Today is the final feast day in the Christian year. Even though we have two more months in this civil year, the new year for the Church begins on the first Sunday in Advent. Truly the point of the cycle of the Christian Year is to celebrate Jesus Christ in both his Incarnation, his self-giving love in offering perfect obedience to God the Father in his life, his sacrificial death and joyous resurrection, ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit in more dynamic fashion. The first half of the year is a celebration of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The second half of the Christian year - Trinity Season - we celebrate the joy of Christian living in our sanctification: putting on Christ’s righteousness, becoming more like Christ in character through the work of the Holy Spirit given to the Church. Throughout the year we have different days in which we celebrate the grace of God at work in the lives of sinful human beings on the varied feasts. Most of them are apostles, like St. Peter, St. John. Some of these days celebrate pivotal events in the life of our Lord, such as Transfiguration and the Ascension. The last feast day of the calendar - All Saints - celebrates the grace of God working among common folks like you and me. All of us who will have an inheritance in God’s eternal kingdom will do so because of the same gift from Jesus - receiving Christ’s perfect life and death through faith and repentance. We are recipients of God’s goodness, his truly unmerited, unearned favor. That is what we celebrate this morning. We celebrate the fact that any and all who are united to Jesus are saints and share with previous generations the blessed hope of Christ’s eternal kingdom.
Our prayer for this morning, the collect for All Saints, presents the Church’s teaching for this feast: O ALMIGHTY God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord; Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Truly, God has knit together his elect into one body. We share in communion and fellowship because of Christ’s righteousness. We see in our epistle the heavenly vision of the vast multitudes, of various tribes, innumerable languages, men and women from the Old Testament Church - that hall of fame of faith that St. Paul speaks about in Hebrews Chapter 11. The unseen faithful perhaps in the present who are persecuted for their faith. The heavenly vision in our Epistle expresses this fundamental oneness, this unity of the body of Christ which is part of the prayer for this morning.
Moreover, this vast heavenly multitude, although from varied times and places, tribes and tongues, shares in a common song and a common cleansing. All proclaim that salvation belongs to the Lord and to the Lamb. A number of them had passed through the great tribulation. They had been martyred, indeed, died for the faith of Christ.
Even this number doesn’t attribute salvation to themselves. Instead, such deliverance from sin and death, from all circumstances that would tempt them to abandon God, they ascribe as belonging to the triune God. It is his gift. All standing before him, in this multitude, are joyful because of their common salvation. It is a gift from God to all that are in that heavenly throne room. They praise him because it is His salvation that we are included in, indeed, God is the cause of our salvation.
Notice that the multitude, each and every one of them, is clothed in a white robe and has a palm branch in their hands. The palm branches call to mind the palms of the Feast of the Tabernacles - which came after the final harvest and celebrated the reality that Israel no longer lived in tents like they did in the Wilderness. Instead, they celebrated Tabernacles as a yearly reminder of God’s salvation out of Egypt and their residence in the Promised Land.
St. John tells us they are waving palms and wearing white robes. White robes are great emblems of victory and righteousness. All the saints celebrate the redemption from sin and death and are arrayed in emblems of victory and righteousness. Our Epistle explains the means by which all these saints are clothed in white. Everyone of them had their garments washed in the blood of the lamb. Some had passed through the great persecution but all were sealed and joyful in God’s presence because of their love for Christ which made them willing to serve him even in the valley of the shadow of death. We see elsewhere that the promise of white robes is the general call of the churches in Revelation to be faithful in bearing witness to Christ. Therefore, as one scholar has said, “A martyr’s death itself is not the determining factor, but following the Lamb in such a way that death becomes a possibility. This is the vocation of the whole Church and not a particular group within it.”(Boxall).
Their robes were washed, purified by the only source that can heal, that can restore our wretched sinfulness, the blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in his blood brings cleansing for sin and restoration of life, hope and peace.
We should also notice who we are praying to and what we are praying for. We address our prayers not to the saints, we are not asking the saints to help us. Instead, we are directing our prayers to Almighty God by the redemption of Jesus Christ the Son has purchased a peculiar people who are eager, zealous for good works. We pray that we, who are physically alive at present, may follow the faithful who have gone before - those blessed saints - “in all virtuous and godly living.” I would argue that this is short-hand for the sanctification of the saints, which Christ commands in our Gospel.
For our Gospel is arguably the greatest sermon ever preached - the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel and this section is the core of the greatest sermon - the Beatitudes. Jesus here expounds what the vocation of the Church here and now looks like. What is the earthly reality that precedes the heavenly glory of the eternal kingdom? Notice in the Epistle how God relieves the sorrow of his servants. That this passage in the Epistle is the relief of the struggle of his faithful. “He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. 17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. The same Lamb that takes away the sorrow in that heavenly throne room is Our Lord Jesus, who proclaims the blessedness of his followers in the Beatitudes.
The whole Sermon in fact presupposes an acceptance of the gospel, conversion and new birth, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It describes the kind of people reborn Christians are (or should be). So the beatitudes set forth the blessings which God bestows (not as a reward for merit but as a gift of grace) upon those in whom he is working such a character.
The first four beatitudes reveal a “spiritual progression” - each building on the foundation of the preceding beatitude.
Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.” This blessedness is to admit one’s spiritual bankruptcy before God. That one is sorely lacking in the righteousness that God demands. Admitting one’s bankruptcy in God’s kingdom is entry into eternal blessedness - a privilege no money can buy. Jesus follows with the second - blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
This is the second stage in blessedness for this soul not only admits its spiritual bankruptcy, it laments, it expresses sorrow for sin and what tragedy of sin and death has been brought into the world; God does not leave those who mourn without hope - indeed the Lord God promises the blessedness of his divine comfort. In the third beatitude, Jesus declares “blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek, who have a true estimate of themselves because of their spiritual poverty and their sorrow for sin, are humble and gentle towards others because of the abundance of God’s forgiveness. Jesus says the meek, not the proud, not the boastful, will ultimately inherit the earth when Christ completes his renewal of creation.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. We have the progression from confession, to contrition, to meekness now to desiring that which pleases God, righteousness.
In the fourth beatitude, Jesus says those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, will receive the righteousness they desire. These Christians will be satisfied with the food that satisfied our Lord for Jesus said “my bread is to do the will of my Father”, being obedient to His father providing the gift of righteousness for those who are united to Jesus. Jesus commends elsewhere the call to drink the living water that becomes in that person “a fountain of water springing up unto everlasting life.” That person is satisfied with filling by God and then can’t help but share that goodness with others. They water from the well they themselves are watered with.
One could argue the first four beatitudes are concerned with the Christian’s relationship with God. His or her posture regarding the heinousness of sin and Christ’s provision to make us right before God. The second half of the Beatitudes speaks to the faithful Christians relationship with other sinful human beings.
In the fifth beatitude, Jesus reminds us of the importance of mercy, that we need to be merciful people. In a tone similar to the Lord’s Prayer - Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Jesus wants us to show mercy because we, even in the best of circumstances, with the best of intentions, fail in many things, and we need the same mercy that we are commanded to give. Jesus says in the sixth beatitude, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Purity of heart has to do with integrity - whereby the Christian is completely transparent. Their entire life, in private or in public, before men or before God, their thoughts and motives are free from hypocrisy and deceit. Truly, it is to be like Jesus in our practical dealing with other people. The pure in heart will see God in a glorious vision that will be consummate in the world that is to come.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. In this seventh beatitude, the Christian is commanded to labor in bringing peace. We are reminded in the Gospels that Jesus Christ brought peace between God and man through Our Lord’s sacrificial death. We can be declared the children of God. This beatitude calls the Christian to live out their adoption as God’s children by laboring to reconcile people.
The final beatitude includes Jesus' instruction about the blessedness of persecution “for righteousness sake,” One would be tempted to think that being a peacemaker, being pure in heart, being merciful, would make one an object of acceptance. Who could have issue with a person whose engagement with the world begins with how they, individually, have stricken the heart of God by their sin? Yet, Jesus calls his followers blessed because they suffer for being like their Lord. They are persecuted because they love God’s kingdom and his righteousness more than avoiding the pain of persecution.
I would draw your attention to some key words in this final beatitude, persecuted “for righteousness sake”, when they “shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.” Blessedness that receives the kingdom of heaven isn’t pugnacious, self-willed; some may be tempted to view all their opposition in this life as some sort of persecution. That is not what Jesus is saying here. It is because of righteousness, despite the slander of those who hate Christ and his church and is directed toward the Christian because of their faith and obedience for Christ’s sake.
The promises of the Gospel, living out the beatitudes, leads to great comfort of all the saints in Revelation Chapter 7 - our Epistle for today. On this feast of All Saints, we are called afresh, anew, to active obedience that may lead to suffering, it may lead to persecution. Yet, we receive encouragement from those whose race is won, those who have been relieved from the burdens of this life and are now in the presence of Our Lord.
As we conclude this morning, I want to ask you if you hear them. Can you, with the eyes and ears of faith, hear the great multitude cheering you on? Perhaps that great multitude in Revelation is part of that number that cheers us on in Hebrews 12 where we are told “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
Beloved, let us take stock of our commitments, let us consider what we truly love, what we are eager to serve and let us ask whether they will compare to the glories of what Christ offers. Do they have the staying power of eternity? They may be good - like family and friends, but are they the ultimate good? In the end, will they clothe us properly for the day of judgment? Will they comfort us when we have to give an account on the last day?
Today, we take stock, we hear the voices of the faithful, in our past, or in the church’s past, that call us to be clothed in Christ’s righteousness, having our sins purged by his forgiving blood. Having the tears of our suffering for Christ wiped away by our loving Saviour. On this feast of All Saints, let us commit to embodying the Beatitudes and join with all our brothers and sisters who have gone before in the feast in Our Lord’s eternal kingdom of which this Holy Communion is but the first course. Amen.
