Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

Dearly Beloved:
We know that on this earth we do not have an abiding city. You could probably think of the names of several saints whom God has called home to final rest in Him, awaiting the resurrection at the Last Day. At All Saints’ Day one thinks of not only the so-called “heroes” of Christian history, but also those who humbly and quietly believed in our Savior and trusted in His forgiveness. They are here no longer, while you and I are still here on earth. Their suffering is over, their pain is gone. They join with the departed saints of all the times past, the famous as well as the unknown, who lived and breathed only by God’s mercy, who have confessed His name and received His forgiveness for all of their sins. And now they have and enjoy to the fullest what you hope for yourself—they have the final release from this valley of sorrow where we have temporarily taken residence. These saints are truly blessed by our Lord, and we have been blessed because of their witness and their life of faith while they were still here with us.

How easy it is for us, then, to apply to our departed loved ones what Jesus says in these Beatitudes, the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” and so on. The saints who have died believing in Jesus could be seen wearing white robes and singing the praises of Christ the Lamb of God on the throne of heaven along with the angels, elders, living creatures and everything else in St. John’s vision as recorded in Revelation. But while they were living on earth, Jesus describes these saints down to a “t” when He speaks of who God’s blessed ones are. God’s saints are not the powerful ones, or the self-satisfied, or the successful, nor are they even the ones who always insist they should get a fair deal. They are the meek, those whom the world has called pushovers, submissive, and it wants nothing to do with them. But in the eyes of God, they are truly blessed.

Is this blessing, though, just for the do-gooders? Are there really only a few real saints out there? At first hearing of these Beatitudes out of the mouth of Jesus, you may think that this is the way you have to live in order for God to love you and assure you of His blessing. You have to let the world walk all over you and just turn the other cheek; you have to be the one who is out there making peace instead of creating the fight. In order to be blessed, so it seems, you first have to be nice and merciful to everyone who has ever sinned against you, to say nothing about being absolutely pure in heart. If these are the true, Biblical requirements of being a saint, then as a sinner you are not as sure that you have done enough for God to bless you.

For if you actually receive from God what you deserve, it would certainly not be blessing. God does not bless those who curse, He does not smile upon anyone who despises his neighbor or grumbles about doing their duty. There is no place in the kingdom of heaven for lawbreakers, and our Lord absolutely despises anyone who might think that he has a holy, virtuous, godly life all figured out and that they are better than everyone else. God’s curse, rather than blessing, rests upon all of sinful humankind. It is a curse of death, an eternity of separation from His kingdom, that you and I ought to receive. Who, then, is worthy of God’s blessing? Is there anyone who is truly a saint?

Listen now to the one who speaks the blessing. Is it not Jesus Christ your Lord Himself? He is truly the Blessed One because He is God’s own Son. He was sent from heaven to earth to perfectly obey God’s law and earn God’s blessing for you and all of mankind. A saint is someone completely holy, or sanctified, and that is precisely what Jesus is, down to a “t”: perfect, righteous in every way! And out of love for you, He hungered and thirsted for you to receive the gift of His righteousness. There is nothing you could do to earn such a gift, but He gives it freely when you trust in Him for your salvation. He alone is worthy of God’s blessing, but He wants nothing more than to share that blessing with you!

It is Christ’s greatest desire to become one with His faithful people, the lambs of His flock who hear His voice. He intimately joins Himself to you in the waters of your Baptism—when He made you His own and gave you His Holy Spirit to sanctify you, to make you a saint just like He is. He takes your sins and nails them to Himself on the cross where they were paid-for once and for all. He invites you to become joined together with Him even as you eat His holy, saintly Body and drink His precious Blood. This is what it means to be the Church, the mystical body of Christ, meaning you are in a hidden but real way connected with Him in His death on the cross and in His resurrection from the grave, all right here at this altar.

As you are joined to your savior Jesus, your sins are taken away, and so is the curse of death that plagues you and your loved ones every day of your lives. You are blessed, you are holy, you are saints. God’s salvation, otherwise known as the kingdom of heaven, is yours because you are poor in spirit. That means you say, “No merit of my own I claim, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.” God made peace with you, the sons of God, through His Son, and so you now bring His peace to your neighbor even as you pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” And He speaks His blessing especially for you when you are persecuted and falsely accused on His account, for the same persecution happened to Him. All these Beatitudes that Jesus speaks to you today are not your requirements for getting God’s blessing. Rather, they describe the blessing that you already have because you believe in Him, you were baptized and because you hold on to His promises.

There is something else that happens because you are joined to Jesus. You as God’s saints still here on earth are also united with all His saints “who from their labors rest.” This includes you not only with those whom you remember today, but all people who by the Lord’s merciful hand have finished the race and kept the faith. You may be thinking about them even now, and you miss them. Everywhere else on earth, the chair at the dinner table, the pew at church, the spot in the family photo, these are noticeably empty. But since you and they are all joined to Christ, here as you kneel at the Lord’s Table you are closer to them than you ever were before. You might as well be in heaven right now along with them! Hebrews, chapter 12 tells us we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses—this cloud includes the saints who share with us the one true faith, and who on earth modeled for us the faith that trusted not in self but in God alone.

You as God’s saints, still here feebly struggling on earth, and they as God’s saints who now shine in His glory, are together as one Body of Christ, the Church. Together we pray for our Lord to come quickly and rescue us and our dying world. We eagerly await along with them the Great Judgment Day when we all will at last in our resurrected and renewed bodies see our living Lord and Redeemer, even as the Old Testament saint Job cried out while still in the anguish of this world, “I know that my redeemer lives.”

We are gathered here on this day as those who mourn. It’s just a fact of life, a result of the sin that is in the world that we miss our departed loved ones. But remember Jesus also says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Blessed are you on this day for you are God’s saints, not because of anything you have done or earned but because you trust in Christ, who is truly the Blessed One. Let Him comfort you this day while you are still on earth and forever because you are His honored guest at the marriage feast of the Lamb at which all saints in heaven and on earth have dinner together with God.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Rev. 7:2–17 I heard the number of those who were sealed … a great multitude which no one could number
Psalm 149 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth
1 John 3:1–3 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us
Matt. 5:1–12 Blessed are the poor in spirit