Behold, The Blessed in Bright Array :: Revelation 7:9-17
1.
When you hear the word saint, what do you think of? What does it take to be a saint?
I imagine that most of us probably think a saint is someone who is an exceptionally good person, a miracle worker, or a martyr who took their faith in Jesus to the grave. We celebrated one such saint just two weeks ago ... Saint James of Jerusalem, who was stoned to death because he stood firm in his confession that Jesus was more than just another one of his brothers ... he was, in fact, true God and true man.
Did you know our churches teach that the remembrance of the saints is to be commended in order that we may imitate their faith and good works (AC XXI)? That doesn’t mean we worship or pray to the saints … we don’t … but the Lutheran reformers understood that there is great benefit in remembering the saints. As our Collect of the Day reminded us, we give thanks that God knit together his faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion.
The Apology of the Augsburg Confession gives three reasons for remembering saints. First, we thank God ... that through the saints ... he has shown he wants to save mankind. Second, the saints, such as Peter, show us that even when we deny Jesus three times God does save us because his grace abounds much more than sin (Rm 5:20). And finally, in the saints, we learn to recognize that we have mentors to imitate in holy living (Ap XXI 4-7). Blessed are the saints.
2.
Theologically speaking, saints are really nothing more ... and nothing less ... than a Christian. So, yes, brothers and sisters in Christ, you who have been clothed in white ... you who confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead ... all of you are blessed; you are, in fact, saints.
Philosophically, we set the bar too high for sainthood. Too often we think of ourselves more as a sinner. But you ... the baptized ... have been blessed.
The essential requirement for sainthood is faith ... or I should say more specifically, faith in Christ: his life, his death, his resurrection and ascension, and the promises he gave us in Word and sacrament. True faith is complete trust in Christ of all he taught and did and all he continues to do and teach. As Jesus will remind us from time to time in the Gospels, this is faith that saves you (Mk 5:34, Lk 7:50). It’s not your faith in your faith; that doesn’t count. You can’t make your faith stronger. Your faith apart from Christ is actually nothing. The Christian faith is not a vague, listless, uncommitted something or other. It is not about believing in yourself. True Faith is the work of God (Col 2:12). True Faith has to be granted to us in order to believe in Christ (Phil 1:29). True Faith always implies trust and confidence in God. It is rooted in God ... his word ... his gifts on Christ’s behalf. When you have this faith, you are a saint.
Beloved, we are God’s children now (1 Jn 3:3). Christ makes you a saint precisely because he is the source of your faith, the author of your faith, the creator of your faith, a faith that you cannot find on your own, a faith that you cannot build apart from Word and sacraments.
Our Lord enabled this for us most precisely through baptism. As Paul tells us so clearly in Romans, Colossians, Ephesians, and Titus, among so many other books: You died in baptism with Christ and were raised to new life, eternal life (Rm 6:3-11). God saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-8). He sanctified you; that is, he sainted you.
Because of baptism, you can now hear the eternal Gospel of all that Jesus did for you, all that Christ continues to do for you, and all that Christ will finally do for you. And that changes everything. You can now hear his words of absolution that you are forgiven … and believe them ... not because I said so, but because he said so. You can now believe that his body and blood given and shed for you actually delivers to you the forgiveness of sins in the Lord’s supper ... that it nourishes and nurtures your faith into the age of ages ... not because I said so, but because Jesus said so. Jesus gives himself to us that fully. Thanks be to God.
3.
This is the scene that is revealed to Saint John the Evangelist in our reading from Revelation. Behold [what] I witnessed, Saint John wrote ... Behold, a crowd that no one was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white stoles and [with] palm branches in their hands, and exclaiming in a great voice, saying Salvation is to our God sitting upon the throne and to the Lamb! (vv 9-10).
Dear saints of the living God ... this is the reality of pure joy that awaits you! This is a picture of the eternal celebration of Christ’s victory, a celebration that is taking place here. Your Lord Jesus delivered himself over to sin and death on a cross on behalf of you. Your Lord Jesus suffered and died on the cross for you. He paid for all of your sin. He set you free ... because if the son sets you free, you are free indeed (Jn 8:36). Your Lord Jesus rested in the tomb for you. And he was raised into eternal life for you. It is on his account that death has no more dominion over you: his robes of righteousness are yours now. These are the white stoles John saw. You have been declared innocent of sin and will one day soon pass through the great tribulation.
Brothers and sisters in Christ ...
YOU ARE SAINTS BLESSED IN THE ETERNAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST
This is our theme today.
4.
When we recognize ourselves to be saints in the New Testament sense of the word, the question invariably arises, what’s our relationship with all the other contemporary saints listed on pages XII and XIII and XXII and XXIII of our Lutheran Service Book? And what about the saints we have known and loved who have lived and died in the faith?
You need to know ... All Saints Day isn’t just for men like Saints John and James and Peter and Paul. It isn’t just for the Harold Lomans, James Rapps, and Sharlyn Stocklaufers of this past year. All Saints Day is for you ... you who are members of the ONE Holy Christian and Apostolic Church, the bride of Christ which has been reconciled with God.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us that the kingdom of the heavens is coming for you.
And so it has. This kingdom of the heavens is nothing else than Christ himself ... taking on flesh ... being born of the Virgin Mary, suffering under Pontius Pilate, being crucified, dying, and being buried and then on the third day rising for your salvation. On account of this, the kingdom of God is now present with you ... today ... in the preaching of Christ’s cross and sacraments. The kingdom of God couldn’t be with you if you weren’t a saint. But blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy gave us an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away (1 Pt 1:4).
Now all of you who hear the Word of God and believe in Jesus ... who repent of their sins … who return to the baptism he poured out upon you ... and attend the feast of forgiveness he prepared for you ... are saints. You are the ones who believe the forgiveness of sins is yours. You are the ones being gathered around the throne, surrounding it in fact ... joining in the eternal song of This is the Feast. God chose you for this ministerial task. Quite bluntly, you are the work of the Holy Trinity who lives and moves and has his being in you.
5.
If you think that all these good things that are said about you are too good to be true, they probably are. We might find ourselves in the first beatitude which says: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God ... but we have a more difficult time finding ourselves in the last one: blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
But brothers and sisters in Christ, all Christians are equally justified before God through faith on account of Christ. Do you see now what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God (1 Jn 3:1). This is as much your truth as it is Saints Peter and Paul.
So come you are weary and heavy laden. Come and embrace God’s sacraments. Come and return to your baptism. Come to hear Christ’s words of absolution. Come longing for the Lord’s supper that he is offering you. Come to the feast where God freely delivers to you his Gospel.
Embrace his sacraments and receive them with confident joy knowing how much the Lord loves you and cares for you ... It is an eternal invitation. Those who come will not hunger any longer, nor will they thirst any longer because the Lamb in the midst of the throne will shepherd you and will guide you upon living springs and God will wipe away every tear from your eyes (vv 16-17).
To which we can finally say ...
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God into the age of ages! Amen ... in Jesus’ name!