Homily for the Christian Funeral of Evelyn Costas

Mark 5:35-43; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Isaiah 25:6-9

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Dearly beloved, the Scripture readings I have shared with you this evening each speak about death in slightly different ways. In the reading from St. Mark, our Lord Jesus comforts a family whose young daughter had died by telling them, “The child is not dead but sleeping.” In the reading from First Corinthians, St. Paul speaks of the return of our Lord Jesus on the Last Day, the Day of Resurrection, saying that “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. […] …the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” The Prophet Isaiah seems to have in mind several different fulfillments of the prophecy that death will be swallowed up by victory: First, by the return of the children of Israel from exile in Babylon. Second, in Jesus’ victory over death and the grave by His own crucifixion, death, and resurrection from the dead. And third, death will be swallowed up forever when Jesus returns on the Last Day and the dead are raised. Then, lastly, even the beloved twenty-third Psalm speaks of death, not only as something that we in time pass through, but as the very life that we live, now, in the valley of the shadow of death. In all cases, however, death has only a temporary sting and no lasting victory. Indeed, in Jesus’ death and resurrection, death’s sting, sin, is removed, and death, the last enemy, cannot hold us in our graves, but it will be swallowed up in Jesus’ victory when He returns on the Last Day. Until then, truly, those who die in the Lord are not dead, but they are sleeping – a restful sleep from which they will be awakened when Christ returns.

Our dear sister in Christ, Evelyn, is not dead, but she is sleeping. Yes, it is true that Evelyn’s body has died, but it is also true that Evelyn’s soul is with Her Lord Jesus. We can take comfort and find peace and hope in the sure and certain promise that those who die in the Lord are blessed, that, for them, there is no more mourning, crying, nor pain anymore; they hunger no more, nor thirst anymore, the sun does not strike them nor any scorching heat, and God Himself wipes away every tear from their eyes. Still, this is not the end of the story for Evelyn, nor for us, for she and all the saints, and we as well, still long for that yet more glorious day, the day of the resurrection of all flesh when the Lord returns in glory. For, while Evelyn’s body rests in sleep, and while Evelyn’s soul is in comfort and peace with the Lord, Evelyn will not truly and fully be Evelyn until both her body and her soul stand together in the presence of God and the Lamb Jesus Christ. That is the day and the fulfillment and the victory over death that all Christians, all Christ’s saints, the Church on earth and in heaven long and pray and wait for in faithful hope and expectation.

Now, I’ve known Evelyn for the past eleven and a half years, the entire time I’ve served as pastor of The Lutheran Church of Christ the King next door to The King’s Apartments in Pawling where Evelyn lived. And, I think I knew her well enough, and I suspect that all who knew her would agree, to say that Evelyn was one tough cookie. You didn’t have to guess what Evelyn felt or was thinking; she’d let you know straight away. And, she was determined and fiercely independent. She didn’t want anybody’s help, and would even get angry if you were too persistent in offering it. Now, to be sure, there were many who didn’t understand Evelyn. Some likely took her independence as stubbornness and her opinionatedness as meanness. However, I think they were wrong to judge her so. For, the Evelyn that I had the privilege to get to know was not arrogant and self-secure, but she was disillusioned by injustice in the world, by suffering and death, by wars and poverty and politics. And, she would frequently ask “Why?” “Why is the world like this? Why do people behave the way they do? Why doesn’t God do something?” Now, these are fair and legitimate questions, and they can be asked in faith or in unbelief. Evelyn asked them in faith. She wasn’t angry with God, just inquiring. Further, when she didn’t get an answer, which we often don’t to such questions, she accepted that it was God’s will and that He knew what He was doing.

Now, that’s faith, even the kind of child-like faith that Jesus calls us all unto – faith seeking understanding, the faith of Job, the faith of Mary: Lord, may it be unto me according to Your Word. That’s the kind of faith Evelyn had; the kind of faith I had the unique privilege to minister to and to shepherd these past many years. A staunch Greek Orthodox believer, Evelyn attended my little Lutheran parish faithfully nearly every Sunday that the weather wasn’t too bad. In addition, she faithfully attended a small Bible study I hold at the King’s Apartments each Thursday afternoon. Both in church and in the study, Evelyn listened intently to the Word of God. Particularly in the Bible study, I very much enjoyed Evelyn’s presence, as I like to emphasize certain Greek words in the New Testament Bible. I would turn to Evelyn to get a fuller understanding of the word being used, and she would typically provide it. However, she never thought that I was pronouncing the Greek correctly. There would be, what seemed to me, a very, very, very subtle emphasis on a syllable or a subtle inflection here or there that would make my pronunciation unrecognizable. But, Evelyn’s contributions always added depth, richness, and relevance to our study. In fact, Sia, your full name Athanasia would come up from time to time, a name that means immortality, as well as your daughter’s name, Alethea, which means truth. Those are wonderful names, and very much appropriate for us to consider today.

Evelyn was a child of God, having child-like faith and trust in her Lord and Savior. Now she has fallen asleep in faith in the Lord; her body rests, awaiting the Lord’s return and the resurrection, but her soul is comforted in the Lord. It is right and appropriate to mourn, for Evelyn has died and we will see her no longer until that day. However, we do not mourn like those without faith, but our hope is in the Lord who has won for us the victory over death and will give to us the crown of life. When Jesus returns, we will all be awakened from our death-like sleep and we will all be changed, our perishable mortal bodies raised as imperishable immortal bodies, reunited with our souls that we may stand, once again, as we were created to be, living beings and the children of God, with all the saints before the throne of God and the Lamb. Then we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 26)

(Audio)

Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Peter 3:3-14; Daniel 7:9-14

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

What Jesus describes for us in today’s Gospel is not the judgment, but rather the sentencing of all humanity. Indeed, the judgment has already been rendered: each and every soul has already been judged to be a sheep or a goat, a disciple or an unbeliever, righteous or unrighteous. The sheep are sheep and the goats are goats; all that remains is their sentencing and their sorting: sorting them to the right, into eternal life in the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world, or sorting them to the left, into eternal punishment in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

But, if this is the sentencing and not the judgment, when did the judgment occur? The judgment occurred on a Friday afternoon around two thousand years ago in the Holy City, Jerusalem. Then, it was not a sheep or a goat that was judged, but it was their Shepherd, Jesus – The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. However, Jesus was judged in place of all sheep and goats, in place of all men, for, indeed, before Jesus’ crucifixion and death, we were all goats! But now, the sheep are sheep through faith and trust in Jesus for forgiveness, life, and salvation. If you are a goat, that is because of your own obstinate, goatish rebellion and unbelief.

I know that many of you live in terror of that day, and for many reasons. But, I say to you that you need not be terrified. Why? Again, you need not be terrified of the Last Day because the judgment has already happened. God judged Jesus guilty in your place, and, because of Him, you go scot-free. God has made you all sheep in Jesus Christ; He became the goat, even your scapegoat. However, you are not a sheep in yourself, on your own, but you are a sheep in God’s eyes in and through Jesus Christ alone. When you believe and trust in Jesus, you are clothed in sheepy clothing, so to speak: Jesus’ righteousness which covers all your goatish sins. Therefore, to God, through faith and baptism into Jesus, you are a sheep. You look like a sheep, you eat like a sheep, you talk like a sheep, and you act like a sheep. Sheep do, well, sheepy things.

What kinds of things do sheep do? They feed the hungry and give refreshment to the thirsty, they show hospitality to strangers, clothe the naked and the vulnerable, and visit the sick and the imprisoned. And, ninety-nine point nine times out of a hundred, they are not even aware that they are doing these things! Sheep just do sheepy things, the same way apple trees produce apples and grapevines produce grapes. So, don’t go trying to count all your sheepy works, and don’t get suckered into “how to be a better sheep” programs, because you are sheep by grace, not by works! Just say, “Thank you Jesus for counting me as a sheep. Help me by Your Holy Spirit to be the sheep you want me to be.” And, the best way to do this, the only way to do this, is to keep following your Shepherd. Listen to His voice, His Word. Be cleansed in the forgiving waters He showers you with in humility and repentance. Eat the good food He serves to you. Keep focused upon Him and close your ears to the voices of false-shepherds and wolves in sheep’s clothing.

What are these voices saying? Who are the false-shepherds, and how can you know? Well, you heard a bit about them last week: “If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ Do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. So if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms’, do not believe it.” Then, today, you heard in the Epistle that “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” These false-shepherds and false-christs will blatantly contradict or rationalize away the Word of God. They will try to convince you that His Word is not trustworthy or that it is merely the work of primitive, unenlightened, prejudiced and bigoted men. But they deliberately overlook the evidence of creation and the voice of their own conscience which testifies to the truth of God’s Word. Human reason is good and useful until it meets its end and its origin in the Word of God, the source of all things, apart from which no thing exists.

These are the last days. They were ushered in with Christ’s Ascension, and they will end with His Parousia. These are the days in which Christ’s sheep must be on the move, in action, clinging not to earthly possessions nor being distracted by material things. These are the days in which Christ’s sheep must be vigilant, watching, and waiting, for He is coming quickly on a day and an hour we do not know, like a thief in the night. These are the days in which our ears must be tuned to our Shepherd’s voice and our eyes fixed only on Him. But, don’t worry about what you’re doing, if you’re doing it right, or if it will be enough. You’re a sheep. Just be a sheep. Do sheepy things. If you remain in your Shepherd, He will remain in you, and you will bear sheepish fruit.

When our Shepherd King comes, He will say to you, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.” And, you will rightly ask, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?” And the King will answer, “Truly, I say to You, as You did it to one of the least of these my brothers, You did it to Me.”

You are Jesus’ sheep when you do sheepy things. Those sheepy things are, first, to be fed, cared for, nurtured, and protected by your Shepherd, and, second, to feed, care for, nurture, and protect your brother as Jesus has done for you. This is not your work, but His work, His fruit borne in you and through you. You must love your brother, not because he is loveable, but because you have been and are loved by your Shepherd King, who loves your brother as well and laid down His life in death for him as much as for you. To fail to love your brother whom Jesus loves is goatish behavior, unbecoming of a sheep. Jesus’ sheep live in the love and service of their Shepherd. Remain in that love and service, and you need not fear whether you have loved enough or done enough, but you will do sheepish things: you will love and serve your brother, because that’s what sheep do.

For, Jesus came, not in power and glory as a mighty king in the eyes of men and the world, but in lowliness, humility, and in service to men. He came as our brother, in flesh and blood, body and soul like us. Truly, in the Beatitudes we heard read on The Feast of All Saints, Jesus was describing Himself, for, upon the cross we see the Beatitudes fleshed out in our Lord’s Passion: Jesus was impoverished of spirit; Jesus hungered and thirsted for righteousness; Jesus was naked, humiliated, mocked, reviled, and persecuted unto death. Likewise, when we see and minister to our brothers in these states, we see and minister to Jesus, our brother, our Shepherd, our King, and our God. This is why C. S. Lewis could write: “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” In serving your neighbor, in loving your brother, you serve and you love your Lord, your Shepherd, your King, and your God.

This is why we prayed in the Collect: “O Lord, so rule and govern our hearts and minds by Your Holy Spirit that, ever mindful of the end of all things and the day of Your just judgment, we may be stirred up to holiness of living here and dwell with You forever hereafter.” This is a prayer that God would keep us in remembrance of the judgment He has made in Christ upon us – not guilty – and increase in us true faith by His Holy Spirit that we may not only serve our brothers in merely a perfunctory manner, but in true holiness and love that we may be received into His Kingdom when our Lord returns as King. The Lord has heard your prayer, and He answers you now, “Yes, I will,” serving you with His Word, His Washing, His Absolution, and His Meal, that you may be found a sheep, living sheepily and holy on the day of His return. Until then, Lord bless us and keep us.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Third-Last Sunday in the Church Year (Trinity 25)

(Audio)

Matthew 24:15-28; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Exodus 32:1-20

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Today’s Gospel is unquestionably about God’s judgment upon sinful mankind. The only question is “When?” Our Lord presents us with a myriad of signs and prophecies, some seemingly already fulfilled, others perhaps being fulfilled right now, and still others seemingly yet to be fulfilled. But, that is how things are with our Lord who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, and everything in between. Our Lord is the Lord of History and the Lord of Time, and this is the nature of His Advent, His Coming: He has come. He comes. And, He is coming. Indeed, the end of the Church’s Year of Grace is much like its beginning in Advent:  We are to watch and to wait, always in faith, always in prayer, always prepared for His Parousia, the Day of His Coming. That He has come is the foundation of our faith. That He comes is the substance of our faith. That He is coming is our hope in faith for which we expectantly watch and wait. To do so is to be a Christian, a subject of Christ our King and recipients of His kingly reign on earth and in heaven. However, the kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed. You must see with your ears and not your eyes. For God’s kingdom in this world is one of faith, and faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ. Only on the Last Day, when the King returns, will our faith be turned to sight.

Indeed, it is our sin-corrupted vision and reason that hinder us from seeing, receiving, and sharing the kingdom of God, for, in our willful rebellion, our physical eyes and reason may have been opened to know good and evil, but our spiritual vision and certainty became blind. Where, once, long ago, God’s will and His ways seemed to us wise, true, and good, now they seem to us foolish, weak, and despicable. “Why should God prohibit the eating of that one particular fruit? It obviously looks good to eat.” That was the root of our fall from grace: man placing his vision and reason over and above God’s Word. Satan planted that seed of doubt, and then he leveled his masterstroke: “When you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Ever since that fateful day, man has no patience for God, His will, and His ways. Instead, man demands that God operate on man’s terms, according to man’s wisdom, and prove His existence by signs and wonders that men count as significant and wonderful.

When God first appeared to Israel on Mount Sinai, His Presence was accompanied by signs and wonders: “thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.” However, when Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, how quickly the people turned aside to idolatry, fashioning a god of their own making from the golden rings in their ears. When God did not act in the manner they considered wise and god-like, they took matters into their own hands and created a god of their own imagination, reason, and wisdom. They knew good and evil: They judged their own wisdom and reason to be good, and God’s wisdom to be foolishness and evil. In the golden calf, they created an abomination that resulted in their desolation before God, a desolating sacrilege.

The abomination is sin, and the abominable are sinners. The abomination of sin causes desolation, utter destruction of both the sin and the sinner because they are opposed and antithetical to God who is holy and righteous and just. The abomination of sin causes desolation by default, by definition, because sin and sinners cannot possibly stand in the presence of holy God anymore than darkness can exist in the presence of light. Therefore, sin must be dealt with, and sinners must be atoned for, if there is to be any hope of reunification. For this reason God gave His commandments and established the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system, that sins and sinners may be atoned for, covered over for a time, until the day when God would act to take away sin once and forever.

Until that day…. However, sinful, self-idolizing man won’t wait for that. Oh, no. Throughout the intervening years and centuries, men did not wait and watch for God’s mighty deliverance, but they continued to raise up and to worship creatures in the place of their Creator. They desired a king and a kingdom like the pagan nations, with wealth and military might that they might be glorious and strong in the eyes of men. They defiled themselves by comingling the pagan religions, with their multitudes of gods and goddesses, with their own, thus committing spiritual adultery and making themselves the whore, betraying their faithful God and Husband. Satan had lead them so far from the light of God’s Word into the darkness, ignorance, and foolishness of sin that, when the day in which God did act came, they were found not watching and waiting, but they were eating and drinking, planting and building, buying and selling, marrying and being given in marriage, and that day sprung upon them like a trap.

What day was that? It was the day that Jesus described in the Gospel when the abomination of desolation stood in the holy place. Yes, that day has already come! The abomination was Jesus, dead on the cross. The holy place was, not the temple, but Golgotha, the place of a skull. There, Jesus became what we are, a sinner, an abomination in the presence of God that cannot stand. However, Jesus was not merely one sinner among others, but in God’s eyes, He was the only sinner, a sacrilege to God. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. And, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

But, this is the nature of the kingdom of God, and this is how King Jesus reigns. It is a reign of love, a reign of mercy, and a reign of sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins: Greater love is not possible than this – that the Son of Man should lay down His life in death for you. O, Kingly Love! Indeed, it is from the cross that King Jesus reigns. There He was crowned. There the title above His head read in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. When Jesus died, the temple – His body – was destroyed. Then did the earth shake and rocks were split. Then were tombs opened and many of the saints who had died were raised. Then was there a mighty earthquake and everyone was filled with awe, and men had to confess, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

How many people experienced all of this? As it was the Passover, and Jewish pilgrims had come from all over the middle east to celebrate the feast, hundreds of thousands at the very least. All of the phenomena associated with Jesus’ crucifixion and death were experienced by hundreds of thousands of Jews, Romans, and other Gentiles. And, what about those saints said to have come out of their graves alive and were seen in the city? Truly, it is not fabrication or myth, but these things actually occurred – their truth was incontrovertible, for too many had experienced it and seen it with their own eyes. Further, after Jesus’ resurrection, the Scriptures record for us at least eleven post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, at least one time before more than five hundred, and in the Jewish way of counting that likely included only the men present.

With all this evidence and eyewitness testimony, preserved and handed down over the course of two millennia, why then do men today refuse to believe? Because, seeing is believing, they say. That is, seeing with your eyes, having no regard for the eyes of faith. But, this is nothing new. Indeed, it is the first sin repeated again and again – idolatry. Men are not satisfied and content with the Word of God, even when it is supported by facts, but prefer to go their own way, according to their own reason and wisdom, which is foolishness and the pathway to sin and death. Further, men cannot imagine that God would reign and rule in such seeming weakness, humility, and pathetic suffering unto death. Surely there must be another, a different god – or perhaps there is no god at all. Either is preferable to this God who hides Himself and veils Himself in lowliness. Where is the God of Sinai? Let Him appear before us, then we will believe; but do not tarry lest we become the whore and worship gods of our own making. Oh, He will appear in glory and great power and might, but woe to those who did not receive Him in His first appearing.

For, indeed, the Day of the Lord has come, on a Friday afternoon two thousand years ago. Then began the Last Days, the thousand-year reign of Christ, with His death, resurrection, and ascension. Now He reigns at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. Now are the days in which you are not to be enslaved to material things, but you are to be watching and waiting in faithful, expectant, hope for His second coming, His Parousia. Now are the days to remain vigilant in the Word of God that you may not be lead astray by false teachers and false christs who say, “Look, here is the Christ!” or “There He is!” or “Look, He is in the wilderness.” If they tell you he is to be found in nature, do not believe it! If they tell you he is to be found in reason and science, do not believe it! And, if they tell you he is to be found in worship of yourself, do not believe it! No, when He returns, He will not come in meekness and humility, veiled so that you may only see with the eyes of faith. No, when He returns, He will come on the clouds with the sound of a trumpet and a cry from an archangel, and every eye will see Him, every tongue will confess Him, and every knee will bow before King Jesus, the Lord.

No, we do not need signs and wonders, but what we need now is mercy. We pray for mercy, and we receive mercy. “For the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” King Jesus reigns even now, for you, His Kingly reign of love, mercy, and sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. He blesses you and keeps you. He makes His face to shine upon you and is gracious to you. He lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you peace. He comes to you now on the clouds of heaven with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven to dine with you at His banquet, a foretaste of the Great Wedding Feast that is yet to come. Though you do not see Him with your eyes, through the eyes of faith you see and hear and believe, “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And, as the Roman vultures gathered around the corpse of Jesus dead on the cross, so we, His faithful subjects, as eagles, gather around His resurrected and ascended body and blood for the strengthening of our faith, the forgiveness of our sins, and the hope of eternal life in His Name. “Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand; ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in His hand Christ our God to earth descending comes our homage to demand.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Feast of All Saints (observed)

(Audio)

Matthew 5:1-12; 1 John 3:1-3; Revelation 7:2-17

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The kingdom of heaven is not really a thing or a place in the proper sense, but it is more like an action: It is the power and the authority, the ruling and the reigning exercised by King Jesus. Thus, when Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” He means to say that the poor in spirit are the recipients of His Kingly action: His forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Further, the kingdom of heaven is not something that they will receive at some later time, with the return of Christ and the resurrection, but it is something that they are receiving right now, and it is something that they will continue to receive until the fullness of Jesus’ kingdom comes. Thus, blessed is not something that the poor in spirit will be, but blessed is something that they are, right now. Indeed, all the other beatitudes our Lord speaks are founded in this first beatitude. Those who mourn, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are merciful and pure in heart, those who are peacemakers, those who are persecuted and reviled for the sake of Jesus and His righteousness, they are blessed, right now, even though they surely do not appear to be so from the perspective of the world.

For, this is what the kingdom of heaven is like, and this is the kind of King our Jesus is, and this is the manner in which King Jesus rules and reigns. For, Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. When Pilate questioned Jesus about His being a king, this is what He answered saying, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” That dialogue occurred just before Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified, the ultimate and final expression of the kingdom King Jesus is King of. The kingdom of heaven reaches its point of culmination in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, but it will become visible to all when the Son of Man reveals Himself as the King on the Last Day.

For now, the kingdom is hidden under the guise of poverty, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, peacefulness, and persecution for the sake of Jesus. However, when King Jesus returns, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Thus, when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying for the Parousia, the second coming of King Jesus, even as we are praying that His kingdom, which has already come, and continues to come, would come amongst us now. Luther explains in the Small Catechism that “God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity.” Therefore, we pray that King Jesus would reign upon us, and to us, and through us. As subjects of the King in His kingdom, we become His heart and His hands and His mouth, for the kingdom is not only near you, but it is in your midst through faith in Jesus Christ.

The kingdom of heaven is the ontologically real reign of King Jesus. Therefore, you are either His subject, or you are the subject of another king in another kingdom – Satan’s. This is why Jesus teaches that he who is not with Him is against Him, and that those who do not gather with Him scatter. For, King Jesus has penetrated the world of His creation – a world of time, of flesh and blood, of temptations to sin, and the penalty of sin, which is death. But, through His own incarnation, temptation, obedience, suffering and death He has done all things well. Now, as King, christened and crowned in blood on the cross, but recognized and qualified to be God’s King and enthroned in His resurrection from the dead, He has begun His reign and the recreation of this fallen world; He is making all things new, restoring it to life through mercy and forgiveness, love and grace. For, God’s kingdom is His redemptive activity in Jesus, but it extends itself in the preaching of its redemption through His body, the Church.

On this Feast of All Saints, we are given a glimpse of the totality of God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven. St. John first describes the saints on earth, you and I, and all believers, coming out of the Great Tribulation by virtue of Holy Baptism and faith, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Then, he describes “a great multitude that no one can 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!’”

We must not succumb to the temptation to think that our goal is to pass from this life to the heavenly life only, or that the death of the body is the release of the soul to its final state in heaven; no, these are gnostic and false doctrines, despising the body and the earth that God has made good. Rather, our goal is, as the Scriptures consistently proclaim, the resurrection of our bodies and the real, true, and eternal flesh and blood life we will enjoy with our Lord in the new heaven and the new earth that will be revealed in Jesus’ return on the Last Day. For, in King Jesus heaven draws near to earth so that there is no longer any separation. Indeed, this is what John beheld in the Revelation saying: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’.”

That is our goal: Eternal life in the new heaven and the new earth, in our resurrected flesh and blood bodies, with God. Indeed, this is yet the goal of the saints who have died whom we remember this day. For, while it is most certainly true that while “we feebly struggle, they in glory shine,” they are not yet complete and fulfilled, anymore than you or I. Their flesh and blood bodies lie in the earth. But, when Jesus returns, they will be raised first, and those who are living will be transformed. Therefore, we must remember this, and All Saints Day is a wonderful time to do it. For, too easily do we get caught up in the pious sentiment that this life is something to be thrown off like soiled clothing, and that death has become a blessed friend that enables us to do this. That doctrine is a lie, sown by the devil himself. The Scriptures do not speak of death as a blessed friend, but rather as an enemy, even the last enemy, that will be swallowed up in Jesus’ victory, not when He rose from the dead, but when He returns on the Last Day! That is our goal. That is what we, and the saints in heaven, are waiting for!

For, if Satan is successful in his deception, he will have taken our eyes off of Jesus and placed them upon some false idea of heaven, paradise, or anything else. Therefore, we must keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. We must keep our eyes and our faith on the whole Jesus, and not just a part of Him and His teaching. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn and destroy the world, but in order that the world might be saved and restored through Him. That was His work and ministry through His kingly reign, culminating in His death and resurrection, and that is His work, ministry, and kingly reign that He continues still through you, His body, the Church.

In His ministry, Jesus was the in-breaking of the reign of God. Wherever He went, He forgave sins, and He healed the sick, and He cast out demons, and He calmed deadly storms, and He raised the dead. Wherever He went, Satan's power and sin's effect were held at bay. Jesus’ miracles were not just proofs of His divine power, they were manifestations of the reign of God, and it was altogether fitting and necessary that the Bringer of the Reign of God should heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. In Him, the reign of God is already present in anticipatory fashion, and when God's reign breaks in finally and completely, then He will heal our bodies and all creation and will raise us up forever.

Until that day, we await with all who have come out of the Great Tribulation, having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. And, we take comfort that those who die in the Lord are blessed, at peace and at rest in the bosom of Abraham. Likewise, we take comfort that we are blessed too, right now, though we feebly struggle in poverty, mourning, meekness, persecution and reviling, for of such is the kingdom of heaven, the righteous reign of King Jesus through His subjects, His body, His Church.

For, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when King Jesus appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. This is His promise and our hope that makes us pure. Our hope is to be with Him in the new heavens and the new earth He will bring when He returns. That day there will be a great wedding feast, of which our feast today is but a foretaste. Now our King and Bridegroom comes to us hidden in, with, and under bread and wine; then we will see Him face to face. But, as we wait His coming, the sainted Church of Jesus Christ on earth joins with the saints of heaven - with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven – in singing the King’s praise: Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.