Matthew 5:1-12

Blessed are the Saints

All Saints’ Day (Observed)

November 6, 2016

I can’t tell you who to vote for.  I can tell you that as a Christian, you have the duty to vote according to your conscience, which as a Christian is captive only to the Word of God.  In short, we’re to do our best to elect those who most closely administer their duties according to the God’s will – to maintain peace and order, to promote good and punish evil.  And we recognize that God is one who defines what those are. We don’t need to try to seek out God’s will in that as if it were something secret. He’s already given it to us in His Law, which is nothing else that the Creator’s will for His creation.  For that we look to the Ten Commandments, particularly the Second Table regarding the love toward our neighbor.

In the midst of such troubled times, there are some things which are certain.  Whoever is elected, we will still have our poor and needy among us (Matthew 26:11). In all likelihood these will be pretty much the same people, the same problems, and the same needs.  And the answer will be the same no matter what – Jesus Christ crucified for the salvation of the world. That is the eternal Gospel proclaimed from age to age.  What has lasting significance is not who our country elects as President, but a much more important election.  The election of God’s saints which comes through the blessedness received by faith in Christ.  And that is what All Saints' Day is all about--God's election. And God's election is first and foremost all about His Son.

Jesus is the One who comes in the name of the Lord to make us blessed along with all the saints who have gone before us. He is the Christ, the elected, the anointed, One of God to whom you have been joined as a member of His body the holy, the sanctified, Christian Church. Thus you have been joined by virtue of your baptism with the elect of every nation, and every generation, who are one with Christ. So in order to be blessed, you must be with Christ, for again, He is the blessed One. This is why and what we sing in the antiphon of our All Saints' Introit from Revelation 7:14b "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  You are among these. That is what the Divine Service of Word & Sacrament is all about--declaring and making you one of those who white washed in the red blood of the Lamb. And thus, making you one of the blessed with Christ Jesus, the Son of God who is His Blessed One.

So, blessed are you, for this is what it means to be a saint. That you are blessed, holy, set apart by and for God.  God is proclaiming to you in our Gospel reading today that you are among those who are blessed. Sacred paradox of the kingdom of heaven. The power of the Beatitudes which Jesus preaches lie in the reversal of human values. They see the present in light of the future.  “Blessedness” moves beyond emotion to a state of being, beyond a temporal world, one that is not swayed by what happens to someone in the moment, but is instead characteristic of a person’s identity. The “poor in spirit” are not necessarily all that happy about their present state of affairs; but they are blessed in knowing that they are loved by God and their destiny is the “kingdom of heaven.” Those who mourn could hardly be considered happy; but they are blessed in knowing that as children of the God who has triumphed over death, they can truly find comfort. The “meek” are usually the ones who get trampled in the stampede of life; but they are blessed in knowing that the Lord of the universe humbled himself, taking the form of servant, even to the point of death on a cross so that they could inherit the earth. Those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” sound rather needy—and they are; but acknowledging that, and they know the Righteous One will satisfy them with all they need in this life and into the next. The “merciful” usually get taken advantage of, rarely leading to happiness; but the merciful know God has had mercy on us by forgiving sins. “The pure in heart” are considered either naïve or too innocent to ever get very far in life; but they know the One who has called them by name is always purifies all unrighteousness.  “Peacemakers” may be applauded for a time, but worldly peace never lasts; but the peacemakers know the One brings an eternal peace that passes all understanding.  And finally, it is doubtful that “those who are persecuted for righteousness’s sake, those who are reviled and have all kinds of evil spoken against them falsely because of Christ” are ever really happy; but they are blessed in the knowledge that they follow a great line of prophets and apostles who understood their identity in the One who was martyred for them.

In this eternal election, the only vote that counts belongs to God, and in His declaration of the blessed.  That comes only through faith in the Gospel.  All the while, we are reminded why God calls us to put not our trust in princes. Psalm 146 states, “³ Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. ⁴ When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. ⁵ Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God…”  Regardless of our outcome on Tuesday, as those who have been declared a saint through faith you in Christ, you are elected to a high and holy position. For your election is secure and it is finished and it is blessed into eternity.