All Saints Sunday
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
A friend of ours told us about dealing with her husband’s death, which was years before we met her. She was overwhelmed and couldn’t get over the sense of loss. Then one day he walked into the room and started talking to her; he assured her that he was doing well and that she was going to be OK. He said he couldn’t stay long but just wanted to check on her, and then he left. She said after that things were different for her. She still missed him, but she was able to start healing. I’ve heard similar stories from other people I trust. I can’t say what is happening in these stories, whether these people are given a vision or whether God permits the deceased person to make a brief visit. I do know that these experiences often lead to healing and a continued sense of connection with the person who died.
How should we think about those who’ve been separated from us by death? What do we do with our memories of those who’ve been part of our lives and are now no longer here? Some people seem to close a door. “They’re no longer here, so the only thing to do is forget them and get on with my life.” But when we do that, a part of us dies. Others live in the past and never move on. So, if we don’t want to live in the past and also don’t want to throw it away, what are we supposed to do with these memories?
The early Church was faced with the same problem. Not only were members of the Church dying; many were being killed by the Roman authorities. Some of the greatest leaders of the Church, those who were looked to as models of Christian discipleship, had been put to death by the government. And rather than forgetting about these people and pushing them into the past, the Church began to celebrate the days of their martyrdom; “their death-days [became] their birthdays in the Lord” (William Griffin, “All Saints,” in Epiphanies, ed. Eugene Peterson and Emilie Griffin, p. 229). There was no question about worshiping these people; the Church has been clear from the beginning that we only worship God. But those who had persevered in the faith, who had modeled Christian discipleship till the end, were worthy of honor.
This idea of honoring those who’ve gone before us is familiar in another context. In our country we celebrate Memorial Day, honoring those who’ve given their lives to preserve freedom. We don’t worship them, we give them honor and give thanks for what they’ve done. In honoring martyrs and celebrating their death-days, the Church was doing something very similar to what we do on Memorial Day. But because the Roman persecutions went on for so long and with such intensity, the calendar very quickly filled up. And the Church needed a way to honor, not only the great leaders, but all those who had persevered in the faith. All Saints’ Day was an answer to that need. On All Saints’ Day we honor all those great examples of Christian discipleship (many of whom we’ve never heard), and also those from our own families and churches who are now with the Lord. In Eastern Orthodox churches, All Saints’ Day is celebrated the Sunday after Pentecost, and in Western Churches the day is November 1st (and has been since the year 835). We’re observing it today, because this is the Sunday closest to November 1st.
The book of Revelation was written during the period when the Roman Empire was persecuting Christians. The people it was addressed to originally were living out the reality of Jesus’ words: “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.... Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (John 15:18, 20). This is the kind of world we live in, a world that crucified Jesus Christ, that rejects His lordship, and that often treats His followers in the same way. Revelation 7 tells us some things we need to know, living in a world like this.
The first thing is that God is committed to His people. These verses contain two visions, and right now we’re considering the first one, the vision of the 144,000. Who are these people? The first thing to remember is that the book of Revelation is written in a style called Apocalyptic, which makes extensive use of symbolism. John isn’t talking about a literal group of 144,000, he’s using a symbolic number to say something. And despite the fact that he identifies them as “from all the tribes of Israel,” he’s not talking here about Jewish people. He’s talking about the Church. There are some clues that point in this direction: Judah (the tribe Jesus came from) is listed first, even though Judah wasn’t the oldest; and though it says “all the tribes of Israel,” not all the tribes are listed here. Dan is omitted from the list, and Joseph’s tribe is listed twice (since Manasseh was his son). The author’s priority is not to list all the tribes of Israel, but to make sure the number is right, so he feels free to omit one tribe and double up another. 144,000 is a number that stresses completeness (12, the number of tribes squared, then multiplied by 1,000).
The idea here is that all God’s people are sealed. They’re going to go through difficult times, and God seals them ahead of time to protect them. The point is this: to His people facing life in an evil world, God says: “I am with all of you until the end of the age.” The number 144,000 stresses that God will not overlook any of us. Here’s the promise in Psalm 121:7: “The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.”
God isn’t promising that nothing bad will happen to us. Bad things happen to us, just as they do to others. We live in a fallen world. But God promises that the things that happen won’t undermine His purposes for us. Eugene Peterson explains this very well: “The promise of [Psalm 121] – and both Hebrews and Christians have always read it this way – is not that we shall never stub our toes, but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us, that is, will be able to separate us from God’s purposes in us” (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 38). He says this a little later: “All the water in all the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us. That is the promise of the psalm: ‘The Lord will keep you from all evil’.... The only serious mistake we can make when illness comes, when anxiety threatens, when conflict disturbs our relationship with others is to conclude that God has gotten bored in looking after us and has shifted his attention to a more exciting Christian, or that God has become disgusted with our meandering obedience and decided to let us fend for ourselves for awhile, or that God has gotten too busy fulfilling prophecy in the Middle East to take time now to sort out the complicated mess we have gotten ourselves into. That is the only serious mistake we can make. It is the mistake that Psalm 121 prevents: the mistake of supposing that God’s interest in us waxes and wanes in response to our spiritual temperature” (A Long Obedience, pp. 38-39).
We live in a fallen world, and we are subject to the same struggles that plague everyone else here. But we have the promise that God watches over us, that He will stay with us until the end, that He will guard our souls until we see Him face to face. That’s the point in sealing the 144,000: not only will God guard our souls as we continue our journey through this life; He won’t overlook any of us (and those who’ve died are not forgotten by Him either). We could think of this vision as God’s answer to the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
The second thing is this: there’s more to our lives than what we can see on the surface. We’re looking now at the second vision, the great multitude that no one can number. These are the same people as the 144,000, looked at from another perspective. The book of Revelation wasn’t written as a manual for interpreting the end times; it wasn’t given to satisfy our curiosity about events in the Middle East. It was written, initially, to Christians living under the Roman persecutions, and it has a message for all believers living in an evil world. This second vision tells us that the evil we’re experiencing is not the most significant reality in our lives. It’s not primarily about what things will be like in the future, although it does give us a glimpse into that. But, more importantly, it tells us what is true, right now, for those who worship God.
Paul says, in Ephesians 2, that God has “made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up with him in the heavenly places” (vv. 5-6). He’s saying this is true of us now, as people who belong to Jesus Christ. In Colossians 3, he says: “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (vv. 1-3). The author of Hebrews has an even more graphic description: “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24). As people who belong to Jesus Christ, we are, right now, part of that great multitude John describes in this second vision in Revelation 7.
Listen to Eugene Peterson again: “There’s something just beneath the surface of everything, something invisible but just as real, maybe even more real, than what we’re seeing and hearing and touching” (Leap Over a Wall, p. 38). In the midst of our lives in this world, we need to know that there is more going on than what we can see on the surface of things. Our lives are not defined by the evil of this world, even the evil of death. Our lives are defined by our identity as people who belong to the Church, and the Church includes all those in heaven and on earth who belong to Jesus Christ.
The third thing is this: the most important thing is not what we’re doing, but what God is doing. That’s what the Church is celebrating around God’s throne. Worship is not about us, but about God: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.... Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” The worship around God’s throne – and remember we are part of this right now – is not about getting something for ourselves to charge our batteries for the week. It’s about exalting God for who He is and for what He’s done. He’s the one who belongs at the center of our worship. To someone who says, “I just don’t get anything out of worship” (assuming that the worship is centered around God and His Word) the proper answer is, “what are you offering to God?” Get the focus off yourself and seek to honor and exalt Him (whether it makes you feel good or not).
We belong to the “communion of saints,” as we confess every week in the Creed. The word “saints” is often used of those who’ve led exemplary Christian lives, but in its broadest sense it simply means “holy ones,” or “those who have been set apart for God.” Paul addresses his letter to the Romans: “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints” (1:7). We belong to Jesus Christ; we’ve been set apart for His purposes. Our primary identity is that we belong to Him and are part of His body, part of which is in heaven and part of which is still on the journey here on earth. Some from our midst have taken up full-time residence in heaven even in the past year. But they are still part of the Church. We’re still united with them as part of the same body, and we look forward to the day when we’ll all be gathered before God’s throne face to face. All Saints’ Day reminds us of this truth.
In the meantime, as we continue on our journey through this life, we need to remember what it means to be God’s people, to be saints, people set apart for His purposes: God is committed to us and has promised to be with us, no matter what else is happening around us; there is more going on than is apparent on the surface of things; and the most important priority is to cultivate God’s fellowship, to make it the business of our lives to exalt Him and put Him at the center, where He belongs. Honoring those who’ve gone before us can help in this also. Listen to these words by St. Bernard of Clairvaulx: “Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company.... We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of the patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs.... In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints.” We want to join them in worship before the throne. But there’s more than this: “When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also appear as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory” (The Liturgy of the Hours, vol. 4, pp. 1526-27). In honoring the saints who’ve gone before us, the focus is not on them, but on what God did in and through them. So, in celebrating All Saints’ Day, the main attention is not on the saints themselves, but on God: “Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb.”
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