In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace
and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord
and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
All Saints Day (Observed) (2011)
What
Manner of Love is This?
1 John 3:1-3
(ESV)
See what kind of love the Father has given
to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why
the world does not know us is that it did not know him. [2] Beloved, we are God's children now, and
what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will
be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
[3] And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Today
we observe the celebration of All Saints Day although officially it occurred
last Tuesday, Nov. 1st. Many of our Christian brothers and sisters
do not understand this day, thinking, those Lutherans are worshipping or
praying to the dead. Well, not so fast.
As
we know, on those Sundays when we do not celebrate the Lord’s Supper, the
absolution offered proclaims, “To those who believe on His name He gives the
power to become the children of God.” This statement is confirmed by the words
of the apostle John in our Epistle Reading this morning.
From
the days of Adam’ fall, the world had gone astray; it had lost its way. Sin,
which corrupts the nature of man, deprives him of every hope of life and joy in
the presence of God. God appears to sinful man not as a loving Father but as a
cruel avenger, filled with wrath; rather than a forgiving God. For the sinner,
God has become an exacting judge.
Confronted
with his sinfulness, man is filled with hopelessness in his inability to break
the power of sin, and helpless to pay the ransom required for the redemption of
his soul. Filled with remorse, he is unable to feel that he is a son of God. He
realizes that he is not only a wretched outcast, forever yearning, but he is
also everlastingly ashamed and unable to come to the Father’s house. But all is
not lost, there is a heavenly answer for man’s despair, and that answer lies in
God’s love for the man He has created and His gracious and loving desire is to
protect and preserve him.
Therefore,
God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to be His sacrificial Gift for the
salvation of man. The Son of God, Incarnate, lying in deepest poverty within a
borrowed stable, is God’s proclamation to the world—to you and to me, to all of
whom He would call to be saints that here, in a stable, lay the fulfillment of
His promise, the answer to man’s dilemma of sin. Here, in this Judean night lay
the matchless, marvelous, mysterious love divine which transcended all human
love. Through the life of His Son Jesus, He opened the door to our adoption to
be His children.
No
greater gift has ever been, indeed, no greater gift can ever be given. For
gifts of silver or gold or of human sacrifice and kindness are gifts of
imperfection. At best they can only remind us of the free gift of God’s love
which excels in abundance. No man given gift can bestow the power that God’s
incomparable gift bestows.
However,
it is only the Christian, the child of God, transformed by the loving hand of
Christ, who can understand this mystery and receive the full power and blessing
of God’s love. The soul that does not believe, that does not understand, cannot
feel the love of God.
Today,
we live as sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of our Lord, Jesus
Christ, but a day will come when our heavenly Father’s love toward us will
reach the brightest and most wonderful fulfillment in the full bestowal of
eternal life in heaven. St. John says, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what
we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be
like him, because we shall see him as he is” (v. 2). Bright and
beautiful, blessed and wonderful is the present lot of the believer in Christ
Jesus! In the midst of this troubled world, a world which is sordid, evil,
sorrowful, and filled with tears, God’s gift of faith with its revelation of
the love of the Father gives peace of mind and soul. It bestows a quiet calm
that makes for strength, strength to meet life’s trials and face every
tribulation.
However, the glorious hope, the promise of the future, is indescribably more wonderful than the peace and joy we already have today. Heaven, peace in the presence of God, everlasting joy at the throne of the Lamb, this, is, after all, the aim and goal of every child of God. From heartbroken Adam to the last man standing, the yearning hope is for the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God (Heb. 4:9). The writer to the Hebrews tells us that, “By faith Abraham . . . went out, not knowing where he was going . . . For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:8-10 ESV). Moreover, Abraham’s descendants, “all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth,” because they desired a better country, “that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:13, 16 ESV).
We,
too, know that, “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come”
(Hebrews 13:14 ESV). That is, we
seek, “Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” where
we will reside with “innumerable angels in festal gathering” with “the
assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” and with “God,
the judge of all ... the spirits of the righteous made perfect” and with “Jesus,
the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 12:22-24 ESV). There, in that
Indeed,
we sing:
But,
lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day:
The
saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The
King of Glory passes on His way.
From
earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through
gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing
to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: Alleluia! Alleluia! (677, LSB)
Therefore,
today, we celebrate the lives of all whom God has blessed with the gift of
faith in the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.
Granted this most precious gift, these saints were able to live loving God with
all their hearts, with all their souls, and with all their minds as they lived
loving their neighbors as themselves. However, we celebrate not only those who
have lived this life and are now living in heaven, but we celebrate those whom
God has called to faith in this life and are living witnesses of the love of
Christ; each and everyone of you, whom God has called to faith in Christ Jesus and
given you the commandment to proclaim the Gospel to a world dying in sin; so
there might be more saints in heaven. What
Manner of Love is This? It is God’s love in the manifestation of His One
and only Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
May the peace
of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Amen.