All Saints Day
November 1, 2002

Prayer of the Day
Almighty God, whose people are knit together in one holy Church, the body of Christ our Lord: Grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in lives of faith and commitment, and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who love you; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

     "The Gospel depicts ideal qualities of ‘the blessed’ in this world; the Epistle is a glorious passage which gives a vision of them in the heavenly world; the Collect in superlatively beautiful language unites the faithful of both worlds in the communion of saints, the church of Christ.... The Collect is by the English Reformers." [1]

Revelation 7:9-17
{9} After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. {10} They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!" {11} And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, {12} singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." {13} Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" {14} I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. {15} For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. {16} They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; {17} for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

     Revelation 7:4 says that 144,000 were sealed "out of every tribe of the people of Israel." It is possible that this is based on a first century estimate of the number of Christian Jews in the first part of the second century.

9. a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages: Those from among the non-Israelite peoples who will stand before the Lord clearly outnumber those sealed from the people of Israel.
Lamb: "The image of Jesus as a Lamb who has been slaughtered is a surprising contrast to his designation as a lion (5.5) and suggests the Passover sacrifice (1 Cor 5.7). Revelation uses Lamb as a designation for the exalted Christ twenty-eight times, highlighting his sacrificial role…." [2]
robed in white: In verse 14 they are identified as those "who have come out of the great ordeal," originally a specific, historical event, now transformed into an eschatological tribulation prior to God’s triumph.
15-17: Those robed in white will not hunger or thirst any more (reminiscent of Matthew 25:35).
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes: See Isaiah 25:8 (first lesson for Proper 23): "the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces."
It was dangerous to be a Christian at the end of the first century of the common era. Both Christian Jews and Gentile Christians were in jeopardy throughout the empire. In this passage John records his vision of those who perished in persecution and who are, now, before the throne of God. God will provide for them and wipe their tears, the Lamb will guide them to the water of life. The church was strengthened by words like these and survived the hostility of the pagan Roman empire until it, in turn, became the imperial religion and could persecute those who sought the consolation of other gods. We need to realize that God is always on the side of the persecuted, no matter who their persecutors are!

Psalm 34:1-10, 22
{1} I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. {2} My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. {3} O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. {4} I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. {5} Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. {6} This poor soul cried, and was heard by the LORD, and was saved from every trouble. {7} The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. {8} O taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him. {9} O fear the LORD, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want. {10} The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing…. {22} The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

     Psalm 34 is an acrostic Psalm with each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Such Psalms are frequently disparaged as mechanical and without creative power. "Even if the ‘I’ in the formularies of the songs of thanksgiving and even more in a didactic poem has a standardized function, still the life experiences of the ‘I’ that is speaking are vital." [3] The Psalm is a song of thanksgiving of one who "was heard by the LORD, and was saved from every trouble" (verse 6). Within the liturgy the Psalm reflects the scene described in verse 15: "they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple." Those who seek the LORD will lack nothing good, and none who take refuge in him will be condemned.

1 John 3:1-3
{1} See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. {2} Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. {3} And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

     "In 3:1-3 the author interprets the sentence taken from his Source in v 29, in the first instance (3:1), by making his readers aware of what it means to be begotten of God: it means being a child of God and thus the gift of God’s love…." [4]

1. The reason the world does not know us: "…is not consolation for those persecuted by the ...[cosmos] ("world"), but the foil for the statement about the filial relation to God: that the ‘world’ does not recognize the children of God is precisely a proof that they really are God’s children and that they no longer belong to the world." [5]
2. what we will be has not yet been revealed…. when he is revealed, we will be like him: "He" is Christ who will return. The children of God will be glorified as he is glorified.

Matthew 5:1-12
{1} When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. {2} Then he began to speak, 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 will be comforted. {5} "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. {6} "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. {7} "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. {8} "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. {9} "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. {10} "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. {11} "Blessed are you when people 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 in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

     The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount have already been used on Epiphany 4 this year. The comments are, for the most part, repeated from the text study for that Sunday. Parallels: Mark 3:13; Luke 6:17, 20-23; John 6:3.
     "The name beatitude is derived from the Latin beatitudo, which corresponds to the Greek ... [makarismos] ("macarism"), a label that may have been used perhaps even in the New Testament itself [Galatians 4:15, "what has become of your praise (pou oun ho makarismos hymon?)." [6] The Old Testament and post biblical literature contain a large number of beatitudes, presenting them in a wide variety of forms and functions and making it thereby difficult to see their primary characteristics. Comparing all these materials leads to the following conclusions:

1. Their original function (Sitz im Leben) is in the ritual.
2. Their nature is that of declarative statements.
3. Their future orientation is eschatological as well as this-worldly.
4. They are connected with ethics and morality." [7]

     "Strictly speaking, they should be pronounced by the divine judge in the afterlife, as verdicts at the eschatological judgment. Spoken in the present they reveal a message that belongs to the future of persons for whose eternal salvation this message is decisive." [8] "By revealing a new way of life, the beatitude affects moral behavior and demands an ethical awareness." [9]
3… Blessed…: "Within an honor-shame setting, perhaps the best translation for ‘blessed is/are’ would be "how honorable…,’ ‘How full of honor…,’ ‘How honor bringing…,’ and the like. The counter to ‘beatitudes’ are the ‘woes’ or reproaches in Matt. 23:13-35; there the formula: ‘Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites…’ out be translated: ‘How shameless you are…’" [10] "The language used here, that is, ‘blessed,’ is honorific language. Contrary to the dominant social values, these ‘blessed are…’ statements ascribe honor to those unable to defend their positions or those who refuse to take advantage of or trespass on the position of another. Obviously then the honor granted comes from God, not from the usual social sources." [11]
poor: "being ‘poor’ was to be unable to defend what was yours. It meant falling below the status at which one was born. It was to be defenseless, without recourse….In a society in which power brought wealth (in our society it is the opposite: wealth ‘buys’ power), being powerless meant being vulnerable to the greedy who prey on the weak. The terms ‘rich’ and ‘poor,’ therefore, are better translated ‘greedy’ and ‘socially unfortunate.’….By contrast, being merciful, pure in heart, or a peacemaker points to moral qualities a person must strive to acquire….‘Mercy’ is the obligation one has to repay debts of interpersonal obligation….To be pure of heart is to have one’s thinking and feeling faculties attuned to what pleases God, something close to our word ‘conscience.’….‘peacemakers’ are those who work toward [the end of meaningful human existence]." [12]
     "As the church fathers recognized, and I believe they were right, the first beatitude in the SM (as well as in the SP) is basic. Thereafter, all others are climactic developments of some sort. In the SM the climax is reached in SM/Matt. 5:12. Moreover, vs 3b and vs 10b ("for theirs is the kingdom of heaven") repeat the same statement is in the present tense and provide an inclusio around 5:4-9. The second lines of the beatitudes in 5:4-9 state eschatological promises in the future tense. This series in 5:4-9 contains beatitudes that correspond to consecutive scenes describing the destiny of the righteous in paradise. Thus one may see in these verses a greatly abbreviated apocalyptic vision of the world to come…." [13]
9. they will be called children of God: Luther’s translation seems to have been the first to use "children" here for the Greek "sons."

Reflection
     The idea of faithfulness in persecution runs through the lessons for All Saints Day. Although for the most part we are protected against persecution, others in the world today are not so fortunate. And even in our own country one may be killed for declaring their belief in Christ. In the faith of such danger we are assured that we are safe because God will protect us, if not from physical suffering and death, then from spiritual abuse. While we are grateful for God’s protection and sing his praises with the psalmist, Christians need to be careful that they do not become abusers of others in their zeal for Christ.

Hymns [14]
With One Voice (e.g. 762v), Hymnal Supplement 1991 (e.g. 725s) and LBW (e.g. 32).
E=Entrance; D=Hymn of the Day; I=First Lesson, P=Psalm; II=Second Lesson; G=Gospel