The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series - All Saint's Day (Observed) - 11/02/08

The Church Season of Trinity
The Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
All Saints Day (Observed)
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (November 2, 2008)

“BLESSED ARE YOU”

Readings:
Psalm 149
Revelation 7:2-17
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon Form Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 5th chapter of St. Matthew, especially the following verse:

Matthew 5:1-12

Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

In the sermon of the mount Jesus mentions the word blessed nine times. One gets the idea that in this repetition Jesus was trying to say something to be remembered. And indeed the words have been remembered as Jesus giving one of His most important and most beloved sermons to a group of His apostles, who were surrounded by a large crowd. The crowd that heard Him that day certainly had a differing world view than the people who hear those words today. Those sermon words we call the Beatitudes have, to a large degree, been transformed from Gospel into Law. Some have even recently called these the BE ATTITUDES, meaning these words are really a least of the things that we need to do to get to heaven. Nothing could be farther from the truth for He made up quite a list that can not be completed by human works and then He told them:

BLESSED ARE YOU
(I. You are blessed by the work of Jesus)

Today’s Gospel reading may seem to be a difficult one, especially for anyone wanting a neatly packaged reading, beginning with the Law and ending with the Gospel. Because as we follow this day with Jesus, we hear the great Sermon on the Mount; containing the “Beatitudes.” Now the word Beatitude really has nothing to do with attitude, rather the word Beatitude is defined as a state of utmost bliss, of complete happiness. In this sermon, Jesus speaks of the state of complete happiness in terms of blessings. But some of the blessings come with challenges. How can this be? Could it be that Jesus mixed up blessings with a message of the Law?

Jesus ended by saying; “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” (v. 12) What? I’m supposed to be poor, mournful, persecuted, and insulted and then rejoice? Now this really is confusing. What was a person supposed to do after they heard those words? Certainly they were not supposed to give up everything they had, and are we to give up everything too?

Can you imagine what it would be like to give up everything you have? I mean really give it all away, everything. In this world where possessions are everything, can you imagine what it would be like to have nothing? To be a beggar? Do we have to give up our new cars? Our new jobs? Our DVD players, and our cable T.V.? How about our retirement pension, our land, property, house, our family, all that we have? Is that what we have to do to follow Jesus? You know, we give some money to charities, but do we have to give it all away? Is that what it takes to be blessed?

No, we must not confuse what we do for those around us, with what has been done for us. What Christ did for us at the cross, He did out of compassion to make right what has gone wrong with our sinful world and our lives. What we do for our fellow man, in our daily lives flow out of the blessings from Christ.

(II. Rejoice, Jesus is the blessing for us all.)

Okay, but what about those other blessings. You know we think we can handle some of them. In fact, most of the time we’re rather meek and very merciful. On most Sunday’s we’re pure in heart, and we’re always trying to be a peacemakers. Isn’t that what Jesus meant? Well, sort of….

As an example, recall from the Old Testament Joseph who was tricked, trapped, and sold into slavery by his brothers, years later when his brothers came to him for food Joseph was somewhat merciful, somewhat meek, somewhat of a peacemaker, somewhat pure in heart in fact he was part of every one of those things Jesus listed. But with all his ups and downs in his life Joseph did have faith in God.

And because Joseph had faith, as Luther said, “[Joseph] has life in death, and he lives when he is dead. He is full of confidence when he is conducted to the grave, for he trusts in God and His promises.” That is quite a profound statement if you let it sink in for a moment....”He has life in death, and he lives when he is dead.” Joseph knows that because he has faith no matter what happens in this life, he will die, and he knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that when he dies he will most certainly live.

Luther spoke of the faith of Joseph and of the New Testament Apostle St. Paul that they, “should be set before the church for the sake of the examples of the very saintly men who have held a light before us with their completely steadfast faith, which we, too, should learn to follow and imitate in order that we may glory by saying: “I have been baptized. I have been absolved. In this faith I die. No matter what trials and cares confront me from now on, I will certainly not be shaken; for He who said: ‘He who believes and is baptized will be saved’ (Mark 16:16) and ‘Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven’ (Matt. 16:19) and ‘This is My body. This is My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins’ (cf. Matt. 26:26, 28)—He cannot deceive or lie. This is certainly true.”(AELW 8:193-194)

Yet we look at ourselves in the mirror and say that there is no way I could do what Joseph did, or what St. Paul did, or what any of the Patriarchs, Church Fathers and Martyrs did either. I don’t want to be blessed if it means I have to be all those things that Jesus said, you know blessed are the poor, meek, hungry, thirsty, pure, peacemaker, persecuted, insulted, and hated. And I don’t want to be throw into a well like Joseph, and I don’t want to be beaten and put in prison like Paul either, so it doesn’t look like I can be blessed and if that’s what I have to do then I’m no saint.

That is the point, We can never completely do any these things, we can only make a feeble attempt. We admit it and we confess it when we come together in worship and speak these words; “If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8) But there is one who can and has done all these things, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because Jesus, died for our sins, we are blessed and made righteous before God. By the death of Christ we are made sinless! Because Jesus became man and suffered for us, we are healed because of His blessings. He was poor, for us, “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”(Mt. 8:20) Jesus was mournful for us, His friend Lazarus died and “He wept.” (Jn 11:35) Not only did Jesus weep for His friend later at Gethsemane He wept for all the sin of this world. Yet He did not turn back from what was to be, instead He said; “My Father if this can not pass unless I drink it, Your will be done.” (Mt. 26:42) Jesus fasted for forty days and when Satan tried to tempt Him in His hunger, Jesus replied, “Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”(Mt 4:4) His hunger proved that the Lord our God is beyond temptation. Jesus was persecuted for us, in fact He was, “pierced for our transgressions…crushed for our iniquities…like a lamb led to slaughter.”(Is 53:) Jesus was insulted, for us, He was whipped, beaten, and nailed to a cross. When Jesus spoke the words; “It is finished.” (Jn 19:30), in that very moment, He became the meek one in His persecution, and merciful one because He was pure in heart.

We travel through this life on a worldly road sometimes feeling persecuted by all the insults and evil that we meet in our daily lives, and we know all the sin that we commit. We know that we do not lead saintly lives, yet on this day we recall everyone who is a saint and that includes you and it includes everyone who has died before us in the faith. For Jesus said, “Blessed are you.” On this All Saint’s Day we join together here in this place, here in this world. But one day, because you have been blessed by all that Christ has done for you, you will join with All Saints both past and present, for a future of everlasting time with Jesus Christ and I’m sure you will “rejoice and be glad.”

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

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