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ssaints04
Oh, How Blest
Text:
Matthew 5:1-12
Date: All Saints Day/Stewardship
11/7/04 free crack testdrive
It
may seem a strange if not impossible thing to combine the celebration
of All Saints Day along side of our annual Stewardship emphasis.
On the one hand we're talking about heaven—those who have gone on
before us, and our own hope of being included in that number when
the saints go marchin' in. On the other hand we're talking about
money. I say it may seem strange if not impossible lest we fall
into the trap of giving the impression that the two things, heaven
and money, are related. I mean how many don't at least subliminally
entertain the thought that the more money you give at church the
greater your chances of going to heaven, or, put more crassly, that
our attendance, our work and our offerings are an investment for
which God somehow “owes” us?
Yet
the two, heaven and stewardship, are related. For both have to do
with God's blessings. Neither has anything to do with earning anything
or hope of reward. Both have to do with blessing and thanksgiving
for God's gifts. Listen to how we refer to the saints who have gone
before us in our hymnody. “Oh, how blest are you whose toils are
ended, Who through death have to our God ascended!” [LW 268:1].
“Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine, We feebly struggle, they
in glory shine” [LW 191:4]. And the Bible says, “‘Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord from now on.' ‘Blessed indeed,' says the
Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow
them!'” [Rev. 14:13 (ESV)].
Stewardship
is how the Bible talks about the Christian's relationship to money
and possessions, time and talent and how they are to be managed
as expressions of thanksgiving for the blessings of God who, as
the little catechism says it, not only “made me and all creatures;
has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my
reason and all my senses,” but “still takes care of them.” Unlike
the unbeliever the Christian really does believe that God “also
gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife
and children, land, animals, and all I have;” that “He richly and
daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and
life,” that he “defends me against all danger and guards and protects
me from all evil.” The key is that “all this he does only out of
fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness
in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and
obey him.” The Apostle Paul makes it clear [as we have outlined
on the last page of today's service folder] that Biblical stewardship
is, or ought to be, a regular, cheerful response in some proportion
to the blessings we have received from God.
Both
our present life and possessions and our future hope of heaven are
due not to our own works, plans or efforts but to God's grace and
are to be received as a gift, a blessing.
So
it's no wonder that on All Saints Day as well as on Stewardship
Sunday we should hear the Beatitudes from the beginning of our Lord's
Sermon on the Mount. The word “beatitude,” of course, is the Latin
word translated into English with the word, “blessed.” And who is
blessed? “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” says Jesus, “for they
shall be comforted.” “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.”
But
wait a minute! Poor? Meek? Hungry and thirsty? Persecuted? These
words describe blessing? How many consider poverty a blessing? “Meekness”
is not something one would even consider including on a résum
é or job application. And even if we interpret these things
only as “spiritual attitudes” (meaning not real!), even then who
really qualifies for the blessing of God?
As
long as you see the Beatitudes as a list of qualifications or qualities
that you are expected to produce on your own you are speaking and
thinking in terms of Law. And, as St. Paul said last Sunday, we
know that “by works of the law no human being will be justified”
[Romans 3:20 (ESV)]. Yet isn't Jesus talking here about us? Well,
yes he is. But he is speaking only about us who are in him by repentance
and faith. For he is first speaking about himself.
Jesus
is the poor in spirit. He “poured out his soul to death” [Isaiah
53:12 (ESV)], crying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
[Matthew 27:46 (ESV)]. Yet, because he did not count equality with
God a thing to be bragged about, but made himself nothing, taking
the form of a servant, humbling himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross, “therefore God has highly
exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name”
[Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)]. His is the kingdom and the glory forever
who, on the last day, will “bring with him those who have fallen
asleep” in him with the sign of faith [1 Thessalonians 4:14 (ESV)].
And “in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
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