Daniel 7.1-3, 15-18
Ephesians 1.11-23
Luke 6.20-31
Introduction
When St. Cuthbert was a young man he worked as a shepherd out on the hills of Northumbria. One night, when he was sixteen years old he was guarding the sheep out in the field when he saw a vision of the soul of a holy man being carried up to heaven. The next day he heard that Bishop Aidan had died, and realised that God was calling to follow Aidan in the life of holiness and devotion and so he entered the Monastery at Melrose and began to walk the path which would lead him also to be remembered as one of Britain’s greatest saints.
One doesn’t hear much about people having visions nowadays. In a culture which has been formed by secular psychiatry visions tend to be equated with ‘seeing things’ and ‘seeing things’ with mental illness. As a vicar people sometimes tell me about unusual experiences they have had, but often go on to say “don’t tell anyone that I’ve told you this because they’ll think I’m mad”. And, whilst I always assure them that their secret is safe with me I also seek to reassure them that the experience which they have had is more common than they might expect.
Now whilst literal visions tend to be little spoken of in our society the language of vision is often used today. Not only churches but all sorts of organisations are encouraged to develop statements of their vision – of the way that see that they could and should be in the years to come. I doubt that very many of the secular companies who put their vision for their future down in writing would see that vision as being a revelation from God but when Christian organisations, churches and individual Christians undertake this exercise the question being asked has to be, not “what do I think I or we should be?” but “what do I discern as God’s will for me or us in the future?”
So there is a sense in which modern talk about vision can, for Christians, tie in to the older (and, I believe, more authentic) idea of a vision as revelation from God.
Exposition
Today’s Old Testament reading is a classic account of a vision taken from the Book of Daniel. Now, I’m well aware that most scholars believe the Book of Daniel to be pseudonymous (which means that it was written by someone other than the person claimed as the author in the text) and anachronistic (which means that it was written at a time other than that in which it was set). Nevertheless it is for Jews and Christians part of our scripture and as we read it we listen for God’s word to us. In today’s reading we have the opening and concluding verses of a longer passage describing the development of history. Whilst the details of the vision are complex and fascinating the overall message is straightforward. That despite the way events may appear as one is going through them History is in God’s hands and that human existence has meaning and purpose. It is a vision, not because it predicts the future but because it sees things as they really are.
This theme of vision continues in our New Testament reading. Paul, writing to the Christians in the city of Ephesus prays for his readers:
“that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.”
Paul is praying that they might see through the surface appearance of the way things are to reality that lies within. And that reality is again about God’s power and about the fact that the way things work out is in God’s hands.
In our Gospel reading we hear Luke’s version of the beatitudes and again we find ourselves confronted by the message that the way things appear on the surface is not the way that they really are. Jesus tells us that it may look as though those who are rich, full, happy and spoken of with approval are the ones who have got life right but when we look with God’s eyes we see that the opposite is true. Vision is looking with God’s eyes and seeing a reality which is very different from surface appearance.
Application
Today is All Saints Sunday, and it is particularly appropriate that we consider this topic of vision today. The very name we give to this Sunday sets vision before us. For me me All Saints Sunday is not just about a group of individuals in the past who lived lives of exemplary holiness but about the fact that the path of holiness is one which every human being is called to walk. It sets before us the vision of a world transformed by holiness and challenges us to play our part in the building of that world by allowing God’s holiness to be expressed in us.
You know, as we get older it is easy to lose the vision that we had when we were younger. In our teens and twenties and thirties we the future seems clear but as we get older our vision both literally and spiritually becomes clouded. Like the seeds that fall among the thorns in the parable of the sower “the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke” the vision and it is lost. And yet, as the Book of Proverbs says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”.
So my challenge today is for us as God’s people here in Stansted to regain that vision of God at work in us and in this place, and my prayer for you is the prayer is the prayer of St. Paul for the Ephesians:
Lord,
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory,
may give to the people of this church
a spirit of wisdom and revelation
as we come to know him,
so that,
with the eyes of our hearts enlightened,
we may know what is the hope to which he has called us,
what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints,
and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe,
according to the working of his great power.
AMEN
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