All Saints’ Sunday
Today our attention is again turned to what we confess in faith but cannot see with our eyes—the Church as the communion of saints. The Church is made up of all Christians throughout the world—all those who trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. We say in the Creed that we believe in the holy Christian Church. We believe in it because we can’t see it; it’s an article of faith. Because we cannot see faith in Jesus in the heart of the person—and faith is what makes us a member of the Church—the Church, then, is invisible.
And then add to that what we are celebrating today: All Saints’ Sunday. The saints are those who have died in the faith and whose souls are now with the Lord in heaven. They, too, are part of the Church, the Communion of saints. That’s why this doctrine is so comforting to us when we stand by the grave of one of our fellow Christians. They are not dead and gone and forgotten. Instead, their souls live with the Lord in heaven; they are still part of that one Church with us, still part of the communion of saints. And, in fact, as we gather together in worship we are joining our praise here on earth with theirs in heaven. We are reminded of this in the communion liturgy as we pray: Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee and saying. That whole company of heaven includes the saints, the souls of those who died in faith in the Lord.
Our Lutheran Confessions [Ap. AC, 21] tell us: Our confession approves honors to the saints. For here is a three-fold honor to be given. The first is thanksgiving. For we ought to give thanks to God that He has shown that He wishes to save men; because He has given teachers or other gifts to the Church…The second service is the strengthening of our faith; when we see the denial of Peter we also are encouraged to believe the more that grace truly superabounds over sin, [Rm.5.20]. The third honor is the imitation, first of faith, then of the other virtues, which everyone should imitate according to his calling. All Saints’ Sunday is a glorious reminder to us of all that God has done for the saints in bringing and keeping them in the faith; and as He has done it for them, He will also do so for us. As the saints, by God’s power and work in the Holy Spirit, lived out their lives of faith and good works, so too, will the same Holy Spirit strengthen us to live lives of faith and good works. And this strengthening to remain in the faith and to live that life of good works, a life more and more in accord with the holy will of God, is absolutely vital for each one of us because left to ourselves and our own strength and devices, we’d fall away; and on top of that, we get no encouragement from the world around us to be a Christian. In fact, what does Jesus say in today’s Gospel? –Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Long story short, suffering and persecution are the mark of the Church. Where there is the cross of suffering, tribulation, persecution, sorrow and misery, there will be the Church; there will be Christians striving to live a life of faith in Christ. St. Paul clearly writes [2 Ti 3.12]: Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. To be sure, it will not always be bloody persecution like Christians down through the ages, even to our very day, endured—certainly in our circles here. But don’t ever think that the devil is not working to destroy our faith in Jesus, to bring upon us every sort of trial—using even the common struggles and trials everyone endures—to lead us to doubt and question of faith: if God really is our dear, loving heavenly Father, why He would allow what He does, etc. It is an absolutely wrong view to think that once we’re Christians that we will be healthy, wealthy and wise and everything will go our way. Is it really believable that once we in holy baptism renounce and become the enemy of the devil that he will leave us alone? Won’t he, instead, increase the attacks? But precisely in the attacks—even persecutions, even bloody persecutions—we can be certain of our Lord’s help, grace, protection and above all His mighty working to keep us in the faith and close to Him. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Notice, in fact, Jesus declares those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake as Blessed.
It should not be surprising that suffering/ persecution for righteousness’ sake would be a mark/ characteristic of the Church because, after all, Jesus suffered and in the most horrible way. He tells the disciples very plainly [John 15.18-20]: If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. Because this happened to Jesus, the Christians/ His Church can also expect it.
The other point is this: we are united with Jesus. Baptism unites us with Him; in Holy Communion He comes to us bodily and unites with us; through faith He dwells in the heart of His dear Christian. So closely are we united with Jesus! And as Jesus was persecuted and suffered during His earthly life, will Satan relent in his attacks now that Jesus is united with His Christians? What did Jesus say to Saul, the great persecutor of the Church, when He met Saul on the road to Damascus? Not, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting these Christians” but “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” [Ac 9.4]. Where the Church is, there Jesus is; and where He is, there will be suffering and persecution. That’s why suffering and persecution are a mark of the Church, where we can identify where She is. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
When it comes down to it, the Beatitudes, this morning’s Gospel, are a description of Jesus—poor, meek, merciful, persecuted—and now that we are in Jesus and He is in us, we, by the Holy Spirit’s work, become more and more like Jesus. That means that our life of holiness as a Christian is rooted in Jesus. Being united with Jesus, with Him in us, how can our lives not be different? Won’t our lives be marked as lives of holiness? It’s who we are; it’s the living out of our baptism. In baptism we die to sin and rise in holiness. With Jesus in us, as we are united to Him in faith and striving to live a holy life, our righteousness will be obvious for all to see. Our lives of holiness are a rebuke to the world around us, to its ways and behavior. The Christian upholds the truth and refuses to compromise with the ways of the world/ sin. The Christian strives to follow Jesus’ words; a bit later in this Sermon Jesus tells us [6.33]: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
By living out our lives as a Christian, the people of the world who want nothing to do with the true God and Savior, who do not want to think they are sinners on the path to hell, have the living example of the Christian before them: by striving to live a holy life, as imperfect as it may be, they remind the those of the world who want nothing to do with God of God’s law that they are trying to ignore but which their conscience keeps reminding them; they are reminded of the better/ the divine; the person of the world sees that God’s approval of the Christian is His disapproval of their character and life. As the saints in heaven will testify, this leads to persecution on account of righteousness. They went through it; they endured it; they did not give in to go along with the ways of the world. And why? Jesus was with them throughout, strengthening them to live that life of holiness and forgiving them when they stumbled and sinned, giving them His righteousness.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Although suffering and persecution are a distinguishing mark of the Church, a great reward is promised. Although suffering and persecution are things we as humans generally seek to avoid, for the Christian, when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, there is the sign, the mark of all the other descriptions Jesus gives of Himself and His dear Christian in today’s Gospel, the Beatitudes—where there is persecution for righteousness’ sake, there is poverty of spirit, meekness, purity of heart, hungering and thirsting for righteousness—all these descriptions of Jesus and His dear Christian. All these characteristics flow from faith, faith that unites us with Jesus. And where there is faith in Jesus, there is also heaven and eternal life. If you see yourself in small or large way persecuted for righteousness’ sake, be comforted: for [yours] is the kingdom of heaven. This is a reward of God’s grace. We don’t earn heaven, but in grace He gives it to us for Jesus’ sake, because by His life, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, Jesus opened the kingdom of heaven to us. The fact is, if we live our lives to have a good time and not to face persecution and suffering for righteousness’ sake, but to “blend in with the world”, not be so obviously a Christian, to not care whether we sin or not, the evil works/ sins we commit work to destroy faith and expel the Holy Spirit from the heart; we will not get to heaven with Christ. In the boldness and humility of faith, led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must put everything into jeopardy and not be scared off by contempt, ingratitude, persecution. That’s what the saints in heaven did. We heard in today’s 1st reading about the Christians who have entered heaven: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation—that’s how our earthly lives are described as we live under the attack of the devil and his allies all trying to destroy our faith. But what do the Christians do? They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That is, we keep holding on to Jesus in faith. Yes, we sin, perhaps even grievously, even by word or deed denying Jesus, denying our faith, but we still hold to God’s word and promise and the work of Jesus and in sorrow run to Him for forgiveness of sin, washing away our sin with His blood. And forgiven our sin, reconciled with God, with Jesus in us, we then in joy and thanksgiving, strive all the more to live a life of holiness. That’s what the saints in heaven did during their earthly lives. And by God’s grace, they came out of the great tribulation into the eternal joys of heaven. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Let us not forget the very first word of our text: Blessed. In Jesus God has declared us Blessed. That means that we can have a great and deep spiritual joy. Already now, even in the midst of suffering for righteousness’ sake, we have a great spiritual joy as we share in God’s gift to us of salvation. It is ours now through faith in Jesus and we will share in it eternally with the all saints. We are part of His Church now, enjoying all of God’s riches and blessings like the forgiveness of sin, peace with Him, His favor, and eternal life. We enjoy them now, in Christ, even in the midst of persecution and suffering. And we will enjoy them in fullest measure when we will be in heaven. There a glorious crown of life awaits all our Lord’s faithful.
All Saints’ Day leads us to lift up our heart above all senses and reason to see the joy of the saints in heaven, to see Jesus’ work was for them and for us and to fix our eyes on His faithfulness and to the glory that awaits us. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. INJ Amen