Do you call yourself a saint? Sermon for All Saints Day, Observed

All Saints Day, (Observed), November 7^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
Do you call yourself a saint?  (Rev. 7:9-17, 1 John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12)

     Do you call yourself a saint?  Is that a good idea?  A bad idea?  Is calling yourself holy presumptuous?  Or is it obvious? 

     All Saints’ Day is a comprehensive day of celebration.  It encompasses the entire scope of that great cloud of witnesses with which we are surrounded (Hebrews 12:1).  All Saints’ Day holds before the eyes of faith that great multitude which no one can number: all the saints of God in Christ – from every nation, race, culture, and language – who have come “out of the great tribulation ... who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9, 14).  As such, it sets before us the full height and depth and breadth and length of our dear Lord’s gracious salvation (Eph. 3:17 – 19).  All Saints’ shares with Easter a celebration of the resurrection, since all those who have died with Christ Jesus in Baptism have also been raised with Him (Romans 6:3-8).  It shares with Pentecost a celebration of the watery ingathering of the entire Church catholic – in heaven and on earth, in all times and places – gathered into the one Body of Christ, in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  Just as we have all been called to the one hope that belongs to our call “one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6).  And the Feast of all Saints shares with the final Sundays of the Church Year an end times focus on the life everlasting and a confident confession that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).  In all of this we see that the purpose of this feast is to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, so that we do not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebr. 12:2-3). 

So, on this All Saints’ Day, do you call yourself a saint? 

   Saint means holy one.   And holy, while it does include being sinless, good, and righteous, holy first means to be chosen and set aside for a special purpose.  Three-and-one-half millennia ago the Ark of the Covenant was built, a box set aside, declared to be holy, made to hold the testimonies of the Lord, within the Most Holy Place, that small, exclusive space within the Tabernacle and Temple of Israel, the place where the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God came to dwell with His chosen people. 

   Today our Chalice and other communion ware are set aside for delivering the body and blood of Christ to repentant sinners at the Lord’s table.  We do not use them for any other task, like a common drinking glass or a plate.  We have set them aside, made them holy for a specific holy task.  Neither the wood and gold from which the Ark of the Covenant was built, nor the silver of the chalice, none of these common materials called themselves to their new purpose.  They were chosen by the craftsmen to be put to noble use, made to be holy. 

   So in this sense, in the sense of the source and basis of holiness, no, you and I do not call ourselves saints.  Because the calling to be a holy one of God must come from outside of us.  God chooses.  God sets aside.  God makes sinners like you and me into His beloved, and into useful instruments for His purposes.  God through Holy Baptism called you to be His very own, to live under Him in righteous, innocence and blessedness, clothing you in the white robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness, giving you faith that receives new life, and a voice to sing the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into the marvelous light of His forgiving grace. 

   And so you are saints.  All who believe and are baptized have been chosen by God and declared to be holy, washed clean, perfectly righteous in God the Father’s eyes, because of Jesus, who has covered over all your sins.  “All the saints” includes all believers in Christ, those now living in glory and those still living on earth. 

   In Christ, you are a saint.  And yet you hesitate to call yourself holy.  You hesitate to call yourself a saint, even though in Jesus, by faith and union with Him, you are one. You hesitate because you know yourself.  The sin that so easily entangles and stains your perfect white robes is all the more obvious to you precisely because of those white robes.  Grey or black robes would show less dirt.  But Christ’s righteousness is blazing white, and so you can’t miss your sins.  You know your failures and trespasses far better the longer and more fervently you try to live as a baptized child of God should live.  And Jesus today calls us to a life of self-denial and suffering for righteousness’ sake that neither appeals to our old nature, nor seems possible for us to accomplish, even in our best moments.

   Are you ready for the kind of blessedness Jesus extols?  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  "Blessed are those who mourn, ...   Blessed are the meek, ... Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, ... Blessed are the merciful, ... Blessed are the pure in heart, and the peacemakers, ... Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

   We don’t need to hear Jesus describe this strange blessedness in order to recognize and feel dirty because of our sin.  But the “Beatitudes,” as Jesus’ list of blessings is called, really drive home our sense of not being saints, of not being holy, even though we’ve been called to be. 

   We should not deny, neither with our actions nor with our words, the divinely ordained fact that in our Baptisms, God has chosen and called us His holy ones.  But we feel like it can’t be so, because we do not measure up.  Which goes to show that we very quickly forget how being holy works.  God did not wait for you to get right before He chose you.  No, He chose you in order to form and shape you into what He wants you to be.  And God does this through Jesus.

   The Beatitudes, Jesus’ list of strange blessedness, is first and foremost about Jesus.  It is an intense description of the Law of God He came to fulfill.  The Son of God, who ruled over heaven in perfect splendor and glory, gave that up and made Himself poor, poor in spirit and poor economically, because He mourned over the sad future our sins held for us.  Mourning over us, the Son came meekly, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for us. 

Jesus came down from heaven and showed mercy, from a pure heart, making peace between God and man, through His persecution, persecution unto death, on the Cross, patient suffering endured for the sake of righteousness.  Unjust suffering accepted, in order to open the Kingdom of Heaven to you.    

   So, because of Jesus, you are holy.  And to help you with your identity struggle, the Father went one better than simply calling you holy.  He calls you son, daughter, beloved child. And so you are, because God says so.  This is the kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.  Now this is language that attracts.  We are beloved, needy children, who call upon our Father boldly.  Because we know we have been made children of God through Jesus, we also know the Father rejoices to hear and answer us. 

   So rejoice, not because you have conquered sin, but because the Holy One of God has conquered sin for you.  The eternal Son has won the Father’s favor for you.  Christ’s holiness, His real, essential holiness, and His promise to share it with you and all believers, this is your sure and certain hope.  Today you are holy by faith, and someday soon, face to face holiness, for eternity. 

   The saints who have gone before, who are the focus of our celebration today, rejoice because they are finally free from sin, free from guilt, resting in the presence of Jesus.  And you too can rest in the peace of Jesus, today, right now.  In Christ, you are free from sin.  Not fully, not visibly, not without the struggle of living as a sinner in a fallen world.  But truly, God’s peace is yours now, by faith in the forgiving love of Jesus, poured out for you. 

   One day soon, you will enjoy God’s peace fully.  In the meantime, you should neither accept your sin and sinfulness, nor should you despair because of them.  Rather, remember that Jesus is your holiness.  He is your source; you are a saint in Him.  So draw near to Jesus, to receive His gifts.  Your sins are forgiven.  His Body and Blood are for you, to wash your robes, and strengthen you for the blessed life.  Get close to Jesus, today, and every chance you can, and He will bring you to Himself.  

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.