Sermon: All Saints Day (Observed) – 2022

6 Nov 2022

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

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

On this Feast of All Saints, dear friends, we remember with love, affection, and with the joy of triumph, all the saints “who from their labors rest.”  We remember and honor the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles and martyrs, the great theologians of the faith, and all of the ordinary people throughout history who placed their trust in Christ.  We remember those who have died recently, for they too are the saints whom we honor on this day.

In Article 21 of our Augsburg Confession, we confess “that the remembrance of saints may be commended to us so that we imitate their faith and good works according to their calling.” 

“Faith and good works” indeed go together.  And faith is first.  For what makes a saint a saint is our Lord Jesus Christ.  He makes saints out of sinners, and this gift of grace is received by faith.  But we not only emulate the faith of our fathers and mothers, we also emulate their good works.  We all need examples: heroes and heroines who show us how to live out the Christian faith and life.

But at the end of the day – as well as at the end of the life and the end of the age – it is the faith that drives the works that we associate with sainthood.

In our Gospel, our Lord preaches His Sermon on the Mount, and gives us the “Beatitudes.”  I have heard people trying to be clever and turn this passage into Law by calling this passage “The Be-Attitudes.”  In other words, they see this passage as a series of commands by Jesus, to “be” this and “be” that.  And if that is what the beatitudes are, it might make you think that Jesus is promising payback if you are a “good person.”  Of course, the problem is that you are not a “good person,” and neither am I.  For “none are righteous, no not one.”  And yet, here we are, speaking about saints and our emulation of their faith and works.

Dear friends, the beatitudes are not “Be Attitudes.”  The word “beatitude” means “blessing.”  Jesus is not laying down more laws for us to fall short of, rather He is promising something glorious to us in eternity!

To those who fall short spiritually, Jesus gives you the promise that heaven will be yours.  To those who mourn in this life, Jesus promises comfort when we leave this vale of tears.  To those who are meek, who just don’t have the strength to triumph on their own, Jesus promises that they will “inherit” the earth, that is, receive it as an unearned gift.  To those who desire righteousness, but don’t quite get there, still hungering and thirsting because of their lack of holiness, Jesus promises satisfaction in heaven, when all is complete.  To those who show mercy, they will be recipients of it.  To those who are “pure in heart,” a quality that the world despises, they will find their fulfillment in seeing God.  To those who make peace rather than seek victory, they will be honored with Sonship according to the Father. 

And to those who are persecuted in this fallen world, the perfect world of heaven will be yours.  For you are blessed when you suffer persecution and reviling in this fallen life, because a perfect and eternal life will be different.  “Your reward will be great in heaven,” promises Jesus.  And so “rejoice and be glad.”

The beatitudes are promises of blessing in the life to come.  They are not the promise of “your best life now” by following nine rules for happiness.  For there is no true happiness in this fallen world, but there is the promise of happiness in the fullness of time, when time itself is no more.

For we live with one foot in time, and another in eternity.  We “feebly struggle” here, as the hymnist says, but they, the saints in eternity, “in glory shine.”  They have completed the race, while we are still on the way.  And so the Christian life means we are saints here by God’s promise, and we will be saints there by God’s fulfillment.  We live in the “now” but the “not yet.”

For as St. Paul says: “Beloved, we are God’s children now.”  This is important, dear friends, for the kingdom is ours even here and even now, here in time, and as we limp along in this fallen world of sin and death.  “We are God’s children now.”  And yet, beloved, “what we will be has not yet appeared.”  For “we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.”

This is the glory of the saints in the Church Triumphant, dear friends!  Think of what they see in the heavenly realm!  Think about what it must be to be declared in the state of full “beatitude” by the Word of Jesus in the presence of the Father, by means of the Spirit – in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity, having been separated from sin, having been cured of death, and having been placed outside the reach of the devil.

That is what we are celebrating today, dear friends, the lives of the saints as they lived among us, and as they now live in the heavenly realm awaiting the resurrection and our great reunion of body and soul with all the saints!

And it is in the final revelation to the Evangelist and Apostle St. John that we get a glimpse of all the saints in heaven, vast numbers of men and women, “a 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, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

This is what our Lord was talking about in those nine beatitudes: the picture of those who suffered and struggled, those who were attacked, those who held on to their faith in this fallen world, but now, their sorrow and anguish are gone forever.  They have left the world of troubles for an eternal existence of triumph, of worship of God – not from afar, but in the very Presence.

Their worship is very much like our hymns of praise: “Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!  Amen.”

Their song is especially sweet when we remember that these saints, “clothed in white robes” came “out of the great tribulation” in this broken world plagued by sin and death.  But their robes are white because they have been washed “by the blood of the Lamb.”

For that is what it means to be a saint, dear friends.  To be washed in the blood, to be baptized and cleansed in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  And we too are given a little glimpse into heaven when we come to the rail to partake of the body and blood of the Lamb, to taste of the eternal banquet surrounded by the saints, by our departed loved ones, by those who have indeed made their robes white by the blood of the Lamb.  For here in the Divine Service, we join them, as the veil that separates us is so thin as to be virtually non-existent.  For the divine presence that the saints enjoy comes down to us. 

Their praise is our praise.  Their triumph is our triumph.  Their faith is our faith.  And when we are in Christ’s miraculous presence in the sacraments, we are in the presence of the saints, dear friends.  For they are with Christ, and so too are we. 

And what the saints enjoy in the fullness of eternity is what we enjoy by virtue of the promise of our Lord:

“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.”

Blessed are they, and blessed are you.  Let us rejoice and be glad!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Amen.

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