Sermon: All Saints Day - 2018

4 November 2018

Text: Matt 5:1-12 (Rev 7:2-17, 1 John 3:1-3)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him,” says the Apostle John.  Since the world doesn’t know God, the world cannot comprehend us.  And not understanding us, they fear us and they hate us.  

There has not been a time of greater persecution of the church than now.  Not even the days of the Christians being persecuted in the Roman Empire compare to the suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world today.  

Our brethren in Muslim countries are, at best, second class citizens, though often they are openly persecuted: their homes, churches, and schools burned, their property taken, and in some cases, they are imprisoned or executed for being disciples of Jesus.

Our brethren in the remaining Communist countries suffer a similar fate, even though our brethren in Russia, the Baltics, and Eastern Europe now enjoy relative religious liberty as Communism fell nearly thirty years ago.  Christians in China, Cuba, and North Korea are still persecuted.

But now we are seeing hostility to Christians in secular states, like Western Europe, Australia, Canada, and even the United States – where religious liberties are under attack, and where attitudes toward people of faith are becoming more hostile.

And St. John is right: the world doesn’t know us because the world doesn’t know God.  

The world cannot know the Father because the world does not know the Son.  And this is in spite of the fact that the Son took flesh and dwelt among us, left eyewitnesses and a written record, and created the Holy Christian Church that has become the largest religion in the world.  The Church brought the world respect for human rights, civilized warfare, the abolition of slavery, respect for private property and the rule of law that created never-before seen prosperity all over the world.  Christians preserved civilization through the dark ages, created science, invented the modern university, and established hospitals, orphanages, and societies to help the poor.

And yet, the world is filled with hatred and rage.  

Our reading from John’s Revelation speaks of a “great tribulation” and angelic forces with “power to harm earth and sea.”  And yet, amid this chaos and turmoil, the Lord preserves His Church, as God commanded: “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of God on their foreheads.”

In the ancient church, it became the custom that when a person was baptized, the sign of the cross was sealed on his or her forehead with oil.  The name “Christ” means one who has been anointed with oil.  When we are baptized, we are “Christened” as well, sealed with oil and marked by the cross of Christ.  These customs illustrate and confess what baptism does, dear friends.  As St. Peter says, “Baptism now saves you.” 

For baptism washes us in the blood of the Lamb, as the elder spoke in John’s vision: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

For even in our time of tribulation, we Christians are made clean by the blood of the Lamb, by our Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross. 

Why the tribulation?  Because the world doesn’t know God.  The world doesn’t know us.  The world doesn’t understand our origins: how we got here, why the world is messed up, and how God has taken human flesh to rescue us – all of mankind if each person will simply believe and be baptized.  But the world overwhelmingly rejects our Lord.  And as He has told us, if they have hated Him, they will hate us.

And we are promised blessedness, even in our poverty, our mourning, our meekness, our yearning for righteousness; we will be blessed in our mercy, our purity, and in our desire for peace.  We are even blessed when we are persecuted, when others “revile and persecute” us and speak evil of us falsely on account of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And this is why we are able to “rejoice and be glad” even in persecution and tribulation, “for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Dear friends, we are given a little glimpse into what is to become of persecuted Christians whose blood has been shed in the great tribulation.  And what we see is the Church Triumphant, a great celebration of victory: the victory Christ won for us at the cross, the victory over death and the grave.  We see the “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”  And this multitude is rejoicing, singing – even singing with us in our liturgy – “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!....  Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!  Amen.”

This is not a dirge of a defeated people, but the celebration of a victorious people!  For we have been vindicated, dear friends, vindicated and redeemed by the Lamb, set free by His blood, and given the gift of eternal life!

That is indeed the “kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.”  These are the saints that we remember today, dear friends: the great saints of history: martyrs, bishops, theologians, men and women of courage, as well as saints whose names we will never know until eternity: our grandfathers and grandmothers, children who died too young with the name of “Jesus” on their lips, those who quietly read their Bibles and took part in the sacraments, and those who lived long, happy lives of service to their neighbors.

What they all have in common, dear friends, is that they have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.  His victory is their victory.  They wear the white robes and wave the palms.  They “serve Him day and night in His temple,” and they await the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

And this blessedness is not only something to expect in the future, dear friends.  For “we are God’s children now.”  We are blessed now.  We sing the worthiness of the Lamb now.  We join now with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven singing:

Now let us worship our Lord and our King,

Joyfully raising our voices to sing;

While for Your grace, Lord, their voices of praise

Your blessed people shall evermore raise.

Amen!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.