ALL SAINTS: Year C 2025
Text: Luke 6. 20-31
The Very Revd Dr Paul Shackerley: Dean of Brecon
Unlike Matthew’s Gospel, which has eight beatitudes, or blessings, in Luke we have four blessings paired with four woes, each flipped to give its opposite. However neat Luke’s pairings are, though, it is probably a bit of a false dichotomy to pigeonhole people in one group or the other. Luke’s version pairs four blessings with four contrasting and corresponding woes. The woes serve to reverse worldly values and highlight the dangers of earthly contentment and self-sufficiency. Luke’s version favoured the poor and marginalised over the rich and complacent. This mirrors the themes found in Mary’s Magnificat.
Our lives have many seasons and, in our churches, will be people in seasons of sorrow and people in seasons of joy; people in times of lack and in times of plenty. In other words, times of blessing and times of woes, and our life experiences can swing between these, often unknowingly, yet sometimes are radical and unexpected interruptions to our lives.
It would be so easy to read Luke’s blessings and woes, like we read the parable of sheep and goats, of the righteous compared with the unrighteous. We are either one or the other, or we judge and prejudice others as either sheep or goats, and blessing or a pain. Just think back to the Brexit vote that divided families, friends, communities and the nation. We were on one side or the other. My side won, or my side lost.
The blessing and woes, and Brexit as one example, they point to something very important about All Saints’ Day. Our lives show that we are all interwoven and connected with each other, and with the saints. And yet we continue to play out in the church our need for winners and losers – those who are good and those who are bad, those who are saved and those who are damned, those who are right and those who are wrong, those who are orthodox and those who are heretics, and it goes on and on. And it’s not only in the church. The attitude that creates and maybe even needs winners and losers is at the heart of what we are doing in our country and world.
It’s blessings for the winners and woes for the losers. But I don’t think that’s at all what Jesus is saying or intending. I think Jesus is just describing the way into the kingdom. Do you remember playing the hot and cold game when you were kids or playing it with your child? Somebody would hide something and then direct others by saying, “You’re warm. Yes, you’re getting warmer. Oh, now you’re cold. You’re ice cold.” It was a way of telling the players if they were close to or far from the hidden object. What if blessings and woes aren’t categories of people, judgments, or the basis for a to-do list? What if that’s Jesus saying we are either warm or cold toward the kingdom, getting close to or moving away from it?
And when Jesus pronounces woes on some it’s not because they are bad people and undeserving of the kingdom. They’ve just moved away from it. They are clinging too tightly to things that distract. It’s as if they are saying, “I got mine, close the door. I’m full. I’m rich, I’m happy. I’m laughing.” They have mistaken the fulfilment of their personal needs and satisfaction for the kingdom. If they are to be winners, then some must be losers. But what about the others? Don’t they matter too? Is there not enough in the kingdom for everyone? I think Jesus says there is. I think that’s the witness of the saints today.
We may not have all the answers. We may not know how to fix everything. It may be more than you or I can do by ourselves. But can we at least not add to the pain of the world? That’s where Jesus is taking the disciples in today’s gospel. He gives them a vision of the kingdom and describes discipleship in terms of blessings and woes.
A Christian was speaking with his spiritual director who sat in silence for a while and eventually spoke one sentence. He said, “I just try not to add to the pain of the world.” If we could do that. If we could just not add to the pain of the world. It would be a huge step forward if we could just not add to the pain of the world. Surely, we would hear Jesus say, “You’re getting warmer toward the kingdom.”
The Very Reverend Dr Paul Shackerley
Dean of Brecon
