Sermon for All Saints Day, AD 2026

Today we remember all the saints who have gone before us to their eternal rest with Christ. As the hymn says, it is a “host, arrayed in white” – a number no one can count, who have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. They stand with palms of victory around the throne of God. No saint, not one of God’s holy ones, loses in death. All who are in Christ are brought to be with Him, in glory and joy with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. Throughout the year we remember different saints, well-known world-wide, so that we may take them as example of faith. Today we also remember the example of those only few know, or only we know, and thank God for His faithfulness.
We call these saints members of the church triumphant. We are the church militant, the church still fighting the war which Christ has won by Christ’s Word and testimony. The church triumphant has joined the Lord in victory and entered into rest. It is like the end of a long journey where they have finally reached their destination, and come to their true home.
In our epistle lesson, St. John comforts us about this journey. Many ideologies and religions see life as a journey or path, with some sort of ending, but none are like Christianity. First, we have already achieved what is necessary for the journey, we have been called children of God. Second, we have an idea of what we shall be, in who Jesus is. Third, holding on to this hope produces more hope, sustains us, and brings us closer to the goal. In fact, holding on to this hope is the only way we may reach this goal.
Already achieved the journey in being called children of God.
In many religions and ideologies, the main idea is to journey to a point where you reach the goal of divinity, moral perfection, spirituality, or disconnectedness from the world. This is how our sinful nature likes to think. We attain a certain point and we deserve to have love bestowed on us by the divinity. It is often how the world works, that we must have some level of achievement to be recognized. When we apply it to the saints gone before us, we think they really achieved something by getting to heaven.
John says – what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! The name children of God already applies to us. God does not set us on a journey of life with nothing and then bestow the reward at the end. We have already received adoption as chidlren of God. We already have the love of God bestowed on us, even now. When you hear the beatitudes, did you think they were about someone else? These are the blessings God has bestowed upon you as a baptized child of God.
This is often harder to see in ourselves than other people. That’s alright. Having a low view of yourself, being saddened by your own sin, isn’t the worst thing. It doesn’t make you a bad Christian. As we are baptized children of God, our life is a daily struggle between the old Adam and the new man. The Old Adam constantly wants to pull us towards sin. He wants to pull us especially towards despair of God’s mercy and unbelief. He wants us to think of the saints who have gone before us and think – that can never be me, I am not as good as them. Our flesh pulls us either to depair of God’s mercy or to assume on his goodness and turn to sin. The flesh always looks for an excuse, asks – what  is the least I can do to get to heaven?
Our baptism indicates this struggle, but also that we have victory over our sinful flesh, if we continue to fight every day. Our Old Adam was drowned and died, along with all evil desires, when we were baptized. We arose new – with a new man who wants to believe and cling to God’s promises and follow his commands. Each following day is a drowning of the Old Adama and rising of the new man – only baptized once – but continued by repentance and faith. The Father has made us who we are – His children – so we can recognize our sin, fight against it, and seek forgiveness.
Neither to ourselves nor to the world do we appear perfected. We know that if we say we have been made God’s children, the world won’t understand, won’t recognize it. Being a child of God is not always seen by natural sight. What do you mean God has given you everything you need for the journey? You don’t seem different. So what if you were baptized? You don’t look different than before. While our baptism can bring a change in our life that is noticeable, it doesn’t always mean people will see it. Or some may see as a change for the worse. But Christians, who know the world of God, and what we are becoming, can by eyes of faith see that life of Christ.
We have an idea of who we shall be – like Jesus
John tells us that we are children of God now, but it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We can talk about the glories of those with Christ in heaven, in white robes representing purity, with palm branches representing victory, but even those are images. Images like this have not manifested themselves in us today. We trust that God has given us the same things as the saints triumphant by faith.
Our faith is that when Jesus is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. We are told we are children of God. What does a child of God look like? Look to the only-begotten Son of God. Not to his hair or build or beard, but to who He is. Children of God are conformed to the image of Christ.
Jesus describes this in Matthew 5, in the Beatitudes, where we get blessings on things that the world does not call blessed. Things like being poor in spirit, mourning, meek, and persecuted. Jesus was these things in His earthly ministry, in His humility. But not just this. These descriptions are not just of a low person, as if everyone who is sad and humble is blessed. This is the humble who is holding on to hope in Christ. So Jesus also adds those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and peacemakers.
Again, these are not aspirational goals. They are who we are and who we shall be, because we are baptized into Christ. We shall be like Him. Right now we see as through a glass darkly. How can we even imagine what Jesus is like? I think of TV shows or movies that try to portray Jesus, and Jesus is either too unearthly and stoic because they don’t want him to appear sinful, or he’s too nonchalant and unserious. You can apply either description to your favorite media.
The point is that portraying Jesus is portraying the perfection of who we will be. We can’t really see that yet clearly. The scriptures reveal it, again, dimly. Our hope is that one day we will see. When we see Jesus as He is – not in a movie or TV show, or even in our mind’s eye – then we will also see who we will be. Until then we have to deal with incomplete information and imperfection, and just trust what He says in Hope in Him. That is actually the point after all.
Holding on to this hope perfects us, sustains us, brings us closer to the goal.
Know what you have been given. God has poured out His love on you in baptism and made you His child. There is no spiritual benefit He is holding back from you. All is yours, because Christ won it all for you on the cross. There is nothing the saints triumphant have that you don’t have in Christ, besides sight of what was promised.
As we celebrate all saints, we hold on to the certain hope that what God has done in us will be perfected, and when we see Christ we will know then what we shall be. Return to that hope again. Return to that hope every day. This is what sustains a Christian when your Old Adam is only letting you see how much you failed today. This is what should bring you closer to God when you feel far away.
God saved you from your sin with no contribution on your part. Now your job is to remember who you are and what you will become. Despise and repent of what you were and what you should not be, and remember God will forgive.
To be poor in spirit, mourning, meek, or persecuted is not a sign of God’s anger. In faith, this means that you are blessed. So if you are going through a difficult time, and wonder, how could I as a Christian be experiencing this – it will be ok. God will get you through. Hold on to the word – God promises blessing. Don’t let the circumstance destroy your hope. Hope continues and sustains regardless of circumstance, or it wouldn’t be hope.
Then remember who you are as a Christian and child of God. God has given you a hunger and thirst for righteousness, that you desire to do good
God has been merciful to you in Christ.
God has made peace with you – make peace with others.
These are all reflectons of who you already are. Amen.