From: "Fr John W Fenton (by way of Rev. Eric J. Stefanski, )" To: Subject: HP: Three Sermons for All Saints Day Date: Thursday, November 01, 2001 12:56 PM The 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: First the saints whose names we know: Linus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Cyprian, Leo, Cosmas and Damian. Now the saints whose names we don’t know: the martyrs under Nero, the Four Crowned martyrs, the martyrs of Samosata, and the martyrs of Nicomedia. These and any other heroes of the faith that we do not honor with a special day—these are the saints we commemorate today. And we honor them, not because of anything they achieved or accomplished, but only because of the grace, the godly faith and the holy living that Our Lord and God gave them and worked in and through them. And our Evangelical-Lutheran Confession approves honoring the saints in this way. First, so that we might thank God for showing us examples of His mercy and salvation; second, so that we might praise the saints themselves for not despising but living from the God-given gifts of grace and faith; third, so that our own faith is strengthened as we consider the mercy and love of God toward others; and fourth, so that, in our vocation or place in life, the saints may serve as models of faith and godly living. These heroes of the faith, these godly men and women, these famous and not so famous saints and martyrs—“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 now rest from their labors, and their works follow them.” But why are they heroes of the faith? Why do we name them saints? Is it because they were able to concentrate and stay focused on the goal better than we are? Is it because they got something better from God than we’ve been given? Is it because they fit into a mold that only a very few can squeeze into? Is it because, for whatever reason, they were able to conquer their bad habits, increase their faith, improve their life, and live by the principles of holy living better than most others? Let’s keep things straight. First, Our Lord who is the Blessed One. Then the blessing His speaks and gives and bestows on all, beginning with His apostles. And then the blessed and holy lives that live from and in Our Lord and the blessing He is and the blessing He gives. So it’s not “He’s a saint because he did something special, because he made it.” Rather, first of all, it is this: “He or she’s a saint because of what Our Blessed Lord has done and given; because of the grace and virtue He has poured out in the blessed waters of Holy Baptism; because of His Blessed Life which He generously pours into us in the Blessed Sacrament; and because of the Blessed Word Jesus which is delivered into us by the Spirit to shape and form and mold our daily thoughts, words and deeds.” First Our Blessed Lord. Then the blessing only He gives through the blessed means. Then—in the end, before the Lamb, among the multitude no one can number, with the ministering angels—then the blessed ones who reflect back the blessing with their hymn and chant and high thanksgiving. That’s what Our Lord is getting at when sits on the mountain, gathers His disciples before Him, and opens His mouth to teach. The first word, said eight times, is “Blessed.” Blessed are these. Blessed are those. And then the ninth and final time: “Blessed are you.” Now, this is not a blessing to live up to. Neither is it a blessing with strings attached. It’s not a blessing that you hope to attain. Neither is it a blessing that kicks in only when you’ve met the conditions. It is simply blessing, with the heavenly gift clearly and forthrightly attached. But it is a blessing given only to certain people: the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the humbled, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, those who speak peace, and those persecuted because of the righteousness they have received. But that’s not a list of what you should strive to be. Instead, it lists the shape and form Our Blessed Lord takes, how He lives Himself in and with and through the Christian. For group Our Lord names He Himself fits into. And so each of those eight groups are blessed by the Lord not because they made it but solely because He takes into Himself what they are. Our Lord is the One who emptied His rich Spirit and took on our poverty. He is the One who mourned and wept and lamented our death-filled lives. He is the One who humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross. He is the one who hungered and thirsted only to drink down to the dregs our cup of bitter suffering. He is the One who was merciful even to those who refuse His mercy. He is the One who had the purity of a broken and contrite heart. He is the One whose beautiful feet brought the glad tidings of peace on earth. And He is the one who was persecuted so that righteousness might be freely given and bestowed on the unrighteous. And what Our Lord becomes, what He takes in, what He endures, what He suffers and buries deeply within His own body, what He makes and calls His own—that is what He blesses. And so it’s not “blessed, because of what you did with the blessing,” but rather “blessed, because of what I’ve taken in and taken on so that you might get the blessing.” And what does the blessing of spiritual poverty, the blessing of crying to God until you can cry no more, the blessing of having no spirit in yourself that measures up—what does that blessing bring and give you? “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And the same is true of the blessing of mourning, the blessing of being despised, the blessing of longing for the Lord’s justice, the blessing of living out the Lord’s mercy, the blessing of the purely repentant heart, the blessing of being hounded and killed in body and soul because you were baptized. All those blessings—blessing that the world calls curses—all those blessings get the same thing: sealed with the sign of the cross in order to stand before the throne and the Lamb, clothed with the white baptismal robes of Our Lord’s righteousness, and holding the palm branches of victory over suffering, death and the devil. And since we need examples to inspire us and to help us see that the blessing really does apply even to those who sometimes stumble and fall, and even in times of hardship and distress—that is why Our Lord raises up saints. For they are living models both of how Our Lord’s blessing shapes us, and what it gains for us. Let us then thank Our Lord and God for the godly faith and holy virtue He has lived out in the saints and martyrs who have gone before us. For even now, as we say ready ourselves to feast on the Lamb at the throne and so receive into our bodies His Blessed Life once again—even now the saints and martyrs, together with the angels and our loved ones who have died in the faith, join us in speaking back our blessing and thanksgiving to the God who is our joy and song. In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit 2 November 1997 Rev. Fr. John W. Fenton, Pastor Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Detroit =================================== The 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: Our commemoration and praise and celebration of the saints means nothing to them. What do they care about earthly honors when our heavenly Father honors them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our honoring and commending them do for them or mean to them? The saints have no need of honor from us. Neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate and remember and honor the saints, it serves us, not them. (Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermon 2 [adapted]) So how are we helped and served by remembering the heroes of the faith? How are we benefited by praising and thanking God for the countless holy men and women? Today’s Feast dedicated to All Saints—what good does it do us? First, let us remember the proper direction of our honor. By honoring and remembering and glorifying any of the faithful departed, we are honoring and remembering and glorifying not some human but the grace and mercy of God which transforms sinners into the righteous, which raises the dead to life, which converts the wicked to be faithful, and which gives courage to the weak and timid. This grace and mercy and loving-kindness of God is planted in the saints and in us, not simply to calm us down or warm our heart, but so that curses and crosses and hardships and trials and persecutions and starvation and death might be turned into, and rightly called, blessings. But most of all, this grace, this mercy of God that we honor is not some idea, not some goal, not some hoped for concept, but is a Person, the One whose name is Grace and Love and Truth and Way and Peace and Life, the one who not only blesses and not only is the Blessed One, but who is blessing in the flesh. That is the proper direction of our honor. Not to the holy man or holy woman, but to the One who declares them holy, who covers them with His holiness, who holies their live because His holy live is lived through their skin and bones. So we honor the holy ones and in doing so are really and truly honoring the Holy One. We honor the saints because in them we see God’ s holiness at work. We honor St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalene and St. Paul because in them we see how God’s grace transforms the insecure, the prostitutes and the murderers. We honor the blessed dead only because of the Blessed One who has blessed them. This rightly directed remembrance leads us to confess that we are truly blessed. Not because we have lived up to the standard of the saints. Not because we strive to imitate their behavior or attitude. Not because of anything we can ever achieve or ever hope to be. For if the saints care nothing for our earthly honors, why do we seek such honors and such praise from others? So our remembrance of the saints leads us to confess not our blessings but Our Blessed One. It leads us to give thanks not for what we have done with what we have been given, but to give thanks for the One who gives His blessing and then lives that blessing in us and through us. And what is the blessing Our Blessed Lord gives and lives in us? Is it a blessing that causes others to stand up and take notice? Or is it a blessing that is not what we would readily call a blessing? For we say a person is blessed when things go right, when life falls into place, when good things happen, when life is untroubled. Is that the Lord’s blessing, or is that the illusory and evaporating and quick-fading blessing that the world seeks and bestows? Listen again to the blessing Our Lord speaks, the blessing that He Himself is and lives out in His life, the blessing that He chooses to bestow upon you. For it is not the blessing you seek, but the blessing He nevertheless gives. And in the end, it is not a blessing, but the Blessed Lord Himself. And so He describes Himself, as well as what He plants and lives in you, when He says: Blessed—are the poor in spirit, the broken and contrite in heart, those who do not believe in themselves, those who know no inner strength. Blessed—are those who mourn, those who feel the heartache and loss of a loved one, those for whom our meager attempts at cheeriness mean nothing. Blessed—are the meek, the timid, the weak-kneed, the unsure and insecure, those who seem to have no drive and no ambition. Blessed—are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who long for nothing more than the compassion of God, who strain to hear Our Lord’s forgiveness, who live from Lord’s Supper to Lord’s Supper, who desire not God’s justice on others but God’s mercy on them. Blessed—are the merciful, the compassionate, those who are kind to a fault, those too quick to give a second chance, who refuse to lash out or get even, who seek no revenge and desire no payback, who seek no advantage and but forgive even when it means that they will be left behind and trample on. Blessed—are the pure in heart, the naïve and unknowing, who refrain from not only speaking but also hearing what should not be heard, who know there are things better left unknown and unsaid, whose purity is seen through their modesty and moderation. Blessed—are the peacemakers, those who work hard at patching up differences, who always look for the good, who do not stomach discord and strife, who refuse to stir the pot of ill-will, and who most of all long for the peace which the world does not know and cannot give. Blessed—are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, who are more interested in righteousness than in righteous causes, who will suffer all rather than give up or speak against or turn away from the Righteous One, who see righteousness not in what they should have or in what they demand but in what they are freely and unfairly and unexpectedly given. Such is the blessing Our Lord is, the blessing His gives, the blessing He lives in you. It is a blessedness that renames curses and tears and hardships. It is a blessedness that takes you at your weakest and lowest, and lifts you up. It is a blessedness zeroes in on the most unworthy and despised. It is a blessedness that demands nothing but gives everything. It is a blessedness aimed right at the least blessed, right at the unrighteous, right at those whose life is hardest. And this blessing holies what is unholy, and transforms even the most unsaintly into saints. All this not because of any merit or worthiness in you, not because you even chose it or demanded it. All this only because Our Blessed Lord chooses to gives you Himself and live Himself through you. So rejoice and be exceedingly glad. For the same great reward which the saints not enjoy is also given to you and laid out before you. Their blessing is now also your blessing. For the Blessed Lord who lived in them not also plants His blessed body in your body, His blessed flesh in your flesh, His blessed blood in your blood—to hallow and sanctify and bless you even as He lives His blessing out in and through you. In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit 1 November 1998 Rev. Fr. John W. Fenton, Pastor Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Detroit =================================== 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: You have heard the blessing Our Blessed Lord gives in today's Gospel. And almost immediately you try to see how you fit into Our Lord's blessing. Am I meek? Do I mourn? Am I poor in spirit? Am I merciful? Am I a peacemaker? And when the question goes that way, then there will always be one more word-"enough." Do I hunger and thirst enough? Am I pure enough in heart? Have I been persecuted enough? Have I been meek and merciful enough? Trying to squeeze yourself into Our Lord's blessing, seeing whether and where you fit, making sure you've met the conditions to being blessed-all of that takes the blessing out of Our Lord's hands and puts it in our hands. All of that is our way of controlling God and His blessing. For when we see how we fit the blessing, then we can go to God demanding that He bless us, telling Him how we deserve His gifts, and making sure He knows what a blessing it is for Him to bless us. But when Our Lord says "Blessed are the poor in spirit" and "Blessed are the meek" and "Blessed are the peacemakers," He is not laying down the conditions that you must meet to earn His blessing. He is not telling you how you must be so that He can bless you. Instead, Our Lord simply blesses His own and, with the blessing, describes where His blessing leads. First to the cross, and then to victory. First to the grave, and then to the resurrection. First to suffering, and then to relief. First to hell, and then to heaven. For isn't that the way of the Blessed One? First He suffers under Pontius Pilate, is crucified, dies and is buried. Then He triumphantly descends into hell, rises from the dead, ascends into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. First He endures the temptations and assaults of the devil. And that culminates in Satan's and the world's apparent victory over the Son of God. But then, in the belly of the grave, Our Lord breaks the jaws of death. In His death He destroys death. By being crushed He crushes the serpent's head. And He gets to be King and Lord not by defeating the enemy but by being defeated. That's the way the Blessed One goes. That's the direction the Blessing He is takes. No Easter Sunday until He has first been through Good Friday. No salvation by His blood until He has first been immersed in His own blood. Yet, at the same time, in His suffering and death, in His bloody cross, in the midst of the hatred and scorn and persecution and reviling He must endure, Our Lord is merciful, pure in heart, and the peacemaker. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opens not His mouth except to say "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." He does not defend Himself, but trusts the Lord to be His defense. And to those who curse Him and laugh Him to scorn, He answer only with more kindness and blessing. That is also the way Our Lord's blessing goes. Not "an eye for an eye," but "turn the other cheek." Not "love your neighbor and hate your enemy," but "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you." So forgive as you have been forgiven. And be merciful just as Your heavenly Father is merciful. Especially when the blessing leads you to being cursed and persecuted. For you are not trying to live up to the Lord's blessing by being better than others. Since you are blessed, and since that blessing leads you to be hated and spoken against just as Our Lord was, you then get to simply speak back the blessing, the mercy, the love, the kindness that Our Lord has already spoken to you. For what is true of Our Lord who is the Blessed One, also gets to be of those whom He blesses. Do you need an example of this, someone to look to so you can see how the Lord's blessing lives? Then look to the saints. Let those who endured the cross of Christ be your example. Let Isaiah and Jeremiah, Stephen and Paul, Perpetua and Felicitas, Boniface and Ignatius, Robert Barnes and Jakob Spreng, and all the unnamed martyrs in Rome and Moscow and Africa-let them be your example. They show the direction the Lord's blessing goes-first to death, then to life; first to martyrdom, then to the crown of righteousness. For these-are they who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And if you still need more examples, then look to Moses and Daniel, to St John and St Patrick, to St Augustine and Blessed Martin Luther, to Wilhelm Löhe and C. F. W. Walther, and to many unnamed others who did not suffer the martyrs' death, but still participated in Christ's cross by making a good confession of the Faith. And so they also show the direction Our Lord's blessing takes-from baptism through temptation into a blessed and peaceful death. Let these holy and saintly men and women be your example, your models, so that you can see the way Our Lord's blessing will shape and form you. But hang onto and live from and cling to Our Blessed Lord and the blessing He speaks. For only then can you "rejoice and be exceedingly glad" since He alone gives you the great heavenly reward which He has obtained for you. In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. 1 November 1999 Rev. Fr. John W. Fenton Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Detroit ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Rev. Fr. John W. Fenton, S.T.M. Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Detroit 4305 N. Military Ave. Detroit, MI 48210-2451 Voice: 313.894.7450 Email: zion@flash.net ZIONNEWS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Web: www.flash.net/~zion ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + 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: + + + + + +