Sermon from  November 5th, 2023

 All Saints Sermon 2023    Matthew 5:1-12 

     All Saints Day, November 1, is a big holiday in New Orleans, because there are lots of Catholics who live in that area. Churches are named after saints. Roads and neighborhoods are named after saints. The football tea, is called the Saints; and the theme song of the area is "When the Saints Come Marching In." 

  And they really do play that song while parading down the street for a jazz funeral. The onlookers who join in this parage behind the band is called the second line. They do a kind of dance march and wave their hats and handkerchief's and umbrellas in the air. This dance is called "second lining". 

 That's kind of how we think it will be when we get to heaven. There will be the first group of really food saintly people marching through the pearly gates, and after them there will be the second line, the group of more common saints, you know, people like you and me, pretty good and decent folks, but not in the same league as those saintly saints. 

We're in that secong group along with many others. And behind us there's probably a third group and fourth group, people less and less deserving the farther back you go. 

Is that the way it's going to be on judgment day when the saints go marching in? 

Let's pretend that's the way  it's going to be.  

So ... who's going to be in that first group going through the pearly gates? 

Well, I know I don't belong in that first group. 

 Why? Because of the Beatitudes in our Gospel lesson from the beginning of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Who does Jesus pronounce as   "blessed"? The poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger and thirst after rightness, those who mourn, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. 

So... what's my trach record with the Beatitudes? I'm poor in spirit as long as I don't have reason to be proud. I'm meek as long as I'm not offended. I hunger and thirst after righteousness as long as I'm not hungry and thirsty for something else.

 I can be merciful to someone once in a while if I feel like it. I'm pure in heart for a moment here or there. I'm peacemaker as long as it's in my best interest. 

If I had to deserve to be called a saint, I'm toast. 

So Who's going to be in that first line of saints when they do go marching in? Do you think anyone ever has matched up to our Gospel reading? Do you think anyone in church history was all these things all of the time? 

Do you think any saint was always free from pride? Was any saints always meek even when someone kept insulting them? Were they always hungry and thirsty after righteousness? where they really so different from me and you? 

Well, what about Mother Theresa? She dedicated her whole life helping the poor. Her  work in the disease- infested streets of Calcutta was truly amazing. She had a huge impact on many people. If anybody deserves the title of saint, surely Mother Theresa does. 

 But a few years ago parts of her personal diary came out and showed the doubts and struggles even she had. 

Have you heard this joke about Mother Theresa? A guy says that his greatest fear is that on Judgment Day he will be standing behind Mother Theresa and hear the Lord say to her, 'You know, you could've done more."

It's funny, but it's absolutely true, isn't it? Who in the entire history of the church has been the perfect person the Beatitudes say we are to be? Who could not have done more? 

Well, maybe somebody in the Bible was good enough to be a saint. But you read the Bible and realize it doesn't look good for anybody. The patriarchs- Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-all had human failing, which are described in painful detail in the book of Genesis. Moses was guilty of murder. 

 David wasn't always meek and merciful. He had Uriah put on the front line to get him killed in battle so that he could take Uriah's wife. 

Peter's empty boast about  remaining faithful to Christ unto death doesn't portray a man who is poor in spirit; and then he goes and swears that he doesn't even know Christ! And then there's Paul and Barnabas having such a sharp argument that they split up over whether to take John Mark back to the mission fields.(Acts 15)

There's the episode of James and John wating to burn a village that rejected Christ. Mary and Martha tried to lay a guilt trip on Christ because their brother Lazarus died. (John 11) And even Jesus' own mother Mary and his brothers said Jesus was out of his mind for some of the stuff he was doing in his early ministry. (Mark 3:21) 

So... who is worthy to be a saint?

The New Testament Gospels were written to tell the Good News about Jesus. They are Primarily about what Jesus has done for us. When you hear the Beatitudes on All Saints  Day, Think Jesus.  

He who had the fullness of the Holy Spirit was always poor in spirit. He who knew all the joys of heaven was a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, according to Isaiah. Although He had all authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus was nonetheless meek and emptied himself and became obedient unto death. 

Although He had all righteousness, He hungered and thirsted for it so much that He went to the cross and died a brutal death to win righteousness for us. Though Jesus was shown no mercy even by His heavenly Father as He hung between heaven and earth, He was still merciful to sinners like us, merciful to the people torturing him.

Though He died for the lusts that fill our hears, He was pure in heart. Though we were at war with Him because of our sins, He made peace with us. Though He lived a perfect life in our place , Jesus was condemned like a criminal to death by crucifixion. 

The virtuous and godly life that is necessary to be a saint is available only in Jesus. It's only through our Lord Jesus Christ that anyone at anytime is a saint. It's through His bearing our sins that we are sinless before God even though we remain sinners till the day we die. It's by Jesus resurrection that we can look forward to our own blessed resurrection. 

The definition of saint is  "a forgiven sinner." The Blood of Jesus Christ is thick enough and rich enough to make the worst sinner a saint. That blood called the murderous Saul and made him St. Paul. It called the denying Simon and made him St. Peter. 

That blood of Christ called you sinful grandmothers and grandfathers, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, spouses and children, and all the sinful saints of the past and cleansed them of their sin and outfitted them with the perfect robe of Christ's righteousness. 

Don't look inside yourself or at your loved ones for evidence of being a saint. Look instead at Jesus' life and ministry, death and resurrection and know that it was holy and good enough not only for you and your loved ones but for the whole world. 

It is through faith in Christ that every single sinner is first in line when the saints come marching in, and this is where the power of your loving others comes from. We sinners don't do good to become saints; we do good because  we already are saints. 

Amen. 

(before general prayer) 

When we think about saints, most of us can think of certain people in our past who brought the love of God to us in a special way: by what they said, by what they did, by who they were. They are people who touched our lives in a special way. They are our personal saints. They embody the presence of Christ for us. 

Who is a saint for you ?

Who brought God's love into your life? 

Who is an inspiration to you?

Whose faith would you like to imitate?

Who is a saint to you?

Perhaps it was our parents; or maybe it was a faithful pastor; perhaps it was a person who just seemed to glow with the light of Christ, whose faith was an example to us. How grateful we can be to God for them. 

This is how God wanted it to be in the church: that as we live and work and talk with other Christians, it is our own faith that grows, as we share christ with others and they with us. Let us pause a few moments to give thanks to God for those people who have been a blessing to us in our spiritual journey.

Sermon by Pastor Jack Flachsbart