Sermon for 11/5/23: Feast of All Saints (observed)

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With God; With Each Other
Revelation 7:9-17

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

To be a saint is certainly to be blessed. The saints of Bible times were indeed blessed by God in their words and their actions, so that they could be a blessing to the Church and the world. But being blessed isn’t always what we would like to think it is. In the minds of many, the saints are surrounded always by holiness and peace. Religious art has probably contributed a lot to this unrealistic conception of the saints, frequently picturing them with halos. As beautiful as those paintings often are, they tend to give us a skewed vision of genuine saintliness.

Humanly speaking, being blessed isn’t always what it is cracked up to be. We feel blessed when our bellies are full after a good meal, but Jesus says it is blessed to hunger and thirst. Of course, Jesus is speaking of a hunger and thirst for righteousness, but still it is true that many of the saints of God have known severe poverty and need, like their Lord Jesus, who “had no place to lay His head.” We think of powerful people as being blessed, but Jesus declares those who are meek, gentle, and humble to be blessed. We think of a state of well-being and security to be a mark of blessing, but Jesus says that those who are persecuted and even hated for the sake of righteousness are blessed. Perhaps being a blessed saint requires some thought.

To understand the blessings of sainthood, we must consider first Who it is that makes someone a saint. Sainthood starts not with the saint himself or herself, but with God! The salvation of the Church is not in a saint, but in God! Power, glory, wisdom, honor, and might do not belong to the saint either; these are also in God. Likewise, the very blessing of being a saint is in God, and without Him there is nothing saintly in any of us! It is God who declares someone to be a saint. It is God alone who makes you, by faith in Jesus Christ, a holy saint!

But don’t saints do lots of saintly things? Indeed, they do! By their works, Scripture says, we know them to be saints. But the works of holy men and women do not merit them sainthood. That would have it all backwards. It’s not that saints act really holy, and then God responds by making them saints. It is God who chooses them to believe in Him, and through that faith He makes them holy, so that their actions will reflect who they are.

So we are reminded that it is God Himself who makes people into saints. But how does He do that? Many foolishly think that the Lord does this by means of His Law, as though God commands good works from Christians, and by their obedience they become saints. That is simply not true! Your holiness as one of God’s saints does not come from what you do. It comes as a gift of God, not from His law—which He knows you cannot keep—but from His Gospel love in Jesus who suffered and died for you.

You are made saints by Your Savior’s death at the cross. There He became the unholiness of all your sins, received God’s wrath poured out upon His body nailed to the cross, and then died the death you so richly deserved. In this blessed exchange, He gives you the holiness of His own righteousness, given to you in your baptism. Whatever it was you were dressed in as you were brought to the font, you were given there the robe of Christ’s righteousness, the same one the saints in heaven wear for eternity. And what Jesus received in this exchange was your “robe” of sin and shame, the robe that really should serve as your burial shroud.

And since that day, when you became a saint, you have been blessed to worship. But even in worship, the burden is not placed upon you. Yes, you pray and sing praise, give offerings, and bless your gracious God with thanksgiving. That is all true. But you worship in God. German Lutherans had a wonderful term for this: “Gottesdienst,” God’s service to you because you are His in Christ. In this Divine Service He brings you into Himself. The real presence of Jesus is not just in the Sacrament, but in the entire service. He is quite literally here at this moment, gathering you to Himself.

Your Savior, Jesus Christ, was promised as “the Word made flesh to dwell among us.” And He does this most intimately when He invites you to eat and drink of His holy body and blood in His holy Supper. The same Jesus who came in the flesh to die for your salvation is present for you here, making you holy by the forgiveness of sins and the giving of His righteousness to you. He brings here His saving cross and all its benefits to you this day.

And what is more, in this Divine Service He brings you as close as you can come in this life to the faithful who have gone before you. As the Apostle’s Creed eloquently describes it, this is the “communion of saints.” The worship of heaven and earth is joined in one, and for a brief moment the veil that separates the Church in heaven from the Church on earth is pulled aside, revealing that our worship is indeed one and the same, for on both sides of eternity it is the worship of the same God and the same Lamb who gathers all of His sheep around His eternal throne. And so we rejoice and find our hope in those words: “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabbath; heaven and earth are full of Your glory.’” That is the song of the Church now; it will be our song forever. In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.