All Saints 2005

All Saints' Day

Isaiah 35:1-10

November 6, 2005

Saints Alive!

After S. Sailer

Introduction: "The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away" (Is 35: 10).

            What do we Lutheran Christians do with All Saints' Day? How should we celebrate it? In earlier days the church emphasized the bold witness of the martyrs, those who gave their lives because they were followers of Jesus Christ. Today, the church tries to emphasize all saints, those who celebrate life eternal in God's presence in heaven and the followers of Jesus Christ on earth.

            So what do we do with All Saints' Day? Surely it's a day to remember, with gratitude, the lives of those who have gone before us in the faith. Surely it's a day to share the loss of those whose loved ones have passed away. But All Saints' Day is more than that. It's a day to acknowledge two things. First, we all share in the condemnation of the Law. Therefore we die! Second. we all share in the Good News: we are ransomed and redeemed by Christ through his cross. We are the precious possession of God by the blood of Jesus. Therefore we live

I.                              All Christians are Living Saints.

            There is a double reason to celebrate the goodness of God today. With those who have lost loved ones to death, we rejoice in this: that parents and children, husbands and wives, friends and strangers, famous and unknown people, all who have died having faith in Jesus Christ-are indeed saints, living saints, in heaven. We remember them with joy and thanksgiving. They already have what Isaiah prophesied in our Scripture reading: "Everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away" (Is 35: 10).

            But we rejoice also in this: that sainthood is not limited to believers in Christ who have died and gone to be with Christ. Strange as it sounds, you and I, as believers in Jesus Christ, are saints too, right here and now, living saints! In the New Testament the word saint is one of the most frequent ways of referring to Christians still living on this earth. The apostle Paul addressed several New Testament letters to God's people in a given place, Ephesus, for example. He wrote this to the people in Ephesus: "To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph 1: 1). To the people in Philippi Paul wrote these words: "To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi" (Phil 1: 1).

II.                              Christ has made us living saints.     

            How could Paul do that? You ask. As surely as he knew that saint means "holy person," he also knew all about the un-holiness and sin in himself and in his fellow Christians. To be called a saint does not mean that we're perfect, that we're always loving and giving, and that we never get mad or jealous. We know that it's not true of ourselves, of anyone else here, or even of the best Christians that we know. We're all sinners, condemned under the wrath of God's Law. That's why we die! Paul knew this fact of our human condition to be true of everyone to whom he wrote that they were sinners headed for the grave. He knew it about himself. He knew it about me. He knew it about you. We all stand as unholy sinners before a perfect, almighty God.

            But Paul knew something else about sainthood. He understood that the basis for sainthood is not the ability to pray all day or to be a super volunteer at church or in the community or to be a faithful worshiper all the years of our lives. The only basis for sainthood and for being a forgiven, saved child of God is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on the cross of Calvary.

            We're saints not because we're sinless, but because our sin has been taken away by God's grace in Jesus Christ. From our Baptism, whether as a baby or an adult, until our death, we're saints in the eyes of God. After our death we continue to be saints, though in far more glorious surroundings. John describes these glorious heavenly surroundings in the Book of Revelation. (Read Rev 7:9-17.)

            Apply this stunning description of heaven to our current life: no more shaky finances. No more slanderous political campaigns. No more worry about our own health, no more anger, no more death. Those who depart in faith have all of this now! It's the gift of Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to earth, who was born of the Virgin Mary, who sacrificed himself on the cross of Calvary for our sins once for all time, for all people.

III.                              We should regard each other as living saints         

            Thank God for the wonderful gift of sainthood he has made a reality for all believers in Jesus. What a wonderful gift, first of all, that God has called you a saint. Being a saint of God means you are precious to God, bought with a price, the apple of his eye. You are, in Isaiah's words this morning, the "ransomed" and "redeemed" of the Lord. You have been put by God on the "Way of Holiness" Isaiah prophesied (v 8), fleeing temptation, worshiping in God's house, running from the darkness of sin, fleeing to the light of God's Word. You are living saints!

            As the saints of God the light of God shines through us into this dark world. A little boy was fascinated by the stained-glass windows of his church. One Sunday, as he stared at them, he asked his mother, “Who are those people painted on the windows?” His mother replied, “Those are the saints.” When he got home he told his father about the saints he had seen at church. “Who are the saints?” his dad asked. The little boy answered, “Saints are the people the light shines through.” The light of Jesus Christ has come into the world, and by faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior who died on the cross for us, giving us the forgiveness of sin, that light shines in our lives. By His Holy Spirit, His light is reflect in us and through us. Jesus calls us children of light to lighten our dark world with the message of the gospel. He makes us saints through whom His light shines.     

            And if you are a living saint, then so is your fellow Christian. Another person who trusts in Christ is also a saint of God, cleansed by the lifeblood of the Son of God, "redeemed" and "ransomed" by his cross. Think of all those Christians around you made saints by God. Your spouse. Your children. Your classmate. Your colleague at work. All of these people, redeemed by God, brought to faith in Baptism, made into living saints! Perhaps we should look at each other a little differently. Praise God for the gift of his Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, reminding us each day that we are "saints," the "holy ones" of God. Living saints! Today we remember our loved ones that have gone on to heaven. Today, on All Saints day we remember each other. All of us Saints redeemed and ransomed, made clean by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, all of us together, waiting the glorious day of the resurrection when we shall be joined together in triumphant praise to the God of our salvation. Alleluia. Amen!