Today is November 1st on our calendars, but on the church calendar, today is “All Saint’s Day.” In the Lutheran church, we believe this is such an important day, that if November 1st doesn’t fall on a Sunday, we usually move it’s celebration to the first Sunday in November. It’s a day where we take the time to remember those who have gone before us in the Christian faith; those who have suffered persecution and even died for professing their faith in Jesus Christ. We remember the saints who have, by the grace of God, served the church and the world with lasting contributions. You can turn to pages 10-12 in the Lutheran Book of Worship to find a list of some of them we remember throughout the year. And, it’s also a day where we remember “ordinary saints” if you will; saints like Elenora Fredriksen, Marvin Byriel, Mary Jane Spangler, Bert Gustafson, Barb Madsen, Edna Kjergaard, Ellowene Christensen, Reta Hansen, Marie Winther, Jack Twist, Jim DeBower, and Einar Madsen, friends and loved ones who died in the Christian faith this past year.
And since today is All Saints’ Day, its quite appropriate to ask the question: what does it take to be a saint? By definition, a saint is one who is sanctified, that is, made holy, one who has no sin. So if you are without sin, congratulations, you are a saint, too!
In answering the question “what does it take to be a saint?” Jesus in our Gospel reading for this morning recites the Beatitudes, qualities of those who are blessed to be saints. This is a well known, and important part of the Bible, one that can carry great joy and blessing with it. Yet at the same time, it’s one that is often twisted and misunderstood to lead folks into despair. So, what does it take to be a saint? Let’s go to the Beatitudes to find out.
I may have asked you this question before from the pulpit, but I will do it again. How many of you here this morning consider yourself to be an above average driver? Yeah, look around. Most of you have your hand up. Either a) we have a congregation of really good drivers or b) we have ourselves a perfect insight into human nature. Most people generally view themselves to be better than others in some way, shape, or form. And they believe that if they are better than others, they must be doing a pretty good job at whatever it is they are doing.
This mindset transfers over into the world of religion a lot more than we are aware of, and it really shows up when we start talking about the Beatitudes. A lot of times, we hear “The message of the Beatitudes is this, if you do these things well enough, then you will be happy, and God will bless you beyond your wildest dreams.” It’s really a human standard of measure though the attitude of “If I’m better than average at these things, I’m doing pretty good, so God has to bless me more than other people, God has to favor me over others.” But, while this may work for evaluating driving skill, does it work for sainthood? Let’s find out.
First, Jesus says “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” The Bible tells us that the saints of God enjoy eternal life with a new heaven and a new earth, and Jesus tells us here that saints are meek. Meekness is defined as power under control. One who is meek would use his or her power, authority, and skills in service to others, not themselves. So, let me ask you. Are you meek enough? Do you use your power, position, and talents in life in service to others? How about at home, how do you treat your family? Do you live your life as a servant to them, considering their needs and matters to be more important than your own? Has there ever been a time where you lost your temper at a family member because you were not getting your own way? Or what about with the time, talents, and treasures God gives you in this life, do you use what God has given you in service to others? Do you really need to be buying all that new stuff all the time and spending all your money, when you could be using it in service to those who are less fortunate than you are, or to help a family member in a time of need, or to help spread the Gospel, without asking the question “what’s in it for me”? Could you live with less than you have? Do you help as much as you can at home, and in your church?
Or, let’s look at look at the next one: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” That means that you have a desire for the things of God-things like holiness, faith, purity. Those who hunger and thirst for it will take advantage of every opportunity to be fed by these things. As I look out at everyone in the congregation this morning, if I were to go around and ask each one of you to tell me what you believe it means to “hunger and thirst enough for righteousness”, we’d have as many answers as people in this sanctuary. Some people would say it’s enough to attend church on Christmas and Easter, while others will say once every other month or every month. Some will say going to church every Sunday morning indicates a hunger and thirst for righteousness, whole others would add in midweek services during Advent, Lent, Holy Week, Thanksgiving Eve, or other special services during the year. But then, what about hunger and thirst outside of worship? Do you attend adult Sunday School class? Do you have daily Bible readings and devotions, and are they long enough? Have you memorized enough portions of the Scriptures in your hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Let’s look at one more. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Again, to see God is a privilege of the saints, who will see Him face to face in glory for all of eternity. To be pure in heart, that means you never have any thoughts of lust or covetousness. You are perfectly satisfied with the things that you have, perfectly trusting that God will provide for your needs when trials arise. You are not affected by prejudice or gossip, or grudge-bearing.
Wow. That’s quite a list. Now let me ask you, how many of you here this morning have done all of these things perfectly? Or, at some point, have you started with the statement “I’m doing fine with these things according to my own measure. I’m comfortable with my level of meekness, being pure in heart, and my hunger and thirst for righteousness. I’m sure doing a lot better than most people around here, so certainly that has to count for something!” You see, there’s the problem. When Jesus gives us these Beatitudes, He doesn’t do so with a human standard. He gives us God’s expectations. That means have you done these things perfectly, from the moment you were conceived, or not? You see, your human standard of measure against other people doesn’t matter here. Remember in our Epistle reading from last week in Romans 3, we heard “For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Right here, we have examples of that. No one has ever been meek enough to earn God’s favor. We’ve all used our power, influence, time, talents, and treasures for our own selfish desires. We’ve refused to meet a need for someone else because it’s inconvenient for us, or we don’t see any reward coming from it. We’ve all had times where we’ve had opportunities to be fed by God’s unchanging Word and Sacraments, and we’ve ignored them, or tried to water them down so that they aren’t so offensive and others who don’t believe in Jesus’ words will want to join us, so we can show some growth in our records and appear successful in worldly terms. None of us have ever had a heart that is pure. Jesus Himself has said “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” (Matt. 15:19-20a) That is the farthest thing from a pure heart.
So here we stand, convicted by God’s Word of Law. And we quickly realize that left on our own, the message of “If you do these things, God will bless you” isn’t going to help us out at all because the truth is, we can’t do it on our own. We can never be pure enough in heart; we can never hunger and thirst for righteousness enough; we can never be meek enough. We will never have the assurance that we have done these things well enough to earn the blessing that they promise. We can never have the assurance that God will look at us as “saints”. Instead, we’re “poor sinners” who face the complete opposite of God’s blessing, we deserve God’s eternal wrath and punishment.
And that’s the point Jesus is trying to make here. If it’s up to you to become a saint, you can’t earn the blessings. You cannot earn your salvation. You cannot earn the title of “Saint.” That’s the reason that Christ came in the first place. St. Paul writes “But God shows us His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Rom. 5:8-9)
Remember when we talked about Justification last week on Reformation Sunday? That word meant “just as if I had never sinned.” And how does that happen? Well, let’s go back through the Beatitudes. Where you couldn’t be meek, Christ was perfectly meek. He never used His power for Himself. If He came into this world, and demanded that the world serve Him hand and foot and live the ultimate life of worldly luxury, He rightly would have deserved that. But He didn’t. He lived as a humble carpenter, one who had no place to lay His head. When He died, he died with nothing. He was perfectly meek, in using His power for the good of others. Where we cannot hunger and thirst for righteousness on our own, Jesus hungered and thirsted enough for you. When He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, with nothing to eat for 40 days, Jesus went hungry and resisted the temptation where you and I would have given in. At the cross, as He dies for your sin, my sin, the sin of the world, we hear Him utter the words “I thirst.” He does that in your place. Where nothing but evil things come out of our human, sin filled hearts, Jesus’ heart was pure and sinless. He exchanged our sick, sin filled hearts, for his pure, sinless heart at the cross. You see, for all of those times where our human standard of measure fails to live up to God’s expectations, Jesus fulfills each of these Beatitudes so that we can inherit the blessings! The blessings of forgiveness of our sins, eternal life, and salvation!
And today, we give thanks that Jesus has done all of this for our loved ones who have gone before us and died in the faith. We realize that the blessings Jesus describes here are now theirs. They are a part of that great multitude we heard about in the reading in Revelation this morning who are “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 heard that “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence…For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” That Lamb is Jesus Christ. Because of what Christ has done for them, they now are a part of that great company of heaven, who worship God day and night, who no longer know sickness, pain, sorrow, injury, sadness, or grief.
But for you and me, we still experience these things. That’s part of life in this sinful, fallen world. And as we remember the saints in our lives who have gone before us, the separation caused by death brings sadness and grief. Sometimes, we wonder whether we will ever be relieved of it. And this morning, you came to God’s house, where you are in the presence of your Savior, the Lamb, Jesus Christ, who has come to you through simple means. He is coming to you this morning first of all through His Word, where you heard through the scripture readings, the word of absolution, and now in the sermon, that Christ has died for your sins, and He promises you all of the blessings in the Beatitudes on account of what He has done for you. In a few moments, when you come to this altar rail, Jesus will cloak His presence in simple forms of bread and wine, connected to His Word, and you will hear Him say to you, in a real, personal way, “Take and eat, take and drink, this is my body and blood, which is given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of all of your sins.” In our communion liturgy, when we use the Sanctus canticle, the “Holy, Holy, Holy” canticle, we hear that we sing it “with angels, archangels, and the entire company of heaven.” When we are gathered in Christ’s presence through Word and Sacrament as we are this morning, we are united together with fellow believers throughout the world, and with those who have gone before us in the faith. We join with fellow sinners made saints in confessing our sins, receiving Christ’s forgiveness, and having our robes washed and made white in the blood of Christ. We leave here knowing our ultimate destiny is an eternity with God in heaven, just like those who have gone before us.
In some Lutheran churches, in particular those of Scandinavian tradition, the communion rail is in the shape of a shallow curve. This was the case for the communion rails in both of my previous churches in northern Iowa, and I know is the case at the Hamlin and Ebenezer Lutheran Churches in our area. It appears as if it’s part of a circle. It’s a reminder for us that when we gather in worship as Christ comes to serve us through His presence in Word and Sacrament, we do so with believes from all places, and with the company of heaven. Those who have gone before us merely are worshipping Him from the other side of the altar in heaven.
So on this All Saints’ Day, who are the saints? They are believers like you and me, from all times and places and tribes of people, who recognize the reality that if left on their own, they could never earn God’s blessings, but through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are sinners made saints, waiting for the day when we will be delivered out of this world, and into the blessings and joys of eternal life. May God strengthen each one of us with these promises for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
