The Festival of All Saints (observed)

Fr. Lovett, evangelist Our Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church All Saints Day (observed) November 4, 2018 T St. Matthew 5:1-12 T In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit. You have heard your Lord’s words concerning those who are blessed. So pursue the blessedness of the blessed. Yes, you are saved by grace alone, but then so are all people. The Christian is not the one for whom Jesus died and rose again any more than the unbeliever is. The Christian is merely the one who confesses that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead. Jesus died for the sins of all mankind. All mankind is saved by grace. All mankind is saved by the Man who is our God. There will be those who reject Him, but that doesn’t mean He didn’t suffer and die for them; He did. So, yes, you are saved by grace alone. And thanks be to God that you make the good confession that Jesus is Yahweh and that God raised Him from the dead. Of those who believe, then, of us, it is written that we are the children of God. And if we are children, then we are heirs, set to inherit the kingdom of heaven. And if we are set to inherit the kingdom of heaven then we must be the poor in spirit. For blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We must also be those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. We must be the blessed. So pursue the blessedness of the blessed. It is common, perhaps universally so, that the Beatitudes of the Lord are taken as passive statements, descriptive statements. And that they describe Jesus. Of course they do. And they are passive, meaning they are not a new law that we are to obey. They describe our Lord and they therefore describe His Christians. But being descriptions doesn’t mean we don’t pursue them. Here’s an example. We say that the ideal of a soldier is one who loves his country. We describe him as honest and brave. He is strong but not arrogant or forceful. A soldier is a man of duty and honor. Now I served in the military. I knew and know a lot of soldiers and sailors. That hardly describes any of them. It describes Captain America, who is the ideal soldier. He’s the myth of the soldier. But no living soldier is as I described. Sometimes they are closer to the ideal than at others, and sometimes not. But in truth a good soldier is one who pursues being a good soldier. So it is with the Christian. No Christian is the ideal saint. But our Lord describes us as such. And we, like soldiers, are driven to pursue the ideal by stories of glory – glory not of human battle but of divine warfare. We are driven to pursue the ideal by the martyr’s blood and the valiant saints of old, who were themselves no perfect Christians but who, with us, pursued the ideal that they might wear the crown. Our Ideal is Christ, who is no myth or legend like Captain America, but our Captain is as real as you and me; born of woman and ordained of God. It is not perfection that gains the saints of God the crown, but conviction. Forgetting what lies behind we hear our Lord’s words that whoever is faithful unto the end shall receive the crown of life. Whoever does his duty and presses on, even in the face of fear and doubt, as a good soldier trusting his Captain. It was not being ideal that gained them the crown but pursuit of the ideal. Thus it is written, “Think on things above and not on earthly things,” and also it is written, “But as for you, O man of God, flee these [wicked] things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” It is written, “Forgetting what lies behind press on toward the upward calling in Christ Jesus.” And St. Peter writes, “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” Pursue the blessedness of the blessed. Pursue the ideal. But know that when you begin to pursue blessedness you will be playing with fire. Or rather, you will be walking through fire. Your God can and will protect you, as He did the saints of old, the Three Young Men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but it is not for nothing that it is written that our God is a consuming fire. He consumes what is evil and wicked and protects what is good and holy. So while you will come out of the fire without burn or even the smell of smoke on your clothes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb, you will have come out also having been burned away by the holiness of God. Right now you walk through the fire. And you are either being purified by it or you are being consumed by it. Those who pursue blessedness are being purified. Those who are not pursuing the ideal are being consumed. They are like the servants whose Master went away in a far country so that they think Him delayed a long time. But He will return like a thief in the night and catch them unawares. But those who have ears to hear do not need to fear such a time, for you are the blessed. But don’t mishear me – don’t mishear the Lord – pursuing blessedness is not like pursuing moral purity. Moral purity is of the Law. It can only deal with the self. Moral purity says “do not touch” “do not taste” “do not handle”. Moral purity is the Pharisee and the Scribe and the Priest who all passed by the man lying in the ditch dying of his wounds. But blessedness is the Lord Jesus who came to eat and drink with sinners that they might have a good reputation before God in heaven. Blessedness turns your heart and thoughts from yourself and how you might be pure or holy, to your neighbor and how you might best serve and honor him, shedding light on him. For the soul of evil is darkened with service to the self, which is the way of Cain. But the soul of good is illuminated with service for your neighbor, which is the way of God. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. And you, dear student, are not above your Master. And how do we best serve our neighbor? If we would be Pharisees then we best serve our neighbor by telling him what to do and how to behave. And we try and convince others that we ourselves know what to do and how to behave. But such righteousness must be exceeded. For unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. We best serve our neighbor by doing as our Lord does: protecting his reputation against the evil one and honoring him before the Lord, for love counts no record of wrongs. It’s not that there is not a right and a wrong way to live, but that is not the righteousness of faith. The righteousness of faith clings to the promise of a good reputation before God, promised by Him in Holy Baptism. So the one who lives by such righteousness will not only thank the Lord for declaring him clean and righteous, but will treat others as they have been declared clean and righteous. For who are we to judge the servant of another? So pursue the blessedness of the blessed. Be the poor in spirit and consider others as more than yourself. Mourn not the evils of this world but all the more the evils of your own heart, the gospel will comfort you. Be meek, knowing that though you have the power of God, for you bear the name of God, it is to be used to heal and build up and not to divide and tear down. Hunger and thirst for righteousness because this is the call to pursue the ways of God and seek His kingdom. Hungry men hunt for food that satisfies and thirsty men dig for water that quenches. And here is the Bread of Heaven and the Well of Salvation. Be merciful and do not repay evil for evil but do good to all, even your enemies as the Lord Himself ate and drank with sinners, for yet while we were still yet His enemies He showed us love and received us. Be pure in heart and do not think evil in your hearts, considering what you might gain for yourself, but consider all you have as loss that you may be free to consider what others need from you. Be pure in heart, tell the truth. Be peacemakers and do not repeat gossip. Do not tear another’s reputation down or speak evil of your neighbor, for in the day of vengeance he will cry out to God who hears the prayers of the oppressed. Do not defame another lest the Lord turn and strike you down. Welcome persecution for confessing that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead. For this is the battle cry of the armies of God, that salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb! Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know hat when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as His is. Everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. Blessed are those who die in the Lord. Blessed are those whose God is the Lord. Pursue the blessedness of the blessed. In Nomine Iesu  Amen 