Sing with All the Saints in Glory

Our hymn for the month of November is "Sing with All the Saints in Glory," hymn 671 in Lutheran Service Book. This hymn was written by William J. Irons, a 19th Century Anglican priest. The hymn first appears in the book Psalms and Hymns for the Church, published in 1873. Originally the text had four stanzas, but in our hymnal two of the verses have been squeezed together into one. We have used this hymn at St. Paul's previously, but it deserves a place in your mind and heart.

In the Proper Preface of our Communion liturgy we confess that, in the Divine Service, we join our worship "with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven." Our hymn is a firm confession and reminder that our loved ones who have departed this life in the faith continue to worship with us as they rest from their labors. 

As we celebrate the Feast of All Saints on November 1 (and observe it in worship on November 2), this is a message of great comfort to us. "Death and sorrow, earth's dark story, to the former days belong." The day is coming when death will be no more. As St. Paul tells us, "The last enemy that will be destroyed is death" (I Corinthians 15:26). And in Revelation our Lord tells St. John, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:5). That Day is surely coming: "Soon the storms of time shall cease; in God's likeness we awaken, knowing everlasting peace." 

As we await that glorious Day when the image of God, distorted by sin, will be perfected in us, we know that death is not the end. We know that a blessed rest awaits us. “God has promised, Christ prepares it; there on high our welcome waits.” And then, on the Last Day, shall come the sound of the trumpet that shall raise us all, and the faithful shall rise to endless day. “Life eternal! Oh, what wonders crowd on faith; what joy unknown, when, amid earth's closing thunders, saints shall stand before the throne!” What a glorious Day that shall be!

By the way, as I said above, this hymn was written by an Anglican priest. We Lutherans do not insist that our texts be written by Missouri Synod Lutherans. Lutherans are not the only ones who confess the truth of God's Word, and we are not the only ones who can write theologically solid hymns. And good, solid hymns were written long before there was a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. However, we do insist that we should only use theologically solid hymns, no matter their source.

Here is the text, which is in the public domain, from the hymnary.org website:

1. Sing with all the saints in glory, 
Sing the resurrection song! 
Death and sorrow, earth's dark story, 
To the former days belong. 
All around the clouds are breaking; 
Soon the storms of time shall cease; 
In God's likeness we awaken, 
Knowing everlasting peace. 

2. Oh, what glory, far exceeding 
All that eye has yet perceived! 
Holiest hearts for ages pleading 
Never that full joy conceived. 
God has promised, Christ prepares it; 
There on high our welcome waits.
Ev'ry humble spirit shares it, 
Christ has passed the eternal gates. 

3. Life eternal! Heav'n rejoices; 
Jesus lives who once was dead. 
Shout with joy, O deathless voices!
Child of God, lift up your head! 
Life eternal! Oh, what wonders
Crowd on faith; what joy unknown,
When, amid earth's closing thunders,
Saints shall stand before the throne!

To hear me read the text of the hymn, CLICK HERE.

To hear the hymn sung, CLICK HERE.

Sermon for 10/26/25: Festival of the Reformation (observed)

CLICK HERE for the sermon audio.

CLICK HERE for the service video.

Our Heritage and Inheritance

John 8:31-36

 

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

We do not simply sin by mistake or weakness; we also sin on purpose. We’ve all known what we were doing, and we have done it anyway. We’ve sinned with full knowledge, repeatedly. We’ve heard the voice of the new man in our minds, telling us to stop gossiping, but we’ve also noted how our friends were hanging on our words, looking at us with admiration, and we wanted to keep it going. So we’ve suppressed the good. We’ve embraced the evil. We’ve harmed not only our neighbors, but also ourselves. We’ve enslaved ourselves to sin and let it rule over us.

How dare we say that we have fellowship with Christ while we willingly walk in darkness? We lie and do not practice the truth. If we are ruled by sin, we do not have fellowship with Christ. We are not His brothers. We are the sons of devil who do the work of the devil. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. When Jesus tells us to abide in the Word, it is not simply an admonition to know right doctrine. It is an admonition to live by His Word, to obey His commandments, to love what He loves and to hate what He hates.

We Lutherans are proud of our heritage. It is a good thing to be faithful to the Word of God. But do not say, “But we have Luther for our father and we love the Gospel and have never been slaves to anyone.” You have been slaves to your flesh and your heritage. You have been bored with the Gospel and have been angry when it doesn’t look the way you want it to look. You have twisted the Gospel into an excuse to sin, and you dared God to notice. Well, He notices. He is not amused. He does not think it is cute or somehow your rightful liberty. He hates gossip. He loathes the behavior of acting like you’re married when you’re not. He hates drunkenness. He despises abortion. He hates lustful eyes, greed, and evil thoughts. God threatens to punish all who break His commandments. So repent. Let every mouth be stopped. May the law bring knowledge of sin to us sinners, so we may recognize the truth about ourselves and turn away from our sin.

You have enslaved yourself to sin, but you do not belong there. Repent. Turn from your sins. The Son sets you free by being sin and guilt in your place. He sets you free by suffering your punishment in your stead. He sets you free by being declared guilty so that you are declared innocent. He sets you free by dying and rising again for you. And if He does all of this for you, then you will be free indeed. You might sin, but you will not be cast aside. You are not a slave; you are a son. He restores you to fellowship with the Father because He still loves you, no matter what you’ve done. You are a son, made so in the waters of Holy Baptism. And because you are His own child, you remain His child forever.

So confess your sins. He is faithful and just. He forgives your sins. He cleanses you from all unrighteousness. “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” So if you say you have not sinned, go back to eating with the pigs like the prodigal son until you wake up and find the Father waiting for you. Otherwise, if you insist on wallowig in your sin, you die and go to Hell. But if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just. He forgives sins. He restores fellowship. His accusations are taken from you and placed on the Son, the One who became your Brother and has declared you to be God’s child forever: forever innocent, forever holy, forever His. You walk in the light just as He is in the light, for He is the Light. You have fellowship with Him and with one another in the blood of Jesus which cleanses you from all sin. Thus you abide in His Word, in His Gospel. You are truly His children, His disciples, His Bride, and even His friends.

This is the Word of the Lord that endures forever. This is the truth upon which the Reformation is founded. If Martin Luther has left us a legacy, let it be this and nothing else: “We are justified by His grace as a gift received by faith.” In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                

 

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

 

Sermon for 10/19/25: Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity

CLICK HERE for the sermon audio.

CLICK HERE for the service video.

Grace and Peace
I Corinthians 1:(1-3) 4-9

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

Christians hear the words I just spoke a lot. Many pastors begin their sermons, newsletter articles, and other correspondence with their members with those words. After all, if it’s good enough for the Apostle Paul, it certainly must be a salutary greeting between Christians, especially when a pastor communicates with the people he has been Called to serve. There’s nothing wrong with starting a sermon without those words, of course.

But there is something a little deeper behind this greeting. In our text, Paul lauds the church in Corinth for its faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But the church in Corinth is not without its problems. They have become complacent and even arrogant in their faithfulness. The church itself has divisions and factions. If you read on through the rest of this epistle, Paul takes the congregation in Corinth to task for a number of things: a laxity in church discipline; tolerance of sexual immorality; the tendency of congregation members to bring civil law suits against each other; and even a tendency to practice open communion, inviting the uncatechized and the unreprentant to receive the body and blood of Christ to their judgment.

With all these problems, you might expect Paul to open his letter with a scathing rebuke of the people. But Paul is their pastor. Yes, it’s his job to lead God’s people to the truth of the Word, and he would do them no favor by letting them remain in their sin. However, he is also Called to preach the Gospel to them. He is Called as an apostle to love them with Christ’s love. And he does precisely that. Even with all the problems this Corinthian congregation is struggling with, Paul says, “I thank my God always concerning you.” And he does this in quite a few of the Epistles we have recorded in the New Testament. We should always be thankful to God for the brothers and sisters we have in Christ.

This is not always the easiest example to follow. We in the Missouri Synod should understand that very well. We are a body divided. We don’t agree on what hymns should be in our hymnals, how we should interact with those with whom we have doctrinal differences, where our missions should be focused. Even at the congregational level, the fight can be fierce. When we Christians fight, we tend to “lose our religion.” Disagreements between us often turn ugly. The Eighth Commandment? Throw it out the window! Matthew 18? Why would I speak to my brother who I feel is sinning against me when I can tell my fifty closest friends? We call each other hypocrites. We assume the very worst about each other. And then we threaten to stop coming to worship or leave the congregation entirely if our way isn’t found to be the “right” way. Even in the most faithful of congregations, we allow disagreements to divide us, distract us, and turn us away from what our Lord Jesus calls “the one thing needful.”

Paul calls the congregation at Corinth—and us—back to this one needful thing, to what unites us. He names us “those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ....” This brings us back to the Apostles’ Creed, where we confess, “I believe in the holy Christian Church, [which is] the Communion of saints.” We first confess who God is and what He has done, and then we confess what we are through Christ: the communion of saints; the body of Christ; God’s holy people.

As we see in how Paul greets the congregation in Corinth, it begins with grace. It begins with God giving us life, with Christ giving us new life, with the Spirit granting us faith as we live that new life. Without these gifts, without this grace, we have nothing and we are nothing. The grace of God is not something we have earned or were born with or have made for ourselves. Our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died in our place, and He rose again so that we would rise with Him and so that we would receive all the blessings and benefits God has for us.

Once that grace has been applied to us, peace follows it. In Baptism we are made children of God. When we speak of ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ, this is no exaggeration. And because we are family, we join in our family meal: the body and blood of Jesus. We should treat each other as family. The people in the pews and in the whole Christian Church are not enemies to be defeated, no matter how much we disagree. They are brothers and sisters in Christ, family to be loved fiercely, forgiven freely, and even, at times, endured patiently. We bring our siblings before the Lord in prayer, thanking God for them, no matter how much we may disagree with them. We thank God that He has loved our brothers and sisters, that He has died for them, that He has made them His through Holy Baptism, that He forgives their sins with Holy Absolution, that He feeds them in the Holy Supper.

That grace from God is the source of the peace we share with each other. Because Christ has brought us to reconciliation with the Father, we are now also reconciled to each other. And now, because it begins with grace, let us live our lives sharing that grace, and let us rejoice at the eternity which is already ours. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

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

 

HYMN: O Lord, Send Forth Your Holy Word

Well, I am once again at a pastor meeting, this time the Iowa District East Fall Pastors' Conference. You know what that means, right? Yep, I wrote another hymn text. I know it shocks you that such a faithful son of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod would not direct every last ounce of his attention to the conference speaker. I promise that I'm praying attention. We're listing to speakers, one of whom is talking about the LCMS battle for the inerrancy of Scripture which led to the 1974 walkout from the St. Louis seminary and a division of Synod; and the other about a more recent controversy about a group of so-called LCMS Lutherans with, shall we say (with an eye toward the Eighth Commandment), interesting view of race and racial purity.

Anyway, in our opening worship service we heard the words of Isaiah 55. In the midst of this glorious chapter of the Bible is one of my favorite pieces of Scripture: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (vv.10-11). Hearing these words, I was inspired (small-i, not capital i) to write. I don't think this is one of my best text, but it is faithful to the source material.

So here it is. As always, feedback is love.

O Lord, Send Forth Your Holy Word

1. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

To lead us in Your ways,

That we may trust in You alone

For pardon all our days.

2. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

To satisfy our need.

Oh, teach us evermore to strive

For worthy fruits indeed.

3. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

As fall the snow and rain

So faith may sprout and grow within

And You in us shall reign.

4. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word

To draw Your children in.

Then send us forth to share Your love

With neighbors lost in sin.

5. O Lord, send forth Your holy Word,

And send it not in vain.

But let it work abundantly

As You in grace ordain.

CM (86 86)

Text: Alan Kornacki, Jr., b.1974

Tune: ST ANNE (LSB 733) or CONSOLATION (LSB 348)

Isaiah 55:1-11