Life can be very disorienting to faith. What we see and experience doesn’t match our expectations. If God is on our side, why do we suffer? If Jesus has conquered sin, death, and the devil, why do we still get sick, why do we die, why aren’t we always successful? If God bestows truth and forgiveness to the world through His Church’s continued preaching and administration of the Holy Sacraments, why does the world hate us and seek to silence us? Why does the wicked, unbelieving world seem to have it so good and so easy while the sorrows of the righteous just seem to grow exponentially? The Festival of All Saints’ is an important and edifying reminder that the hope of our faith is not in this life. Indeed, as the apostle Paul writes, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Rom. 8:24) God granted St. John the vision of heaven and had him record it to sustain him and us through this valley of sorrow. When John looked into heaven, he saw all of Christ’s beloved children gathered around Him, filled with inexpressible joy rather than sorrow, waving palms of victory rather than holding up the war-standard of the holy cross, singing praises rather than crying out in lament. The tears that had clouded their eyes here as they mourned their own sin and the wickedness and fruits of sin all around them had been wiped away forever. That is the certain future for which we wait and long and cry out. We are God’s children now. He has said so in Holy Baptism. The kingdom of heaven is ours now. Jesus said so. But the blessed life of perfect rest in God’s unveiled presence is a future joy. That is why we gather in our Father’s house. We need to be strengthened so that we may stand and endure to the end. We need to be reminded of the eternal good that lies ahead which some already enjoy, and the impermanence of where we are now so that we don’t cling to it and lose what has been promised. We need to be reminded that the life of faith here is a life of struggle and battle and tears just like our Lord’s but that if we persevere in the true faith, all of that will give way to the peace and rest and joy of eternal life. I look forward to seeing you this coming Lord’s Day to remember the faithful who have gone before us, to be encouraged by their faithfulness, and to be strengthened by Christ’s Word and His Body and Blood.
Pastor Ulmer