The Sunday of All Saints (Ps) November 3rd

Psalm 49:1-20

¹  Hear this, all peoples!

Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

²    both low and high,

rich and poor together!

³    My mouth shall speak wisdom;

the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.

⁴    I will incline my ear to a proverb;

I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

⁵    Why should I fear in times of trouble,

when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,

⁶    those who trust in their wealth

and boast of the abundance of their riches?

⁷    Truly no man can ransom another,

or give to God the price of his life,

⁸    for the ransom of their life is costly

and can never suffice,

⁹    that he should live on forever

and never see the pit.

¹⁰    For he sees that even the wise die;

the fool and the stupid alike must perish

and leave their wealth to others.

¹¹    Their graves are their homes forever,

their dwelling places to all generations,

though they called lands by their own names.

¹²    Man in his pomp will not remain;

he is like the beasts that perish.

¹³    This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;

yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah

¹⁴    Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;

death shall be their shepherd,

       and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.

Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.

¹⁵    But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,

for he will receive me. Selah

¹⁶    Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,

when the glory of his house increases.

¹⁷    For when he dies he will carry nothing away;

his glory will not go down after him.

¹⁸    For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed

—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—

¹⁹    his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,

who will never again see light.

²⁰    Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

What is the benefit of such eating and drinking? Answer:

The words “given for you” and “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins” show us that forgiveness of sin,¹⁰¹ life, and salvation are given to us in the sacrament through these words, because where there is forgiveness of sin, there is also life and salvation.

How can bodily eating and drinking do such a great thing? Answer:

Eating and drinking certainly do not do it, but rather the words that are recorded: “given for you” and “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” These words, when accompanied by the physical eating and drinking, are the essential thing in the sacrament, and whoever believes these very words has what they declare and state, namely, “forgiveness of sins.”

Who, then, receives this sacrament worthily? Answer:

Fasting and bodily preparation are in fact a fine external discipline, but a person who has faith in these words, “given for you” and “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” is really worthy and well prepared. However, a person who does not believe these words or doubts them is unworthy and unprepared, because the words “for you” require truly believing hearts.

Almighty and everlasting God, You knit together faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion, the mystical body of your Son, Jesus Christ.  Grant us so to follow Your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that, together with them, we may come to the unspeakable joys You have prepared for those who love You; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.(F34)

The Sunday of All Saints (OTA)

Numbers 15:22-31

²² “But if you sin unintentionally, and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses, ²³ all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses, from the day that the Lord gave commandment, and onward throughout your generations, ²⁴ then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation, all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the rule, and one male goat for a sin offering. ²⁵ And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, because it was a mistake, and they have brought their offering, a food offering to the Lord, and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake. ²⁶ And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake.

²⁷ “If one person sins unintentionally, he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering. ²⁸ And the priest shall make atonement before the Lord for the person who makes a mistake, when he sins unintentionally, to make atonement for him, and he shall be forgiven. ²⁹ You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. ³⁰ But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. ³¹ Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.”

How many of you have intentionally sinned? How many of you deserve to be utterly cut off? Remember it is the same rule whether you are a stranger or native among the people of Israel. Does this mean I can go outside the congregation, sin intentionally, then come back and I will be okay? No, if you sin intentionally you are utterly cut off! But if you make a mistake, or miss the mark (a.k.a. SIN), then there is an atoning sacrifice.

I do not know all the things you have done in your life. I do not really have to look to far through the files of your daily activity, and I will find a sin. Maybe that first one I find was unintentional, but second or third, might not be so unintentional. You can search through your daily logs. You can sit down and try to count up all the different sins that would utterly cut you off from the people of Israel.

I know that I am in need of some help. I know that I need a savior. I know I need more than just the unintentional sacrifice. I need a perfect atoning lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. The Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world. This Lamb of God bled and died for my intentional mistakes and your intentional mistakes. He came to make us his Holy perfect saints. This Lamb is Jesus Christ the only Son of the Father, who brings you back into the people of God. He welcomes you as one of All his Saints.

The Sunday of All Saints (GA)

Matthew 5:1-12

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

² And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵ “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

¹⁰ “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

One of my favorite All Saints Day lessons. Jesus starts out by putting each of us in our place. These remind us not only how we are failures, but what God has given to us anyway. I know there are many ways, thoughts, and teachings about these simple words. And I will not go through them all, but will simply say you are blessed.

Think of every evil thing you have done in your life. Think of the worst thing you have done. Think of the worst person you can imagine. Place all the attributes of these things, actions, and people in the blank. “Blessed are the ________, for they have been forgiven in Christ Jesus.” “Blessed are the _____, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

This is a message of shortcomings and a message of hope. God sent his Son to redeem you of your sins. You suffer and are persecuted because of your sins, or because you are speaking the truth as the prophets before you. But either way Jesus Suffered and died for you.

The Sunday of All Saints (NTA)

1 John 3:1-3

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 shall 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.

You are a child of the Heavenly Father. You are sinner who has been washed clean in the blood of Christ. You are a Holy Saint. You have been made pure by Christ Jesus our Lord. Your Father sent him from heaven adored. He made him the sacrifice for your sin. Now he waits for that day to welcome you in.

There are many Christians that act like they are saints. They act like their stuff don’t stink. But it is not just them, but we. Because all of us now we are better than they. All Saints day is only partly about you. All Saints day should honor all Christians. But it is really about those saints who have gone before us. It is about those people who have died in Christ Jesus.

They passed on their inheritance to you. They passed on their church, congregation, and confession to you. Now it is yours to pass on to the next generation. They will pass it on to the generation after that. All Saints day is not about how holy you are! But Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, have carried the message to every tribe and race.

The message is simple: You are a sinner. You are in need of cleansing and purifying. Your stuff do stink. And God sent his Son to take on your stink. He takes it upon himself to die for your sins. He washes you, and feeds you. He purifies and cleans you. God presents you to be like him, and you will be like him on the day of his appearing!

The Sunday of All Saints (G)

Luke 12:13-21

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” ¹⁶ And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, ¹⁷ and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

It is easy for many of us to add up how many gadgets, guns, cars, season tickets, CDs, DVDs, wines, or what ever you are interested in. You can then compare your house to your neighbors. You can even look around town, and figure out which part of town you live in. But all these things are meaningless and a chasing after the wind. Since the industrial age it is very easy to say, you don’t even have the latest, or the most, because they are always coming out with more.

I know that we like to compare what we have and do to what others have and do. But in the end there is only one thing that matters. Does Christ own you? It is a lot easier to go out and relax when you know that it is not about how much you have, but who owns you.

Jesus Christ has bought you with a price. He has paid the price for your redemption in his very body and blood. He has claimed the victory and you are the prize. Christ has fought the battle and defeated our common enemy death.

We do not get to store Jesus up in a barn. We do not get to own our own farm. It is Christ who claims you. And everything you do. God may take your life, even child, fame, and wife. But our treasure is not here. But in heaven where there is no beer?