Sermon - Pentecost 23 - Luke 21:5-28

As we approach the end of the church year, the readings draw our attention to the last things, the end times, the second coming of Christ and the judgment day. 

Jesus’ teachings recorded in our reading from Luke 21 today might raise all sorts of questions in our minds, even as they seemed to do for the disciples.  He paints some awesome and frightful pictures for us, which weave together the events of the temple being destroyed in 70 AD, the persecution of the church, natural and manmade disasters that are found all throughout history, and then the final destruction and judgment of this fallen, corrupt world at his second coming. 

But none of this is meant to simply scare us, his people.  It’s not like he’s threatening us with all this doom and gloom.  Rather, he tells his disciples what is going to happen so that they will be prepared: so they will not be afraid, that they will not be led astray, so that they might repent, and that they can maintain their hope in his promise of final deliverance. 

So, too, for us.  As we consider these end times teachings, let us find hope and joy as we trust in the promises of Jesus, even when it seems like the whole world is falling apart. 

And speaking of your world falling apart, don’t forget that Jesus was teaching them all of this during Holy Week.  He knew what waited in store for him in just a few days.  The temple of his body would be destroyed by a torturous death on a Roman cross, though he would rebuild it in just three days.  It is this tearing down and building up again, this death and resurrection, that is the way of Christ and of his people also. 

The temple!  What ornate stones, what beautiful architecture!  And such an imposing edifice, it must have truly impressed the disciples every time they saw it.  Such a monument was built to last.  It would almost certainly outlast any of them.  But Jesus directs them away from putting their trust in a building, even a grand one.  Every stone here was coming down.  And, of course, at least some of the disciples would live to see it less than 40 years later, as Roman general Titus and his forces laid siege to Jerusalem, and toppled its temple.  Jesus weeps over the knowledge that all this would come to pass, he mourns for the women and small children and what they’ll have to endure.   

But even this was just a glimpse, a foreshadowing of the destruction that will come, and especially at the last day, when this corrupt creation is destroyed, burned up in fire, and the skies rolled up like a scroll.  Heaven and earth will pass away, to make way for the new heaven and earth.  70 AD, as bad as it was, just showed a sample of the destruction that is in store for this world when Christ comes again in glory.   

And it’s been happening ever since.  Man-made conflicts and disasters, as nations rise against nation in times of war.  World wars.  Ukraine.  Israel.  Rwanda.  These things must happen, it’s just the way it is in this fallen world.  But it’s not the end yet. 

And then we also see natural disasters come and go, earthquakes, famines, and pestilences, Jesus mentions.  We could add hurricanes, floods, pandemics and all other manner of calamity.  It’s just the way things are in this world of chaos, subjected to futility.  But the end is not yet.  

Persecution will befall many of God’s people, as certainly the apostles faced such opposition, and many do today.  “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake,” he says, and that hatred of the unbelievers persists, in small and large part, here and abroad.  But the end is not yet. 

With all this bad news surrounding us, with all the chaos and trouble of life, what hope do we have?  Death seems to surround us at every turn, suffering in good measure, persecution rearing its ugly head.  But Jesus also says things like: 

“not a hair of your head will be perish” and “by your endurance you will gain your lives” and “straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is  drawing near.” 

No, in the face of all this trouble, we are warned not to fall for false messiahs and false promises of his return.  Don’t go after any of them.  Go after the promises he gives.  Trust in the true Messiah, the Sun of Righteousness who rises with healing in his wings.  Look to his cross, and live, even though you die.  Live and believe in him and never die. 

There’s a scene I love from a movie, one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and it’s become a meme or pop culture metaphor.  In this scene, there’s a great battle going on between a British galleon “Endeavor” and a couple of pirate ships.  The cannons are firing, explosions are unleashed, and the wood of the Endeavor flies through the air in millions of splinters.  And through this chaotic storm of destruction, Beckett, the captain of the ship walks, descends the stairs, as the scene unfolds in slow motion, and he seems far off, distant, unaffected by the chaos around him.  Until, of course, the final explosion engulfs him along with his ship. 

That’s sort of how we live as Christians in this world of chaos.  Sin and death flying constantly around us, a churning and chaotic maelstrom of evil and suffering and senselessness.  Wars and disasters and persecution, false teaching and confusion everywhere.  This world is an absolute mess. If we pondered it, if we focused on it, we could quickly fall to despair.  We might even yearn for the final explosion that quiets the chaos and ends our misery. 

But unlike the captain who goes down with the ship, we can have calm in the storm because our focus isn’t on all of that, but on Christ, the one who died for us.  Our hope is not in this fallen and failing world, but in his promises of life and salvation, and a far brighter day to come.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.   

Christ will return, thanks be to God.  He will come in the clouds with glory, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God.  All eyes will see him.  The dead will be raised for judgment, and his people will be glorified and made incorruptible.  We will enter into our rest.  Until then we wait in faith and hope for all his promises to come true, knowing that he is faithful, and he will do it. 

Jerusalem was destroyed.  That was just the beginning.  Nations rise against nations.  This creation itself groans.  And the world hates us like it hates Christ.  These things must happen.  

But fear not.  Do not despair.  Even if they take our life, goods fame child and wife.  The kingdom ours remaineth.  Our hope is not in this world, but in the life of the world to come.  Our tears will be turned to joy, and our shame to glory, on that great and glorious day of his coming.  Christ is ours, and we are his.

Sermon - All Saints Day - All Texts

Revelation 7:(2-8) 9-17

1 John 3:1-3

Matthew 5:1-12

The people of God are his saints.  This is the primary insight and point of All Saints Day.   

We don’t consider some sort of hierarchy of more and less holy, or better and worse qualified Christians.   

There’s no years long process for a person to be declared a saint by the church, and only if they meet certain special criteria.   

But rather, sainthood, saint status, is afforded to everyone who is in Christ, and that is, simply, all Christians.  All are equally sinful and fallen, on our own, and all are justified freely by the righteousness of Christ.  There is no distinction. 

And this condition, this status, this standing before God as holy and righteous and saintly, is itself a gift.  Just like the grace of God in Christ and the faith that believes it all.  You are a saint, in Christ, because of God’s free gift to you. 

Just look at the three pictures of saints that are presented in our readings today – the great multitude cleansed by Christ in Revelation 7, in John’s letter, the term is “children of God” and for Jesus, they are called the “blessed” ones.  Let’s consider each of these in turn. 

John’s vision of the great multitude from every tribe and nation and language, standing before the throne of God and the Lamb, is a picture of the saints in glory.  They are the people of God who have finally come through the great tribulation, that is, earthly life with all its troubles and sorrows.  They’ve known sin and suffering and death.  They’ve known loss and grief.  They once mourned but now they are comforted and now they inherit the earth, and see God face to face. 

But what is most notable about them is not their diversity or their accomplishments or anything really about them, per se, but that they have received a cleansing, a washing, like no other.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. 

This was no good work of their own, mind you.  The shedding of blood was the Lamb’s work.  The dying for their sins was Christ’s job.  They are recipients of his good grace and mercy, each one of them, cleansed and restored and made fit to even stand before God.  They sing of his salvation and wave the palm branches of victory – a victory he has won for them, a victory he gives to them.  They are the saints of God in glory, and they include you and me, dear Christian. 

In John’s letter to the church, an old and wizened apostle writes with fatherly affection to young church he has seen grow in the first several decades after the resurrection.  He’s seen many come to believe in Christ, and many of them even die for the faith.  He would see all of his fellow apostles likewise martyred. The world does not know us, even as it did not know our Lord.  The world is against us, and may even kill us, as it did our Lord. 

But we have a hope.  The love that the Father has lavished upon us is such that we should be called Children of God.  And so we are.  Not by our achievements or decision, not by our own doing or desiring.  It is God’s love in Jesus Christ that has made us his children.  It is our adoption into the family, through the waters of baptism, by which we can say, I am “God’s own child”.  And this is already a present reality.  But there’s still more to come. 

When he appears we will be like him.  That is to say when the resurrected and glorified Christ appears, we, his people, we God’s children, will also be resurrected and glorified.  Children now, glorified children then.  Purified now by grace, wholly cleansed from sin in that new day.    

And just as you don’t choose to be someone’s child, but are born into a family, so the Father has adopted us by his grace in Christ, and we are born of water and the word, children of God by his doing and not our own. 

The saints are washed in the blood of Christ.  The saints are the very children of God in Christ.  And then to turn to the Beatitudes, we see the saints are the ones blessed by God in Christ. 

Here Jesus offers us a poem, 8 lines of blessed-ness, describing the people of God in beautiful verse.  But the key word is “blessed”. 

A blessing, you see, is a gift.  It is undeserved, and often unexpected.  It is given freely by the giver, and in no wise deserved by the receiver.  It’s not a wage that is owed, or repayment of a debt.  It’s not a prize for achievement or an honor that is due.  A blessing is a matter of grace.  And Jesus begins his sermon on the mount, his teaching about life in his kingdom, by speaking in terms of such blessing. 

What do the blessed saints receive in his kingdom? 

Well, for starters, and for finishers, the kingdom itself is theirs. 

Those who mourn are comforted (and that comfort is the same word by which the Holy Spirit is called – the parklete, the comforter) 

Those who are meek will be blessed to inherit the earth. 

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be blessed with food and drink, their hunger filled and their thirst quenched.  We might think of the blessings of the Lord’s Supper, by which we receive the very bread of heaven, Jesus Christ himself! 

The merciful are blessed to receive mercy.   

The pure in heart are blessed to see God. 

And the peacemakers are blessed to be called sons of God (and we’ve already mentioned how blessed it is to be a child of God) 

Even those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake are blessed, blessed with the very kingdom of heaven.  I wonder if Jesus mentions the kingdom of heaven twice in this little poem because we have it now, his kingdom, by grace, and yet we also look forward to the kingdom that is to come, the kingdom of glory, which is also ours by grace in Jesus Christ. 

No, we don’t meet these beatific criteria fully or always very well.  We are not always merciful or peacemakers.  Our hunger and thirst for righteousness could often be stronger.  But thanks be to God for the most blessed one, the saint of all saints, the Holy One of God, Jesus Christ, who perfectly fulfills all righteousness for us, stands in our place under God’s judgment, and hangs on the cross we deserve.  He is the source and font of every blessing, the one and only one through whom we are blessed beyond measure.  We are saints, through him, by him, and in him. 

Dear Christians, dear saints of God, you who have washed your robes in the blood of Christ, you who are called children of God, you who are blessed in so many ways by our Lord Jesus Christ.  Be blessed to live as his people, trusting in his grace, living out your faith, and looking forward to the day when all the saints of God are reunited with him in the kingdom that has no end.