Todd A. Peperkorn, STM

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

All Saints’ Day (transferred to Nov. 7, 2004)

Matthew 5:1-12;

 

TITLE: “Blessed”

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for All Saints Day is from St. Matthew the fifth chapter.  We focus on the word, blessed.

By my reckoning, we’ve had four members of our congregation die in Christ in the past year: Signe Blackburn, Merle Sauer, Harold Koerth and Lloyd Hubeler.    I know there were many other fathers and mothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, even a few children that died in this past year.  Each of these men and women, boys and girls, had lives that were memorable in many ways.  They had families, friends who cared for them and loved them.  They were all faithful baptized Christians who received the gifts of God in faith. 

But despite how much we loved and cared for them, try applying the words of our Gospel text to them.  Peacemakers.  Hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Mourning.  Persecuted for righteousness sake.  Merciful.  And the like.  Now I suppose we could see hints of these descriptions in each of them.  Portions of their personalities that we could see reflected in Jesus’ words.  But you add them all together, and it doesn’t add up.  They were not perfect.  They were not that.  They were sinners, one and all, just as you and I are sinners, one and all.

Yet that is precisely how our culture seeks to address death.  How many pious words have been spoken over those who have died?  So and so is bound to be in heaven, they were such a nice person.  He never did a thing to hurt anyone his entire life.  She was always reading her Bible.  Or my favorite that I heard on vicarage in Texas, heaven is a better place now that they are there!  We all have a desire as soon as someone has died to make them a saint.  We don’t want anyone to notice their blemishes and faults.  We certainly don’t want anyone to know of their sins, the dark secrets that lie in the heart and soul of every son and daughter of Adam.  And so we sanitize.  We scrub their life clean.  We paint it over, give it a new shine, so that by the time we are done, you can hardly recognize them at all.

This is of course much like Adam and Eve trying to cover their shame with fig leaves.  An interesting idea, but it just wasn’t going to do the job.  For sin, dear friends, can only stay in the dark for so long.  Sin, whether we are talking about the trials and faults of the dead, or your own darkness, it all comes to light under the unblinking eye of the Law. 

When we as Christians deal with death, especially the death of ones close to us whom we love dearly, it is important for us to remember that we don’t have to whitewash.  We don’t have to put on airs of plastic perfection, and make sure that every piece is in place, every bit of their life (and ours) is in the right place.  Nor do we need to go the cheap route of simply saying basically everyone sins, they weren’t perfect, but they were good enough to get in.  This would be a mockery of Jesus’ death on the cross.  Jesus didn’t die for people that were basically good enough but needed a little push up the ladder to heaven.  He died for sinners, lost and condemned, whose only hope lie in His death on the tree.

But this, dear friends, is where the Gospel shines the brightest.  The Gospel shines the brightest when there is darkness all around.  It is in the midst of sin and yes, even death itself, that Jesus words of life and forgiveness and healing truly bring hope.

Hear again the words from our Epistle:

Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

This great tribulation is the life of sin we live hear on earth.  It is a tribulation of our own making, but it is a tribulation that we come out of by the white baptismal robes that Christ gives to us.  He clothes you with His Holy flesh and blood.  He makes you spotless, clean and perfect.  Only He can do this, for you and I cannot stand in His Holy Presence own our own rights and merits. 

But by His mercy, you may stand before the throne of grace with Harold, Signe, Merle and Lloyd.  You may stand before the throne of grace with your parents and grandparents, with your children and grandchildren.  You may stand before God’s almighty seat of judgment and hear Him say to you.  Blessed are you, peacemaker, merciful, persecuted, mournful, hungry for righteousness.  Blessed are you, because you are in the One who made peace by His death.  You are in the one who showed mercy, who was persecuted, who mourned over your sin, who hungered for your righteousness.  You are in Jesus, and when you are in Jesus, you have all things by His Name.

Now a part of what this means is that we can face death without fear.  We can also face our loved one who have died in the faith without pretensions or silly notions of perfection.  They were sinners, one and all.  They have warts and blemishes and spots and worse.  But you know what?  Christ’s righteousness covers it all.

Blessed are they whose toils have ended.  Blessed are you, for your toils go on in the One who came and is to come again.  Blessed are you indeed.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.