He Says We Are Saints…
Text: Matt. 5:1-12, Rev. 7:9-17, 1 John 3:1-3
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
You may have noticed it, if you’ve been following along closely with the readings these past few weeks. There’s something about this time of the Church year, as we draw closer and closer to the end. It seems that with each week—a little more each Sunday, each reading, each page and chapter and verse—that our focus is being drawn to those things that we cannot see. It began with the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, when we heard at length about angels and archangels and all the company of heaven that we cannot see with our physical eyes, but who wage battle with the forces of hell on our behalf to protect us. It continued last week with our observance of the Reformation, when we confessed and sang with gusto about faith, which by its very nature is unseen; faith, that belief in things not seen, that trust that looks to God even when the things we can see are telling us to abandon ship.
It continues today, as we celebrate All Saints’ Day. Today we give thanks to God for all who have gone before us in the faith, who have walked that invisible path of trust and belief, however long or short their travels were. We confess with word and song and prayer and meditation that we believe they are with the Lord Jesus right now. Even though we can’t see them anymore, we know that they still live and that their life is hidden with Christ.
Furthermore, we don’t just celebrate their lives and give thanks as if they’re gone and separated from us forever. This day is about more than just the fact that they lived and now have departed. After all, today is not called Dead Saints’ Day. It’s All Saints’ Day, and all really means all. All saints includes the saints who are alive today, even those we will never see and meet. It includes all the saints who are yet to come, the generations not yet born who will know the goodness of the Lord. All Saints’ Day is about the great multitude from all tribes and peoples and languages who ever have, who are currently, and who will wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb.
There’s a mystical union in the Church, this body of Christ that we belong to. All too often we’re limited by the fact that we are finite, mortal beings. We tend to only think in small slices of reality. We talk about how things have been done in our own lifetimes as if that’s the measure of how long-lived something is. We look at our own personal needs—or, on very good days, we look at the needs of a slightly larger community—because most days that’s all that’s readily accessible to our vision. We live in that state of being curved in on ourselves, which the theologians have called original sin—a focus on what I want, what I think, what I feel, what I like, over and against the billions of other people who are living, who have lived, and who will live.
But All Saints’ Day lifts our eyes to take in a wider, more sweeping view. It helps us to see that union we have in the Church with every other believer in our Lord. It causes us to look further than our vision could normally go, as we hear what St. John was given to see in his vision of the great multitude gathered in praise and victory, singing to Lamb who redeemed us all. All Saints’ Day helps us realize that we are part of a greater body—the Church of all times and all places. It helps us see that we are what God says we are. In spite of our sins and mistakes, in spite of the division that the world wants to force on us—racial divides, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, Republican, Democrat, ancient, modern, or something else entirely—that in spite of that, we are all part of that great host clothed in the spotless robes of Jesus’ righteousness. Or, as St. John wrote to us this morning, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
All Saints’ Day is a good reminder to us that we are one, all united to the same Lord Jesus for our salvation. One Lord, one faith, one Baptism. We all look forward to the same resurrection of the dead and life of the world to come, for those who have gone before and for ourselves. We all receive the same Lord’s body and blood, hidden as it is, unseen under the bread and wine, right alongside those who have the same confession of faith—unity in faith, gathered with each other, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. We all bless the name of the Lord and give thanks for the oneness He gives us that transcends anything that the world can offer, any label or group or identity that’s different than the one our Father has given us: His children.
For there are times when that reality is hidden from our eyes. We have those loved ones in the faith who have departed from our sight, and it can start to feel like they’re really gone. We hear about how we should be divided from and despise others who don’t think or look or live or vote the same as us, and sadly, we fall for it. We look at our own thoughts, words, and deeds and we see things that we’re not proud of, things we’re sorry we did, things that didn’t display that we’re God’s children. We feel the uncleanness of what was done to us and it feels that we’ll never be whole or holy again.
But All Saints’ Day reminds us that it’s not about what is seen. It’s about what God has said we are. He has said that you are His children, and so you are. He has said that you are forgiven, and so you are. He has said that you are clean and whole and pure and righteous, and because of what the Lamb of God did for you on the cross, you are. You are everything that Jesus has said is blessed in the Beatitudes this morning, because you wear Jesus’ righteousness like a robe, you’re washed in His blood and perfect life. So you really are heirs of the kingdom of heaven, comforted in your mourning, inheritors of the new heaven and new earth, filled to satisfaction with the righteousness of your God. You really are merciful and will receive mercy. You really will see God because Jesus has purified your heart. You really are a child of God because of the peace of the Lord that is with you always. That’s all to say, you really are blessed. You really are a saint, not because of what you’ve done or will do, but because of what God has made you to be in His Son. You are counted in that great multitude, with all the saints who have gone before you and who will come after you.
Today, once again, Jesus reminds you that His blessing is not dependent on what your eyes see or what your emotions feel. Your blessedness comes from His Word, His promise, His grace, what He says you are. You are His child. When He appears you will see Him as He is. And you will sing with all the saints in glory gathered around our God and the Lamb. In the name of Jesus, who makes us saints. Amen.
