Sermon for All Saints: "Now and Not Yet"

+ Festival of All Saints (observed) – November 4^th, 2018 +

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

Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton

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

Disney’s movie Inside Out tells the story of a little girl, named Riley, who moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Her personified emotions - fear, disgust, anger, sadness, and joy – tell her story. In a pivotal, climactic scene Riley’s personified emotion Joy cries. In that moment she realizes something important: we rarely experience joy without first experiencing sadness; that life is often a mix of sadness and joy. As this happens, a new core memory is made in Riley’s mind; it’s depicted as a marble like object, a mix of blue and yellow - a memory where sadness and joy meet.

All Saints’ Day is a lot like that for us the baptized. A day where sadness and joy meet. It’s a bit like being on a teeter totter: one minute we’re up, singing a joyful Alleluia, and the next we’re down, sniffling and weeping through For All the Saints. 

Today we grieve our loved ones who have died in the faith, yet we do not grieve not without hope. For Christ the Lamb of God has conquered death for them and for you. Today we remember the faithful departed, and yet we rejoice knowing they rest from their labors, awaiting with us the resurrection of the body on the Last Day. Today we have joy in Christ, even in tears.

This is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith. As God’s baptized, holy, beloved children our lives are a mix of grief and gladness, longing and comfort, sadness and joy. We live in this In-between Time of Christ’s first coming in flesh to die and rise for us, and his second coming to raise all flesh from the dead. We live in The Now – having all of God’s promises in Christ by faith, and The Not Yet – as we await to see these promises face to face. As St. John declares, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.”

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says it this way:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the lowly,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.

“Poor in spirit, mourning, lowly, hungry? Really? Those don’t sound like blessings, Jesus. Where’s the health, wealth, power, and full bellies – now that’s the blessed, victorious life. I want that kind of life, we say.” At least, that’s the way the world thinks of blessings, and if we’re honest, so do we.  

Jesus, however, gives us an entirely different meaning of the word blessed. They key to understanding Jesus’ words here in the famous Beatitudes is to hear them, not as ethical instructions, not as virtues to which we aspire, not as a spiritual to-do list, but blessings given through Jesus’ death and resurrection for us. The Beatitudes aren’t list of “10 Ways to Improve Your Spiritual Life Now!”…but rather, who you are in Christ. Jesus is describing the whole life of his saints, his holy ones – not just those who have died in the faith. You. Now. Today. You are Jesus’ blessed, beloved, holy saints. 

Still, if we’re honest, that’s hard to believe. For though we have ears of faith, we also see the world through fallen eyes. What we are now has not yet appeared. And what we see is downright ugly. A scary, fallen, unforgiving world outside, a heart of darkness within. It’s tempting to think that because we don’t see God’s blessings now, we never will. How can Jesus’ words of blessing be true when all I see is disease, sorrow, and death? How can Jesus’ words of promise be for me when all I feel is lonely, empty, hungry, unworthy, and powerless? I have nothing to offer God. How could he possibly love a sinner like me? I’m no saint. 

Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t give his blessing and promise to those who deserve it. He doesn’t wait till we have our lives perfectly put together. I have come not for the healthy, but the sick, Jesus declares. Jesus loves us who are unlovable. God gives us a holiness not our own – his name placed upon you – as it was for Connor this day – in his holy Name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On the cross, Jesus took all our pain, sadness, and sorrow upon himself to give us eternal joy. On the cross. Jesus became the poor, lowly, hungry, and broken to bless and save us. On the cross, Jesus became the sinner to make us his saints. 

This is what it means to be a saint – not to look at ourselves - but to Jesus crucified for me. 

I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

For us who live in a broken world, Jesus’ words to us on All Saints’ Day are good news. Blessed are you who are poor in spirit, we who have nothing to offer God, yet receive everything from him in Jesus. Blessed are you who mourn, who acknowledge the world is broken in sin yet made new in Jesus. Blessed are the lowly, when we see that we are powerless to save ourselves, yet Jesus is powerful to save. Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for the righteousness that comes to us today in Jesus’ body and blood.

All Saints’ Day is a blessed reminder that we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.”It’s all yours in Jesus – his grace and mercy now. His promise of resurrection yet to come. Now. Not yet. But it will come, as surely as Jesus rose from the dead. He will return. He will say the word and the dead in Christ – you his saints, and those we remember today – will rise again in Jesus. He will bring us out this great tribulation, for we are washed in robes made white by the blood of the Lamb. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. 

And then…no more sadness. Only joy in Jesus. The Lamb, our Shepherd and Savior.

A blessed All Saints’ Day to each of you…

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