Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
November 3, 2024
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
All Saints
See what manner of love the Father bestows upon us; that we should be called children of God. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Beloved! Now we are God's children, but it has not yet appeared what we shall be. But we do know that when he appears we will become like him; because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who holds this hope within, purifies himself even as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
Beloved in Christ there is nothing more pleasant than to ponder our future in Christ.
On All Saints day we remember and celebrate all who have gone before us in faith in Jesus. Those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” But we also renew our faith in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting which enrolls us in the Communion Of Saints.
The word Saint means holy, which is God’s adjective. Holy is unlike anything in the cosmos, but comes from outside the cosmos into it in the Person of Christ. Jesus is both holy and holiness. And the gospel we preach is that he imparts his holiness to us, so that we become pure as he is pure, and therefore like God.
That said we will always remind Christians that we do not purify ourselves. We did not begin the process and then the Spirit took over to complete it; nor did the Spirit begin it, and then we took over to complete it. No!
But "by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9) And with the words "lest any man should boast," Saint Paul makes a brilliant point. That if we can claim as much as 1 part per million of affecting our own salvation then we have room to boast. But no man must ever boast before God. Instead we must boast “IN” the Lord, which is to stoutly believe and confess aloud what he has done in us and to us and for us.
But it is hard to be a saint in this world. John writes that “the world does not know us, because it did not know him.” And so we are “strangers and pilgrims” upon the earth, ever traveling to our heavenly home. To a better city whose builder and maker is God.
At this time and place the culture and the powers that be do tolerate our doctrine and practices, even if only resentfully. But one day they may outlaw us entirely, and put a price on our heads, as the world has done to the church many, many, many times in history.
Yes it is hard to fully embrace our religion with all of its call for purity in a contrary world and so St. John writes, “Beloved it does not yet appear what we shall be.” O how true. When we consider ourselves now. Especially the sins that Old Adam, the Red Man, tempts us to perpetrate, then we might wonder if we are Christians at all. If God can still love us, purify us, and make us fit for our heavenly dwelling, and heavenly service He has planned for us, about which we currently know nothing! But O we will find out!
But St. John also reveals a bright piece of information to us, namely this, that “when He appears,” Jesus that is, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Seeing him as he is happens in three ways for us.
Firstly today’s epistle is spoken into a Liturgical setting. And so for now we see, even as they see, Jesus on the altar in the Bread and Wine. See him once again condescending to be with us in these humble forms comprehensible even by the least sophisticated among us.
When we look at the Ciborium and the Chalice, which we could think of as the Lord’s Eucharistic manger, we see Jesus intervening into the affairs of men: bodily! Coming once again as our “Paraclete” (1 Jn 2:1) to further triturate the devil’s skull. To break his power over us. To release us from the Satanic spider webs which he spins all about us. He comes to forgive our sins, declare his love for us, and give us confidence and power to carry on each day as children of God.
We will also see him when he returns to judge the living and the dead. Indeed today’s Psalm says that we will actually JOIN HIM IN THAT JUDGEMENT (Psalm 149:9). But that said we must also be very clear that we do not judge anyone here or now. As the Lord says, “Judge not and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be condemned. (Mt. 7:1) But that day is coming. It is nearer now than when we first believed.
We also see him now whenever the saints who love the Beatitudes come to the aid of their fellow man. To the aid of those in pain, illness, poverty, nakedness, loneliness, anguish and the like.
Whenever we observe such a genuine act of love, we know that the Lord Jesus himself is in it, and has inspired it.
Now lastly a word on purification. St. John writes, “Everyone who holds this hope purifies himself even as He, Jesus that is, is pure.” (1 Jn 3:3) He is the pure, spotless, sacrificial Lamb of God who offered himself up as both victim and priest, to make us pure by remission of sins. But how do we purify ourselves. There are two ways.
From the very beginning no Eucharistic celebration ever began without confession and absolution. At the first Lord’s Supper we note this taking place when the Lord washes the disciples’ feet. In Eucharist ever since there has always been a confessional prayer, and an absolution. And in keeping with holy tradition we, too, began our Eucharist with confession and absolution. And so as we heartily confess our sins, and just as enthusiastically believe the absolution given, “we purify ourselves” even as he is pure.
Lastly, having understood all we heard above, we purify ourselves by renouncing the devil and all his works and all his ways. By renouncing the desires of our sin-addicted hearts and minds and hands and eyes, and all their works and all their ways. And by leaving the culture behind.
May God grant all these things. Amen