Inspired By the Saints and Love of God
Commentary
The text for this festival concerns how in our walk of faith we are inspired by the saints and love of God.
Revelation 7:9-17
The First Lesson is taken for an apocryphal book of the last first century expressing hope for salvation after a world-ending new creation. Although parts of the book may predate the fall of Jerusalem, it is likely that it achieved its present form during the reign of Emperor Domitian between 81 and 96 AD. Christians were being persecuted for refusing to address him as lord and god. Though the tradition ascribes the authorship to John, (1:1,4,9; 22:8) it is by no means clear that the author is one of the disciples. However, the book’s semitic Greek style does suggest its author was Jewish. It relies heavily on eschatological images of the Book of Daniel and other Old Testament texts (see 1:7,12,16; cf. Daniel 7:3; 10:5-9). This lesson is a vision of the multitude of the redeemed, transpiring between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals (opened by the lamb [presumably Christ] in 6:1).
The multitude of every nation is said to stand before the lamb robed in white (symbolizing righteousness and victory). They carry palm branches (also symbolizing victory) (v.9). A praise psalm is offered regarding salvation belonging to God and Christ (v.10). Angels stood around the throne of God and around the elders and four living creatures. They worship God, singing a sevenfold ascription to God (vv.11-12). In dialogue with an elder, John learns that those robed in white are those who have weathered persecution and been washed in Christ’s sacrifice (vv.13-14). Those who endured persecution (probably a period of distress prior to the end times) have a favored position, standing before the throne of God. They worship him day and night, receiving shelter (v.17). They will also hunger and thirst no more, enjoying comfort from the heat (Isaiah 49:10; Psalm 121:6) (v.16). The lamb at the center of the throne will be the shepherd of those who suffered. He will guide them, and God will wipe away their tears (v.17).
An American Enterprise poll taken at the beginning of the year found that 60% of us think things are going badly in America. Explore the ups and downs of life nationally and in your community. There is a sense in which it feels like we are in a new, more turbulent time. There are parallels between our feelings and those Christians to whom Revelation was first addressed, their sense that life was coming unglued and was precarious in view of upcoming persecutions. Thus, help those being addressed in the sermon to understand that the word of hope in our text is for us. Its promise of a new time dawning and a fresh start even after the tough times can provide us with hope for the future, for a better day coming. We need no longer be paralyzed by fear or by the chains of the past. It is indeed new fresh starts which lie ahead! Note that in this trek towards the new opportunities God is giving us the saints who have gone before us entered their new situations with the kind of courage and confidence in God which can encourage us.
1 John 3:1-3
The Second Lesson is found in a treatise or sermon by an unknown teacher in
the Johannine tradition, probably aiming to clarify the proper interpretation of the Gospel of John. Unlike the gospel, this early second century work was not concerned to address the relation of Christian faith and Jewish traditions, but it is concerned like the gospel with the proper testimony about Jesus in the Christian tradition. The book addresses segments of the Johannine community that have broken away (2:19; 4:1; II John 7). The dispute was over Gnostic or Docetic doubts about whether Jesus was truly a human being and whether his death on the cross was a sacrifice for sin (1:1-3,7; 2:2; 3:16;, 4:2,10; 5:5).
This lesson is a discussion of how loving relations are expressed in right conduct. The author advises that the Father has given us much love [agape] and that we should be called children [teknon] of God. The world does not know the faithful, for it does not know him (v.1). He further proclaims that we are God’s children now; what we become has not yet been revealed. When Christ is revealed, we will be like him (v.2). All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure [hagnizo] (v.3).
We do not like to acknowledge our sin. A 2016 LifeWay study about theology found that two-thirds (67%) agreed everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. That is odd, because Fortune magazine reported in 2018 that around 78% of us believed it is more common for customers to be rude to employees than it was five years ago. None of us likes to admit being sinners, and yet it is obvious that we are – even church-going Christians like us. Nonetheless, this lesson proclaims that we have been made children of God, even saints. And as a result of the love God has given us, we have begun the purification process which can lead us to the kind of loving behavior described. Christ’s purity begins to rub off on us, as we hang around him. Living with Christ makes us saints, even if we are still mired in sin. Get the word out to your parishioners: Hanging around Christ makes us yearn to love like him.
Matthew 5:1-12
The Gospel is drawn from an anonymous work based on oral traditions about Jesus (though traditionally attributed to Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples [9:9]). The book may well have been written in the last third of the first century in Antioch, for its Bishop Ignatius seems to quote it as early as 110 AD. That it is written in Greek seems to rule out the disciple as its author. This lesson reports Jesus’ teaching of the beatitudes from his Sermon on the Mount, which is only also taught in Luke (6:17-23). The sermon itself proclaims God’s favor of those who aspire to live under his rule. It is so named because in it, Jesus names various characteristics that contribute to or characterize the faithful’s blessedness (happiness). These are not conditions for receiving blessings but depict the eschatological age which is dawning (Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, p.88).
The text begins with Jesus going up to the mountain and after sitting down with his disciples, he taught them (vv.1-2). Being seated was the usual position of Jewish rabbis while teaching. The poor in spirit (those with a deep sense of spiritual poverty) are said to be blessed [makarios, happy], for theirs is the kingdom of God (v.3). Likewise blessed are those who mourn as they will receive comfort, those who are meek for they will inherit the earth, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled (vv.4-6). Also blessed are: (1) The merciful receiving mercy (v.7); (2) The pure in heart (those with single-minded sincerity) for they will see God (v.8); (3) The peacemakers called children of God (v.9); and (4) The persecuted, for there is God’s kingdom (v.10). One with a purer heart seems to refer to a person not embarked on a course of evil and not seeking to deceive his neighbor (Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, p.93). Jesus adds that we are blessed by people who revile and persecute us (v.11). Then we are told to be glad for our reward is great in heaven. In the same way Christians are now persecuted, this happened to the prophets before the church (v.12).
Most of us think that the beatitudes are commands that as Christians we must fulfill. Use the sermon to help the flock see Jesus’ remarks in a different, more grace-filled way. As New Testament scholar Eduard Schweizer noted above, Jesus’ remarks are not conditions for receiving blessings but depict the eschatological age which is dawning. What Jesus teaches about behavior leads to blessings. The saints who have lived this way (and we too are saints) led lives of happiness and joy. It might be possible at this point to introduce research on the brain indicating that when our our moral instinct, apparently embodied in the brains of all human beings, is exercised, we are rewarded by the section of the good-feeling brain chemical dopamine (Anthony Walsh, The Science of Love). Living for others, living saintly lives, is blessed. It feels good to be one of Jesus’ saints.
All Saints Day is a time to celebrate the lives of the faithful who have gone before us, to see ourselves in their train, and to look forward with anticipation to the better times life and blessings our Lord has planned up ahead for the faithful.
Revelation 7:9-17
The First Lesson is taken for an apocryphal book of the last first century expressing hope for salvation after a world-ending new creation. Although parts of the book may predate the fall of Jerusalem, it is likely that it achieved its present form during the reign of Emperor Domitian between 81 and 96 AD. Christians were being persecuted for refusing to address him as lord and god. Though the tradition ascribes the authorship to John, (1:1,4,9; 22:8) it is by no means clear that the author is one of the disciples. However, the book’s semitic Greek style does suggest its author was Jewish. It relies heavily on eschatological images of the Book of Daniel and other Old Testament texts (see 1:7,12,16; cf. Daniel 7:3; 10:5-9). This lesson is a vision of the multitude of the redeemed, transpiring between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals (opened by the lamb [presumably Christ] in 6:1).
The multitude of every nation is said to stand before the lamb robed in white (symbolizing righteousness and victory). They carry palm branches (also symbolizing victory) (v.9). A praise psalm is offered regarding salvation belonging to God and Christ (v.10). Angels stood around the throne of God and around the elders and four living creatures. They worship God, singing a sevenfold ascription to God (vv.11-12). In dialogue with an elder, John learns that those robed in white are those who have weathered persecution and been washed in Christ’s sacrifice (vv.13-14). Those who endured persecution (probably a period of distress prior to the end times) have a favored position, standing before the throne of God. They worship him day and night, receiving shelter (v.17). They will also hunger and thirst no more, enjoying comfort from the heat (Isaiah 49:10; Psalm 121:6) (v.16). The lamb at the center of the throne will be the shepherd of those who suffered. He will guide them, and God will wipe away their tears (v.17).
An American Enterprise poll taken at the beginning of the year found that 60% of us think things are going badly in America. Explore the ups and downs of life nationally and in your community. There is a sense in which it feels like we are in a new, more turbulent time. There are parallels between our feelings and those Christians to whom Revelation was first addressed, their sense that life was coming unglued and was precarious in view of upcoming persecutions. Thus, help those being addressed in the sermon to understand that the word of hope in our text is for us. Its promise of a new time dawning and a fresh start even after the tough times can provide us with hope for the future, for a better day coming. We need no longer be paralyzed by fear or by the chains of the past. It is indeed new fresh starts which lie ahead! Note that in this trek towards the new opportunities God is giving us the saints who have gone before us entered their new situations with the kind of courage and confidence in God which can encourage us.
1 John 3:1-3
The Second Lesson is found in a treatise or sermon by an unknown teacher in
the Johannine tradition, probably aiming to clarify the proper interpretation of the Gospel of John. Unlike the gospel, this early second century work was not concerned to address the relation of Christian faith and Jewish traditions, but it is concerned like the gospel with the proper testimony about Jesus in the Christian tradition. The book addresses segments of the Johannine community that have broken away (2:19; 4:1; II John 7). The dispute was over Gnostic or Docetic doubts about whether Jesus was truly a human being and whether his death on the cross was a sacrifice for sin (1:1-3,7; 2:2; 3:16;, 4:2,10; 5:5).
This lesson is a discussion of how loving relations are expressed in right conduct. The author advises that the Father has given us much love [agape] and that we should be called children [teknon] of God. The world does not know the faithful, for it does not know him (v.1). He further proclaims that we are God’s children now; what we become has not yet been revealed. When Christ is revealed, we will be like him (v.2). All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure [hagnizo] (v.3).
We do not like to acknowledge our sin. A 2016 LifeWay study about theology found that two-thirds (67%) agreed everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. That is odd, because Fortune magazine reported in 2018 that around 78% of us believed it is more common for customers to be rude to employees than it was five years ago. None of us likes to admit being sinners, and yet it is obvious that we are – even church-going Christians like us. Nonetheless, this lesson proclaims that we have been made children of God, even saints. And as a result of the love God has given us, we have begun the purification process which can lead us to the kind of loving behavior described. Christ’s purity begins to rub off on us, as we hang around him. Living with Christ makes us saints, even if we are still mired in sin. Get the word out to your parishioners: Hanging around Christ makes us yearn to love like him.
Matthew 5:1-12
The Gospel is drawn from an anonymous work based on oral traditions about Jesus (though traditionally attributed to Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples [9:9]). The book may well have been written in the last third of the first century in Antioch, for its Bishop Ignatius seems to quote it as early as 110 AD. That it is written in Greek seems to rule out the disciple as its author. This lesson reports Jesus’ teaching of the beatitudes from his Sermon on the Mount, which is only also taught in Luke (6:17-23). The sermon itself proclaims God’s favor of those who aspire to live under his rule. It is so named because in it, Jesus names various characteristics that contribute to or characterize the faithful’s blessedness (happiness). These are not conditions for receiving blessings but depict the eschatological age which is dawning (Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, p.88).
The text begins with Jesus going up to the mountain and after sitting down with his disciples, he taught them (vv.1-2). Being seated was the usual position of Jewish rabbis while teaching. The poor in spirit (those with a deep sense of spiritual poverty) are said to be blessed [makarios, happy], for theirs is the kingdom of God (v.3). Likewise blessed are those who mourn as they will receive comfort, those who are meek for they will inherit the earth, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled (vv.4-6). Also blessed are: (1) The merciful receiving mercy (v.7); (2) The pure in heart (those with single-minded sincerity) for they will see God (v.8); (3) The peacemakers called children of God (v.9); and (4) The persecuted, for there is God’s kingdom (v.10). One with a purer heart seems to refer to a person not embarked on a course of evil and not seeking to deceive his neighbor (Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, p.93). Jesus adds that we are blessed by people who revile and persecute us (v.11). Then we are told to be glad for our reward is great in heaven. In the same way Christians are now persecuted, this happened to the prophets before the church (v.12).
Most of us think that the beatitudes are commands that as Christians we must fulfill. Use the sermon to help the flock see Jesus’ remarks in a different, more grace-filled way. As New Testament scholar Eduard Schweizer noted above, Jesus’ remarks are not conditions for receiving blessings but depict the eschatological age which is dawning. What Jesus teaches about behavior leads to blessings. The saints who have lived this way (and we too are saints) led lives of happiness and joy. It might be possible at this point to introduce research on the brain indicating that when our our moral instinct, apparently embodied in the brains of all human beings, is exercised, we are rewarded by the section of the good-feeling brain chemical dopamine (Anthony Walsh, The Science of Love). Living for others, living saintly lives, is blessed. It feels good to be one of Jesus’ saints.
All Saints Day is a time to celebrate the lives of the faithful who have gone before us, to see ourselves in their train, and to look forward with anticipation to the better times life and blessings our Lord has planned up ahead for the faithful.
