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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pilgrim’s three youth catechumens and I this past week discussed sin and its effects on all people. If they did not already know, as we all should know, the boys hopefully learned and remember that all people are conceived and born totally corrupt (Psalm 51:5). Newborn Mark Jacob may be the latest example, but he is certainly not an exception. Regardless of age, by nature we all are children of wrath, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, hostile to God, and unable to submit to Him or even to understand spiritual matters (Ephesians 2:3; Romans 8:7; 1 Corinthians 2:14). So, our thoughts, words, and deeds are contrary to God—we think, say, and do things that we should not, and we fail to think, say, and do things that we should. As our liturgy’s usual confession of sins has us say, “We justly deserve [God’s] present and eternal punishment.”
We sinners hear Jesus’s words in today’s Gospel Reading, from the beginning of His first discourse in St. Matthew’s Gospel account, what we usually call “The Sermon on the Mount”, the first ten verses of which give us what we usually call “The Beatitudes”. Sinful by nature and deserving of God’s present and eternal punishment, we sinners hear “The Beatitudes” and rightly think of how they do not describe us. We are not always poor in spirit, but too often we make claims on God and expect rewards for what we do. While we may mourn, we may do so over the wrong things or as if we have no hope. We are not always meek, but too often we may fail to trust God to vindicate us and try to vindicate ourselves. While we may at times hunger and thirst for righteousness, we may seek to satisfy our sinful desires in ways that are far from righteous. We are not always merciful, but too often we hold grudges and deep down refuse to forgive those who have sinned against us. While according to our redeemed nature we may be pure in heart, according to our sinful nature, we do not perfectly obey God as we should. We are not always peacemakers, and sometimes, even when we try to make peace, we may compromise too much in the process. While at times we may be persecuted for righteousness’ sake, at such times we likely do not rejoice and are not glad that we are being treated as the prophets and our Lord Jesus Himself before us.
The Beatitudes do not describe us according to our fallen human nature, but, when we repent and believe and so are made part of the body of Christ, then The Beatitudes do describe us according to our redeemed nature in Christ. The God-man Jesus Christ was so poor in spirit that He humbled Himself to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8). He mourned over those who rejected His salvation (Matthew 23:37). Jesus meekly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:5). He so hungered and thirsted for righteousness that He was baptized and took on our sins (Matthew 3:15). Jesus mercifully forgives our sins. As the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, He is pure of heart (inwardly) and so has clean hands (that is, is pure outwardly). Jesus is the greatest peacemaker or reconciler, revealing Who He is and what He has done (Colossians 1:20). He was persecuted for righteousness’ sake—the Righteous for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18), as His death on the cross for us earned us the forgiveness of sins. As we are in Christ, the Beatitudes do describe not only Him but also us. By grace through faith we are forgiven of our failures to live as the Beatitudes describe. By grace through faith, each and every one of us is graciously “Blessed to be a Child and Saint”.
In the third chapter of St. John’s Gospel account, Jesus tells Nicodemus that “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). At the Baptismal Font, Mark Jacob—and each one of us who has been baptized—was born from above of water and the Spirit, clothed in the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, and so blessed to be made a child of God. So, in today’s Epistle Reading, St. John could point to our being called children of God as an example of the kind of love the Father has given to us (1 John 3:1-3). Indeed, even at Jesus’s Baptism, the Father’s voice from heaven identified Jesus as the Father’s “beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). As children of God, members of His family, we partake of the family meal, bread that is Christ’s body given for us and wine that is Christ’s blood shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. This body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve us in body and soul to life everlasting, and we depart, not only from this rail but also from this life, in peace. Truly each and every one of us is “Blessed to be a Child and Saint”.
Although all believers in Christ are holy and so “saints”, we usually think of “saints” primarily as those who have gone before us in the faith and so are already with the Lord. For example, our Pilgrim congregation this past Church Year had our long‑time member George Andrew Heil, as we say, transfer from the Church militant to the Church triumphant. Many of us may also have other brothers and sisters in Christ, friends or loved ones who entered into eternal life in the past twelve months. Such departed believers are part of all the company of heaven with whom we join in this Divine Service, even as they and we wait for the greater eternal worship of the Lamb described for us in today’s First Reading (Revelation 7:9‑17). To be sure, there is tension between our already now having as a possession the Kingdom of Heaven and our not yet being fully and completely comforted, possessors of the earth, satisfied, receivers of mercy, or seers and sons of God.
Yet, in short, each of us who believes and is baptized is already now “Blessed to be a Child and Saint”. As we are in Christ and He is in us, The Beatitudes do describe us according to our redeemed nature. According to our fallen human nature, we will continue to struggle with sin as long as we remain in this life, but, with daily repentance and faith, we live in the forgiveness of sins, received through preaching, Baptism, individual Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper (the holy “things” for the holy “ones”). In the communion of all saints gathered into the one Body of Christ, God has surrounded us with so great a cloud of witnesses that we, encouraged by their faith and strengthened by their fellowship, run with perseverance the race that is set before us and, together with them, we receive the crown of glory that does not fade away (Preface for all Saints’ Day; confer Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 5:4).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +