In this All Saints Sunday worship service, Pastor Daniel Flucke looks at the question of what makes someone a saint. Is it how good of a person you are? Is it how much money you give to the church? Perhaps how many different community organizations you volunteer for?
No, being a saint simply means being part of the body of Christ. As we hear in 1 John, we are God’s children. Because God loves you, God has claimed you and calls you beloved. And because you are already beloved, because your eternal future is secure, you can live and serve boldly and humbly in this world. Today’s Scripture readings are 1 John 3:1-3, Psalm 43, and Matthew 23:1-12. In addition to drawing from our fall stewardship theme, You Have Heard It Said, from Church Anew, I found helpful G. Lee Kluth’s GodPause Devotion for November 2, 2023. Portions of this sermon are adapted from my Reformation 500 sermon.
Here’s the livestream (with baptism!) from Christ the King and the sermon audio.
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Grace to you and peace from the One who was, who is, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our risen Lord. Amen
I know we marked Reformation Sunday last week and today is All Saints Day, but I want to start by sharing with you one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther.
I trust you all know that our church bears his name, we are Christ the King / Living Hope Lutheran Church, but Luther himself was vehemently opposed to having his name on a church. Listen to what he said in 1522:
“I desire above all things that my name should be concealed, and that none be called by the name of Lutheran; but of Christian. What is Luther? My doctrine is not mine, but Christ’s. I was not crucified for anyone. How comes it to pass, that I, who am but a filthy, stinking bag of worms; that any of the sons of God should be denominated from my name? Away with these schismatical names! Let us be denominated from Christ, from whom alone we have our doctrine.”
In some countries the church honors that and the churches that grew from Luther’s tradition go by “Evangelical Churches”—literally, “good news”—but in the United States the word evangelical has a bit different meaning for most people, and we do use Luther’s name. I think we’re the only major denomination named after a person. Sorry, Reverend Doctor Herr Luther.
I imagine when Luther wrote about not wanting to be the church’s namesake, he might have been thinking about this teaching from Jesus in Matthew 23.
Jesus is talking about the scribes and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day, and he accuses them basically of the sin of pride. They are proud of their positions as public religious figures, and they do all their deeds to be seen by others.
They love being known as teachers, being the guests of honor at dinner parties, and sitting prominently in the front row where everyone can see them at worship services.
I think more of us have the opposite problem—I’ve been to full Christmas services in midwestern Lutheran churches where we were pulling out folding chairs and lining the aisles, and yet the front two pews were still wide open. A humble sacrifice for us might be to come sit in the front row. Different cultures.
Also, as Lutherans, we do not believe everything Martin Luther preached. In fact, we outright reject some of the things he said, especially the terrible things he said about the Jewish people.
Some of his writings are blatantly anti-semitic—they’re evil—and our church has rejected them. Again, Luther would be the first to admit he wasn’t a perfect person, but rather “a filthy, stinking bag of worms.”
Sometimes, we have to follow the good and helpful teachings, not the example of the one teaching it, who had trouble living up to his own teachings—which is basically what Jesus is saying about the scribes and Pharisees: “Do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.”
Anyway, Jesus has a problem with religious leaders putting themselves first. Our faith should always point to God, not to ourselves.
Something to keep in mind as we celebrate our church’s anniversary—we’re celebrating God’s faithfulness and what God has done through this congregation, not how great we are. Naming our church after Martin Luther might be one of the most un-Lutheran things we could do, because Luther’s theology—at least the good, helpful, Biblical parts—was all about grace.
And grace does not fit well with pride. Our fundamental believe is that we cannot save ourselves; we cannot earn our way to heaven. We need God’s help.
Lutheranism 101, remember? God always comes down. And there’s a level of humility in believing we need God to come rescue us. It’s not easy to admit we can’t climb the ladder up to God.
We can’t pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Grace seems almost unAmerican! We can’t buy our way in, or get in by working hard enough.
I don’t think you can be a Lutheran without facing your sin and realizing you need God’s help. Believe in grace means believing you need grace. I need grace. Lutherans are good at admitting the truth that we’re not the ones in control. That’s faith, right? Faith is trusting in God, rather than ourselves.
The Psalmist in Psalm 43 is a good example: He asks for God’s vindication, because he needs God’s help. He recognizes and admits he’s in a situation he can only get out of if God helps him.
Today is All Saints day, and in the Lutheran understanding, saints are not limited to the people who have done great works of faith. You don’t need to be heroically martyred and torn apart by lions to be a saint. You don’t need to be a great warrior, or a prolific teacher, or sell all your possessions and go live in a desert hut.
Because we believe in God’s grace, we believe every Christian—every follower of Jesus—is a saint. Saints are not just superheroes of faith; the label of saint applies to everyone who believes in Jesus.
We are all children of God, not because of the great deeds we’ve done, not because of the giant checks we’ve written or the sacrifices we’ve made, but because of what God has done for us, because God has chosen and claimed us.
1 John 3:1 – “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” Our identity comes from God, not from our accomplishments, or our jobs, or what we have. Who we are is a gift from God.
Infant baptism is the perfect illustration. We had a baptism this morning at Christ the King, and he seemed like a perfectly nice 5 month old, but let’s be honest: Brooks has done nothing to earn the right to be baptized today. He didn’t pay an admission fee or sign up for the lawn mowing or communion assistant list; he’s not getting rewarded for anything he’s done; and yet Jesus welcomes him. Jesus washes him clean. Today he is getting sainted as a child of God, entirely through God’s work, not his own.
As we live as saints, we are not to show off, or boast in what God has given us as if we deserved any of it.
Today’s stewardship theme is “You have heard it said…Giant checks equal giant faith.” Sound familiar? If you give more, if you do more, that must mean you have greater faith.
And it’s a tricky thing, because having faith does lead to doing more. Recognizing the free gift of grace God has given you leads to action and generosity.
But the order matters. Faith leads to generosity. Our generosity is a response to God’s. And doing good deeds to be seen by others misses the point. Giving with the hope that others will appreciate your gift is selfishness, not generosity.
As Christians, we have a different standard of greatness than that of the world. People come from different backgrounds and have different resources; you can’t pretend to measure someone’s faith by the amount they give.
We are all on equal footing before God, all called to humble service, not so God will love us, but because we are secure knowing God already does.
Sometimes I have mixed feelings that we don’t pass an offering plate around in worship anymore. It’s tricky, because I believe giving ought to be a part of worship. Giving is an act of worship; it’s a response to what God has done for us.
If our worship and gratitude to God stops short of our wallets, something’s missing. We don’t get to say we belong to God, but our money belongs to us. Worship should include giving.
But at the same time, not passing a plate around removes the possibility of our giving being performative. You don’t get to glance sideways at what your neighbor is giving, or if they’re contributing financially at all.
From a bluntly practical perspective, online and automatic withdrawal giving helps the church because it’s more steady and predictable, but theologically, it also means your giving is between you and God—isn’t that great? And obviously the church has records, but we don’t publish a list of who gives what. We don’t name parking lots after big donors, or have memorial pews, so we don’t get to judge others’ faith by what they give.
And when God could choose to judge, God instead chooses to offer grace. If our giving, if our good deeds were weighed against our sin, we would always come up short, so God lays aside that judgement. Rather than treat any of us as filthy, stinking worms, God declares us to be saints, members of Christ’s body, children of the King of Kings. Sainthood is not about what we’ve done, or what Luther did; it’s all about what Jesus has done for us. See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are!
Let us pray.
Good and gracious God, thank you for claiming each of us as your beloved children, and declaring that we are saints who belong to you. Thank you for not counting our sins against us, for forgiving us for our hypocrisy when our actions don’t live up to the faith we claim. Stir us up to be your people in this world, and renew us by your Spirit to follow you today and always, in Jesus’ name. Amen