Revelation 7:9-17 All Saints Sunday
St. John, Galveston 11/3/24
Rev. Alan Taylor
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.
 
    This morning we’re observing All Saints Day. It’s a day that’s actually taken on a slightly different meaning over the years. At one time, all Saints Day was to remember and give thanks to God for those “officially designated” as saints in the Church. This would include people such as St. Paul, St. Peter, or, St. Mary and so forth. All Souls Day which is observed on November 2, was the day to remember all people who died and departed this life in the Christian faith. The two of sort of blended into the one remembrance of those who have departed this life in Christ. 
 
    I find that it’s sometimes helpful to turn to more folksy sources to learn what holidays and even church observances are all about. For me, it’s hard to beat Southern Living magazine for folksy insight. Sometime back, I came across an article in Southern Living about All Saints Day…New Orleans style. It’s an annual observance where people visit the graves of the dead to remember them. 
 

    The writer reminisced. He said, “I will never forget, years ago, driving through the city one November 1 and seeing a family, dressed as if for church, filing through a cemetery gate with what appeared to be a picnic basket and an Igloo cooler. Later, I saw people eating oyster po’boys and drinking root beer in the shade of a crypt. I saw fathers and sons toast grandfathers and great-grandfathers with a clink of Abita bottles. (FYI, Abita is a Louisiana brewery.)
  

  As I walked between the rows of stained granite and crumbling brick, trying not to look like a ghoul or an armed robber, I smelled something on the breeze that seemed odd in such a still and holy place, a smell harsh and sweet at the same time. Only one thing smells like that, I thought. “Bourbon!” I watched two middle-aged men, brothers, I guessed, take a drink from a pint bottle, pour a swallow into the grass and dust, and shuffle away, not drunk, but apparently feeling better than when they shuffled in.
 

    There’s a bit of pious freshness in the notion that church Holy Days can actually be celebrated with real, down to earth traditions. And it is true, we really do live on and on, which to say, we are eternal creatures. Our faith, however, does matter in terms of our eternal dwelling. All Saints Day, as we celebrate it today, recognizes the uniqueness and the blessedness of the eternity of the faithful and it comforts those who have seen their loved ones, who believed in and trusted in Jesus, depart in death.
  

  To that end, we’re going to focus this morning on the little glimpse of heaven that John saw and recorded for us in Revelation 7. “I looked (he said), and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”…“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
 
    Perhaps you’re feeling sorrowful today, remembering loved ones who have died over the years. If that’s the case, the passage I just read is to comfort you with the assurance that those who die in the Lord are at peace in the presence of Jesus. And if you’re more concerned today about just making your own way through this vale of tears to your eternal rest, the passage is to comfort you too.  
 
    In reading the various passages in the Bible about heaven, it seems to me that heaven is really more about a person than it is about a place. Oh, there are mansions in heaven prepared for the faithful as Jesus promises us in John’s Gospel. And there is a radiance in heaven, a brightness, if you will, that is beyond anything we can imagine. As the Scriptures say, “(the) radiance (of heaven is) like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” But, heaven’s mansions and its radiant glory, the stuff, if you will, of heaven, pale in comparison to being able to stand before Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain for the sins of the world. 
 
    You know the wonders and the mercies of Jesus because they’ve been preached to you week after week. You’ve received His body and blood in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and you’ve sat with Him in the long, still hours of the night, when your soul was burdened with seemingly unbearable cares and worries.    
 
    But, one day, on the day of God’s choosing, you’ll stand before the throne of the Lamb and you’ll finally see Jesus face to face. Indeed, “we see now only dimly, as in a mirror, but then we shall see Him face to face.” Like Thomas, who saw those nail marks in Jesus’ hands and feet, you’ll fall down on that day before the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world, and you’ll sing that chorus of unbelievable joy and unending contentment. “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  And you’ll know then that Jesus, who takes away the sins of the world, is the one who makes heaven what it is, the blissful dwelling place of the faithful.  And because you’ll be there with Jesus in all of His glory, certain things, things that you once thought were simply part of living, will be no more. 
 
    “They shall hunger no more and thirst anymore.” While actual hunger and thirst will not exist in heaven, this particular hunger and thirst is of the soul that longs for righteousness. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Jesus says).” Throughout your life you’ve witnessed and deplored the contrast between God’s holiness and your own sinfulness. Having been brought to faith in Jesus, you’ve longed  to be so much more than you are and you’ve desired to follow Him more fully than you have, as such, you’ve hungered and you’ve thirsted, as it were, for righteousness.
 
    But, that hunger and thirst shall be no more, for you will be in the image of God, holy and righteous, without spot or blemish.  And “(the Lamb) will wipe away the tears” that flowed all too frequently from your eyes.
 
    All Saints Day offers each of us an opportunity to think of the words of St. Paul, who once said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” As we think of those words, we find peace and comfort as we remember our loved ones who have gone before us in the faith, but also as we reflect on our own lives and the road that lay ahead of us.  And so…
 
“When the fight is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.”
 
“The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
Alleluia!”
 
    “I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
 
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +