All Saints Day (Observed) - November 7, 2010

The Church Season of Trinity
All Saints Sunday
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (November 7, 2010)

“FOR ALL THE SAINTS”

Readings:  
    Psalm 149
    Revelation 7:2-17
    1 John 3:1-
    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 first Lesson from the 7th chapter of Revelation, especially the following verses:

Revelation 7:2-8 (ESV)

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

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

Today we are observing All Saints Day, or also called the Feast of All Saints.  This day has been consecrated for many centuries to the memory of those whom the Lord removed by death and transferred into the Church Triumphant in heaven. The first reading is a part of St. John’s vision of heaven. He saw God on the throne. In the midst stood the Lamb, and St. John saw a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white robes of purity and righteousness, with palm branches in their hands. This vast multitude cried out with a loud voice: All praise and honor for our salvation which belongs to our God, who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb! And all the angels standing round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God with a sevenfold Magnificat.  The Magnificat are the words of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, were see begins saying, “My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”(Luke 1:46-47)

And one of the elders said to St. John: “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”(v. 13) He knows, but he questions in order to teach. When then St. John answers him, “Sir, you know, he answered him”: “These are they who have come out of great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”(v. 14) There is a continuous pouring in of the elect from the world of care to the realm of peace. Because they have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb, “therefore are they before the throne of God and serve Him day and night within His temple, and He who sits upon the throne will shelter them with His presence.”(v.15) Jesus dwells among them, spread His tabernacle over them, as He did in the wilderness. “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”(16-17)

We have here a glimpse of our loved ones who have gone before us in the faith and here they are the dearly departed believers. And where do we see them? Before the throne and before the Lamb. These words give us no clue to the locality of heaven but they do give us eternal comfort. But there is something of far greater interest and importance here than where heaven is, it is the knowledge of the state of the saints rather than the place. Where are they, “Before the throne.” While we live, breath, and move about in God’s creation we have a consciousness of God’s presence, but the saints, their state is bliss.  For they are “Before the Lamb.” On earth they saw the Savior as we do know, with the eyes of faith.  Now departed from us, they see Him beyond the veil of human senses and no longer bound by the limitations of their earthly eyes there is no din of a sinful world to obstruct their sight. They are forever with their God.  They are in His immediate presence.  They are where we wish to be.  They are where they wished and longed to be, standing before the Lamb of God.

And what do our loved ones look like? Well, they are “standing.” Becaue God sits upon the throne. They have been given white robes. White stands for purity and righteousness. On earth they, like us, were sinners.  And as sinners their garments were spotted by sin. But now in glory their garments are washed white as snow by the blood of the Lamb. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son who cleanses us from all sin. And so they appear before God pure and spotless, arrayed in the garment of Christ’s righteousness. Pure and holy, they are fit to mingle with the angels and archangels and to stand before God. They have palm branches in their hands. Their troubles in this earthly wilderness is ended, their harvest home of the Church has come. Their days of labor are over, now comes rest.

All sorrow has passed away. “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” This is perhaps the tenderest little sentence in the whole Bible. We who are still in the great tribulation can hardly conceive of a state when there shall be nothing to cause a single tear to flow, no dying, no sorrow, no pain, no longing. Picture the vision! From all nations the saints stream into heaven out of the great tribulation, their cheeks. wet with tears, and God tenderly wiping away all tears and saying comfortingly: That is all over.

And what do they enjoy? For one thing, the real presence of God. “He who sits upon the throne will shelter them with His presence.” Just as the presence of God hovered over the Israelites in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. “The Lamb … will be their Shepherd.” Christ now feeds them the bread of heaven and guide them to springs of the water of life. Here they had but crumbs, there they have in abundance. Here they had but drops, there they have the fullness of the fountain. Here the bread and wine, the water and the Word of life reached them through earthly vessels, from a printed book and from human lips.  Now they are at the fountainhead, enjoying the pure sweetness of God’s presence .

And so what do they do in God’s presence?  Scripture tells us, they “serve Him day and night within His temple.” Their service of praise is unwearied, day and night. Never do they tire of singing God’s praises for His unmerited mercy and grace shown when He sent the Holy Spirit with His message of Christ Jesus and worked faith by the Gospel and kept them in faith until the end.

How glorious that picture which St. John paints of the saints for you of the saints who are in heaven, and for us who are still in the great tribulation. Some of us may have come here today sorrowing over the loss of some sainted loved one, but as our eyes swell and blur at the loss of those who we love, hear God’s comfort through the words of St. John and know that even now God has wiped away every tear from our eyes.

We know in our hearts our grief appears selfish and that we are thinking only of our loss and not of their gain. Yet we know, in spite of all our pain caused by our separation, we would not wish them back. They have come out of this great tribulation. And really the biggest challenge for us is that we wish sincerely to be with them.

Listen closely to how God comforts you now.  This wish to be with the saints is gratified in a measure today at the Lord’s Table, as we commune with our Lord and with all the saints. If we would want to feel close to our loved ones who died in the Lord, the place to be close to them is not in the cemetery, where only their physical covering is found a temporary sleeping place. The place to be close to their real selves, to have communion with them, is at the Lord’s Table. The Holy Communion, is the Sacrament that links us to the saints in heaven.

The text tells us that the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, feeding them with the bread of heaven. Today this same Lamb is truly present here, the Lamb of God, who gives us heavenly food, His very Body and His very Blood together with the Bread and Wine, heavenly manna, His very Self.

The saints stand before the throne and the Lamb, praising God for their salvation. The angels join in the praise. Today we also join in the song of heaven in the Holy Eucharist. We acknowledge: it is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto You, Holy Father, almighty, and everlasting God. Therefore with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name.” Then we break forth in the jubilant Sanctus, the song of the angels from Isaiah’s vision: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth adored, heaven and earth with full acclaim shout th glory of Your Name.”(Is. 6:3)  So we sing not only with the angels and archangels, but yes even all the company of heaven, including the saints in glory, our blessed dead.

We could go on indefinitely showing that God in the scriptures reveals that we are never closer to heaven and our sainted loved ones than in the Sacrament of Holy Communion and with Christ, with one another, and with the members of the Church who have come out of the great tribulation. Here we have a foretaste of the bliss which the saints enjoy in heaven. Here is the Lamb, here He feeds us with Himself, here we occupy ourselves as do the inhabitants of heaven. May we, as we gather before the throne and the Lamb today in praise and adoration, become conscious of the fact that we are experiencing a foretaste of heaven and we are in communion also with all the blessed saints who have gone before us.  Blessed are they who die in the Lord, blessed are we who die in the Lord, from this time forth and forever more.  Amen.

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