With J.S. Bach and all the Saints at Leipzig - A Sermon for All Saints Day

All Saints Day, (Observed)
November 7^th, Year of Our + Lord 2021
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
With J.S. Bach and all the Saints at Leipzig 

     In Leipzig, Saxony, back in the 1730s and 40s, every Sunday morning was a Gospel extravaganza at St. Thomas Lutheran Church.  Johann Sebastian Bach was the Kantor, the church’s music director, and the Sunday morning service centered around a fourfold proclamation of the Gospel for that day.  First the Gospel would be read, or perhaps chanted, by the pastor.  Then the congregation would sing the Hymn of the Day, which paraphrased and expounded on the same Gospel text.  Then the pastor would preach, again primarily on the Gospel.  Finally, Bach would lead the Cantata, a mini-Christian opera that riffed on the base melody of the Hymn of the Day.  The Cantata retold the Gospel, in music and song, for a fourth time.  It was quite the deal.  Bach prepared a new cantata every week, for decades.  His choir and orchestra could have as many as a dozen singers and twenty instrumentalists.  

   The goal of this fourfold Gospel proclamation was that all the saints gathered that Sunday, including the especially hard-headed Germans among them, would carry the Gospel with them throughout the week.  This fourfold Gospel proclamation sought to make God’s Word about Christ and His Salvation seep into their bones, to be hummed and whistled and pondered as these Saxons made their way through their daily tasks.  Now, I don’t doubt that Bach and his musicians and the pastor and everyone at St. Thomas Church may have also felt a lot of pride in the amazing musical talent that was displayed.  But in the end, it was all Soli Deo Gloria, all for God’s glory, and for the good of His people.  

   And this morning in Hill City and Custer, we’re doing just the same thing! O.k., we’re doing 75% of it at Our Savior's, Hill City. We have heard the Gospel for this All Saints Day.  Our Hymn of the Day, while not dating from the 16^th century, beautifully repeats Jesus’ words from Matthew 5.  I will primarily preach on the Gospel.  And over in Custer, the Our Redeemer choir will follow up, not with a full blown cantata, but with a beautiful piece that again proclaims the truth about being blessed, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  A fourfold proclamation of the Good News of true blessing, in reading, hymn, sermon and chorus. 

    There are of course a few differences between Leipzig and Hill City/Custer.  We have an iTunes organ in Hill City, and in Custer, an organ and a choir, but no orchestra.  Our musical offerings of praise probably do not quite reach the level of mastery that Bach drew out of his musicians and singers.  But on this All Saints Day, as we celebrate the joy of the victory of the Christians who have gone before and who rejoice in the presence of God, we share the same purpose.

   Even more importantly, we have the same Savior as those saints in Leipzig, three centuries ago.  Which is great, and very appropriate, on this day when we focus on the joyous heavenly celebration that awaits all who trust in Jesus.  

   Today we celebrate with all the saints, all the holy ones of God who now rest from their labors.  The death of beloved family and friends is painful.  But for all those who have been claimed and sustained in Baptismal faith, we have the sure promise that their souls bask in God’s glory, right now, awaiting joyfully the final trumpet, and the great in-the-flesh family reunion of all the resurrected saints of God.  Untold numbers of believers from every tribe and race, even from the hard-headed Germans, including Grandma and Uncle Bill and Aunt Barb, will fall down together in eternal joy before the Lamb. 

   Wonderful stuff.  There’s just one problem: the fourfold Gospel that we are proclaiming today.  I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with the word of Jesus.  But it is a problem, for us.  Jesus’ words really challenge us, you the hearer, and me, the poor miserable sinner called to preach this text.  It is tempting to ignore the issue, talk a little bit more about the glory of heaven, and call it a sermon.  But, at this point, after going on and on about a fourfold Gospel proclamation,  I’m pretty much committed to actually preaching about today’s Gospel.  So, here we go. 

   Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, these nine “Blessed” statements.  They do not describe situations that we naturally consider blessings. 

    ³ "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  ⁴ "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  ⁵ "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  ⁶ "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  ⁷ "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.  ⁸ "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.  ⁹ "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.  ¹⁰ "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

  ¹¹ "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.   ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 

   We want the promises – the kingdom of heaven, the comfort.   We are happy to be satisfied with the righteous inheritance of the earth, and to see God our Redeemer face to face, with our own eyes.  How my heart faints within me. But to be poor in spirit?  To mourn.  To be meek, turning the other cheek?  

   Of course we want to be merciful.  You do want to be merciful, right?  You never want to punish your enemies, do you?  You never want to tell your boss, or that cop who just pulled you over, or your teacher exactly what you really think, do you?  Or your mother?  Or your husband?  Or your wife? 

   Everybody wants to be pure in heart, except when we don’t.  Except when in our hearts we find ourselves pursuing evil, desiring what we know God has forbidden, and neglecting what He calls us to think and say and do.   

   Certainly Jesus, the Christ of God, is describing how the Christian life should look.  One reaction we might have to hearing the Beatitudes, like many have had throughout the centuries, is to try harder.  Be humble.  Demonstrate your mournful spirit.  Be meek, full of mercy and righteousness.  Just do it, whatever it takes, to earn the blessing.  But as Luther learned bitterly in his cell in the monastery, the sin that surrounds and clings to us will not be conquered, will not be washed away, by our efforts.  The good that I wish to do, this I do not do.  The evil that I seek to shun, this I do.  Oh wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?  

   Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus our Lord.  

   Pursuing the virtues that Jesus extols, poverty of spirit, meekness, righteousness, purity, even bearing up under persecution, all of these are worthy of our highest effort.  Life together in this world will be better, insofar as we honestly pursue God’s will.  But will we reach the goal?  Will we become pure enough, meek enough, humble enough, to merit the kingdom of heaven and all the blessings that Jesus promises?  

   No.  Sadly, our pursuit of righteousness will most of all demonstrate how far we fall short.  Which, painfully, is God’s loving intent.  It is not pleasant, but it is necessary for you and me to realize just how much we lack God’s righteousness.  Indeed, the surest way to become poor in spirit is to honestly pursue righteousness and holiness, or saintliness.  Truly and honestly seeking perfection will make you truly humble.    

    The Beatitudes, Jesus’ description of the saintly life, will paradoxically make it very clear to us how dirty our robes are, how sin oozes from our being and stains even our best efforts.  The Beatitudes understood as Law, as a to do list for us, (and they are a to do list for us), these Beatitudes will make it clear that we cannot complete the task.  We will not reach the Kingdom of Heaven this way.  We are stuck, sinking in the mud of our own uncleanness, in need of rescue, in need of a Rescuer.  

   Jesus is our Rescuer.  But in our Gospel today He does not immediately reveal the Good News that He is our Rescuer.  If we read on in the Sermon on the Mount, we hear Him continue to describe the life of His disciples in terms we might admire, but which we never fulfill. Jesus warns you not to even mutter in anger about your brother.  Do not even think a sexual thought about someone who is not your spouse.  If someone strikes you in the face, do not take revenge, rather turn to him the other cheek.  Love your enemies, and do good to them. Woe is me, the task is too much, too much for any of us.  

      Jesus is our Rescuer.  But we need to read all the way to the end of the story to see it.  But once we know the end, we can then see how these Beatitudes, a law of good works we cannot fulfill, are also a description of the path of Jesus, as He comes to our rescue.  

   For our Lord Jesus, facing both the worst evil mankind could dish out, and the very wrath of God against sin, became truly poor in spirit, in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Sweating blood, He mourned the evil that surrounded Him, and the suffering He was about to endure.  Meekly the Creator submitted to the rebellion and murderous plan of His own creatures, not raising His Divine hand to protect Himself, but rather turning His other cheek to be struck again.  He didn’t even speak in His own defense.  He hungered and thirsted for our righteousness as He hung on the Cross, pouring out the blood from His pure and merciful heart, even forgiving His enemies as the nails were driven into His flesh.  The Son of God made peace with His Father, not for Himself, but for you and me, so that we can be called sons of God, by faith in Jesus, daughters of the Heavenly King, washed clean in Christ’s blood. 

   Jesus endured all this reviling and persecution, for the joy set before Him.  The joy of rescuing us from the power of Satan, and making us His Father’s Holy People, the Church of all the saints who trust in Jesus.  For in Him, through Him, and by Him, you have the comfort of citizenship in God’s heavenly kingdom.  Your need for righteousness has been satisfied, by the mercy and peace of Jesus, the blessed one.  He will present you before His Father, holy, righteous, and blessed.  Blessed to be seen by God, and to see Him.  Blessed to see God face to face, with your own eyes. 

   And so, despite your sin, and the trouble of this world, you are truly blessed now,
in Jesus.  For He washes your robes and makes them white in His own blood.  Today, like the saints of God who have gone before, you face many trials, from within, and from without.  Face them without fear, even though it is very hard to see how you can.  For while it is not always visible today in this world, you have been called children by God, and so this is what you are, by the faith and unity you have with Jesus, your blessed Savior. 

   And so we can and do sing with all the saints, from Leipzig, from Hill City, from Custer, and from every time and place on earth where the blessings of Jesus have been proclaimed to sinners, for their forgiveness and salvation.   With all the heavenly host, we sing the glory of the Lamb, today, and forever and ever, Amen.