St Matthew 5:1-12/Revelation 7:2-17/1 John 3:1-3
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
He comes in the way of Moses. He ascends the mountain and gathers His Israel before Him. He opened His mouth and gave them doctrine. Christ is the Prophet of the Lord, raised up from among His brothers, as was foretold. In His mouth is the Word of the Lord. Indeed He is the Word made flesh, by whom all things we made in the beginning. As His creative Word spoke all things into existence, Let there be . . .and it was so, so too now, He speaks concerning His Church, His new Israel, Blessed are . . .and it is so.
The sermon that Christ delivers on the mount, the Beatitudes, His blesseds, is the same sermon that St John heard in heaven. He saw an angel ascending from the rising of the sun, a messenger coming in the way of the resurrection, bearing with him the seal of the living God. By his word, which is not his, but God’s, this angel halts the destructive forces upon creation. God’s Word stops the destructive forces against His good creation; it halts and reverses the effects of sin and death. And it is the Word that seals the servants of God. With His Word God marks you as His own, inscribes upon you His very name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
St John heard the number of the sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. He makes a point to say so. He heard. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing of the Word of Christ. The twelve tribes of Israel represent the wholeness, the completeness of the Church. It is not a minuscule fraction of humanity which is sealed with the promise of the Lord, but a symbolic representation of all the elect of the Father in Christ. The sons of Israel are not listed chronologically, but theologically. They, this symbolic 144,000 are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. They are the blessed of the Lord. They are the Church.
Beloved, you are among their faithful numbers. Not according to the flesh, nor by blood, nor the will of man. But by the will of God. For you are sealed with the seal of the living God, washed up in the blood of the Lamb, children of your Father in heaven who loves you.
What St John is given to see - a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands - you do not yet see. For you are yet this side of glory. You walk by faith, not by sight. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1).
It is true that when Christ appears you shall see Him as He is, for you shall be like Him. And though you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses now, the prophets and apostles, martyrs and saints, and all the faithful departed who have gone before us in Christ Jesus you do not see them.
What you see is not yet the Resurrection; the glorious bliss of heaven. What you see is the Cross, all the suffering and sin and death, the trials and temptations of the great tribulation in which we presently live. You see it in your neighbor. And you see and experience it in yourself, in your mortal flesh and blood, in this poor life of labor. Most of all you behold it in those whom you have loved in this life on earth, who have died, who are now but dust and ashes, hidden away in boxes. Their bodies and their life in Christ Jesus are ought of sight, hidden from your senses.
What you perceive and feel is emptiness, loss and sorrow, the pain of separation, doubt and fear and uncertainty. This scares you all the more because your faith is threatened and you are tempted to despair; or else tempted to become cold and hard. Cynicism creeps in where faith ought to hold sway, and you are tossed about within and without.
Beloved, do not despair. And do not loose heart. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. It is not only a qualitative love, a love that surpasses all human understanding, a love that guards your heart and mind in Christ. It is a quantitative love. For in this way God loved us: He gave His only-begotten Son, in order that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life.
The Father does not love you because you are so lovable. He loved you in Christ from before the foundation of the world precisely because it is in His nature to do so. God is love. And in this is His love to the loveless shown: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. To be “miserable” as you confess, is not the same as to be pitiable. To be miserable is to be in need of mercy. Thus do you beseech Him and receive from the Father of all mercies, the God of all comfort. As it is written, He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too (2 Cor 1:4-5).
You presently share in the sufferings of Christ because you are in Him. In this way the Beatitudes firstly describe Christ Jesus and then, by virtue of your fellowship in His suffering, death, and resurrection, they describe you. You are blessed in Christ. You are the beloved in the Lord. The reason you suffer is because He suffered. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
Yet He was and is known by His Father in heaven who is also your Father in heaven. For the Lamb in the midst of the saints in glory is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Salvation belongs to Him. The Lamb is their Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for the sheep. He was poor in spirit, relying on His Father for all things, giving up Himself even unto death. The Father has received His sacrifice and vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead. His is the kingdom of heaven.
Beloved you are known by your Father in heaven. You are God’s children now. You are His Church. Militant or triumphant, there is only one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church. She is united in Christ her head. You are one with the host arrayed in white, for you share in the blood of the Lamb. You are one flesh with those who have preceded you in Christ, for you partake of the flesh and blood of Him who overcame death and the grave for you, and brought life and immortality to light.
This reality is yet hidden from your eyes, though it is heard in Word and song in the holy liturgy. Here you join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, falling on your faces before the throne and worship God. This place becomes for you heaven on earth in His Divine Service!
Here Jesus stands, the mount of His pulpit, opening His mouth and giving you His Word. There Jesus stands, the womb of the baptismal font, where you are born from above by Word and Spirit, a child of God. Behold, the throne of His altar, from whence He comes not to rule in terror and might, but to give you of Himself. The King bends low to serve you, His blessed ones. The Lamb in your Shepherd.
Come then, be joined to Christ Jesus and to one another. Come, hunger and thirst no more, for you shall be fed and nourished with His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of yours sins.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
He comes in the way of Moses. He ascends the mountain and gathers His Israel before Him. He opened His mouth and gave them doctrine. Christ is the Prophet of the Lord, raised up from among His brothers, as was foretold. In His mouth is the Word of the Lord. Indeed He is the Word made flesh, by whom all things we made in the beginning. As His creative Word spoke all things into existence, Let there be . . .and it was so, so too now, He speaks concerning His Church, His new Israel, Blessed are . . .and it is so.
The sermon that Christ delivers on the mount, the Beatitudes, His blesseds, is the same sermon that St John heard in heaven. He saw an angel ascending from the rising of the sun, a messenger coming in the way of the resurrection, bearing with him the seal of the living God. By his word, which is not his, but God’s, this angel halts the destructive forces upon creation. God’s Word stops the destructive forces against His good creation; it halts and reverses the effects of sin and death. And it is the Word that seals the servants of God. With His Word God marks you as His own, inscribes upon you His very name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
St John heard the number of the sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. He makes a point to say so. He heard. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing of the Word of Christ. The twelve tribes of Israel represent the wholeness, the completeness of the Church. It is not a minuscule fraction of humanity which is sealed with the promise of the Lord, but a symbolic representation of all the elect of the Father in Christ. The sons of Israel are not listed chronologically, but theologically. They, this symbolic 144,000 are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. They are the blessed of the Lord. They are the Church.
Beloved, you are among their faithful numbers. Not according to the flesh, nor by blood, nor the will of man. But by the will of God. For you are sealed with the seal of the living God, washed up in the blood of the Lamb, children of your Father in heaven who loves you.
What St John is given to see - a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands - you do not yet see. For you are yet this side of glory. You walk by faith, not by sight. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Heb 11:1).
It is true that when Christ appears you shall see Him as He is, for you shall be like Him. And though you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses now, the prophets and apostles, martyrs and saints, and all the faithful departed who have gone before us in Christ Jesus you do not see them.
What you see is not yet the Resurrection; the glorious bliss of heaven. What you see is the Cross, all the suffering and sin and death, the trials and temptations of the great tribulation in which we presently live. You see it in your neighbor. And you see and experience it in yourself, in your mortal flesh and blood, in this poor life of labor. Most of all you behold it in those whom you have loved in this life on earth, who have died, who are now but dust and ashes, hidden away in boxes. Their bodies and their life in Christ Jesus are ought of sight, hidden from your senses.
What you perceive and feel is emptiness, loss and sorrow, the pain of separation, doubt and fear and uncertainty. This scares you all the more because your faith is threatened and you are tempted to despair; or else tempted to become cold and hard. Cynicism creeps in where faith ought to hold sway, and you are tossed about within and without.
Beloved, do not despair. And do not loose heart. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. It is not only a qualitative love, a love that surpasses all human understanding, a love that guards your heart and mind in Christ. It is a quantitative love. For in this way God loved us: He gave His only-begotten Son, in order that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life.
The Father does not love you because you are so lovable. He loved you in Christ from before the foundation of the world precisely because it is in His nature to do so. God is love. And in this is His love to the loveless shown: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. To be “miserable” as you confess, is not the same as to be pitiable. To be miserable is to be in need of mercy. Thus do you beseech Him and receive from the Father of all mercies, the God of all comfort. As it is written, He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too (2 Cor 1:4-5).
You presently share in the sufferings of Christ because you are in Him. In this way the Beatitudes firstly describe Christ Jesus and then, by virtue of your fellowship in His suffering, death, and resurrection, they describe you. You are blessed in Christ. You are the beloved in the Lord. The reason you suffer is because He suffered. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
Yet He was and is known by His Father in heaven who is also your Father in heaven. For the Lamb in the midst of the saints in glory is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Salvation belongs to Him. The Lamb is their Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for the sheep. He was poor in spirit, relying on His Father for all things, giving up Himself even unto death. The Father has received His sacrifice and vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead. His is the kingdom of heaven.
Beloved you are known by your Father in heaven. You are God’s children now. You are His Church. Militant or triumphant, there is only one, holy, Christian, and apostolic Church. She is united in Christ her head. You are one with the host arrayed in white, for you share in the blood of the Lamb. You are one flesh with those who have preceded you in Christ, for you partake of the flesh and blood of Him who overcame death and the grave for you, and brought life and immortality to light.
This reality is yet hidden from your eyes, though it is heard in Word and song in the holy liturgy. Here you join with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, falling on your faces before the throne and worship God. This place becomes for you heaven on earth in His Divine Service!
Here Jesus stands, the mount of His pulpit, opening His mouth and giving you His Word. There Jesus stands, the womb of the baptismal font, where you are born from above by Word and Spirit, a child of God. Behold, the throne of His altar, from whence He comes not to rule in terror and might, but to give you of Himself. The King bends low to serve you, His blessed ones. The Lamb in your Shepherd.
Come then, be joined to Christ Jesus and to one another. Come, hunger and thirst no more, for you shall be fed and nourished with His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of yours sins.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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