All Saints Day (observed) 11/6/05 Text: Matthew 5:1-12 Title: Just Because I Said So.
All Saints Day (observed)
11/6/2005
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Title: Just Because I Said So.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
How many of you have ever told one of your children that they needed to do something and gotten a, “I don’t have too.” from them. As a parent it use to drive me crazy to hear for the umpteenth time, “I don’t have to”
In fact, I don’t remember anything else that my children said to me that would guarantee that they got my standard parent reply, “Just because I said so, that is why.”
It always amazed me that it took my children so long to learn that when I told them to do something, and they replied to my request with, “I don’t have to.” that they always ended up doing what I had told them to do, because their telling me that guaranteed that they were going to do what had I told them to do.
As I thought about my children’s response to my telling them that they needed to do something, the more I realized that we, who are children of God, respond in much the same manner to our Heavenly Father’s words to us.
I believe that that is why so many people were somewhat uncomfortable this morning when they were asked to put on the saint tag with their name on it. For the most part, most of us are just plain uncomfortable calling ourselves saints, because we know that we don’t meet the requirements for being a saint. We don’t always obey God’s commands even though we know they are good for us. Generally we don’t even try very hard to live the lives he wants us to live. So it is natural for us to think that we cannot be a saint.
Besides that, as we look at our lives we remember all those times that we were unloving to our neighbors, did not trust in God to care for us, or any of those other ungodly things we seem attracted to. There just is not anyway that we can be called a saint, that is pretty clear.
Those all sound like good reasons for us to think we cannot possible be called saints. But I think it goes much deeper than that. The real reason behind our uneasiness with being called saints is that we know that we have gotten away from God’s Word where he tells us that we are indeed saints. Christ’s Word describes our life of sainthood. His Word tells “What real life” is like as a Christian and at the same time comforts those who receive and believe his Word.
Listen once more to his words to us this morning, “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted, and the list goes on as Saint Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote them down for us in his Gospel.
All of the Beatitudes that Jesus spoke that day so long ago, describe the life of saints on this earth. You say you don’t think so, well they do, for we are not saints because of how we live our lives, but because Christ lives in us.
When the Holy Spirit came into your life in your baptism you became united with Christ, thus becoming a saint. Your eating and drinking of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper makes you a saint. Your being absolved of your sins makes you a saint. All of those things make you a saint, and being a saint according to God’s Word is living a life of hardship and sorrow.
But, you say you are not living a life of hardship and sorrow. Life is pretty good all things considered, so does that mean that I am not a saint after all. No, that does not mean you’re not a saint. You will see what I mean in just the first two Beatitudes of our text for this morning. “Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of God.” and “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
These two Beatitudes describe those who have been crushed by God’s Law over their sins and have nothing going for them except Jesus and his perfect life, death and resurrection.
Saints are thus poor in spirit because they know that they have nothing to bring before God to show how well off they are. Yet they have all they need, for they have Christ. And because of that, “Theirs is the kingdom of God.”
They mourn over their sins. They are troubled and frightened by their weakness of faith; they are grieved and sorrowful because they do not serve their neighbors as they should. Such sin causes them to shed tears of repentance. But they are comforted. Not that someone just dries their tears, and pats them on the back, saying everything is going to be okay, but that they are comforted by the great Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
In short, Jesus in the Beatitudes, describes those who are troubled by sin, frightened by death, suffering for his name, who have come to the conclusion that they have nothing in themselves and their lives to cling to, nothing that is except the cross of Jesus.
What Jesus is talking about in the Beatitudes demolishes the worlds and for that matter, our own notions about what it means to be a saint. Don’t you think of saints as being people who have a lot of faith and can talk easily about God? Don’t you believe for the most part, that saints are those goody two-shoes type of people who live some extraordinary life doing things that show their godliness. You know, those that are so nice that they make you uncomfortable to be around because they show you how unsaintly you really are.
Of course there are those people who feel like they are worthy of being called a saint, all because they live a better life than those around them. While they feel like they deserve the title saint, there are those who feel like they can never be good enough to be a saint, for they are too sinful. Last but not least, there are those who feel that only if they could live like Christ wants them to live they will surely achieve the right to be called a saint, after which they will have all the blessings that Jesus promised in the Beatitudes.
The problem with what they all believe is that they are all wrong in their thinking, for being a saint is not about what we do, but about what Jesus did on the cross and continues to do through his Word and Sacraments.
Think about it for a moment, who is the only one that can be truly poor in spirit if not Jesus? Who truly mourns over sin, the sins of all people, if not Jesus? Who is it that can truly say that they hunger and thirst after righteousness, if not Jesus, who wept over his fallen creation?
You see the Beatitudes are not Be-attitudes that we try to check off so that we can get blessings from God; they are descriptions of our Savior, which became ours through our union with him in Baptism. We are now poor in Spirit, even if we do not feel like it. We now hunger and thirst for righteousness, not our own righteousness, but his, for he is the living bread, the only thing that can satisfy our hunger. He is the only water that can quench our thirst for everlasting life. You see it is not what we do that makes us a saint. It is about Jesus and his righteousness that makes us a saint.
I would be remiss if I did not go over verses 10 and 11 of our text before I finish this morning, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”
I want you to think about what you just heard Jesus say. Christians are not attacked by the devil, world, and flesh for being good, but for having a righteousness that is not their own, that is Christ’s righteousness. The world cannot stand those who trust in Jesus, rather than themselves.
Believe Jesus words to you this morning, because he said so,for if you are in Christ, the world will hate you, the devil will attack you, and your sinful flesh will give you no rest. We come to church on Sunday morning, so that we can be refreshed in Jesus’ righteousness when we hear God’s Word, receive absolution for our sins, eat and drink Christ’s body and blood, and live in our Baptism.
There is no guarantee in the Bible that the life of a Christian is a life of ease, riches, fame, or fortune, regardless of what you might have heard some preacher say, and there is a lot of them that say that. No, the only thing you are guaranteed in this life is your Savior. But that should not bother you, for by having Christ in your heart, you have everything, even though you might not have received everything, just yet.
Every Sunday morning when we recite either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed we confess to all who are here that we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. It is coming, it just isn’t here yet. But we know it is coming for we know it is ours through Christ.
This past year Saint Rose, Saint Paul, and Saint Vernon achieved what we are still looking forward to, for they have won the crown of everlasting life.
This is the hope and future of all who are still living, who are called to be saints in Christ.
My fellow saints please turn to your neighbor in the pew on either side of you, calling them by their saint name, greeting them with the peace of the Lord.
11/6/2005
Text: Matthew 5:1-12
Title: Just Because I Said So.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
How many of you have ever told one of your children that they needed to do something and gotten a, “I don’t have too.” from them. As a parent it use to drive me crazy to hear for the umpteenth time, “I don’t have to”
In fact, I don’t remember anything else that my children said to me that would guarantee that they got my standard parent reply, “Just because I said so, that is why.”
It always amazed me that it took my children so long to learn that when I told them to do something, and they replied to my request with, “I don’t have to.” that they always ended up doing what I had told them to do, because their telling me that guaranteed that they were going to do what had I told them to do.
As I thought about my children’s response to my telling them that they needed to do something, the more I realized that we, who are children of God, respond in much the same manner to our Heavenly Father’s words to us.
I believe that that is why so many people were somewhat uncomfortable this morning when they were asked to put on the saint tag with their name on it. For the most part, most of us are just plain uncomfortable calling ourselves saints, because we know that we don’t meet the requirements for being a saint. We don’t always obey God’s commands even though we know they are good for us. Generally we don’t even try very hard to live the lives he wants us to live. So it is natural for us to think that we cannot be a saint.
Besides that, as we look at our lives we remember all those times that we were unloving to our neighbors, did not trust in God to care for us, or any of those other ungodly things we seem attracted to. There just is not anyway that we can be called a saint, that is pretty clear.
Those all sound like good reasons for us to think we cannot possible be called saints. But I think it goes much deeper than that. The real reason behind our uneasiness with being called saints is that we know that we have gotten away from God’s Word where he tells us that we are indeed saints. Christ’s Word describes our life of sainthood. His Word tells “What real life” is like as a Christian and at the same time comforts those who receive and believe his Word.
Listen once more to his words to us this morning, “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted, and the list goes on as Saint Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote them down for us in his Gospel.
All of the Beatitudes that Jesus spoke that day so long ago, describe the life of saints on this earth. You say you don’t think so, well they do, for we are not saints because of how we live our lives, but because Christ lives in us.
When the Holy Spirit came into your life in your baptism you became united with Christ, thus becoming a saint. Your eating and drinking of his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper makes you a saint. Your being absolved of your sins makes you a saint. All of those things make you a saint, and being a saint according to God’s Word is living a life of hardship and sorrow.
But, you say you are not living a life of hardship and sorrow. Life is pretty good all things considered, so does that mean that I am not a saint after all. No, that does not mean you’re not a saint. You will see what I mean in just the first two Beatitudes of our text for this morning. “Blessed are the poor in Spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of God.” and “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
These two Beatitudes describe those who have been crushed by God’s Law over their sins and have nothing going for them except Jesus and his perfect life, death and resurrection.
Saints are thus poor in spirit because they know that they have nothing to bring before God to show how well off they are. Yet they have all they need, for they have Christ. And because of that, “Theirs is the kingdom of God.”
They mourn over their sins. They are troubled and frightened by their weakness of faith; they are grieved and sorrowful because they do not serve their neighbors as they should. Such sin causes them to shed tears of repentance. But they are comforted. Not that someone just dries their tears, and pats them on the back, saying everything is going to be okay, but that they are comforted by the great Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
In short, Jesus in the Beatitudes, describes those who are troubled by sin, frightened by death, suffering for his name, who have come to the conclusion that they have nothing in themselves and their lives to cling to, nothing that is except the cross of Jesus.
What Jesus is talking about in the Beatitudes demolishes the worlds and for that matter, our own notions about what it means to be a saint. Don’t you think of saints as being people who have a lot of faith and can talk easily about God? Don’t you believe for the most part, that saints are those goody two-shoes type of people who live some extraordinary life doing things that show their godliness. You know, those that are so nice that they make you uncomfortable to be around because they show you how unsaintly you really are.
Of course there are those people who feel like they are worthy of being called a saint, all because they live a better life than those around them. While they feel like they deserve the title saint, there are those who feel like they can never be good enough to be a saint, for they are too sinful. Last but not least, there are those who feel that only if they could live like Christ wants them to live they will surely achieve the right to be called a saint, after which they will have all the blessings that Jesus promised in the Beatitudes.
The problem with what they all believe is that they are all wrong in their thinking, for being a saint is not about what we do, but about what Jesus did on the cross and continues to do through his Word and Sacraments.
Think about it for a moment, who is the only one that can be truly poor in spirit if not Jesus? Who truly mourns over sin, the sins of all people, if not Jesus? Who is it that can truly say that they hunger and thirst after righteousness, if not Jesus, who wept over his fallen creation?
You see the Beatitudes are not Be-attitudes that we try to check off so that we can get blessings from God; they are descriptions of our Savior, which became ours through our union with him in Baptism. We are now poor in Spirit, even if we do not feel like it. We now hunger and thirst for righteousness, not our own righteousness, but his, for he is the living bread, the only thing that can satisfy our hunger. He is the only water that can quench our thirst for everlasting life. You see it is not what we do that makes us a saint. It is about Jesus and his righteousness that makes us a saint.
I would be remiss if I did not go over verses 10 and 11 of our text before I finish this morning, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”
I want you to think about what you just heard Jesus say. Christians are not attacked by the devil, world, and flesh for being good, but for having a righteousness that is not their own, that is Christ’s righteousness. The world cannot stand those who trust in Jesus, rather than themselves.
Believe Jesus words to you this morning, because he said so,for if you are in Christ, the world will hate you, the devil will attack you, and your sinful flesh will give you no rest. We come to church on Sunday morning, so that we can be refreshed in Jesus’ righteousness when we hear God’s Word, receive absolution for our sins, eat and drink Christ’s body and blood, and live in our Baptism.
There is no guarantee in the Bible that the life of a Christian is a life of ease, riches, fame, or fortune, regardless of what you might have heard some preacher say, and there is a lot of them that say that. No, the only thing you are guaranteed in this life is your Savior. But that should not bother you, for by having Christ in your heart, you have everything, even though you might not have received everything, just yet.
Every Sunday morning when we recite either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed we confess to all who are here that we believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. It is coming, it just isn’t here yet. But we know it is coming for we know it is ours through Christ.
This past year Saint Rose, Saint Paul, and Saint Vernon achieved what we are still looking forward to, for they have won the crown of everlasting life.
This is the hope and future of all who are still living, who are called to be saints in Christ.
My fellow saints please turn to your neighbor in the pew on either side of you, calling them by their saint name, greeting them with the peace of the Lord.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 2:16 PM
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