From: "Fr John W Fenton" To: "Historic Preaching" Cc: "Historic Preaching" ; "CAT41 Sermons" Subject: HP: All Saints Day sermon Date: Thursday, November 01, 2001 5:21 PM Feast of All Saints St. Matthew 5.1-12 In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Dearly Beloved: Having a broken and contrite heart, mourning and grieving, being persecuted, being reviled, having people speak all manner of evil against you falsely for the Lord's sake-these are crosses and trials. Being haunted by your past sins, enduring some ongoing physical ailment, having a troubled mind and spirit, struggling against some besetting sin or evil desire, having family and friends turn against you, being tormented day and night by the devil-these also are crosses and trials. And all these things tempt you to believe that the Lord God has given up on you. They tempt you to turn into yourself, to believe in your own perseverance, to do for yourself, and to find your own way out. And they tempt you to believe that you must fend for yourself, that everything rests on your shoulders, and that you will never have any rest or any lasting peace of mind. But what does Our Lord call these crosses, these trials, these temptations? Blessings. Blessings which come from the Lord. Blessings which lead you to rejoice. And blessings which confirm the righteousness you have in God. And so when you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Moreover, blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Therefore, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Yet we become impatient and chafe under such blessings. We wish the Lord would bless us with the blessings we desire, and not with the blessing of the cross. We believe and say that these blessings are curses, and we curse the blessing of cross and suffering that the Lord gives. So when the blessing of the cross comes, we are quick to blame God, to say "The Lord is tempting me." But when you endure various trials and crosses, let no one say, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. Instead, rejoice! For the suffering you endure in your body and mind, in your heart and soul-it is the blessing of the Lord's cross. And the true blessing in Our Lord's cross is that He has already carried your trials, crosses and temptations; your ailments, torments and hardships, your grief, lusts and heartaches; your suffering and your misery-all this Our Lord has already carried in His body and suffered to death and buried in the depths of hell. For this we bless the Lord. And because of this, He calls us-and our crosses-blessed. Rejoice, then! Count it all joy! And do not lose heart! For in these blessed crosses, you participate in the Lord's blessed cross! In these afflictions of body, mind and spirit, you share in the most blessed event of Our Lord! And since you know how Our Lord's cross ended in the glory of His resurrection, we can be confident that in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That confidence is built upon the sure and sturdy promises Our Lord gives-and His word that blesses our crosses, trials and sicknesses. And our confidence is bolstered and inflamed and aroused by the example of the saints and martyrs who have gone before us. For when we hear their stories-how they endured torments of body and soul; how they refused to be compromised in their faith; how they endured much at the hands of their family; how they suffered all, even death; and how they did not love their lives to the death-do not these stories encourage us in the true faith? Do they not help us see and understand that our present afflictions are temporary, and that they are not worthy to be compared with the glory that they have obtained and that we still long for? For these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They rest from their labors, and their works follow them. Those works which follow them-they testify to us time and again not of the perseverance of the human spirit, but of the enduring and undying truth of Our Lord's promise and blessing. For while, in our crosses, we may be tempted to give up on Our Lord, He clearly and forthrightly says in today's Gospel that He will not give up on us-that He will give His blessed the kingdom of heaven, and comfort them, and fill us with His righteousness, and give us His mercy, and call us "sons of God," and in the end give us the great reward which will make us exceedingly glad. And no better evidence or testimony to the endurance of Our Lord's blessing can be given, or found, than in the patriarchs, prophets, evangelists, apostles, martyrs, confessors and all other saints who endured and strove in the confidence that the Lord would make good on His Word, and that His cross-which they followed and endured-truly was and continues to be the greatest strength and blessing. Why, then, should cross and trial grieve us? Christ is near with His cheer; never will He leave us. Who can rob us of the heaven, that God's Son for our own to our faith has given? In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. 1 November 2001 Rev. Fr. John W. Fenton + Historic Preaching + The Historic Preaching list is devoted to preaching on the Propers of the Historic Lectionary as found in The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) and Service Book and Hymnal (SBH). Subscribe? Send ANY message to: Unsubscribe? Send ANY message to: Respond? Click 'Reply' or write to For further information about this list, contact the list administrator at: Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski or visit our website: + + + + + +