All Saints Sunday

“Blessed and Beloved, Now!”

November 3, 2002

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:  Revelation 7:9-17;  I John 3:1-3;  St. Matthew 5:1-12

     “After this I looked,” St. John the Divine writes in his revelation, “and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands…and they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within His temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.  They will hunger no more, and thirst no more, the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;  for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

     On the festival of All Saints, I would very much like to close my eyes, and lose myself in that wonderful description of heaven.  On All Saints Sunday, as we remember our dearly departed loved ones, we can’t help but think about that time when we, too, will be one of those robed in white, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, worshiping God day and night in His temple, hungering no more, thirsting no more, guided by the Lamb to springs of the water of life, with God himself, wiping away every tear from our eyes.  For those of us who still live on this divided, violent, pain-filled earth, this festival of All Saints is a welcome respite, because it fills us with hope for the future—hope that we will be together with our loved ones who have died in the Lord, and hope that in spite of the troubles and tribulations;  in spite of our stressful jobs, and conflicted marriages;  in spite our difficult teens;  in spite of terrorism and threat of war and snipers on our streets;  in spite of all that, a day will come, when we, too, will be blessed with eternal life.  A day will come when we, too, will come out of the great ordeal, that is life, and be whisked away, to stand before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, palm branches in our hands.  One of the messages that is proclaimed, to you and to me, this festival day, is that there is hope—that there will be life, after death, and that life will be without tears and pain and grief—that life will be, truly, blessed.  That is one of the messages that is proclaimed, to you and to me, this festival day.  And it would be easy—oh, so easy, to lose ourselves in that message, and to dwell, the rest of our days, just waiting, waiting, waiting, for that heavenly city, new Jerusalem, to swallow us up, and take us out of this world of sin and death.  I think I could preach, every All Saints Sunday, on just that vision of eternal life, and never tire of it, and never bore you with it—because, it is so alluring, that vision of heaven.  And we yearn, so deeply, for the blessings of it.  And yet, that would be to proclaim but one of the messages that’s intended to be preached this festival day.  Or rather, that would be to proclaim only part of the message, because together with the hope that comes, today, for our ultimate future, God also gives to us hope, today, for the present.  Because for all our natural inclinations towards that blessed existence in heaven, God tends to turn us back, toward our existence on earth.  And in that regard, God assures us that there will be blessings, here, as well.  Oh, maybe not the blessings we might want.  If we were to describe the blessings we want here and now, they would most likely represent heaven on earth.  What we would prefer, would be no grief, no pain, no tears.  What we would prefer would be no struggle, no persecution, no evil or death.  But doesn’t that sound very much like heaven, as described in Revelation?  No, the reality is, that’s not what life here, is to be like.  And Jesus makes that clear, in the sermon on the mount, in our gospel lesson. He is brutally honest with us, as he says, in this life, you will be poor in spirit, downhearted;  in this life, there will be death and mourning;  he says in this life, you will hunger and thirst for righteousness, you must strive to be merciful, you will struggle to be pure in heart.  In this life, you will be persecuted for righteousness’ sake;  you will be reviled and persecuted and accused falsely, on my account. But, in spite of all of that—you will be blessed, Jesus says.  Jesus says, “Yes, after all this, you will be rewarded, blessed, in heaven—but there will be blessings here, as well!”  Mixed in with the suffering and the grief and the pain and the persecution, Jesus says, you will be blessed.  When you are downhearted, you will be blessed.  When you are mourning, you will be blessed.  When you are hungering and thirsting for righteousness, when you are trying to remain pure and chaste, you will be blessed.  When you are being beaten up for your faith, you will be blessed, Jesus says.  And we say, “Blessed, in the midst of all of this?”  “Dear Lord, how are we blessed?”

     Well, there are many, many blessings that come, in spite of trials and tribulations in life—but on this day, it’s St. John who speaks to us, in our second reading, reminding us of the primary way we are blessed, when he says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God;  beloved, we are God’s children, now!”  We could list a hundred or a thousand ways experience blessings, but they are simply manifestations of this—that in this life, the Father has shown His love for us, by making us His children—and that is what we are, NOW!  We don’t have to wait for heaven, because we are God’s beloved children, now.  We don’t have to wait for heaven, for God to shelter us, and for Jesus to guide us—because God loves us now, and has adopted us to be His children, now, and like any loving Father, God is now, loving us and leading us and blessing us.  So that, for all the hope we have for the future, in heaven, God gives us, also, hope for the present—hope for today, and tomorrow and next week, because God loves us now, and we are God’s children, now.  And that love and that parenting, blesses us, no matter what may come, no matter what happens in life, no matter when death may come—because we are blessed in life, and we are blessed in death, as God’s children.  And that, indeed, gives us reason to rejoice, and be glad!  To find joy not just in the promise of eternal life, but joy in the living of life from day to day—because we are blessed, beloved children of God, now!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.