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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.
Counting is one of the first things we learn to do as children preparing for school. Some children may even have had help learning to count, from the long-time Sesame Street character named “Count von Count”, a Romanian vampire who is always counting things, often to the annoyance of other characters on the show. There may be some debate about when human kind went from simply counting things to having more‑abstract arithmétical concepts (Rühle, TDNT 1:461-462), but as far as today’s First Reading for All Saints’ Day is concerned, counting is really all that is needed, although the significance of some of the numbers is more accessible if you also understand concepts like squares and cubes. This morning we consider primarily today’s First Reading, and we do so under the theme, “Numbers count, or do they?”
Today’s First Reading describes two consecutive visions that Jesus gave to the apostle and evangelist, John, the son of Zebedee. In the first vision, John saw an angel crying out with a loud voice to four other angels about their together sealing the servants of God on their forehead, and the number of those sealed was 144-thousand, 12‑thousand each from twelve different tribes. Then, in the second vision, John saw a great multitude that no one could number (no one could count), crying out with a loud voice about salvation being by God Who sits on the throne and the Lamb, and the angels, the elders, and the four living creatures affirmed the multitude’s praise and added their own, before one of the elders and John had a conversation about the identity of the multitude.
In the first vision, the 144‑thousand is what we call the Church Militant, the Church here on earth, those in the Kingdom of Grace. Interpreters differ as to whether the group represents all those who ever were, are, or ever will be in the Church Militant or represents only those who are in the Church Militant at one point in time, such as when John saw the vision, or when we consider it right now. I am more inclined to think that the group represents the Church Militant at a given point in time, but, regardless, when we look at the Church here, in this place, we certainly do not see 144‑thousand, although the Texas District comes close to that number and the Missouri Synod as a whole has more than fifteen times that number. Yet, even at the District, Synod, or international levels, we do not see twelve evenly‑distributed ranks ready for battle.
With a scornful wonder, the world sees the Church on earth “oppressed, by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed” (Lutheran Service Book 644:3), and, too often, that is how we also see the Church on earth. Properly understood, the symbolic numbers of today’s First Reading can help us, but, improperly emphasized, literal numbers can hurt us. Too often we fixate on numbers and over‑emphasize their role in assessing the congregation’s health. We may forget, for example, that many find the easy way that leads to destruction, while few find the hard way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13‑14). We may forget that Jesus at least rhetorically asks whether, when He returns, He will find faith on earth (Luke 18:8). Because of an over-emphasis on numbers, we may wrongly doubt the ability of God’s Word and Sacraments to be the means by which God creates faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel (Augsburg Confession V:2), and we may even wrongly worry what will become of us if numbers keep going down, as if, even though we are sealed by God, we could be harmed with the earth, the sea, and the trees, without ourselves being willing to leave the Church.
From such sin, as from our sinful natures and from all our sin, God calls and enables us to repent. We deserve death here in time and eternal torment in hell, but, for the sake of Jesus, the Lamb of God Who took away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36), God offers to freely give us eternal life.
In the second vision, the great multitude that no one could number represents the Church Triumphant, the Church in heaven, those in the Kingdom of Glory. Again, interpreters differ, in this case, as to whether the group is seen as it will be for eternity or at one point in time, such as when John saw the vision, or when we consider it right now. Again, I am more inclined to think that the group represents the Church Triumphant at a given point in time, especially since some aspects of God’s salvation, such as those described and presumably also the resurrection of the body, are still in the future even for those in the vision. Regardless, what the great multitude cries out is true: salvation belongs to (or is done by) our God who sits on the throne and to (or by) the Lamb. We cannot save ourselves! For us and for our salvation, that Lamb was slain on the cross but now stands again (Revelation 5:6). Yes, as God promised Abraham (Genesis 15:5), there is a great multitude that no one could number, but God loves you as an individual. There is a great multitude that no one could number, but Jesus died for you as an individual! There is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents (Matthew 18:12-14; Luke 15:3-7), and when, enabled by God, we do repent, then God forgives us our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin through the same Word and Sacraments that in the first place create in us the faith that trusts Him to forgive that sin.
The sealing of the Church Militant takes place in Holy Baptism, where the Holy Spirit works through the Word with water to give birth to us from above and enables us to enter the Kingdom of God. There we receive the sign of the holy cross both upon our foreheads and upon our hearts to mark us as those redeemed by Christ the crucified. We can retrace that seal each time God’s Triune Name, into which we were baptized, is invoked or used, such as in individual Holy Absolution. White robes (or other white clothing used in connection with Holy Baptism) relate to Christ’s righteousness, with which we are clothed in Baptism and to which we return in Absolution, and are linked with the Blood of the Lamb, given to us to drink with wine in the Sacrament of the Altar, even as His Body is given us to eat with bread. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, we eat and drink, and, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading that we will be for eternity (Matthew 5:1-12), we are satisfied already even now.
God and the Lamb accomplish salvation for us, and, we, in turn, give God blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, forever and ever. Also, our hearing the Divinely‑inspired St. John’s account of the two visions assures us that we who are sealed are safe in His Church Militant until we are delivered to His Church Triumphant. We do not fixate on literal numbers or over-emphasize their role. We remember that the Church on earth now lives under the cross and is not glorious until in heaven. And, we do not doubt God’s work through His Word and Sacraments. God has fulfilled His promises to all of the saints who have gone before us in the faith, including Wayne, Sallye, Betty, Danny, Sharabeth, and Leroy, the faithful who departed from this congregation in the last twelve months. While exactly what we all will be on the Last Day has not yet appeared, as we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (1 John 3:1-3), we are comforted during the time that we are apart from our faithful loved ones, knowing that God Himself will effectively wipe away each and every tear from our eyes when He destroys death forever on that Last Day (confer Isaiah 25:6-9).
From early on, with or without the help of Sesame Street’s Count von Count, we certainly use numbers to count. In considering today’s First Reading under the theme “Numbers count, or do they?”, we have realized that, in the case of the Church, literal numbers in a sense do not count—that is, they do not matter, at least not as much as we might think that they do—but the symbolic numbers and the inability to count a multitude in the visions we heard about do matter, and perhaps matter more than we even know. However, we know what we need to know for God’s salvation, the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and so we thank and praise Him now, as we will some day thank and praise Him for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +