All Saints Day (Observed)
November 3rd, Year of
Our + Lord 2013
Trinity and St. John Lutheran
Churches
Sidney and Fairview, Montana
Blessed Holiness
This morning we celebrate All Saints Day,
all the saints on earth remembering, and rejoicing with all the saints in
heaven. We continue our lives in the
church on earth, a mixture of joy and sorrow, as we continue in the fight that
is the Christian life. Our brothers and
sisters in Christ who have gone before us are finished with the fight, and know
only joy, gathered around the throne of God, worshiping the Lamb who has been
slain. And yet, while today we focus on
all the saints above and their heavenly worship of Jesus, every day, each time we
gather around God’s Word in worship, our prayers and praises are joined to
theirs. Because our connection to them
is the living Lord Jesus Christ, the One whom all the saints worship, in heaven
and on earth, all the saints finding their peace and joy in Him.
Our Gospel for All Saints Day is very
familiar, the Beatitudes, or blessings, which begin Jesus’ Sermon on the
Mount. Jesus describes to a congregation
of disciples the life of the church on earth, a
description which may leave us wondering why or how we are to find peace
and joy in our life as Christians.
Blessed, says Jesus, are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake. Blessed are you
when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against
you falsely on my account. Rejoice and
be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the
prophets who were before you.
What do you think? Are peace and joy to be found in these
Beatitudes, in these blessings?. And
while these Beatitudes that I’ve read may be the hardest to accept, even the
sweeter sounding ones might still trouble us.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of
God.
No doubt, receiving mercy, seeing God,
being called sons of God, these are things we wish for. But what about when we are not merciful, when
we are unclean in heart? What about when
we make strife and conflict, not peace?
And how can we find joy in the midst of humility, in mourning, even in
persecutions? How can we be merciful and
pure? How can we be peacemakers? Jesus seems to describe a spiritual stature
we can never hope to attain.
Consider your life. Consider just this past week, alongside these
Beatitudes. For Jesus does not speak of
some future spiritual stature. He speaks
of now. Today. He doesn’t say that the poor in spirit will
be blessed, but rather “Blessed are the poor in Spirit.” “Blessed are the merciful.” Right now, those who are merciful, poor in
spirit, they are blessed. This stature
is not for tomorrow, it is for right now; no future growth in holiness is implied
here. This is my church, Jesus says, how
they are, right now, today. Jesus’
present tense speaking can make us question, as we consider our lives alongside
the Beatitudes, “Are we really in the Church?”
In Isaiah, and in Revelation, and in many other places, the LORD says he
will come out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their
sins. He comforts His people, and tells
them to take refuge for a moment, until His wrath has passed by. But when the LORD comes out from His
dwelling, should you and I expect blessing, or punishment? Considering our lives, and the way Jesus
describes His Church in our Gospel lesson, what should you and I be
expecting?
Considering our lives, we have cause to
despair. But do not despair. Repent of your failures in holiness, yes, but
do not despair about your salvation, do not give up your hope of heaven. How?
How can we honestly think we are bound for blessing and glory? Because, while Jesus is speaking about what His church is like, first and foremost His church is His body. He goes before us in all things. As Jesus describes blessedness in poverty of
spirit, in mourning, in suffering and persecution, He is first and foremost
speaking of Himself, the firstborn among many brothers. In His life of humility and service, in His death
for all sin, and in His resurrection which proclaims peace to all mankind, Jesus fulfills the beatitudes, just as He
fulfills all the Law of God. When
Scripture prophesies that the LORD is coming out of His dwelling, it is
speaking of Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven, down from His rightful dwelling, and was incarnate by
the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man: and was crucified under
Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried.
The third day He rose according to the Scriptures. So we see, in Jesus, the Beatitudes are
already reality. The lofty spiritual
stature we cannot attain by our efforts, Jesus has already obtained, for us. It is just as Isaiah prophesied in his 26th
chapter: O LORD, you will ordain peace for
us; you have done for us all our works.
But wait, there’s more! We see the completion of Salvation in the
Resurrection, but Jesus did not stop working for us after Easter morning. He continued to work, by His Spirit, sending
His Apostles into all the world, building His church by the forgiveness of
sins. Today He continues to grow and
protect her: teaching, washing, forgiving, and feeding her so that she
stands. When you gather around His word,
God speaks words of forgiveness and blessing, to you. By your Baptism, you are in Christ. By His Supper, He is in you. In Him and with Him we can stand meekly, but
confidently, in the midst of poverty, mourning, and even persecution. In Jesus, we always have reason to rejoice,
for we know that in Him we have the guarantee of eternal peace and joy.
In Him and with Him, we can show mercy, we
can make peace. We will never do these
perfectly in this life. If it were
possible for any of us to live as perfect saints, then why was it necessary for
Jesus to die, to make us holy? He came
to be holy, in life and death and resurrection, because we are not holy, and
cannot by our own reason or strength become holy. But His perfection is our perfection,
credited to us by faith, and so we have perfect confidence, knowing that with
the saints who have gone before, we will see God. We have been adopted by the Father for Jesus’
sake, and so we are sons of God, sons and daughters of the Most High.
Because you have Jesus, you have joy in
the midst of suffering. This promise
does not trivialize your sorrow, or make it go away, like it isn’t real. No, rather it sanctifies your sorrow. It makes your sorrow holy, because by your
union with Jesus, God shares in your sorrow.
In this union, you are free to show mercy, to make peace, and to
rejoice, even in suffering and persecution, because Jesus has gone before you,
and continues to go, before you and with you.
You have not attained great spiritual stature, but Jesus has, and He is
with you. You have Jesus, the One who
hungered and thirsted for righteousness, all the way to the cross on
Calvary. You have Jesus, the Peacemaker,
the One who has made peace between Man and God, by the blood of His Cross. There He won your righteousness, your
forgiveness, and so also your peace and joy.
So rejoice on this All Saints Day, and
every day, and sing with the whole church, in heaven and on earth: "Worthy
is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and
honor and glory and blessing!"
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and
honor and glory and might forever and ever!" Amen."
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