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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.
You may know that three of our congregation’s youth, one female chaperone, and I were away Friday and yesterday at a Higher Things Junior Youth retreat in the Dallas area. The retreat was titled “I believe I cannot believe” and focused on the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed and so on what we call “sanctification”, God’s making us holy. At one point yesterday the main presenter asked the youth whether or not they thought that they were saints, and the youth were split, with some saying that they thought were not saints and others saying that they thought they were saints. The question is a good one also for us, especially on this Sunday that we observe as All Saints’ Day: Do you and I think that we are saints? As we this morning reflect on the First Reading, the vision that the Lord gave to St. John of an innumerable multitude of people before God’s heavenly throne, one of the Bible’s most beautiful pictures of the saints of God in heaven, the Church Triumphant—as we reflect on this vision, we realize that “God makes us saints in blood-whitened robes”.
Now, some of the youth who said that they thought they were not saints said so essentially because they were operating with a different definition of a “saint”, as a believer who has departed this life and is with the Lord. That definition is certainly ok in and of itself, but that definition inherently rules out those of us on earth whom God has made holy and whom His holy writers in the Bible elsewhere call “saints” (for example, Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; etc.).
Others of the youth who said that they thought they were not saints seemed to have said so essentially because they were considering how their sin suggested that they were quite unholy. Indeed, as we heard already this morning, we all have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and we cannot free ourselves from our sinful condition. We all are sinful by nature, and, even after God has made us saints, that sinful nature, along with the devil and the world, still does not want us to hallow God’s Name or let His Kingdom come but would rather deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Although God would gladly guard and keep us from such attacks, too often we give in to such temptation and show ourselves and the world that we are still quite unholy. Without faith in God, our un‑holiness separates us from Him and deserves death now in time and eternal torment in hell.
But, God calls and so enables us to repent of our sinful nature and our actual sin. Already this morning we have asked for God’s mercy, for Him to forgive us our sins, and for Him to lead us to everlasting life. When we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to do better than to keep on sinning, then God does in fact have mercy upon us, forgive our sins, and lead us to everlasting life—everlasting life like that so beautifully pictured in the vision we heard described in today’s First Reading. In short, “God makes us saints in blood-whitened robes”.
The youth who said that they thought they were saints seemed to have a better appreciation of the fact that they—and we—can be at the same time those who are justified—those who are forgiven by God, made holy by God, in other words “saints”—and at the same time those who remain sinful. As we heard the great multitude in the First Reading sing, salvation from our sin, from the death that we deserve, and from the power of the devil—salvation belongs to (or perhaps better “is from” [Brighton, 177]) our God Who sits on the throne and the Lamb, Who once was slain but now lives again. That Lamb is the God-man Jesus Christ, Who died on the cross for your sins and mine, and with His blood shed there He ransomed for God all people of every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9).
We were dead in trespasses and sins, dead to God and as good as dead in this world, but God, being rich in mercy and loving us with a great love, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:1, 4-5). As we heard in today’s Appointed Verse (Hebrews 12:1a, 2a), Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. By His offering Himself once and for all, we have been sanctified (Hebrews 10:10), made holy, made saints—the work was done in the past and has a lasting effect for us. As I explained in my column in yesterday’s newspaper, by Jesus’s single offering, He has perfected for all time those who, at least from our and the world’s perspective, are still being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). Yet, as today’s Introit (Psalm 31:1, 3, 5; antiphon: Revelation 7:14b) and Gradual (Revelation 7:14b; Psalm 84:5) emphasize from the First Reading, the saints in heaven are clothed in blood-whitened robes.
You and I do not actively clothe ourselves in those blood-whitened robes, but rather we are passively clothed by God: “God makes us saints in blood-whitened robes”. Those who are baptized and believe can point to the Baptismal Font and to the time and place that they were baptized as a time and place that they know that God clothed them with Christ’s righteousness. For in Holy Baptism Christ cleanses His Church, makes Her holy, by the washing of water with the word that She might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:26-27). There God not only clothes us in blood-whitened robes but also writes our names in His Book of Life (for example, Revelation 3:5) and gives us access to the tree of life and the ability to enter His Heavenly Jerusalem by the gates (Revelation 22:14). And, as we prayed in today’s Collect, God knits together all of His faithful people of all times and places into one Holy Communion, the mystical body of His Son that is the Church, participating in the Holy Things, eating His Body given with bread and drinking His Blood given with wine, and so receiving forgiveness, life, and salvation. Here we are united with Him and so with all who have gone before us and who will come after us in the faith, such as our loved ones who believed, who are saints like us in blood‑whitened robes, only already in heaven, awaiting the resurrection of their bodies and so also awaiting the full enjoyment of heaven’s unspeakable joys that that resurrection will bring.
Today’s Collect prayed that we would follow those blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living. Juxtaposed with that Collect and illustrating it, today we have commemorated former Pilgrim members Bob Abraham and Beth Nicol, who departed this life in the last year, and today we will confirm Luke Land, and for the first time he will receive the Sacrament of the Altar, the food for the way that strengthens and preserves the bodies and souls of all who receive it in faith, through this life, unto life everlasting. Luke, the congregation and I rejoice with you and your family that you have reached this stage of your growth as a Christian, and we pray that you will continue to permit God to work in you through His Word and Sacraments in order to keep you holy. Bob and Beth are good examples for you of those who have come out of their tribulation, even as you and the rest of us remain in ours. They are part of the great cloud of witnesses who surround us and encourage us to run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1). As Jesus spoke to His disciples in today’s Gospel Reading (Matthew 5:1-12), blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on His account. Rejoice and be glad, for so they persecuted the prophets and all believers who were before you, and with them your reward is great in heaven.
Even as we admit with today’s Epistle Reading (1 John 3:1-3) that exactly what we will be has not yet appeared (or, perhaps better, “been made manifest”), we hold to the vision of our great heavenly reward given to us in the First Reading. Considering that Reading, we have realized that, though we remain unholy by nature, “God makes us saints in blood-whitened robes”. Our responsive liturgical worship with its different postures here and now prepares us for and joins with the responsive liturgical worship with its different postures in heaven for eternity. And, our tears and laments amid sorrows and persecution here will give way to the fullness of joy and laughter amid all the saints and the full blessedness of God’s eternal presence there.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. + + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +