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Advent 1 – "Bookends" (Luke 19:28-40)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

It’s the beginning of the end. Or is it the end of the beginning? Today’s Gospel reading comes up twice in the Church Year: the First Sunday of Advent, today, and Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, leading up to the death of Jesus. Though we see on Palm Sunday Christ’s entrance to Jerusalem marking His impending death, we see in our text for today the beginning of a new Church Year, and in its beginning, it points the Church toward Calvary.

For the Christian, we begin the season of Advent today. It is the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, in other words, the period immediately before Christmas. If there is one word that best captures the meaning of the season of Advent, it is probably waiting. During Advent the church confesses the wisdom that Jeremiah spoke so long ago: “It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

The Church this First Sunday in Advent directs her attention to the final chapter in the saga of salvation. And that is as it should be, for crib and cross go together. You cannot have one without the other. This astounding little bundle of joy was born to save, in other words, to die, and to lay down His life in payment for the sins of the entire world.

Likewise, there is no salvation apart from God in the flesh of Jesus. It was no heavenly principle or concept that died, but a real man, with real flesh and blood like ours. In order to remove the just penalty for our sin, He first took on a human body, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Crib and cross, cross and crib; like bookends, they enclose the whole story of God’s salvation in His incarnate Son.

On the scale of human events, this Palm Sunday ride doesn’t really seem so big. It was humble. Jesus rode on a donkey. He sat on a saddle of outer garments, actually, which served as coats, and cloaks, and blankets at night, and protection against sand storms, and as an all-around, multi-purpose garment. That is what the disciples threw on the backs of the donkey. Others lined the road with their cloaks, and still others cut branches off of the local palm trees and carpeted the path of Jesus with those. Some took the palm branches and waved them and called out “Hosanna.” It wasn’t as impressive as we might think, but there was more here than meets the eye.

In Advent, we look forward to the coming of the King, and we remember how He came. We look forward by looking back. It doesn’t matter that the crowd was small, or large. The crowd proclaimed the truth that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promises of the prophets. Their testimony tells us that we are awaiting the coming of He who will fulfills the promise to us. We aren’t looking forward to His death, or the work of redemption. They were, but we do not look forward to that because we can see by looking back that He has already done it. Rather, we focus on the words of the people, “Behold, your king is coming to you.”

That is what Advent prepares us for, the coming of in the infant Jesus. During this season, we take the time to have a history lesson of our faith. We take a little time to refocus and reorient ourselves to God’s interaction with us—the coming of our Lord and Savior to us and for us for the sole purpose of living and dying for us and our sins. The nativity of our Lord certainly is an important part of this divine and compassionate interaction. The womb of Mary and the Bethlehem manger are the starting points for Jesus Christ’s long, purposeful march to Calvary for our salvation. But that’s just it. These are the starting points of our salvation history. These are not ending points for a different Bible story. All too often mankind’s salvation is treated as two separate historical narratives though. A baby named Jesus was born at Christmas time and that means joy and peace on earth. Coincidentally, we also celebrate a thirty-three year old man named Jesus who suffered, died, and was resurrected at Easter time, which means peace in heaven and forgiveness for all mankind. However, today, we look not at the cross as much as we do the crib.

Why was Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary in a humble little stable in Bethlehem? Because of our sin; because of our complete inability to bring about our own salvation in any way, shape, or form! This is precisely what makes Advent a penitential season no different than Lent. This is precisely why the Palm Sunday account has been the traditional Gospel lesson for the first Sunday in Advent for centuries. This account serves to take us back to the real reason for the season. The manger only makes sense when understood through the lens of the cross. 

In this season of Advent, we prepare ourselves for Christ’s coming. It is a time of repentance, a time of sadness over sin, for it is our sin that made it necessary for the Son of God to come into the world in the first place. But while it is a time of repentance, it is also a time of hope and joy. Since we are sinners, we have a Savior to redeem us. Just as we have seen the end of another Church Year, we mark the beginning of a new one, but it also marks the beginning of a new era for us all: an era that has Christ as its Head, and we as His redeemed children.

Advent is the spark of hope in the darkness of sin. It is the anticipation of rescue from the pit of despair. It is generation after generation of sacrifices that remind us of our sin and also point forward to the Savior from that sin. It is an emptiness waiting to be filled.  The traditional Advent is a time of repentance that prepares us for Christmas in much the same way that Lent prepares us for Easter. It is a time for examining oneself and finding sin.  It is a time to contemplate the idea that we desperately need God to come into this world and rescue us.

Therefore, in this season of Advent, let us prepare our hearts once more for our Lord’s coming. We can enjoy the many traditions in this world that have sprung up around Christmas, but let us also hold fast to the eternal meaning of Advent. We are sinners and we need a Savior. God the Son came to take on human flesh in order to be that Savior. He still comes in order to offer His salvation. On the Last Day His coming will raise all the dead and all who believe in Him will live with Him forever in a new world of eternal joy and peace. During this Advent let us remember how He came, how He will come, and how He now comes. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

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Last Sunday of the Church Year–“God’s Forever Salvation” (Isaiah 51:4-6)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Old Testament, which was read earlier.

Maybe you’ve seen the commercial, either this season or years past. It has a guy and a girl with usually a gold necklace or bracelet with a sparkling diamonds. His expression to her is one of eternal love to her. At the end of the commercial you hear the tag line: “diamonds are forever.” The question we have to ask ourselves is this: is it really?

Granted, for all practical purposes a diamond may outlast most of us. But will it last forever? That’s a long time, a very, very long time. In fact, God says through His prophet Isaiah that we are to consider the heavens and the earth and know that “the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner….” Eventually, everything will be destroyed, even diamonds.

When we look at God’s salvation, it is different in this manner. Though the heavens vanish like smoke and the earth wears out like a garment, God’s salvation is forever. It is forever already now and not yet. There is a now to God’s salvation, for it has gone out to His people. Something has been done. God seeks our attention today to come to Him with a simple invitation: “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation….” God used His prophet Isaiah to prophesy of the coming Messiah. This Deliverer would be the Great Servant of the Lord. God had announced His coming through Isaiah in chapter 42. This Servant was the One in whom the Lord would delight and on whom He would put His Spirit. In Isaiah 49, we hear the words of the Servant Himself.

Even though we already have that salvation from God, we wait for the full enjoyment of God’s salvation. When Christ comes again at the end of time and the dead in Christ are raised for eternal life in the new heaven and earth, then the full enjoyment of that which we already have will be ours. There is a call to enjoy and to hope for God’s salvation, a call for all the peoples.

If you were a Jew living in Babylon at the time of Isaiah, you may have thought that any hope of a return to Jerusalem remained a hopeless and impossible dream. The once glorious city now lay in ruins. All the beauty that once belonged to Zion and Judah had disappeared. During the period of captivity, the Promised Land remained nothing but a wasteland. Yet God promised to have compassion and to bring joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and the sound of singing again to His people. The faithful were not to despair. They were to listen to the promises of God, because God wanted to reinforce their faith with His promises. The deliverance He promised drew nearer. Israel was going to be saved.

Isaiah is a crafty wordsmith here in our text. He doesn’t say anything that doesn’t have meaning. When he says that “the coastlands hope for me,” the word is suggestive for all the world’s peoples. That means that Christ is not just reserved for the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, but that the coming Messiah will indeed come to save everyone. This indicates the blessings God intends for all peoples: salvation and righteousness. God declares sinners right and holy. Through faith in that declaration, they are saved from the consequences of sin. Both are God’s; they do not come by human effort or merit. They are a wonderful gift that comes only from God. His wonderful and gracious declaration and its consequences endure: even though the earth and the heavens will disappear and vanish, God’s righteousness and salvation will endure.

For the Christian, we look to God and wait in hope for His coming. Today, we focus on His second coming. We yearn for the return of Christ, knowing that God is able to satisfy, help, and save His people. We wait in hope for His glorious return, but we also wait in hope in for the first coming of Christ that we anticipate in the weeks ahead.

This salvation that is offered is offered to all. God invites all peoples of all nations to experience His true and forever salvation. That means that salvation is offered to you. That means that salvation is offered to the vilest of persons as well. In our hearts there are people whom we would love to see excluded from heaven and from God’s forgiveness and salvation. However, God knows no such distinction. St. Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

God’s salvation is forever given by God and no one else. There are many who seek forgiveness through other means and there are many who seek to provide that forgiveness through other means. Life itself may seem to offer salvation. We seek salvation through self-help books and works that we do. We fill our lives with those things that promise salvation or the things that we think will provide salvation. Isaiah reminds us though that “they who dwell in it will die in like manner.” You see, everything will pass away. The things of this world. The false promises of salvation and the like. But the one and only thing that will remain is God and His steadfast love for us.

These words from God through the prophet Isaiah are not a matter of selfishness on God’s part. These are words that are a matter of reality and truth. The salvation that God offers is the only true salvation. He is the One to whom we will all answer. It is through Him that we can have life and have it abundantly.

The salvation that our Heavenly Father provides for us is a gift that will last forever, even beyond the passing away of the heavens and the earth. There is a difference between what God offers and what the world offers. God is willing to say so. In fact, He is so willing to say so that He sends His own Son to the cross in order to prove it and to show that the promises of God are never broken. His salvation lasts forever.

His righteousness will never fail. God’s righteousness did not fail to secure our salvation. Jesus said, “It is finished.” For three days He lay in death’s dark tomb. Even then, God’s righteousness did not fail to vindicate Jesus by raising Him from the dead. And even now, God’s righteousness will not fail to finish the work He has begun in us by the Holy Spirit’s power.

God’s call to listen is a call to look to Him and away from all the false hopes that the world offers. It is a call to seek His eternal salvation, to yearn for it more than we do for all the things of this world. While none of us can claim to this perfectly, it is precisely for this reason that God’s salvation is so precious and pure, for His righteousness will never fail. It is His salvation that will last forever. He calls us to receive what He has provided, and He promises that will be forever glad. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

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Pentecost 25–“Forgiveness and Faith” (Hebrews 10:11-25)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Epistle, which was read earlier.

Forgiveness. It is a wonderful thing to receive. We can’t get enough of forgiveness. It just makes us feel better to know that we are forgiven. Now, granting to someone else forgiveness, well, that’s another story. That one is harder to do. However, regardless of the cost, we are called to forgive others. That’s what we pray: “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Forgiveness was the role of the priest. He would make the sacrifices on behalf of the people all in order to forgive them of their sins. These sacrifices forgave sins, but not forever. Atonement would be needed in the future in order to have your sins forgiven again. The people knew that. The priest knew that. They knew exactly what was necessary and would do what was necessary in order to be forgiven, time and time again. Daily, the priest would perform the same sacrifices. He would offer a one-year-old unblemished male lamb, along with a grain offering of 1/10 ephah of fine flour mixed with 1/4 hin of olive oil, plus a drink offering of 1/4 hin of wine. Twice a day, the priest stood there, day after day, with the same sacrifices. What clearer indication could there be that such sacrifices could never take away sins?

But now comes a new Priest onto the scene. His name is Jesus. He is not like the priests of old, for He is our Great High Priest. While the sacrifices of the priests of old would need to be repeated, the singular sacrifice of Jesus would not need to be repeated. The writer to the Hebrews says in our text, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” By Jesus, He has perfected man. This is man being brought to the completeness that God had in mind for him. Peace and pardon, harmony and heaven were God’s goal for man. “Those who are being sanctified,” that is, all believers, have been brought to this blessed goal of forgiveness, of salvation, because of Jesus.

If Jesus isn’t enough to testify of His work, the Holy Spirit also testifies to what He does. Quoted from Jeremiah 31, the writer showcases what happens in this new covenant of God: “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Here is what you receive: forgiveness. This forgiveness is not like forgiveness granted by the priest that is granted following each sacrifice. This forgiveness is granted because of Jesus Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice of Himself. Notice what is said: “Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Once sin has been forgiven, no one has the right to demand additional sacrifices and no one can offer any sacrifice for sin either.

When God has totally sent away our sins, when He has forgiven and forgotten them because of Jesus’ perfect sacrifice, why talk any more about them or look for additional sacrifice for sin? Instead, the talk should be about hearts that are rejoicing for what He has done, with grateful praises for what we could not do ourselves. That is what the writer to the Hebrews wants to emphasize to the Church. We need not focus on our sin but rather rejoice in our forgiveness.

As we turn our attention to the end of the Church Year, we are ever reminded of the return of Christ and His final judgment. Instead of focusing on what we have done and what we have left undone, we should focus on what has been done for us and what that means for us. This New Covenant established for us by Jesus Christ is for all nations. As God has promised to remember ours sins no more, this gracious attitude of God the Father toward us is now written on our hearts. We are His people who know Him, our iniquities are forgiven, and our sins are remembered no more. In Holy Baptism, we are His sons who are presented to the Lord “with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”

We already know that Jesus was the great sacrifice. Now we see Him as the great High Priest, who made the sacrifice. He offered Himself. What encouragement we have because of Christ’s sacrifice and offering. Because of Christ, “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.” We are able to enter the holiness that is heaven. This was something that we could not do because of our sin, but through Christ, all sin that we have inherited from our first parents and which we have committed has been forgiven and now we are able to enter heaven, the dwelling place of God. And notice what allows us to enter: “the blood of Jesus.” It isn’t what we do; it isn’t what we earn. It is only what Jesus does for us that we can enter heaven and receive that wonderful gift of everlasting life; there is no other way.

Looking at what Jesus did, He opened heaven to us. This indicates that heaven was closed to us but is no longer. It was closed because of man’s sin, closed to you and me. The sacrifices of old gave glimpses into heaven but were not enough to forever forgive the sins of the people. But now, heaven stands opened; opened by Jesus with His death on the cross.

As a closing to this portion of his letter, the writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” These are not just some trite or empty words that he speaks. Nothing strengthens our hope for heaven more than the fact of God’s faithfulness. How can God lie or change His mind? He promised the eternal crown of glory, and He will place it on our heads. To such a hope we are to hold to without wavering, holding it near and dear as a promise of God – and we know that if God makes a promise, He keeps His promise.

We spur one another on in the faith that has been granted to us by the Holy Spirit, coming together as the body of Christ centered on His Word and His promises of forgiveness and eternal life. From the heart filled with love, God-directed actions will flow from faith. Those who neglect or avoid coming together with other Christians remove themselves from the influence of those who can spur them on. This may explain why some people stay away from assembling together. They do not want to be spurred on to action. Just as a body needs food to stay alive, we too need the heavenly food which feeds us: Christ’s body and blood and His Word. When we join with fellow Christians, we continue to be spurred on to remain faithful to the Word of God, both in worship and in Bible study, to remain faithful of our need for the continued assurance of the forgiveness of our sins proclaimed when we confess our sins and that sweet absolution knowing that our sins are forgiven.

The focal point that the writer to the Hebrews is centering on for the Hebrew Christians and the message that resounds today is the need to remember our Lord’s death. We are to draw near to the death of Jesus, because in the death of Jesus, we are reminded of the words which Paul wrote to the Romans, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” We are to hold on to the death of Jesus, because His death gave to all who believe everlasting life. Finally, by remembering Christ’s death, we consider others. For believers, that means that we continue the Great Commission, by making disciples, by sharing the Good News of the Gospel to others. It also means that we extend care and compassion for our neighbor, both in their needs of body and soul.

We stand to lose more when we absent ourselves from worship, from the Word and Sacraments and when we absent ourselves from other Christians. In those times when we lose our faith, we should not fear, because our heavenly Father has given us His Son who promises that “[He] will be you always, to the end of the age.” In the name of Jesus, amen. Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

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Pentecost 24–“The Perfect Sacrifice” (Hebrews 9:24-28)

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Epistle, which was read earlier.

Trials and temptations are nothing new for the Church. They have been and will always be a struggle for the Church this side of heaven. The devil’s goal is always the same, to lead believers away from pure devotion to Christ. We have seen the struggles with church councils throughout history. We have seen splits and divisions of the Church, time and time again. We have seen doctrine surrendered for numbers and programs. We have seen faithful churches bow to society and forsake God’s Word, all in order to appease man. All of this is Satan’s attempt to, as Luther says, “wrest the kingdom from [God’s] Son and bring to naught all He has done.” This is nothing new; it is Satan’s same bag of tricks. Each time, the Word of God has defeated Satan and it always will. However, that doesn’t stop him from trying to attack the Church.

The one and only answer to Satan’s attacks against the Church is Christ. Jesus came into this sin-filled world in response to the trickery of Satan to Adam and Eve. He lived the sinless life because of our sins. He died once for all to sin so that God’s creation would not die eternally to sin. For us 2000 years removed from Christ, we can understand this, but for those living at the time of Christ or shortly after, this was a hard concept to grasp.

Prior to Christ, man was cleansed from sin by the sacrifices they made and the yearly sacrifice of the high priest on behalf of the people. These sacrifices would make atonement for their sin but only for a time; they were not a once-for-all sacrifice. This is what the people knew and understood. This is what they practiced. This is what they were comfortable with. Now that Christ has come, everything has changed.

In our text for today, the writer to the Hebrews speaks about that which was old and how it has been replaced with that which is new. He speaks of Christ entering “not into holy places made with hands… but into heaven itself.” Instead of the high priests offering a bloody sacrifice for the people, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ has given Himself to be our Sacrifice.

Christ has come to fulfill the Old Covenant and establishes for us a New Covenant, one that is not made by human hands or requires human intervention, as did the Old Covenant. The Old Testament Covenant relied upon action by God and action by man. Man was required to make the sacrifice, either the people themselves or the high priest. Man had to keep the Law of God and keep it perfectly, for that is what God said to do. However, man cannot keep the Law of God in any aspect. There is not a single bit of God’s Law that we can keep because of our sin. In order for the Law to be kept perfectly, something had to change. A new Covenant had to be made. That Covenant was made by Jesus Christ and what He did for us.

The prophet Isaiah declared about the then-future Messiah, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Jesus’ own disciple, St. John, comforted his readers then and us today with the firm pledge that “…the blood of Jesus [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Jesus is the fulfillment of God and all that was promised of old, all in order to make good on God’s promise of salvation from so long ago. Instead of the priests of old making sacrifices on behalf of the people, Christ is the Great High Priest making the sacrifice for us, and not only is He the One making the sacrifice, He is the sacrifice. He is the One who gives Himself for God’s creation in order that it would be restored and we would be able to stand before God once again in the way that we were meant to: as God’s holy people and without sin.

So what must we do to become part of the New Covenant which Jesus speaks of? That question is our first mistake, for there is nothing that you or I could do to become part of this New Covenant, for it is Jesus Christ who has established the New Covenant for us. It was established by His life, death, and resurrection. It was established by His enduring death on the cross so we would have eternal life. It was established by Jesus Christ living a life perfectly which we could never do. This New Covenant has been established for you, with you in mind; not because you are a good person or have lived a good life. Rather, it was established for you because of the love which the Father has for His creation. God is not content with seeing His creation living in a world of sin. For that reason, he sent His Son as a sacrifice which no person could make themself, no sacrifice a high priest could ever make. All of this was done “to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” When Christ our great High Priest entered the sanctuary of heaven, He fulfilled the role of the Old Testament high priest who went every year into the Most Holy Place. The priests of the Old Covenant entered a sanctuary made by human hands.

The reason Christ appeared before our Father in heaven was to show Himself to be the perfect and acceptable sacrifice for our sins. Christ did this once for all, meaning there would be no more need for sacrifices because His sacrifice would be all-sufficient. There would be no more need for Old Testament Law because Christ has fulfilled the Law in our place. That means there will be no more death. Yes, there will be a physical death, but there will no longer be a spiritual death as there was for Adam and Eve because of sin because Christ has died to sin, your sin and mine.

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ call upon His church to face boldly the reality of our own sin, death, judgment, eternity. While the world ignores such talk or pretends that these truths do not exist, we believe and confess that Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many. Whether we want to admit it or not, the many include us. That is why Paul said, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” We are the ungodly. Even though we are the ungodly, Christ died for us. Paul goes on to say, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even though we were still sinners, Christ died for us. The New Covenant, established by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has been done by Him and will bring us to what He has won for us: the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

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Thoughts After the Election

The 2012 election is now over. While Florida still remains unaccounted for, the Electoral College has awarded President Obama 303 Electoral Votes while awarding Mitt Romney with 206 Electoral Votes. For some, their candidate won, while for others, their candidate lost. We are still a nation divided and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

The United States of America has long been called a Christian nation. While it is nice to imagine that it is, I don’t believe that statement holds true any longer. We have elected the first openly gay senator. Voters have also approved same-sex marriage for the first time. While there are those are trumpeting this as a good thing, this goes against God’s holy Word. In Exodus 20:14, it is written, “You shall not commit adultery.” Martin Luther, in his explanation of the Sixth Commandment writes, “We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.” God’s Word speaks against such actions as this. Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Marriage has been instituted by God as the lifelong union of one man and one woman. Teaching contrary to this goes against God and His Word and is not Christian teaching.

Those that say that God is a welcoming God and accepts all peoples, regardless of what they believe or practice do not understand the God of the Bible. God destroyed the land of Sodom for their homosexual practices (Genesis 19). St. Paul writes in Romans 1:24, 26-27: “Therefore God have them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves…. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” It is hard to say that God accepts such practices when His Word clearly speaks contrary to that.

Regardless of whether your candidate won the election, God has saw fit to place President Obama in his office as president and we therefore pledge to be faithful citizens. That does not mean that we have to agree with every decision that he makes or like every piece of legislation that comes down from the Oval Office. We abide by the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” In Luther’s explanation, he says that “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.” As our president, we owe President Obama our support and our prayers, praying that he would lead our great nation in ways that are pleasing to God and which serve the people of our nation.

At the end of the day, we must place our trust in God and not in the princes of this world. As the psalmist writes, “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.” (Psalm 146:3-5 ESV)

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All Saints’ Day–“Saints of God” (Revelation 7:9-17)

F-29c All SaintsGrace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the First Reading, which was read earlier.

What a blessed day we celebrate today! Today, we observe All Saints’ Day, that day of the Church Year that is set aside to give thanks to those who have gone before us in the faith and to look forward to our reunion with them in the resurrection of the dead.

As we speak of the saints, we have to ask what makes a person a saint. Is it their virtuous living? Is it the good works they did during their lifetime? Is it the money they gave to the church and to other charities? Is it any other number of things the person did during their lifetime that earned them their sainthood? The answer to this is no, there is nothing about the person that earned them sainthood. It wasn’t their living or their giving. In fact, it has nothing to do with them at all. What makes them a saint is the faith they have in Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who makes them a saint. It is Jesus who has made you a saint even now.

The book of Revelation is one that is full of imagery that is difficult to understand while at times the imagery is very easy to understand. Today’s text is one of the latter. As we look at our text from St. John’s Revelation for this festival celebrating God’s work in all the saints, it assures us that the saints are signed, sealed, and will be delivered by Christ.

We begin with John looking and seeing “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, 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!”” What an image to behold! These aren’t just any people but these are the saints of God, “the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Their purpose is to praise God “and serve him day and night in his temple.”

This multitude before the throne includes all whom God elected to salvation: the believers of the Old Testament, the saints and martyrs of the New Testament, and the elect who were still alive on earth when the last trumpet call was sounded. This includes all the elect from the earth, all the believers of Christ.

Clothed in their white robes, they reflect the righteousness that Jesus credited to them when He washed away their sins in His blood. What an image that St. John must have beheld! This is the perfect picture of Christ and His Church, for this shows exactly what has been done for us by Jesus. In a life that has been marred by sin and death, Christ removes that from us and in its place, He gives to us His holiness and righteousness, so that we may stand before God our heavenly Father as blood-bought and redeemed children, forgiven of all of our sins.

The saints, who are clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, are those who have already departed this life to be with the Lord forever and ever. They are our sainted dead today, our loved ones and all others who have gone before us, who have fallen asleep in the faith. But we also think of ourselves and other members of the body of Christ on this earth as the “saints alive.” We remember the saints now, at the end of the Church Year, as an anticipation of the coming kingdom.

How can we imitate and follow the example of the saints in heaven? The answer is quite simple, but it is one that is not easy. It’s one that we often would prefer not to know, because it’s not easy to abide by. That’s because it promises us tribulation until God delivers us safely home to eternal life in the glory of heaven. Yet at the same time, it gives us once again God’s faithful promise that He has done, and is doing absolutely everything necessary to save us from the damning power and guilt of our sin and to take us safely, in faith, all the way home for eternity in the perfect glory of heaven.

The answer is Jesus. As the children of God, we turn in faith in Christ Jesus, our only Savior from sin. We turn to Christ for hope, encouragement, and strength to remain faithful to the faith given to us by the Holy Spirit in our Baptism. What makes this so difficult is that Jesus isn’t always the popular answer. The popular answer that the world gives is “me, myself, and I.” The world’s answer is you. The world’s answer is a feel-good program or one that revolves around some sort of positive thinking to change the desired outcome. All of these answers leave out Jesus. If Jesus is left out, then you don’t have the answer. If Jesus is left out, then you are not one of God’s saints because it is Jesus and His work that makes you a saint.

This ongoing action of the Holy Spirit in us, which He works through the Gospel power of God’s Word and Sacraments, is the sealing action of God in us, in faith, just as it was for all the saints who from their labors rest in the loving arms of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In those arms, they do not hunger, thirst, or cry from the weariness of the great tribulation they endured in this sinful world. But for you and me, we still live as members of the Church Militant. We still endure for the sake of Christ and His Gospel. That’s because this world still considers the Gospel so offensive and terrifying because it implies that they have sin from which they need saving.

On this side of heaven, we still sin. On this side of heaven, Satan still fights and we as the Church Militant are the battlefield. We as God’s people on earth still face all the trials and temptations that the saints have prevailed against on account of Christ.

When we are brought into Christ, we receive the gifts that are given to those who are in Christ, the gifts that belong to the sons and daughters of God. We are given the waters of new life in Holy Baptism which gives new life to those who come to it. The tree of life is Christ Himself who provides the food which nourishes us, His own body and blood. We will once again be able to see God face to face like we were meant to before, to be able to walk and talk with God and to be His own. Those in Christ will live forever with Him.

Today we remember those who have gone on before us, who continue to worship with us, just on the other side of heaven. We know this because it is in our liturgy that we speak: “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven…” They are the ones who confessed the name of Jesus Christ. We too who confess the name of Jesus Christ will one day be reunited with those saints who have gone on before, but more importantly, we will be reunited with the One who allowed us to enter heaven by His sacrificial death, Jesus Christ. In the name of Jesus, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.