Biblical Text: Matthew 5:1-12
The day on the Christian Calendar is the Feast of All Saints. Now most years it is merely observed, but this year November 1st was a Sunday, so the actual day. Some of the hymns are probably the most memorable part of the day. For a day that is on the minor end of the major feast days it’s got a bunch of good hymns including the All Time Great “For All the Saints.” But putting aside the hymns the center to the day is typically the reading of all the names of those from the congregation who moved from the the Church Militant to the Church at rest in the past year. As a pastor I typically open that up to other names as congregants supply them. Sometimes you get someone who is remembering an anniversary year of death. Sometimes the name is someone outside of the congregational family but within their family. A fact of modern life. When this tradition was started, family members and church members were probably not different.
The texts for the day are the same each year. The first reading is the picture of the saints in Revelation. The gospel reading is always the beatitudes – “blessed are…”. There are a number of themes that you can concentrate on. A common one in Lutheran churches would be straight from the Augsburg Confession on The Saints. “Our churches teach that the history of saints may be set before us so that we may follow the example of their faith and good works (AC XXI.).” And using the names of the past year you present their faith and good works and encourage those remaining. This sermon did not go down that path. It stayed a bit more textual and I might label it existential. The Christian Faith rests on the promises of God. The Saints – the church at rest – tests the Christian Hope which is the resurrection. And the questions of the resurrection in regard to the saints is always “when” or “how long.” When thinking of the beatitudes, the question is what of these promises is now and which are not yet. And does not yet seem to stretch into never.
The sermon lean on that common theme though in its answer to those existential questions. The Saints are united in one thing – their faith. The beatitudes are not really some list of virtues to practice. They are not really in our hands. They are a vision of the Kingdom of Heaven. A Kingdom that is ours – now – by faith. A Kingdom that has not yet come in its fullness. But God is trustworthy. It will happen. The saints saw it from afar and testify to us – keep the faith.
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