~ observed ~
Readings: Revelation 7:9-17 | 1 John 3:1-3 | Matthew 5:1-12
Text: Revelation 7:9-14
In our country, we have various holidays that call to remembrance various aspects about what it means to be an American. We celebrate the Fourth of July as Independence Day, in which we call to mind the momentous events of 1776 that led to the United States of America – honoring the patriots who took up pen and musket to secure our independence and liberties. We also celebrate Memorial Day – a solemn commemoration of Americans who died in service to our country in all wars. And we also celebrate Veterans’ Day – an opportunity to express gratitude for the service of all in the military, past and present.
The Church is, in many ways, like its own country. We are citizens of a kingdom. We have our own laws, history, heroes, and government. We also have our own remembrance of war and peace, of heroes and villains, and important events that we deem worthy of calling to mind.
We celebrate the birthday of our King on Christmas Day, and we commemorate His death and Resurrection during Holy Week and Easter. And we also have lesser holidays in our calendar in which we honor our “soldiers” if you will. We celebrate the feast days of the Apostles and Evangelists. We celebrated Reformation Day last week, and this week, we join the entire western Church throughout the world to celebrate All Saints Day.
Today is a bit like Veterans Day, in that we honor all who served, all who followed Christ, all those “soldiers of the cross” known and unknown, those who died as martyrs, as well as those who died in their beds. We remember the men and women known the world over for their holy and heroic deeds, and we also remember our own friends and relatives who will never be honored by a feast day in our hymnal, and who will never have a church named after them – and yet they are the saints we honor today.
For even as we need role models and heroes to look up to, we know that Christian saints are born, not made – and we should rightly say that they are “born again” – by water and the Spirit, sanctified by the Word of God and called to eternal life by grace.
In John’s vision in the book of Revelation, he sees the saints being “sealed” in symbolic numbers from the twelve tribes of Israel – the twelve tribes that are carried forward in the Church through the twelve apostles. We Christians are “sealed” by means of Holy Baptism. We are signed by the holy cross. We are delivered from death and the devil. In other words, we are called to be saints by our Lord, and we are sanctified by His blood.
And our saints come “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” For what makes us and our brethren saints is that we are “standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” This is why we see the lamb illustrated in Christian art. You are standing before the throne and before the Lamb. And notice that those who are standing before the Lamb are singing a hymn: “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!”
This is what all saints do: they gather around the Lamb and they sing His praise. All saints gather at the Divine Service where Jesus comes to them – the Lamb who gives us His flesh to eat and His blood to drink. All saints participate in the eternal Passover sacrifice, the Lamb that takest away the sin of the world at the cross, for all saints “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”
In John’s vision, he says that we serve God “day and night in His temple.” That gives a greater perspective to this worship service, to advent services coming up next month. Rather than simply joining with fellow members at Bethlehem or at Holy Cross, we are actually part of a greater gathering “before the throne of God.” By “His presence,” God Himself shelters us, promises us a new and greater world with no hunger, or thirst, or suffering on account of weather – and that the Lamb Himself will shepherd us, and even our tears shall be no more.
This is what it means to be a saint: to receive the Lord’s grace and His abundant mercy. And that enlivens in us love for Him and a desire to be where He is – like a loving little child who clings to His parents – so too do all saints hold fast to the God who has given us life, redeemed us from sin, and called us into the throne-room of God, being made worthy by the Lamb who alone is truly worthy!
And, of course, even as we honor all saints, we certainly call to mind those who suffered persecution and even martyrdom as their particular call to sainthood. “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation,” those saints past, present, and future who are called to bear the cross of suffering for the sake of their confession of Christ. Even as Memorial Day calls to mind those veterans who died for our country, so too do the feasts of the martyrs, of the Reformation, of Pentecost, and other feasts days – bring us to remembrance of those whose testimony was written in blood and anguish. Lest we forget! But in so much of a greater war than those fought on earth!
To be a saint is to be a child of God. How? Because, as John teaches us in the Epistle reading, the Father has given us a remarkable kind of love. The world does not know this love, but we do. The world does not know us or Him – but we do. “Beloved, we are God’s children now,” and even as His children, we have so much more to look forward to in the future! “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” even as, for now, we grow in faith and love in this life, and being perfected in the life to come.
The life of Christ is lived through the saints. This is something which faith recognizes, but reason is blind to. In the body of Christ, we are all members of it. By members, we mean far more than belonging to a club like Costco. A member is of the same body, so that where a Christian suffers, all the Body suffers with them, even as Christ Himself suffers. In Acts 9, when St. Paul is called from his life of persecution, He asks pointedly, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He had overseen the execution of Stephen and headed to Damascus with murderous plans for the Christians there. But the Lord asks, “Why are you persecuting Me?” by which He makes it clear that He is not disconnected from the lives of His faithful.
So we are as He speaks the Beatitudes to us. By His intimate union with His saints, we are blessed by His mercy, blessed by a poverty of spirit through which the kingdom is ours; blessed even in our mourning, for we will be comforted; blessed in our meekness, for we will inherit the earth; blessed in our hunger and thirst for righteousness, for we will be satisfied; blessed by showing mercy, for we will receive mercy; blessed with a pure heart, by which we will see God; blessed as peacemakers, for we will be called sons of God. Even when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, the kingdom will be ours, and when we are reviled for the sake of Christ, we will rejoice in the kingdom for our reward will be great.
This was the lesson learned by the saints of old, whose struggle was fierce and whose warfare was long. We do well to learn about our departed brothers and sisters, who overcame and won the victory from Christ.
And so, we honor our saints, for in doing so, we honor Him by whom they—and we—are called and gifted with the saintly life, with membership in the kingdom, citizens of an eternal country, and an eternal King. Let us join with all the saints – past, present, and future – in waving our palm branches and singing: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
* Original sermon by Pastor Larry Beane.
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