All Saints

On November 1stthe Church celebrates All Saints Day. This is such an important and holy day that when it falls during the week, we move its observance to the following Sunday. And as with Christmas Eve, we begin the holy observance the night before on what was called All Saints’ Eve, or Holy Eve, or Halloween. Halloween has as much to do with witches and spiders as the birth of our Lord Jesus has to do with mistletoe and Rudolf the Reindeer, which is to say, nothing at all. The devil could not prevent the birth of Christ nor keep Christians from celebrating it, but he has endeavored instead to corrupt our remembrance with a thousand distractions until our Lord Jesus is but an afterthought in the celebration of His own birth.

Likewise, the holy commemoration of the blessed saints has been so polluted that next to nothing that is holy or blessed remains. But the chief mark of the devil’s corruption of the festival of All Saints’ is not the infestation of bats and skeletons in our yards, but the false understanding of the saints that infects our hearts and minds.

To illustrate how pervasive these false ideas of sainthood are, I’d like you to try an experiment this week: Ask a friend—not a member of this church—to describe a saint. Your friend will talk about a life filled with good works. Then ask, “Are you a saint?” Most people will say, “No,” some will say, “I hope so,” but no one—apart from a well-catechized Lutheran—will dare to seriously answer, “Yes. I am a saint.” I challenge you to prove me wrong. But you won’t. When we celebrate All Saints’ day, for most people we may as well be celebrating Not Me Day. Maybe that’s why skeletons and witches are so popular this time of year. “I may not be a saint, but at least I’m better than a witch.”

If you truly want to know what a saint is, don’t ask a friend. Don’t ask Hollywood. Don’t consult popular wisdom. You’ll get the wrong answer. Instead, look to holy Scripture. In the Gospel text for All Saints’ Day, Jesus describes His saints in detail. His words are familiar. Nearly everyone has heard of the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. But when you listen carefully to these familiar words, you might discover that you’ve heard them before.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” People today love to be spiritually rich. How many times have your heard someone say, “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual”? What does that even mean? I’m not sure, but everyone wants to be full of spirituality. Jesus says that the spiritually poor are blessed. When you’re poor, it means you don’t have the things you need. Look at your heart. Is it lacking the spiritual virtues of love, joy, peace? Are you short on patience, kindness, goodness? Are you poor in gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control? If so, Jesus says that you are blessed. That doesn’t seem right, does it?

Listen to what else Jesus says about His saints: “Blessed are those who mourn.” Why do people mourn? Because things are going wrong. And why do things go wrong? Because of sin. Our world is fundamentally broken. We experience sorrows that God never intended for His Creation. We suffer the general effects of living in a sinful and broken world, and we suffer the specific effects of our own sin. And in all of this we mourn, knowing that things are not how they ought to be. We mourn that we are spiritually bankrupt. We mourn that we have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed. We mourn that we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. And Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This is not only a promise, it is a reality, for what Jesus promises, that He also delivers. The comfort that Jesus gives to His mourning saints, is nothing other than the Word of Absolution that delivers the forgiveness of sins. We don’t feel blessed when we mourn, but Jesus says that we are, and His Word is far greater than our feelings.

How else does Jesus describe His saints? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Those who think that saints are super holy, extra-righteous people haven’t understood Jesus’ words. He says that the saints are hungry and thirsty for righteousness. If you’re hungry, you lack food. If you’re thirsty, you haven’t had enough to drink. So if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, it means that you don’t have it and you need it. Are saints perfect people? Far from it. Saints are people who lack perfection and and don’t have righteousness. Saints know that they do not have the ability to keep God’s Law, and so they hunger and thirst for the righteousness that they don’t have. Jesus says, “You shall be filled.” How do the saints get righteousness? By doing good works? No. By being filled. It’s a passive verb. We don’t fill ourselves. Jesus does. That’s why the saints are blessed. Because Jesus gives his perfect life to spiritually bankrupt people who mourn their sinfulness and hunger for the gift of God.

When someone asks, “Are you a saint?” you want to say, “No,” because you know you’re not perfect. You’re a sinner, and nobody is more keenly aware of this than you are. You know your dirty secrets. You know your sinful thoughts. And the devil says, “Of course, you aren’t a saint.” But Jesus says, “Those who hunger will be filled. Those who mourn will be comforted. Those who are poor in spirit are welcomed into the kingdom of God.” Jesus is talking about you. Of course your own heart was lacking in love and patience and kindness. Of course you didn’t have the perfect righteousness that is required to enter heaven. Of course you were spiritually bankrupt. But Jesus promised to fill you with love, to comfort you on account of your sins, and to give you with His perfect righteousness. And that’s exactly what he did for you on the day you became a saint. How did it happen? With these words, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

You know the old song: “Oh, when the saints go marching in—Lord, I want to be in that number!” This was written by someone who hoped someday to become a saint. But when you are asked, “Are you a saint?” you can answer with boldness, “Yes. I am baptized!” God has already added you to the number of His elect. To be a saint means to be holy. When you were baptized, you received the Holy Spirit. And at that moment, He began His work of making you holy. He’s not done yet. He’s still working on you. St. John writes, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when [Jesus] appears we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2).You may not feel, look, or act like a saint, not yet, not all the time. But Jesus says that you are, and He says that you are blessed. How do you know this? Because you have the down payment of His promise to you. You have your baptism.

It’s true that there’s more to come. That’s the nature of a down payment. God is not finished with you yet. But you already have His promise, and when God makes a promise, it is as good as kept. “You are holy,” Jesus says. “You are clean, because of the Word that I have spoken to you.” You have been filled with the righteousness of Christ, you have been comforted with the forgiveness of sins, you have been given the kingdom of heaven. Jesus’ sermon, the Beatitudes, is not a list of things you must do. It’s a description of who you are, of who Christ has made you to be. You truly are one of His saints, and you are blessed indeed. Amen.