Late yesterday afternoon, as Katie and I were driving down Bryan Boulevard towards home, after spending a day at church for the Bazaar, we chatted about the day while simultaneously marveling at the glorious foliage. Katie summed it up beautifully when she said, simply, “I love our church!” So do I.

As I walked upstairs and down yesterday, meeting old friends and greeting visitors, saying hello to all our parishioners, oohing and aahing in each room over hand-made crafts, beautiful artwork and woodwork, and many other gifts generously given, I too was reminded of how much I love our church.

St. Andrew’s has the friendliest, the most caring and compassionate, the most hard-working, and the most consistently generous members of any church I’ve been a part of in all my (now fifty) years. God has blessed us beyond measure. God has blessed us with each other.

I was also reminded yesterday of the phrase in the Collect for All Saints, “you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord…” Everywhere I turned on Saturday I was saying hello to people who wouldn’t miss our Bazaar for anything, who have worked at the Bazaar for any number of years, and even to some former members who have moved away but who remember with fondness their days being part of the Bazaar. It’s also a day that we remember with thankful hearts all our friends and family members, no longer with us, who loved the Bazaar too. Our communion and fellowship extends far, far beyond our current membership roll.

The St. Andrew’s Bazaar – still the oldest continuing held church Bazaar in Greensboro, I’m told – is an event that keeps on giving. It is a reunion day, of sorts. A yearly homecoming, if you will. It is an opportunity for extended family and for our neighbors to come enjoy our special brand of hospitality. It is a chance for our parishioners to share their considerable gifts and talents. And it is an opportunity for us to make a difference well beyond our own property lines.

The proceeds from our Bazaar will make a difference in the city of Greensboro, when early next year grants are approved for a variety of outreach and mission-oriented agencies here locally. How often do we stop and wonder with thankful hearts that simply the sale of a plate of cookies or a yummy lunch or a gently read paperback or a Christmas tree ornament might go towards assisting foster kids in Greensboro, or the folks at The Servant Center or a mission project overseas or a center for abused women? Seemingly little things make a big difference. Seemingly small gestures can transform someone’s life. I think we live out that reality at St. Andrew’s every day.

When Jesus went up the mountain and sat down to teach, as he did in our gospel passage from Matthew today, he painted a picture of a world transformed by small gestures. “Blessed are the meek, and those who mourn, and those who desire to be all right with God. Blessed are those who know they need God more than anything else, and those who extend compassion and mercy, and those who make peace between others.”

In the Beatitudes, Jesus paints a picture of the world transformed by simple gestures of kindness and caring, and of individual hearts attuned to God. In our modern day, we’ve translated the Beatitudes into a covenant – a promise – we make at our baptisms. We’ll renew that very covenant later on this morning.

The Beatitudes paint a picture of the world God dreams of for all humanity. Our Baptismal Covenant makes explicit the ways in which we can make that new world so. By looking for Jesus in the eyes of everybody we meet, by turning away from evil and embracing what’s good, by telling the story of Jesus, by promoting peace and justice, and simply by promising to stay attached to the church’s ministry of worship, education, service and fellowship – these are the specific ways we work, the gestures we make, so that the Beatitudes might come true.

Coming to church on Sunday, praying for people who are sick, participating in the Care Net, being a Stephen Minister, making stuff for the Bazaar, joining a Sunday School class or a study group, welcoming visitors, volunteering in the community, writing checks towards our church pledge, visiting with folks not able to get to church, singing in the choir, setting up the altar for Sunday – these are some of the countless, simple and yet profound ways in which each of us can contribute to the world that is envisioned by the Beatitudes of Jesus. A world that is incredibly good, a world that is joyous and happy, a world that is at peace – this is our Father’s world, the world God dreams of, the world we’re called and commissioned to co-create with him.

This past week, a number of us were privileged to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak at the War Memorial Auditorium at the Convention Center. It was kind of like an Episcopal homecoming as we saw many clergy and parishioners from Episcopal churches across our city and county. It was an evening in which, as we honored Archbishop Tutu for his work in South Africa in helping to dismantle apartheid, we were reminded that as Anglicans, we DO make a difference in our world – a difference for GOOD!

Archbishop Tutu has seen the worst that humankind can be – he’s seen the depths to which human beings can sink in terms of evil and depravity. He’s heard story after story of man’s inhumanity to man, of torture and terror, of suffering beyond comprehension.

And yet Archbishop Tutu is full of joy, he’s full of hope, and he’s chock full of a delightfully quirky sense of humor; all possible because he has witnessed redemption through gestures of love and compassion big and small. He’s seen what is possible for human beings when they claim Christ as Lord and claim the Beatitudes as a value system. He’s witnessed how human beings can be transfigured and redeemed and rehabilitated when terrible truths are confessed and pardon, rather than punishment, is extended in return.

Archbishop Tutu has moved in a world seemingly light years beyond ours. The dismantling of apartheid in South Africa culturally, religiously, and politically changed forever the climate of that country. God’s dream, laid out in the Beatitudes, is being made manifest in South Africa, as apartheid is buried and a new society is resurrected.

And here we are at St. Andrew’s, celebrating the conclusion of another church bazaar and celebrating another All Saints Sunday. We move in different circles it would seem. Our spheres of influence are vastly different. And yet we too are contributing in countless ways towards making God’s dream come true.

I close with Archbishop’s Tutu’s words: “All over this magnificent world God calls us to extend His kingdom of shalom – peace and wholeness – of justice, of goodness, of compassion, of caring, of sharing, of laughter, of joy, and of reconciliation. God is transfiguring the world right this very moment through us because God believes in us and because God loves us. And as we share God’s love with our brothers and sisters, God’s other children, there is no tyrant who can resist us, no oppression that cannot be ended, no hunger that cannot be fed, no wound that cannot be healed, no hatred that cannot be turned to love, no dream that cannot be fulfilled.”

It is all of that we celebrate this All Saints Sunday.

Amen.