Sermon All Saints Sunday: "You Are a Blessed Saint of God"

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who blesses us as saints.

            The two scenes from Revelation and Matthew don’t have all that much in common in terms of what’s happening in them, one is a vision of heaven, the other Jesus speaking to a crowd on a the side of a mountain, but there are a few things that really make a connection.

            Revelation has this great multitude that seemingly stretches forever, more than anyone can count, from every land, nation, and tribe, all peoples and languages. The author of Revelation, John of Patmos, who is different than the author of the Gospel of John by the way, sees this vision of heaven which is completely filled with all these peoples, and is asked, who are these people? He says he does not know and the elder tells him, these are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

            A joke I heard this week surrounded some churches tradition to hold confirmation Sunday on All Saint’s Sunday. So, the confirmands would be sitting in the front row, all in their white robes, and we read, Here are they robed in white, who have survived the great ordeal.

            Jokes aside, what we see here is the common interpretation of what we are referring to on All Saint’s Sunday. All those who have gone through the great ordeal, all the difficulties of life, all the things that could turn us from God, but through Christ, we will and they do, reside in the company of the lamb, giving praise and honor to God and Christ, and in that moment God will wipe their tears from their eyes.

            It is not an incorrect image, but the image of saint is so much wider than that future vision of heaven.

            Jesus finds himself on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, as he travels around the area, healing and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, a large crowd follows him, asking him to heal the sick, cure the ill. All those diseased, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, come to him, and he cures them. All these people would be considered unclean, unworthy of worshiping in the temple, many would have been cast out of the temple, synagogue, if not out of society itself. But, here, listening to Jesus they find themselves. And Jesus sees them, goes to the top of the mountain and begins to preach.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, “Blessed are those who mourn, “Blessed are the meek,  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, “Blessed are the merciful “Blessed are the pure in heart, “Blessed are the peacemakers, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

            I often ask the question to myself, what makes a saint? Is it by being perfect people, doing miracles? Some would say yes, but I think the answer is found right here in this text. What makes us Saints, is Christ, seeing us and blessing us, not in the moments where we are grand, profound, and miraculous, but in the moments where we are meek, mourning, and persecuted, not when on mountain tops, but in the deepest darkest valleys.

            We are saints, in the future as we stand among that great multitude praising God, but we are just as much saints here and now, as we go about our lives, living out the best we can. We just have to see it.

            One thing that connects these texts are what begins the scenes, John of Patmos looks and sees the great multitude, Jesus sees the crowd and goes to bless them. We spend so much time looking at what we think it means to be a saint, that we miss that we ourselves are saints.

            During our peace today we are going to share it a little differently, instead of shaking hands with each other and saying peace be with you, and I want you to shake hands or if you want to make the sign of the cross on each others foreheads and say Remember you are a blessed saint of God.

            And today as we serve so many people a grand meal, let us remember that we have been nourished with the bread of life and made saints by the one who died so we may have life.

            Look at what we can do, and know that you are blessed, and know that you are a beloved saint of God.

Amen.