Matthew 5:12; 1
John 3:1-3; Revelation 7:2-17
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
What is a saint? A saint is not a
sinless person. If that were the definition, then no one could ever possibly be
a saint. Neither can you become a saint because of your works, even were you to
perform a miracle or two – that in itself is a misguided notion. Further, you
cannot earn or merit sainthood, and you cannot make yourself to be a saint. No.
But, to be a saint is to be holy and blameless before the Lord and set apart.
That is literally what it means to be a saint. And, since these are qualities
that you cannot do or earn or merit on your own or for yourself, they are
qualities that are applied to you, even credited to you, by your heavenly
Father, not on account of your qualities and works, but on account of the
qualities and works of His beloved Son Jesus Christ. On account of Jesus’
sinlessness, obedience, righteousness, suffering and death, your heavenly
Father declares you to be sinless, obedient, righteous, holy, and set apart –
that is, your heavenly Father considers you, and credits you, and declares you
to be a saint in and through and because of Jesus Christ in whom place your
fear, your love, and your trust. So, what is a saint? You are! Not because of
anything in you, but because you are in St. Jesus who alone is holy and makes
men to be holy in His innocent and holy blood shed for you and for the world
upon the cross. Though you remain a sinner, your sins have been atoned for,
your sins have been covered, your sins have been taken away in the blood of
Jesus. Though you are still a sinner, in the eyes of God your Father you are
100% saint. Yes! This Feast of All Saints is a feast of you! But, it is not a
feast of you alone – perish the thought! Indeed, the point of the Feast of All
Saints is that you are not alone, but
you, we, are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses to Jesus’
faithfulness and holiness and to the Father’s love for you and for all the
world in His Son that we need not be afraid “though the earth gives way, though
the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and
foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” Have no fear little flock,
for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, for He is fully
pleased with you in His Son with whom alone He is fully pleased.
But, what does sainthood look like?
Surely there are identifying characteristics and qualities that we can
recognize. Of course! The Holy Scriptures call them fruits. What are the fruits
of sainthood, of holiness, of faith? Well, Jesus lays out some of them in the
Beatitudes, or Gospel reading for the Feast of All Saints: Poverty of spirit
which is repentance, meekness, and humility; mourning, grief, and sorrow over
sin and the offense they are to our God and Father and to our neighbor; hunger
and thirst for true righteousness and holiness before God; mercy towards
others; purity in heart and spirit; peacefulness and gentleness; bearing with
and enduring and persevering through reviling, mockery, evil, and violence for
the sake of Jesus. These are but a few of the fruits of sainthood, elsewhere described
as the fruits of the Spirit. Yet, these qualities are descriptive, not
prescriptive. That is to say, do not turn this list of qualities and
characteristics into a honey-do list that you can check off one-by-one and
justify yourself. No. These qualities and characteristics are not prescriptive.
They are not a new Law commanding you to go and do. No. These qualities and
characteristics are descriptive. And, what they describe is Jesus Himself who
alone was perfectly poor in spirit, perfectly sorrowful over sin and unbelief,
perfectly meek and humble and repentant, perfectly hungering and thirsting for
the righteousness of God, perfectly merciful, pure in heart, peaceful and
patient, who was persecuted, reviled, and was mocked, who suffered evil and
violence and even death at the hands of fallen, sinful, self-righteous and evil
men – even you and me and all who have ever lived and died and will ever live
and die. What does sainthood look like? Sainthood looks like Jesus, and so do
you look like Jesus, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ
alone.
Jesus is the True Vine, and you are His
branches. Once you were not His branches; indeed you were a lifeless and
fruitless branch fit only for the fire. But, God the Father, the Vinedresser,
has grafted you into the True Vine Jesus Christ so that His life flows through
you and makes you fruitful, bearing the fruits of the True Vine Jesus. Once you
were profane and cursed, lost in your sins, fruitless, and dead, but the Holy
Spirit has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, and has sanctified
and kept you in faith – He has made you holy; He has made you a saint – and now
He keeps you with all His saints, the one, holy, Christian, and Apostolic
Church, in Jesus Christ. However, to be a saint is to be holy, it is to be set
apart, it is to be other. This means that you will not be comfortable in this
life and world. Oh, your flesh, your passions and desires, and the devil will
conspire against you, will tempt you to be comfortable and at peace with the
world, to value what it values and to hate what it hates, but you must resist these
temptations. For, the world and the flesh value independence, self-sufficiency,
and self-righteousness, but you are called to die to your flesh and its desires
and passions and to think more of others than of yourself. The world and the
flesh value wealth and material possessions, but you are called to live in
poverty of spirit and in hunger and thirst for an external, imputed, and
declared righteousness. The world and your flesh want you to find peace in
worldly and fleshly things – things that are year by year, day by day, and
minute by minute passing away. But there is no peace in such things at all,
though you are tempted to settle for false peace at the expense of true and
lasting peace with God. And so, the world will persecute you and ridicule you
and mock you and revile you and speak all kinds of evil against you. But, in
all these things rejoice and count yourself more than conquerors through Him
who loves you.
For, you are conquerors in Christ. The
First and Last Beatitudes are in the present tense: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and “Blessed are you when others revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”
These Beatitudes, these blessings, are realities now in Christ though they remain unseen. You are saints now. You are the kings and queens of
heaven and earth now in Christ your
Lord, though realized in fullness, not
yet. Or, as St. John puts it in our Epistle Lesson today, “We are God’s
children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we
know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He
is.” Like the saints John beheld in His vision of heaven, dressed in white
robes with palms in their hands, you have already, even now, come out of the
great tribulation having washed your robes white in the blood of the Lamb Jesus
Christ. The reference is to your holy baptism in which Christ washed away your
sins with His atoning blood and clothed you with the robe of His righteousness.
You are forgiven. You are holy. You are a saint in Christ now. And you are not alone! You are never alone!
Undoubtedly, one of the most awe
inspiring and beautiful truths we remember and celebrate on All Saint’s Day is
the fact that those we love who have died in the Lord are not dead. They are
not as they were created to be, but they are not dead. Their souls are with
Jesus even as their bodies lay in rest awaiting their resurrection and
glorification when Christ returns. Our blessed dead are alive in Jesus and are
with Him where there is no want, no tears, nor hunger or thirst, no sorrow, no
pain, and no death. And yet, Jesus is here with us, therefore, so are they!
Jesus is here with you in Word and Sacrament, most specifically and
particularly in this Holy Meal, “with angels and archangels and with all the
company of heaven.” “All the company of heaven” includes your beloved
grandparents, parents, and children, your friends and your neighbors, the
elderly, the middle-aged, the young, as well as the unborn – all those saints
purchased in the blood of Jesus who believed in Him, who did nor reject Him.
Because you cannot ascend to heaven, because of your sin that prohibits you
from entering the glorious and holy presence of the Godhead, heaven has come
down to earth through the humble means of Word and Water, Bread and Wine, to
forgive you, to strengthen you, to equip you, and to send you.
So, if you want to be near those you
love who have died in the Lord, don’t just go to their gravesite and say a
prayer, but come to the Sacrament of the Altar, come to where Jesus is really
and truly present in flesh and blood and spirit. As you kneel at this communion
rail and receive Jesus’ precious body and His holy blood, you are not alone,
but you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, all those who have
died in the Lord and are with Him, along with angels and archangels and all the
company of heaven. They are the saints of God. You are the saints of God. And,
together, we are the Church of Jesus Christ, His Bride, purchased and cleansed
in His precious, holy, innocent shed blood, made to be holy and set apart,
saints, elect and glorious in His presence. You are God’s children now, but what you will be has not yet been revealed. This feast is but a foretaste of
the Feast that is to come. It is meant to preserve you and to keep you, to equip
you, and to send you until that yet more glorious day when Christ returns and
our bodies are raised to be reunited with our holy souls to live in His
presence and serve Him for ages upon ages that will never end.
What does it mean to be a saint? It
doesn’t mean that you are sinless, but it means that you are in fact a sinner,
but a sinner who is forgiven in the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ. Don’t
forget: Only sinners can be forgiven! Only sinners can be saved! St. Mary was a
sinner who confessed her faith in God her savior. St. Peter was a sinner who
was absolved by Jesus after three times denying Him. St. Paul was a sinner, a
murderer who murdered the first Christians, but Jesus forgave them and changed them
into saints. You are a sinner. And, in the blood of Jesus, you are a saint. The
Feast of All Saints is a Feast of you, and of me, and of saints like Mary, and Peter,
and Paul, and a countless multitude of others who have died in the Lord, who
live in the Lord now, and who will live in Him through your witness to
Christ and Him crucified. Come, partake of this foretaste of the Marriage Feast
of the Lamb and His Bride the Church in his kingdom of mercy and grace and
forgiveness that will not end. Only saints can partake of the Feast, and
partaking of the Feast makes you and keeps you in sainthood. You are not alone.
You are never alone. Go and share this Good News with all in your words and
your deeds and never worry about how imperfect and sinful you may be. Strive
for faithfulness, and repent of your unfaithfulness. The Lord is with you,
along with so great a cloud of witnesses, that you may be forgiven and
encouraged, equipped and sent, to the glory of God the Father, in the holy,
innocent shed blood of His Son, preserved and kept by His most Holy Spirit. To
God alone be all glory in your life and in your death in Jesus Christ our Lord.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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