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Grace, peace, and mercy be yours in the name of our risen Savior, Jesus the Holy Christ, the Lamb of God. Amen.

The coming of the King

We are coming to the end of another Church Year. The last Sunday in November is the beginning of a new one. As we wind down to the end our focus changes to the end. Judgment Day, when Jesus will return in power, glory, majesty, authority, and might. He will come on the Last Day, on Judgment Day, with all the wonder and splendor due the Author of Life.

Angels will accompany Him and like a mighty army they will go out over the whole Earth gathering all of the faithful. There will be trumpet blasts that will shake the skies and crack the Earth. There will be shouts of praise and song as Seriphim sing of His wonder. It will be, for all who believe in Jesus, a wonder to behold, an awesome day full of joy and celebration.

The Saints Who Have Gone Before Us

As we enter this time in the Church Year, where we focus on the coming Last Day, it is good for us to remember all those who have left this earth in faith, ahead of us. They have already seen much of what is waiting for us. They have seen the face of God. They have heard Him say, “Welcome home.” Their soul now waits for the Last Day when their body will be raised, made perfect, and joined to their soul again. Perfectly human as God first made us.

They wait, the same way we wait. We wait in a place of sin, and they wait in a place free from those ills and trials. Sin no longer has any effect on them. They have past through death to life. They have run their race,¹ and remained faithful to the end. They are free, and for that we give glory to God because we know God’s promises are good, true, and trustworthy. We know all those faithful, whom we love, are with Him now, resting, waiting, anticipating that day when they will see you again.

The Love of God and the Pain of Loss

Now logic might tells us we should not miss them. We should not mourn their absence, because we know they have left this place of sin and corruption. They no longer suffer anything. We also know we will see them again. They are not cut off from us forever. Logic would tell us these things but we are more then logic. We are human and as such we have emotions like love.

We were made in the image and likeness of God. We share some of God’s qualities and traits. One of those is love.² So many, many, years ago, Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Life was wonderful, perfect. God would walk with them in the cool of the day. God would talk with them and teach them. They cared for nothing and had no want or need.

Through Satan’s design, they destroyed that perfection. On that day you can be sure God wept. He mourned His loss. He wept because on that day, that which He loved most, died to Him.

The Curse of Death and the Promise of Life

Death has never been natural. It is not part of life, nor is it part of living. It is not what God planned. Death is the result of our separation from Him, and it is always painful. God knows all things. God knew He could, and would, fix the mess we made of His perfect creation. He knew He could make it all better again. That however, did not stop Him from weeping.³

Death will come, and it will have its way. You are helpless to do anything to stop that. You might be able to delay it, or slow it down, but Death must come. Just as it will come for you someday. On that day, just like Jesus, just like you, people will weep when Death has its way. But death is not the end. The Bible says:

Death is turned into victory!
Death, where is your victory?
Death, where is your sting?⁴

Death is the curse for sin. If you sin you die. That has been, and will always be the rule.⁵ With that rule in mind, Satan took great joy in bringing death to us. He used us to hurt God. Satan attacked us because he knew we were weak. He knew we couldn’t resist his power. He was right. We can’t. He is more powerful then you can imagine. Even the arch-angel Michael would not dare to take on Lucifer, but rather calls of God for such encounters.⁶

Lucifer was perhaps the most powerful being God created. His name Lucifer means “the bearer of light.” So majestic, so powerful, so magnificent. To look at him was like looking at a sunrise. He commanded a third of the angels in Heaven⁷ so great was his authority.

The Battle and God’s Unfailing Love

When he fell he took a third of Heaven, and you, down with him. The beautiful magnificent creature had become the most vile and disgusting. He is the very epitome of filth. That is the beast that attacks you and drags you down to the pit with him. Satan’s only goal is to destroy us and in doing so break the heart of God.

Satan knew the rule: Sin must bring death. Satan knew the rule: Only those who are perfect can stand in the presence of God. Satan knew God would not, could not endure, loving something imperfect. What he did not know, is how much God loved us.⁸

Lucifer may have been the most beautiful, powerful, majestic thing God created, but not the most important. You are the most important thing God has created. He loves the lowest and most corrupt human far more than He ever concerned Himself with Satan. Because of that love, God could not endure being separated from you forever.

The Law is clear, there can be no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.⁹ To account for all sin, perfect blood must be shed. All of us have fallen short of the perfection God commands and demands.¹⁰ Still, God would not endure being separated from you forever, so He chose to fix the problem Himself. That is in fact exactly what He promised He would do.¹¹

The Joy of All Saints’ Day

So that brings us back here. To this day, in this place. Today, in this holy house, we celebrate a day called All Saint’s Day. A day when we give glory to God for all those who have past through death to life in faith. We give praise and glory to God because we know even though we miss them, even though we have wept – like God – for them, we know we will not be separated from them forever. We will see them again.

The day will come when we will once again enjoy the pleasure of their company in a place where sin is forbidden to ever touch us again. In a new Heaven and a new Earth, where the relationship Adam and Eve had with God will be restored for all of us.

The Vision of Heaven

In the book of Revelation we read today:

⁹ After these things I saw a large crowd from every nation, tribe, people, and language. No one was able to count how many people there were. They were standing in front of the throne and the lamb. They were wearing white robes, holding palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”¹²

Who are these people? All those saved through faith in Christ. There we see that day when the great multitude will stand before the Throne. They will be in the presence of the Most High. How can those sinful, sin-filled, people be there? Because God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, has made them clean, and sustained them through faith in that cleansing Baptismal flood.

The Hope That Restores

Remembering how God saved those faithful that left this Earth before us, let us use them as an example. Not one of them was perfect. Not one of them claimed to be. The truth is those of you who knew them best could probably best attest to that truth. Yet they believed, and because they believed they are perfect now. Waiting for you to join them.

This is the wonder of the faith God has given to us. It will restore us. It will restore our relationship between us and God. It will also restore the relationship between us and those we love. Those who on this day we remember with love. Missing them? Yes. Yet still knowing our goodbye’s are not forever.

By God holy grace and mercy we will see them again.

Amen.

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