move on - on this All Saint’s Sunday - with a similar thought provoking short-worded question that has been on my mind lately and that is this:
Why are we here?
Why are you here?
It is a question we could ask of ourselves in any moment. Maybe you ask yourself “why am I here?” when you go to the grocery store. Or maybe you ask your self that when you have just walked into a room and can’t remember - “why am I here?” You know, you were just in there and then you left and now you’re back and it was because you forgot something.
But I think it is a good question to ponder about church. It is a way of asking yourself why you come to church. Why are you here? Why do you serve on that committee, or work with that outreach ministries, or give of your hard earned money to this place? Why study the Bible? Why pray? At least once a year, maybe everyday, we ought to stop and reevaluate our reasons for belonging to, supporting and doing - church. And that will change during our lives as Christians.
So why are you here? I suppose the answer may be as short as the question.
I once asked a centering prayer group I attended the “Why Jesus?” question and got an earful from them. It was a mixed group of clergy and lay, Presbyterian, Quaker, Methodist, Lutheran up in Radford, and there was a moment for each of us to sit with the question and ponder “Why Jesus?”
But one woman piped right up with “well why not?” She said this rather vehemently. “Why Jesus? That’s simple! Because He is my Lord and savior.” She said this in such a way to imply that she thought the question was dumb! And I must admit, she had a point. And I admired her for her clarity.
I like these short-worded questions though. I like to sit quietly and ponder those thoughts and ideas which invite us to challenge that which we might take for granted or have come to forget or have come to see as too obvious, or just plain dumb.
And the short answer to the question about why we are here is obvious, or at least I hope it is. We are each here because we believe in Jesus, because we profess to follow Jesus, because we are baptized, raised in the church, converted, transformed, reconciled or otherwise inspired by the Christian faith.
But maybe we are here because we think we should be here. Maybe we are here for the fellowship and the sense of belonging we get. Or the love and grace we receive when we come to church. Maybe we’re here because we have always gone to church on Sunday mornings and don’t know how else to be. Maybe we are still trying to figure out just what we believe about the faith or the Christian story and we come out of a sort of practice of discernment. Or maybe we are certain about all of it and come out of a sense of calling or obligation to serve the God who has saved and healed and nurtured us. Maybe it is all of that. Maybe it is something I have not named.
And it is not lost on me that I am preaching to diminishing numbers
And the list could go on. I could spend this entire sermon listing all the ways we love God, long for God and try to serve God, and I could easily add to the list all the ways we worry that we fall short in serving, in following, in loving our neighbor, in feeding the poor.
Today is our annual celebration of our feast of All Saints when we focus our attention on the good lives of those who have died and how we miss them, yes but also how we might try to emulate their goodness.
The theme in these readings is all about blessings. Daniel shared his gifts of interpreting dreams and in so doing he blessed everyone involved - from both sides of the divide of the day.
St. Paul talks of blessings too, though in a round about way. One scholar points out that this reading from Ephesians is best understood if seen in two pieces: (vss.11-14 and 15-23). The first three verses are the second half of this split and all four of these verses are one single Greek sentence. This is the longest sentence in the entire New Testament! This sentence is so long that it began before this passage! This run on sentence begins at verse 3 which is not even in the section we’re studying this morning so you’ll have to look it up later. But it is sufficient to say that this entire section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is in the form of one big blessing. Paul is blessing and praising God for God’s redeeming work in Christ as Paul has witnessed in the work of the church in Ephesus.
This reminds me of that beautiful passage from Genesis: "I will bless you and you will be a blessing.” Here is the actual passage: “Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will (make of you a great nation, and I will) bless you, (and make your name great,) so that you will be a blessing.’” (Genesis 12:1-2)
(That was the text which was used when we first agreed to bless the unions of couples who did not fit the “one man/one woman” requirement of old. The Episcopal Church, long before gay marriage was legal, stepped back from the argument and said, essentially, “we should bless these couples because in blessing them they will in turn be a blessing.” And it was true. So that is the title of and language of the original liturgy we used before we could legally marry LGBT couples - we blessed them. And they have blessed others.)
In the gospel lesson this morning, Luke tells of the time when Jesus preached his most famous sermon - the one we call the Sermon on the Mount (because that’s what Matthew calls it). Luke actually called it the Sermon on the Plain. In this small section of that famous sermon we hear the words of Jesus as clear as anything he ever said and these words tell us the same thing we heard in that passage from Genesis, and Daniel and Ephesians.
We are blessed.
God has blessed us.
God has blessed us so that we can bless others.
There is so much more I could say about this but I’m done. That’s it. It’s that simple. Recognize your blessings and be a blessing to others. Bless them and they will be a blessing. It’s like paying it forward.
So, I could say “amen” and sit down at this point. But I still need to remind us of the stumbling blocks in all of this.
Maybe in your pondering about why you come to church you’re thinking it’s not to get your toes stepped on by the preacher. But it seems irresponsible of me not to point out the errors of our ways when we encounter these lessons.
One of the stumbling blocks about the beatitudes is that we erroneously think of them as a to-do list. We hear Jesus say that the blessed ones are the ones who are poor, hungry, weeping, hated, reviled, and defamed. Jesus says that here, that those who are these things are “blessed.” Matthew added to that list with “meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted.” And Matthew said that the hunger and persecution are for righteousness not just food and water.
Either way, whichever version of the beatitudes we read, we take that list and we strive to be all those things. We strive to tick off the list so that we can feel good about ourselves and get into heaven. And when we do that we miss the point.
Jesus said that the poor, the hungry, the bereft, the persecuted, these believers, these followers who experience these injustices - they are already blessed. Jesus said in this sermon that those who live with these things are already blessed, simply because they are loved. God loves us - already. We don’t have to earn God’s love by trying to tick these attitudes off of the list. We need instead to recognize all the ways we are already blessed. We just need to be. Not so much do.
The problem with being blessed is we want to stay there. We want to bask in it. We want to get our fill of blessings. I wonder if that is why so many people are always naming their blessings. There’s nothing wrong with that. It seems a practice of gratitude to joyfully shout out, “I am blessed!” whenever we get a new toy or a good place in line or a great deal on a used car. “I’m blessed!” people say when they are feeling happy or grateful. And that is a perfectly wonderful response to God’s blessings.
Except, well, there is a fine line between shouting for joy for all of our belongings or privilege or power and serving God humbly recognizing that life itself is a blessing and a blessing to be shared.
So, I’ll ask you again. Why do we come here? Why are you here? Do we come to church just to receive blessings? Or do we come here to fill up our tank in order to go out and give blessings to others all week? Why Jesus?, indeed.
We practice our faith in these rites and rituals. We receive blessings from our prayers, from the thanksgiving meal, from the gestures of the cross, from the pastor, from the readings, from the memorials. All of these practices bless us.
So come to be blessed and remember to go and bless others.
Amen.
Pastor Kathy Kelly