Empty Handed Saints

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

Today we celebrate All Saints’ Day.  In other words, today is the day that we think about heaven and remember the blessed saints who have died and are with Jesus.

Now, we must keep in mind that when we say, “saints,” we are not referring to every single person who has died and we are certainly not referring to people who have surpassed everyone else in their degree of holiness. That is to say; we are not referring to people who have accumulated holiness by doing a bunch of holy things, but instead, when we use the term ‘saint,’ we are using it to describe Christians in general.  Yes, the term ‘saint’ is a term that is used to describe Christians who have been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection, and that includes those who have died in Jesus and those who are still living in Jesus. 

Now, even though all Christians are called saints because of what Christ Jesus did on the cross and delivered in baptism, there are some people who still imagine that saints are those individuals who are extraordinary, strong, and successful.  Yes, some people imagine that saints are super Christians that are resilient, cheerful, brave, and secure.  It is believed that these saints walk through life on some higher level, with a shiny halo over their head, while speaking with religious overtones. 

Jesus, though, describes what these saints are like in our reading from the Gospel of Matthew.  Yes, Jesus gives us a picture of the new life that follows from faith.  And to our surprise, these saints are not resilient.  They are not cheerful or brave.  And they have no self-security.  In fact, these saints are not extraordinary, strong, or successful at all, but they are quite the opposite.  With their titled halos, scuffed knees, and scrappy garments, we hear that these saints are poor in spirit, mournful over their sin, humble in their abilities, and starving for righteousness.  Jesus goes on to say that these saints are often “abused, persecuted and lied about because they don’t live like other people.  However, they’re gentle.  They don’t demand their rights.  They don’t put themselves on a pedestal.  They establish peace by suffering rather than fighting.”[1]

Now, I don’t know about you, but this description certainly does not sound like a great description of a saint.  It sounds more like the description of a loser – someone who amounts to nothing in this life… a weakling.    

And yet, contrary to what we might think, Jesus is describing what it looks like to be a saint, He is describing the Christian life. 

But why are these saints poor in spirit?  Well, they are poor in spirit because they are aware of their profound helplessness and are beggarly in their abilities – they know that they cannot do anything to obtain eternal life. 

And why do these saints mourn?  They mourn because of sin and its consequences.  They have sorrow over their sin and the sin of the world.

And why are these saints humble; that is to say, meek?  They have learned not to take themselves too seriously, and when offended they have learned from Jesus not to get too worked up.  They are not easily triggered. 

And why are do these saints hunger?  They are hungry not for temporal things for they know that the temporal things of life fade.  But they hunger for that which is eternal. 

Behold, what Jesus speaks about in our Gospel reading is the life of a saint!  Here in this world, these saints are a poor company of beggars, filled with tears, because of the sufferings of this life.  Yes, this is what a saint looks like: distressed by sin and failing over and over and over again.  These saints, hunger, and thirst for righteousness, knowing that they’ve got nothing to offer before God, except their sin.

So, considering all that we’ve heard thus far, I ask you today, are you among the saints?  Are you poor in spirit confessing your moral bankruptcy, or do you pretend that you are not a sinner – pretending that you are a good person? 

Are you among the saints?  Are you sorrowful over your sin and the sin of the world or do you try to normalize sin and then celebrate it?

Are you among the saints? Are you humble, or are you easily provoked and triggered when offended and then seek revenge – plotting your neighbor's demise? 

Are you among the saints? Are you hungry for righteousness seeking out God’s Word and Sacraments, longing to come to the Lord’s house, or are you apathetic with a full stomach of sin and put off by church services?   

I ask these questions of you and me because if we are not poor in spirit, we will not possess the kingdom of heaven.  If we are not sorrowful for our sin, we will not be comforted.  If we are not humble and meek, we will not inherit the earth.  If we do not know hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will never be satisfied.  To the point, if we are none of these things, we will not be blessed. 

Dear friends, an ancient Christian named St. Augustine once said, “God gives where He finds empty hands.”  And so, what we hear today is that a saint is not a person who has his hands full of all sorts of spiritual trophies, but a saint is someone who has empty hands.  A saint is not someone who pumps his hands in the air in victory, but beats his chest confessing, “God have mercy on me, the sinner.”  A saint is not someone who is cool in the eyes of the world but is one who knows that Christianity has never been cool and never will be cool in the eyes of the world.  A saint knows that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. A saint knows that Jesus came for the sin-sick, not for superstars.  A saint knows that the Gospel is for sinners only – sinners like you and me too. 

Dear friends, drop everything!  You neither have the power nor the ability to be a saint by your own reason or strength.  Yes, drop everything, you do not have enough faith or goodness to become a saint.  But instead, know this.  Jesus Christ made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men so that He could live that perfect life for you and die that death for sin in your place.  Yes, Jesus humbled Himself, and in meekness and sorrow for our sin, endured poverty, contempt, and persecution for you and me.  He suffered, died, and was buried in a tomb voluntarily to redeem lost, prideful, and condemned persons.  Yes, He takes sinners and clothes them with His robe of righteousness and pronouncing them to be saints.   

In case you haven’t noticed, I am speaking of you, you beloved Baptized Saints. This message is all about you and for you! 

Dear Saints, Jesus humbled Himself to do all of this for you, and then He sent His Holy Spirit to you to enlighten you and create a clean heart within you.  Indeed, in your baptisms, the Lord renewed a right spirit within you and called you into this blessed mourning and this blessed hunger and this blessed meekness.  In other words, the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, creates a hunger and thirst for righteousness within His people – that is you and me.  He constantly makes us people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, a hunger, and thirst which is only satisfied at the Communion altar, where the supernatural food of our Savior’s body and blood is given as a sheer gift!

And so, what the world sees here at Zion is a bunch of poor miserable sinners gathered together.  The world sees a bunch of meek, humble, and hungry people who are supposedly cursed with low self-esteem.  However, what the world cannot see is that even though we are all struggling along the way of life, Jesus nonetheless pronounces us blessed.  Yes, blessed! Blessed: because He opens our hands to receive continually. Blessed: because we are continually given the gift of sorrow for our sins. Blessed: because we are given that hunger continuously for the Lord and His gifts.  Blessed for where we are headed.  Blessed for what He will give to us when we are gathered to the throne at last.  Blessed through whatever sufferings come our way, because we know that the day will come when the sufferings will be left behind forever. Blessed: because we are in Jesus along with all of our loved ones who have passed away before us.  Yes, blessed, because just like those saints who have passed away and are with Jesus, we too are clothed in the same righteousness of Jesus.  We too are saints, but saints who wait for the great day when all of our tears, all of our sorrows, and all of our pain will be wiped away, forever. 

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

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[1] Bo Giertz, To Live with Christ: Devotions by Bo Giertz, tr. Bror Erickson (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 781. 

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The Lord Won't Let Go Of You

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

Over the last four weeks, here at Zion we have most definitely felt the sting of death.  Yes, the sting of death has taken four dear saints from our parish: Harold, Lydia, Vince, and Clarice. 

This morning we remember these four blessed saints, along with others who have passed away in our church family this last year.  Today also is a time for us to remember all other loved ones who passed away into the arms of Jesus.  We remember our Christian brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, aunts, and so forth.

Considering this, this morning you will hear the names of those who passed away in the prayers of the church.  Some of these people, you will not know much about them.  For others, you will hear their names and know them intimately as their life was intertwined with your life. 

Furthermore, with the names of those who passed away, there may be happiness or pain or both.  Their name may bring forth a wonderful memory, a memory that you have not considered in a long time, whereas, that same name may bring forth the pain of grief and loss. 

Whether we experience pain or happiness or regret or anger, we must be honest before the Lord though.  Yes, we must have courage to be honest this morning in this church and on All Saint’s Day.  Nothing else will do before the Lord.  Otherwise stated, we need to be careful to avoid the clichés of death, those sayings that are nothing more than false façades that attempt to lessen the sting of death.  We need to avoid euphemisms, which are soft and tame words that are used in the place of strong and blunt words about death.  Clichés and euphemisms such as:

“We’re not having a funeral, we’re having a celebration; God needed another angel; God wants to make you stronger through this; God never gives you more than you can handle; everything happens for a reason; they didn’t die, but simply passed on; he was a really good man.”   

Yes, we must avoid these foolish clichés and euphemisms, for they do not change the facts about death, but often confuse things and make things worse.  Sure they might bring comfort to a person experiencing grief and they might help a person feel better about granting comfort to a mourning friend, but the fact of death remains a fact no matter how much we try and cover it up and lesson its bite.  Therefore, death needs to be recognized; we should not skirt around the issue of death.

You see, it is hard to strip away the clichés and it is hard to strip away the euphemisms, for death is dark and the grave is deep and cold.  We want the clichés and we want the pious sayings for they attempt to lessen the sting of death.  Bluntly stated, without the clichés, death has a way of stripping life of its meaning and purpose leaving us saying, “What is the point of going on living when the one most precious in all the world has died?”

Even though starring into the dark abyss of death is difficult and takes great courage, we need to.  Yes, it is healthy and important to face death head on, to come face to face with it and consider its claim of finality.

Once we look into the coffin, once we stare down the dark grave, and once we sign the death certificate, we can then say that we have faced death fully… or have we. 

Dear friends, you and I have not faced death fully unless we have faced the death on Mt. Calvary. 

At Mt. Calvary, Jesus Christ experienced ultimate death where He was forsaken by God the Father.  He died between two criminals.  He was not guilty of any sin, but cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” as He suffered condemnation, hell, and wrath for our sin that was laid upon Him.  This is the ultimate death, the forsakenness of God.  All death of God’s children leads to this ultimate death of the Son of God.  To look upon Mt. Calvary and the blood stained cross is to face death fully.    

As we consider this ultimate death on this All Saint’s Day, we mustn’t nearly stop with Jesus’ words of, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” but we must push through these words to hear different words.  These words come forth from the dying Savior as He cried out boldly, “It is finished!”  In other words, as we consider Christ-crucified we not only hear about Christ bearing our sin upon Himself as if it was His own, but we also hear that He is not the enemy of God, but doing the saving will of God.  And as we gaze upon this ultimate death of finality, we hear that Jesus goes through death and rises from the grave.  This once bloodied, tormented, slaughtered Lamb of God is now the risen one who sits on the “throne of God and of the Lamb.” 

It gets better.  The name of this crucified and resurrected Savior – the name of Christ - was placed upon you and upon the Saints of this church that died.  His name was put upon you with the water of Baptism.  Yes, the cross of the Lamb who was slain was marked upon your head and upon your heart: marking you as one of the redeemed.  This means that this Christ will not let go of you, me, and the departed Saints of this church.  He will not let you let go of God. 

This morning, we read the names of the departed, trusting in that forgiveness won on Mt. Calvary by the Lamb who was slain, Jesus Christ.  It is He who is our judge.  It is He who answered for our sins on the cross.  What Christ did is given to you as your own possession.  His death is for you, His life is for you, and so you are forgiven and righteous with His righteousness.  It is all yours from Jesus, the Lamb of God.    

Looking into the ultimate death of Jesus Christ and knowing that our earthly deaths are not the final say, also allows us to be free from the gripping fear of death.  Today, in this protective Ark – God’s holy church – you are free to mourn with a mourning that is free of clichés and euphemisms.  You can be truthful about death, you are free to weep the tears that Jesus shares with you as you hear His words, “Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.” 

Dear Baptized Saints and you who mourn the loss of dear loved ones, take comfort for Jesus does not just talk about comfort; He has accomplished comfort for you and me at Mt. Calvary.  In other words, as we mourn the loss of our loved ones today, we know that the hands that hold us are the hands that were pierced on Mt. Calvary.  Furthermore, these hands hold us in our mother’s womb, they hold us through life, they hold us on our death bed, and they hold us through the valley of the shadow of death into eternity. 

When grief and pain strip us of everything, when the loss of the loved one seems to pull us into a pit emptying our hands of everything, do not fear for the Lord places into our empty hands His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Blessed are you who are given to by God. 

Despite the pain, complexity, grief, and struggle of death and dying, you are never outside the Lord’s protective hands. Despite the lies, deceptions, and partial truths of the world, the Lord has never lied to you. And He has never failed to do what He has promised.  You can count on Him. 

Listen today: you currently possess eternal life, right now in time.  Although you cannot see glory now, you and I walk by faith knowing and confessing that when Jesus appears again that we shall be like Him: bodily resurrected ‘with’ the departed Saints of this church.  He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Therefore, this All Saint’s Day, we not only mourn in freedom, but we rejoice and are glad in the midst of our loss, for through Christ the sting of death has been overcome by victory.  Through this victory we anticipate the bodily resurrection and the day when we all shall see the Lamb of God face to face, in all glory, majesty, and honor, without sin, without the devil, and without death.

Indeed, on “the Last Day, God will raise all the dead and transform the decaying dust of our flesh into a new, immortal body.  God will destroy this present, sinful earth and replace it with a new heaven and earth.  There, all who believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins will live with Him and enjoy His presence forever.”[1] 

This promise is for you, for me, and for our departed Saints. 

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Note: Large portions of this sermon are indebted to Norman Nagel’s ‘All Saint’s Day Sermon’ from Matthew 5:1-12 at Valparaiso University (November 1, 1981).

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[1] James Batchelor, “All Saint’s Day,” LCMS Sermons http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=4343 (Accessed October 31, 2015).

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Facing Death Fully

Text: 1 John 3:1-3 and Matthew 5:1-12

In the name of Jesus: Amen.

This morning we name the names of our dead, those of our church family who have died in the past year.  We name Ashley, Jeff, and Lou before the altar and before the Lord.  We also remember all other loved ones who passed away this last year as well: brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, aunts, and so forth.

For some, you will hear the names of those who passed away, but will not know much about them.  For others, you will hear their names and know them intimately as their life was intertwined with your life. 

Furthermore, with the names of those who passed away, there may be happiness or pain or both.  Their name may bring forth a wonderful memory, a memory that you have not considered in a long time, whereas, that same name may bring forth the pain of grief and loss. 

Whether we experience pain or happiness or regret or anger, we must be honest before the Lord though.  Yes, we must have courage to be honest this morning in this church and on All Saint’s Day.  Nothing else will do before the Lord.  Otherwise stated, we need to be careful to avoid the clichés of death, those sayings that are nothing more than false façades that attempt to lessen the sting of death.  We need to avoid euphemisms, which are soft and tame words that are used in the place of strong and blunt words about death.  Clichés and euphemisms such as:

“We’re not having a funeral, we’re having a celebration; God needed another angel; God wants to make you stronger through this; God never gives you more than you can handle; everything happens for a reason; they didn’t die, but simply passed on; he was a really good man.”   

Yes, we must avoid these foolish clichés and euphemisms, for they do not change the facts about death, but often confuse things and make things worse.  Sure they might bring comfort to a person experiencing grief and they might help a person feel better about granting comfort to a mourning friend, but the fact of death remains a fact no matter how much we try and cover it up and lesson its bite.  Therefore, death needs to be recognized; we should not skirt around the issue of death.

In Noel Coward’s play This Happy Breed, a man’s son is killed in the war and his friends try to help him with pious sounding clichés and euphemisms for death.  Out of the emptiness of his heart, the grieving father finally cries out, “He didn’t pass on, pass out, or pass over; he just bloody well died.” This brutal honesty about death - calling death out for what it is – shows that there is finality to death, a finality that we so desperately try and avoid.  To shove all the clichés and euphemisms off to the side and admit that the nail is in the coffin and that death has had the last word, takes courage; it calls a spade a spade.    

You see, it is hard to strip away the clichés and it is hard to strip away the euphemisms, for death is dark and the grave is deep and cold.  We want the clichés and we want the pious sayings for they attempt to lessen the sting of death.  Bluntly stated, without the clichés, death has a way of stripping life of its meaning and purpose leaving us saying, “What is the point of going on living when the one most precious in all the world has died?”

Even though starring into the dark abyss of death is difficult and takes great courage, we need to.  Yes, it is healthy and important to face death head on, to come face to face with it and consider its claim of finality.

Once we look into the coffin, once we stare down the dark grave, and once we sign the death certificate, we can then say that we have faced death fully… or have we. 

Dear friends, you and I have not faced death fully unless we have faced the death on Mt. Calvary. 

At Mt. Calvary, Jesus Christ experienced ultimate death where He was forsaken by God the Father.  He died between two criminals.  He was not guilty of any sin, but cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” as He suffered condemnation, hell, and wrath for our sin that was laid upon Him.  This is the ultimate death, the forsakenness of God.  All death of God’s children leads to this ultimate death of the Son of God.  To look upon Mt. Calvary and the blood stained cross is to face death fully.    

As we consider this ultimate death on this All Saint’s Day, we mustn’t nearly stop with Jesus’ words of, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” but we must push through these words to hear different words.  These words come forth from the dying Savior as He cried out boldly, “It is finished!”  In other words, as we consider Christ-crucified we not only hear about Christ bearing our sin upon Himself as if it was His own, but we also hear that He is not the enemy of God, but doing the saving will of God.  And as we gaze upon this ultimate death of finality, we hear that Jesus goes through death and rises from the grave.  This once bloodied, tormented, slaughtered Lamb of God is now the risen one who sits on the “throne of God and of the Lamb.” 

It gets better.  The name of this crucified and resurrected Savior – the name of Christ - was placed upon you and upon the Saints of this church that died.  His name was put upon you with the water of Baptism.  Yes, the cross of the Lamb who was slain was marked upon your head and upon your heart: marking you as one of the redeemed.  This means that this Christ will not let go of you, me, and the departed Saints of this church.  He will not let you let go of God. 

This morning, we read the names of the departed, trusting in that forgiveness won on Mt. Calvary by the Lamb who was slain, Jesus Christ.  It is He who is our judge.  It is He who answered for our sins on the cross.  What Christ did is given to you as your own possession.  His death is for you, His life is for you, and so you are forgiven and righteous with His righteousness.  It is all yours from Jesus, the Lamb of God.    

Looking into the ultimate death of Jesus Christ and knowing that our earthly deaths are not the final say, also allows us to be free from the gripping fear of death.  Today, in this protective Ark – God’s holy church – you are free to mourn with a mourning that is free of clichés and euphemisms.  You can be truthful about death, you are free to weep the tears that Jesus shares with you as you hear His words, “Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.” 

Dear Baptized Saints and you who mourn the loss of dear loved ones, take comfort for Jesus does not just talk about comfort; He has accomplished comfort for you and me at Mt. Calvary.  In other words, as we mourn the loss of our loved ones today, we know that the hands that hold us are the hands that were pierced on Mt. Calvary.  Furthermore, these hands hold us in our mother’s womb, they hold us through life, they hold us on our death bed, and they hold us through the valley of the shadow of death into eternity. 

When grief and pain strip us of everything, when the loss of the loved one seems to pull us into a pit emptying our hands of everything, do not fear for the Lord places into our empty hands His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Blessed are you who are given to by God. 

Despite the pain, complexity, grief, and struggle of death and dying, you are never outside the Lord’s protective hands. Despite the lies, deceptions, and partial truths of the world, the Lord has never lied to you. And He has never failed to do what He has promised.  You can count on Him. 

Listen today: you currently possess eternal life, right now in time.  Although you cannot see glory now, you and I walk by faith knowing and confessing that when Jesus appears again that we shall be like Him: bodily resurrected ‘with’ the departed Saints of this church.  He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Therefore, this All Saint’s Day, we not only mourn in freedom, but we rejoice and are glad in the midst of our loss, for through Christ the sting of death has been overcome by victory.  Through this victory we anticipate the bodily resurrection and the day when we all shall see the Lamb of God face to face, in all glory, majesty, and honor, without sin, without the devil, and without death.

Indeed, on “the Last Day, God will raise all the dead and transform the decaying dust of our flesh into a new, immortal body.  God will destroy this present, sinful earth and replace it with a new heaven and earth.  There, all who believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins will live with Him and enjoy His presence forever.”[1] 

This promise is for you, for me, and for our departed Saints. 

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Note: Large portions of this sermon are indebted to Norman Nagel’s ‘All Saint’s Day Sermon’ from Matthew 5:1-12 at Valparaiso University (November 1, 1981).

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[1] James Batchelor, “All Saint’s Day,” LCMS Sermons http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=4343 (Accessed October 31, 2015).