The Man of Lawlessness and His Conqueror - Sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

 Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
November 9^th, A+D 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
The Man of Lawlessness, and the His Conqueror
2 Thessalonians 2:1-17, Luke 20:27-40, Genesis 3:1-15

 Audio of the sermon is available HERE.

 

    Our texts this morning provide us with a remarkable array of meaty topics: mystery and promise and power and mercy.  We heard the Malach Yahweh, the Angel of the Lord, who, from within the mysteriously burning-but-not-consumed bush, speaks to Moses as God.  Now, ‘angel’ means, most basically, ‘messenger,’ so if the Angel of the Lord who speaks as God makes you think of the Word made flesh, the eternal Son, God’s very best Messenger, then you are in good company.  That God from the burning bush goes on to identify Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not two, nor four, but three patriarchs, offers us a foreshadowing of the Holy Trinity, the Three-in-One, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the glorious mystery which Jesus would later fully reveal. 

     As Moses tries to avoid God’s call to service, complaining that he doesn’t even know how to identify God to the Israelites, the Lord reveals that the essence of being is God; I AM who I AM, the One from whom all things exist, Yahweh Almighty.  And yet, this Almighty Existing Source of all things is also loving and merciful.  He is the God who hears the cries of His people, hears the cries of the Israelites, enslaved in Egypt.  And the Lord acts.  Good news!  The Creator, the all-powerful and all-knowing Source of all stuff, and life, and order, is also merciful and caring. 

     From Luke 20 we get a ringside seat to a political and religious debate, a bunch of inside baseball info on first century Jewish life.  We also hear the blasphemy of sarcasm from unbelieving priests.  We are shocked to hear from time to time of pastors in Christian churches today who admit they do not believe in the Christian God, but here we see this problem is ancient.  These priests, called Sadducees, had been taken in by Greek philosophies, which hate the material, created world, and so reject any physical resurrection.  These wise fools challenge the Lord of Life and Bridegroom of the Church, by mocking both the notion of eternal life, and levirate marriage as taught by Moses, in the Torah, the Law.  Levirate marriage meant that Israelite brothers were committed to marry their childless, widowed sister-in-law, in order to raise up offspring for their deceased brother.  The lawless Sadducees ignore Moses, and treat both Heaven and Holy Marriage like foolish fables, smugly thinking they can confound Jesus, who is the Wisdom of God made flesh, through Whom all things were created and ordered.   

     Jesus responds to the Sadducees with the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead, the promise that the Lord of Life will not leave His children moldering in the grave.  Those who believe in Christ Jesus have life, now, and forever and ever, Amen. 

    Lots of great stuff.  But I want to talk about the “man of lawlessness.”  Paul in his second letter to Thessalonica talks about the man of lawlessness, the “anthropos anomía,” in Greek, which sounds like a character from a science fiction novel.  But it’s way worse than that.  The man of lawlessness is the one who will take his seat in the temple of God, and exalt himself, to the point of claiming to be God himself.  

   Since for today’s sermon, I wanted us to reflect on the man of lawlessness and the end of this age, I added back in four verses that our appointed readings left out.  The suggestion for our Epistle today is 2^nd Thessalonians 2:1-8 and 13-17, skipping over verses 9 – 12.  The lectionary committee for the LSB hymnal, the group of pastors who picked our assigned readings for this morning, for reasons I do not know, thought we should skip over some of the most detailed explanation that Paul gives concerning the dynamics of these End Times, the struggle for souls between God and Satan.  According to their suggestion, we get to hear of the man of lawlessness, but not the details of the deeper reality unfolding in the spiritual realm.  For the lawless one, while frightening, is just a pawn in a much larger battle.  

   There are important truths in verses 9 – 12, so I added them back in.  The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, warns Paul, and in 9-12 he lays out how Satan works through lawlessness, and what the stakes are for souls.  This is uncomfortable teaching, but also important, for all people.  So, with the Spirit’s help, this morning we will grow in our understanding of these End Times. 

    And that is an important place to start: the reality that the End Times are not some future event.  Already in St. Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, and throughout the Book of Acts and rest of the New Testament, the Last Days or the End Times are not a future event, but a current reality.  To be sure, from Matthew to Revelation, the Holy Spirit teaches us that just before the Last Day there will be a heightening of conflict, a greater persecution of the true Church by the forces of Satan.  Paul in today’s epistle calls that the rebellion, and the revelation of the man of lawlessness seated in the Temple of God.  That is to say, the lawless one will be a church leader, who openly rejects Christ and His teaching, who denies God, and in the end sets himself up as God. 

    The reformers of the sixteenth century saw that the Pope, ruling over Church, but denying the Gospel, was displaying this spirit of lawlessness.  But just before the End, a worse man of lawlessness will be revealed.  And then Jesus will come visibly, one last time. 

      The End Times began at the bodily Ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God the Father, and they will end, the Last Day will come, when Jesus returns bodily, riding on the clouds, to slay the lawless one with the breath of His mouth, that is, with His mighty Word.  At that time the new heavens and the new earth will be revealed, and then all of God’s chosen, all those who have believed the truth of our utter sinfulness, but also trust in Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness, all of them will be transformed and gathered into God’s eternal glory, forever and ever, Amen. 

     In the meantime, until that blessed Day, the dynamics that will be concluded on the Last Day, the struggle between dark and light, the battle for human souls, continues.  No one knows when the Last Day will be; stop listening, right away, to anyone who claims to know, for they are directly contradicting Jesus Himself, and are not on the side of God.  We don’t know when, but we do know how things will turn out.  Jesus wins, completely, and so do all who are joined to Him, all who long for and love His appearing, all who trust in Christ alone for forgiveness, life and salvation. 

      We have reason to rejoice about the End Times, because we know the final result.  But this does not mean they are not frightening.  Verses 9-12 also describe some activity by God during these End Times that we would prefer not to wrestle with.  This could be one reason they were left out of our appointed reading.  But Paul knows better what we need to hear. 

     Paul declares that Jesus, when He returns visibly, will slay and bring to nothing the lawless one.  In the end, God and His people win.  But in the meantime, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, ^[10] and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

    As Jesus taught in the Gospels, false-christs will come, working great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect, even God’s chosen children.  The Apostle John in his letters coins the term antichrist.  The beasts of Revelation, the man of lawlessness, various antichrists already at lose in the world, and the Antichrist, these are all part of the same satanic effort to separate sinners from God, forever.  The spirit of lawlessness already at work in the world and the lawless one who will be revealed right before the end reflect this same reality, worked by Satan. 

   And, the Lord Almighty allows the toothless dragon to continue spewing lies to deceive sinners.  That’s hard to swallow.  Why does God allow this? 

     We don’t know.  It is part of His overall good and gracious plan of salvation, we know that.  But the Holy Spirit in His Word never explains ‘why’ about a number of hard things, including this one.  I suspect our still-fallen minds would not be able to understand.  In any case, faith doesn’t demand an explanation to something God has left a mystery for now.  Faith instead clings to the clear promises of God in Christ Jesus, for in these we have life. 

     But Paul is not done saying hard things.  In verses 11 and 12 he writes that to the unbelievers, (those who refuse to love the truth) God sends a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, ^[12] in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  How can a loving God send a delusion to unbelievers, when He desires that all people turn from their sins and live?  Well, certainly one key point for us to remember is that God’s truth and His love cannot be separated.  Those who, for love of unrighteousness, for love of their favorite sins, refuse the truth are also cutting themselves off from God’s love.  Apart from the work of Christ Jesus, this would be everyone, all people, including you, and you, and me. 

    Paul is not teaching that God before time chose against some souls, that before the Creation He predestined some to damnation.  The Bible does not teach that.  Paul here is speaking of God’s actions in these End Times, in this sinful world, where every sinner, based on their own works and merit, deserves God’s present and eternal punishment.  God did not predestine anyone to damnation, and He continues to work to rescue more sinners from eternal death.  But tragically, many refuse.    

   To be sure, there is a strong warning in Paul’s words:  In this world where God has made known His existence and power, and has caused His Gospel of free forgiveness to be widely proclaimed, those who reject Him must beware.  Eventually, God will give the soul that continually rejects the His Word exactly what they are asking for, a delusion to firmly believe what is false.

     Do we see such a delusion, such a spirit of lawlessness at work in our world today?  Very much, and in many ways.  Remember that part of God’s Law is simply His ordering of the Creation, the way He has made things to be.  Sinful men and women have always been rebelling against God’s design for marriage, family, and sexuality.  Whether that is by treating Holy Marriage as a joke, like the Sadducees, or redefining it down to meet our basest desires, like no-fault divorce, under Satan’s influence, we humans have rejected God’s way, His ordering, His law, again and again. 

     In the Church, a lie called “Gospel reductionism” has gutted the proclamation of many formerly faithful churches, and led to the mass exodus of many souls.  Gospel reductionists pretend to be so Christ focused, they have discovered that the Law of God is no longer necessary, nor even helpful.  All we need to do, they say, is speak of Jesus and His love; there is no need to accuse people of sin. 

    But Jesus’ love is forgiving love.  The eternal Son dying on a Cross to pay for our sins makes no sense if God’s Law is not true and applicable and eternal.  And our sinful nature loves to hear that sin is not such a big deal anymore.  Gospel reductionist churches quickly evolve to sin-denying churches.  Blending your faith with pagan religions?  That’s o.k.  Choosing to end innocent lives in the womb, for the sake of the convenience of adults?  Who are we to judge?  Endorsing any and every possible lifestyle, regardless of God’s Word?  I mean, Jesus loves us, so how can our feelings be wrong?  That these and other lies have gained prominence within Christian churches makes it no surprise that in our broader culture, chaos and darkness and the celebration of depravity reign.  

     So, what are Christians to do?  First of all, give thanks to God, who has graciously chosen us as firstfruits to be saved, through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, giving us faith, belief in the truth of Jesus, faith worked in us by the Word, including through the washing of water with the Word. 

     Give thanks to God for saving you, and also be wise to recognize that He did this through His Law and Gospel.  Christians are not lawless, but rather we uphold God’s Law and His ordering of creation and life, both for ourselves, and for others.  For we know that coming to believe in Jesus requires a recognition of our sins and sinfulness, which brings us to repent, and makes us ready to hear the Good News of the Savior. 

     Paul exhorts us to hold fast to the traditions, the Gospel truths handed down by Jesus through His Apostles: the tradition of proclaiming the whole counsel of God’s Word, the Creation, the Fall, Redemption in Christ, and the coming age.  Both God’s Law, to reveal the truth of our sin, and His Gospel, His Good News that in Christ there is free forgiveness for all who believe.  The super-abundant grace and wisdom of connecting this Gospel to physical means, water, wheat and wine, so that we fleshly, tangible creatures can also know God’s love through tangible, earthly things.  Though veiled in human voices, and hidden under water, bread and wine, Christ Jesus truly brings His Last Day victory to us, whenever we gather around His traditions.  So, of course we hold fast to these traditions of Jesus, which create new hearts in us, and lead us to also love others, as Jesus has loved us. 

     As we cling to Christ’s traditions by celebrating them, day by day and Sunday by Sunday, we are also proclaiming them to the unbelievers around us.  We do not know who God will convert through our holding fast to the traditions of Christ.  We do know that the blood of Jesus covers the sins of the whole world, of every man, woman and child ever conceived.  So, we are free to speak the truth, and we look forward to the perfect harvest.  For we know that in heaven, all the mysteries that trouble us now will be made clear, and nothing will disturb our joy and peace, ever again. 

     That the struggle of the End Times and the condemnation of sinners bother us is good and right.  God the Father takes no pleasure in condemning sinners, and gave His eternal Son into death in order to win forgiveness and new life for all.  And so, when we are troubled, let us pray to the Holy Spirit to move us to redouble our prayer and proclamation, knowing that God’s mission to save the lost is not over until the Last Trumpet sounds, and Christ appears, riding the clouds in glory. 

     We know that our Redeemer lives!  Our God is the God of life, the God of the living.  He is God of the living souls of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of all those who depart this life sharing the same faith they had, faith in God’s Promised Savior.  God grant that in the midst of trouble and struggle and death, which continue to define this visible, fallen world, our eyes be fixed where true joys are found, in the Crucified, Resurrected and Ascended Savior, Jesus Christ, who has opened the Way to Father for us, through His own Body, that Body into which we have been joined, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.      

For All the Saints - Sermon for All Saints Day 2025

All Saints Day, (Observed)
November 2^nd, A+D 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
For All the Saints

 Audio of the Sermon can be accessed HERE.  

LSB 677, For All the Saints, Public Domain

1 For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!

For all the saints who from their labors rest…, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.

     Life forevermore.  Psalm 133 ends with a triumphant declaration, that, on the mountains of Zion, … there the Lord commanded the blessing— Life forevermore.  Eternal life, with God, this is the Lord’s goal for humanity, this is the hope we all press toward.  On All Saints Day we celebrate the victory of all those Christians who fought the good fight to the end, who finished the course, and so now their souls rest with Christ, awaiting the Last Day, and the revelation of the New Heavens and New Earth, the resurrection of their bodies, and the consummation of God’s plan to bless His chosen people.  Christians are pro-life, and, I have come to realize, not only because the Lord desires to give His faithful a good earthly life.  Rather, He intends to have His children living with Him forever, in perfect joy and health and community, gathered around the glorious throne of God, living the blessed life, forever and ever.

     I was seven years old when the Supreme Court discovered a new right in the U.S. Constitution, the right for babies to be killed in the womb, in the infamous Roe-vs-Wade court decision.  As this woeful miscarriage of justice rippled across our nation, I remember a family conversation at lunch, when the subject of abortion came up.  My older siblings and mother were discussing the topic.  I remember quite clearly how my dad broke-in to state, very matter-of-factly, that babies in the womb should be protected, that killing them was wrong.  Over the years I would learn much more about the finer details of the Christian pro-life argument.  But my dad’s plain statement was all I needed to be convinced that a baby is a human person, deserving of our protection. 

     Twenty-two years later, when I left the Marine Corps and took a job in central Pennsylvania, Shelee soon began volunteering at the Capitol Area Pregnancy Center in Harrisburg.  Her growing involvement led us to leave the wishy-washy Lutheran church we were attending, because Shelee sensed, and soon verified, that the pastors were “Pro-Choice.”  This means they supported the murder of babies in the womb when people find them inconvenient.  Shelee became more deeply involved in the pregnancy center, and so did I.  Eventually, we worked together to open a satellite of the Harrisburg center in Carlisle, the town we lived in. 

    Working to support life, along with a year of church shopping, were a big part of why I started considering attending seminary and sought to become a pastor. 

     All of this, and later pro-life experience, meant that my focus in life issues has always been mostly about protecting babies.  Later I learned how the merchants of death in our society were also coming for the elderly, for the disabled, and even for those who are healthy, except for struggling with depression.  Loving life, from womb to tomb, from conception to natural death, became my perspective, and I thank God for teaching me this. 

     But as I was preparing my thoughts for this sermon, it dawned on me that my time perspective is still limited, not nearly as expansive as God’s. 

     Explaining to John the great multitude of saints in white robes that he saw around God’s throne, the elder instructing John explained that their robes were washed white in the blood of the Lamb, and so “they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ¹⁶ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  ¹⁷ For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

     Perfect, painless, joyful, tearless, in-the-flesh LIFE, forevermore.  From Womb to Tomb to Eternity.  The pro-life character of the Almighty began before time, in the mind of God, who thought of each one of us, and all the men, women, boys and girls that have ever lived, and will ever live.  And God’s pro-human life character endures.   

     God, from whom comes all life, has a love for human life that will never end.  We begin to understand better what Jesus meant when He declared to His disciples that “I AM the Way, and the Truty, and the LIFE.”  Forever and ever, Amen. 

    Urging the elderly or the disabled to commit suicide, along with aborting infants, these are all horrible.  And so is telling lies about God and His plan of salvation.  Whether they are outright pagan, or supposedly Christian, preachers and teachers who deny or pervert the Gospel are guilty of a much worse sin.  For they are, intentionally or not, working for the Devil, who seeks to cut off souls from God, forever.  An essential part of the pro-life message is the Reformation proclamation that salvation is a free gift, not based on our works, but rather given to sinners who trust in Christ and His sacrifice on Calvary.  By this faith, their sins are washed away and their hearts are transformed.  This is Good News for those facing challenging life situations, and the Gospel even offers forgiveness to those who come to repent their pro-death actions. 

    And so we sing: Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest, by all the saints, those in heaven, and those still fighting the good fight, here in this broken world.  Alleluia! Alleluia!

2 Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might; Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light. Alleluia! Alleluia!

3 Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor's crown of gold! Alleluia! Alleluia!

     Almighty and everlasting God, You knit together Your faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion, the mystical body of Your Son, Jesus Christ… 

     This first sentence of the Collect of the Day for All Saints Day is also the beginning of the first petition of the Prayer of the Church in our funeral service.  This makes sense, because today we celebrate the holy ones of God who now rest from their labors, all the faithful Baptized Christians of every time and place whose souls are now with God, awaiting the Last Day.  Likewise, at a Christian’s funeral we celebrate God’s completion of another Baptism. 

     The Lord’s work of salvation, conceived in His mind before time for each of His elect, is announced publicly as a reality for a particular soul when he or she is baptized, washed with water and the Word of Christ.  Then the harder work begins, for the Baptismal life is a long battle, God fighting in and through us to bring us to the finish line in faith.  At a Christian funeral we celebrate not just the good days and fun times of this worldly life, but even more, in the midst of tears, we celebrate the perseverance that has resulted in eternal life, which God has won and delivered for our dear brother or sister. 

   This is the essence of that holy communion, the community of saints into which God knits us.  A mystery of divine grace and love joins Christians together with each other, through our connection to God through Christ.  This is the one true and everlasting life, found in Christ, and worked by God.  It is also our daily pursuit to reflect the truth of the Gospel that has saved us in our words and deeds. 

     Part of this mystical communion, this mystery of Christian life, is the double sense of both passively receiving, and vigorously doing.  As we sang, God is our rock, our fortress and might; Jesus is our Captain in the well-fought fight.  And yet, in Him, and by His presence in us, we too fight, faithful, true and bold, just as the saints nobly fought of old.    

     There are two examples of this double meaning in our reading from John’s first letter this morning, of our passive justification, God coming to us and declaring us righteous, not for anything we are or have done, but for the sake of Jesus alone, and also of our active efforts in sanctification, holy living, as we strive in our daily lives to be the saint whom God has made us to be. 

     John writes: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.  Does John mean to focus on the high honor and calling of being a Christian, a child of God, of the responsibility of each Christian to live up to the Name that has been placed upon us?  Or does John mean to marvel at the wonder and mystery of God’s effective Word?  That is, what He desires to see and enjoy, the Lord calls into existence, and so, we are Christians because God’s call, through His proclaimed Word of Law and Gospel.  Which is it, a focus on our call to live up to our name, or a focus on God’s act of saving us, through His Word?  Well, it’s both, no?  Both are true, opposite sides of the same coin of saving faith. 

     John then finishes our passage this way:  And everyone who thus hopes in God purifies himself as God is pure.  Does the Apostle mean to say that the soul who hopes in God seeks to keep his or her life pure, free from sin and faithful to God?  Or, does John mean that by hoping in Christ crucified we are purified?  Again, both are true.  We are saved because God does 100% of the work of salvation, (justification by faith, that is, hoping firmly in Christ alone), and we are called to dedicate ourselves to living out the new identity He has given us in Jesus, (the sanctified life of good works and fleeing from sin.)  It’s both/and, not either/or. 

     Now, there is a priority, there is a Source, and an effect.  God’s work in and for us must come first.  Our ability to live as Christians always depends on the Holy Spirit working in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure.  We receive the gift of salvation, and the privilege to seek to live holy lives.  Sanctification always depends on justification, on the free gift.  As my propane furnace must stay connected to the tank to keep producing heat, so also the saints of God must stay connected to the Gospel, the Good News of free forgiveness, both in order to remain in the faith, and to produce the works of love God has prepared for us to walk in.  We receive the gift, and the privilege of living as God’s holy ones in this world.  God receives all the glory.   

4 Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia! Alleluia!

5 And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong. Alleluia! Alleluia!

     One of the many blessings of the Reformation is the way that the close study of God’s Word enables us to clear up the terrible misunderstanding of what a saint is, a misunderstanding that was entrenched in the 16^th Century Church, and still plagues many Christians today. 

     Sinful human beings are always looking to puff themselves up, and put others down.  A saint in 1500 was understood to be a Christian who had done so many good works that he had elevated himself to a special, higher status. 

     In fact, saints, (and also implicitly monks and nuns praying away in the monasteries), were understood as so much superior to the average Christian that they produced a surplus of good works, a treasury of merits, which the Church, specifically the Pope, managed for God.  These merits won by super-Christians could be credited to mere run-of-the-mill believers, and maybe get them into heaven as well.  Eventually.  For a price. 

   There are many problems with this teaching.  First, it is not supported by the Bible.  God never said that.  Second, it is the most obvious perversions of the Gospel: instead of salvation being Christ’s work, which the Spirit graciously delivers to sinners through the preached Word, salvation is taught as explicitly depending on works done by mere humans.  Christ, the once for all Savior of Sinners, is robbed of the honor He is due.  Souls for whom Christ died are robbed of the comfort of free forgiveness and the promise of God’s eternal favor.  Even the privilege of Christian prayer, offered in the Holy Spirit, directly to God the Father, through Christ Jesus His Son, was taken from the people, as they were instead taught to pray to the Saints, especially to Mary, who would then carry their petitions to God, maybe.     

    From the Bible, Luther and his friends rediscovered a simple truth.  Saint simply means “holy one,” and sinners do not earn holiness by their feeble works.  No, God calls holy all who trust in His Son, who has won forgiveness for all sins.  Saints are believers in Christ, the faithful baptized, those who are invited to dine at Christ’s holy meal. 

     Now, to be sure, on All Saints Day we focus on the dearly departed saints.  We are celebrating the completion of their life of faith, of the fact they now rest in the nearer presence of Christ.  The reality is that you and I, believers who are still in this world, are also sadly still sinners.  This makes it natural not to focus on ourselves, but on the victors, on the dearly departed in heaven, whose souls are now free from sin.

     It is also natural and good to focus special attention on Biblical saints, and also on outstanding Christians through history.  That is, it is good and right to celebrate the forgiven souls through whom God worked great things, as He achieved our salvation.  Like St. Joseph and St. Mary, the guardian and the mother of the Christ Child, and Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, St. Paul, St. Peter.  God has taught us to study their lives, emulate their dependence on Jesus, and learn from their example.  Always in accordance with Scripture of course.  We don’t need to make up stories about what Biblical saints or any other Christian in history has done.  The true story, most especially the story recorded for us in the Bible, is better than all the saintly fables ever imagined.  And it is part of God’s Holy Word, His means for bringing us to faith, and keeping us there. 

     As God’s saints, we are called to live out the beatitudes, to be meek and humble, to make peace, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, even to suffer persecution for Jesus’ sake.  Clearly, we can only begin to do such things because God is with us.  Jesus has perfectly fulfilled this list of strange blessings; read it again thinking of Jesus and His life, and you will see.  So, when we are joined to Him, the Beatitudes begin to make sense in our lives.  We can be meek, humble, peaceful, we can endure suffering for Christ, because we know that we have already won the victory.  We know because Jesus our Captain has risen from the dead.     

     All those who trust in Christ crucified for the forgiveness of their sins are saints, holy ones of God.  That means you, dear baptized believer.  We feebly struggle, other saints in glory shine.  And yet in God, all are one, for all are His.  Alleluia, Alleluia, indeed. 

6 The golden evening brightens in the west; Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!

7 But lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day; The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way. Alleluia! Alleluia!

8 From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest coast, Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host, Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: Alleluia! Alleluia!