READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Revelation 7:9-17
1 John 3:1-3
- St. Matthew 5:1-12
In the Name…
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord
(2 Pet 1:2)
Who speaks to you today, only through His Gospel, saying,
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account”
On this the morning of All Saints’ Day, greet your Morning
Star, O people of God: Jesus Christ. All you whom the darkness frightened with
guilt or grief or pain, God’s radiant star now brightens and bids you sing
again. None of the ghouls and specters of the night held any power to rob you
of God. For this day, we focus our thanks on His promise of security from
theft. “I give them eternal life”, Jesus says, “and they will never
perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand”. (Jn 10:28)
We remember all saints as the Reformation has passed us in
the night. As in, the struggle is coming to an end and there will be a time
without the night, where no one will ever be able to take the Gospel from us,
and where our joy will never be stolen.
As the 7th Command goes, “You shall not
steal”.
What does this mean? “We should fear and love God so that we
do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest
way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.
Number 1, The three ways this commandment may be broken are
by dishonest price gouging (does that mean there’s honest price gouging??),
borrowing and not repaying, and expecting daily bread without daily work.
It is in the second table of the Law, Commandments 4-10,
where God commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves. He first
protects their person and office in the Fourth, their lives in the Fifth, their
bodies in the Sixth, their possessions in Seven, Nine, and Ten, and also their
reputation in the Eighth.
If we actually and truly loved other people, we would sell
to them or buy from them honestly and fairly. No double standards. We would
regard their property as private. What’s yours is yours, what’s mine is mine.
And we would talk about them kindly. God forbids us to steal and sinfully
desire, or covet what others have.
A pretty straightforward, easy lesson. But, don’t think the
sermon ends that easily, because God always has a wrench waiting to thwart our
plans. In this case, our wrench comes from Malachi 3:8-9. It is in that place
that God accuses His Old Testament people of robbing Him.
He says, “Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But
you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are
cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.”
Now you must deal with your apparent, human ability to steal
from God. Does this mean God has taken out a loan that we can charge Him
interest or maybe raise His taxes? No. Notice where God says that the robbery
is taking place: on earth, in His Temple, in His Divine Service, through the
tithes and offerings.
Jesus says a similar thing to St. Paul at his conversion in
Acts. As you may remember, Saul was persecuting and murdering Christians after
Pentecost. He was on his way to more 5th-commandment-stuff, when Jesus knocked
him off his high horse and declared that Saul was persecuting Jesus, teaching us
of the intimate union between Jesus and His Church.
So at this point we must ask again, what does it mean to
steal?
Think of it this way: if you steal something from a store,
what has happened? Yes, you have stolen some good or product that you didn’t
pay for, but that someone else had to work night and day for. Now step back to
a little bigger picture.
Now, you have declared the shop owners’ stuff as your stuff.
That you are more deserving of it than him, thus coveting his things. In
stealing, you have not just broken the 7th Command, but 9 and 10 as well. On
top of that, what kind of store does everyone else think it is now? A store
worth stealing from and not patronizing regularly. You have destroyed his
reputation. 8th command.
Ultimately, you had to think and believe so little of your
neighbor that you deem his person and work not worthy of honor, 4th command.
And by proxy, the God Who made him, not worthy either. This little 7th command
you thought was so harmless, that you pulled on its string, breaking it, you
found it attached to the Almighty Himself. A sin against your neighbor is a sin
against God.
In the fulfillment of the 7th Commandment, Jesus
does not permit stealing, because not only are all things His things, He made
everything, but also all holiness is His holiness, He sanctified all. He has
chosen to cause His Name to dwell in a certain place and a certain time with a certain
people. Jesus, in grace, has exposed Himself to thievery.
And much was stolen from Him over the millennia. Honor,
worship, praise, offerings. Many have done evil in His Name, many have
worshipped demons in His Name, many have attributed words and values falsely in
His Name, and many have sacrificed satanically in His Name.
Much was stolen when He was walking around with His Apostles
on earth, as well. Mainly, faith. “O ye of little faith”, is one of Jesus’s
favorite phrases. Not “O ye of little miracles”, or “O ye of little political
backing”, or even “O ye of little blessings”. It is always a matter of faith.
Jesus has allowed His honor and His Name to be drug through
the mud. He has become as one Un-blessed for the purpose of purchasing and
winning blessedness for all who are baptized and believe. He has secured His
Pearl of Great Price, His Word and Sacraments on earth, and locked them up in
His Church. The key is His cross and the safe, His Blood. This is why Jesus can
say, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all
kinds of evil against you falsely ON MY ACCOUNT”
For not only has He covered your sinfulness, paid for your
death, and become your substitute in God’s wrath against your allegiance to the
devil, but He has united Himself to you.
This union is called the Personal Union. It is the phrase
used to describe one thing and two. That Jesus Christ is one person in Whom is
united eternally God and man. And, by default, since we are men, then our union
with Him: He our Head and we His Body. In this Way, His Work, we are called
Christians, or little christs (Acts 11:26).
Our life does not consist in the abundance of our
possessions; therefore, we are to guard against all kinds of greed (Luke 12:15).
In Christ, our life does consist of the abundance of Christ’s possessions, Word
and Sacrament, Faith in Him, Forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and with these
we are to guard against all kinds of heresy.
Including the heresy of wanting to steal us, as people of
God, and return us to the slavery of works righteousness. They rob us by
destroying our faith, getting us to agree to sinfulness, getting us to believe
that what we do is more holy than what Christ does. They rob God, by setting
men up as Blessed quite apart from the Crucifixion of Jesus.
At least, they believe they do. Since, the Lord’s Honor is
now wrapped in the flesh of Jesus, there is no stealing it, anymore. It has
been covered by a cloud and has passed beyond being able to be exhausted, steal
it all they like. Since the Lord’s work has been sealed and locked up by the
Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the only thing you could steal would be
the empty tomb, but that is already empty.
And since the Lord’s Work, God’s Work, is embodied in Faith
and belief, no amount of your works, burning Bibles, or abandoning the
Sacrament can lessen it. You are saved by works, just not any of your own.
This is why the Church is blessed. This is why men are
blessed. Not because of how well they are doing, but because of how well Christ
has done, for them.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, because Christ was poor for
them.
Blessed are those who mourn, because Christ wept for them.
Blessed are the meek, because Jesus was made meek and mild,
for them.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, because Jesus
thirsted from the cross for them.
Blessed are the merciful, because Jesus first showed them
mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, because Jesus has baptized
their heart.
Blessed are the peacemakers, because Jesus has made peace
with them.
Blessed are the persecuted, because Jesus was persecuted,
for them.
See now what kind of love the Father has given us! We share
in His earthly things, both daily bread and daily communion bread, which are
able to be thieved and stolen. But in Jesus they are connected to His things,
the heavenly things. And in Jesus moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves
cannot break in and steal. The world may hold its wealth and gold and false
doctrine, but what is that to me? Thou, my heart, keep Christ as thy true
treasure. To Him hold fast until at last a crown be thine and honor in full
measure.
All Saints’ reminds us of this true Treasure, that we are
numbered with the 144,000. The Reformation has given us back the pure doctrine
of the Lord’s Gospel, that Christ has won us and His Spirit preserves us in the
one true faith unto life everlasting. And the 7th Commandment
teaches, that though we and God can be robbed, He is able to compensate,
reinstate, and repay a hundred times over.
Amen.
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