Sermon — All Saints’ Sunday, November 6, 2022
The Rev. Greg Johnston
“You were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;
this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption.” (Eph. 1:14)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Over the last few years as a freelance web developer, in addition to my work in the church, I’ve learned a lesson that many contractors before me have learned as well: It’s best for everyone involved if you’re paid 50% up front and 50% when you finish a project.
If you’re paid 100% on completion, of course, you spend the whole project working for free. A difficult client who wants to keep pushing for changes or expanding the scope of work has all the power in the relationship; they won’t pay a dime until they’re finally satisfied with what you’ve done, even if it ends up being far more work than the original contract. And if you’re paid all up front, well… There’s not much of an incentive to do the job. If you’ve ever worked with a contractor who disappeared once you wrote the final check, leaving behind a punch-list of small items that would never be completed, you know what I mean.
50-50 is the best of all worlds. And people have known this for generations. Years ago archaeologists found an ancient papyrus in Egypt, from nearly 1500 years ago, describing one such freelance operation. “Regarding Lampon the mouse-catcher,” the author writes, “I paid him 8 drachmae as earnest money in order that he may catch the mice.” More to follow, one assumes, once the mice are actually caught.
It’s the very same word, translated in the letter as “earnest money,” that Paul uses to describe the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the letter it’s translated “pledge,” but it means the same thing. The Holy Spirit that we experience in this life is, Paul writes, God’s down payment, God’s 50% up front toward the promise of our redemption.
This is part of what’s sometimes called the “now and not yet” in Christian life. You have already, Paul writes, “heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed.” (Eph. 1:13) You have already been “marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.” (1:13) You have already received a “pledge,” earnest money, as an advance on the riches of your inheritance. (1:14) But God’s work in you is not yet complete. You do not yet know—we do not yet know—“the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.” (1:19)
Hopefully, this “now and not yet” makes some intuitive sense. You know that your spiritual life is not just “paid on completion,” as if we only experienced suffering and misery in this world, and had to wait for peace and joy in the next one. We already now experience the comfort and love of the Holy Spirit, in many different ways. But we also know that things aren’t perfect yet. We know that that “golden evening,” that “glorious day,” those “pearly gates” are describing some reality that we do not yet inhabit. God has promised us something better, and the promise has not yet been fulfilled. We’re still waiting for that final check.
But here’s where the analogy breaks down. If we’re spiritual freelancers, that initial gift of the Holy Spirit is a mark that God’s earnest about the project, but it’s also an incentive. If we just keep working and working and working, and becoming more and more saintly, more holy and good, if we can just finish our projects of self-improvement, then one day God will reward us with a second check.
This isn’t what Paul means at all. You are not the hard-working contractor. It’s God who is at work in you. “I pray,” he writes, that God “may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.” (1:17) He prays that “the eyes of your heart” may be “enlightened,” so that you “know” three things: the hope to which he has called you, the riches of your inheritance, and the greatness of his power. (1:18) The Holy Spirit that God has given us is not a spirit of fear or anxiety. It’s not a spirit of inspiration, so that we might go on to do great things for God. It’s a spirit of comfort and reassurance, not about our work for God about God’s work in and for us. God wants to enlighten our hearts, so that we can see and feel the reality of that promise, so that we can truly know that the thing we hope for is real, and that it is more beautiful than we can imagine, and that God is more than strong enough to bring us there. And that blessed life of God is not a wage; it’s an inheritance. It’s not a reward that we earn by working hard. It’s the gift God has chosen to give us for being who we are.
I think that’s part of what Jesus means when he tells us, “Blessed are you who are poor… Blessed are you who are hungry… Blessed are you who weep now.” (Luke 6:20-21) It’s not that you are blessed because you are poor, or hungry, or weeping. It’s that even though the kingdom of God is not yet yours, even though you have not yet been filled, even though you are not yet laughing all the time, amidst all the pain and suffering of this world you are God’s blessed child, and you will receive the inheritance that is yours.
On this All Saints’ Sunday we remember and we pray for all the people whom we have loved and who have died. And the Holy Spirit’s work of assurance goes on. Every moment of joy or peace or prayer we feel is just a taste of what has been promised to us, of the eternal life already being lived by those who have already died. That doesn’t mean we can’t be sad. It doesn’t mean we won’t miss them every day of our lives. But it is the sometimes-unbelievable promise that they live now in the world we all pray to see, a world of peace and rest; and it’s a promise that we will one day see them again. So I pray, like Paul, that God may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us. Amen.