Who is This Host? All Saints Sunday, Nov 2, 2014 Pastor Kristen Larsen-Schmidt 1 John, 3: 1-3. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Revelation 7:9-17 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. [10] They cried out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!" [11] And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, [12] singing, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." [13] Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?" [14] I said to him, "Sir, you are the one that knows." Then he said to me, "These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. [15] For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. [16]They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; [17] for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Dear Saints of God, grace to you and peace from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Reading this text from Revelation today, with this amazing vision of the heavenly roll call, I am remembering the time when I was about 14 when I travelled with my family down to Council Bluffs Iowa for my Grandma s 80 th birthday. She had just moved to the nursing home and all my extended family prepared a party and a little program for her. As part of this, my dad and his four brothers stood in front of their mom and sang her favorite hymn: Who is this host arrayed in white, like thousand snowclad mountain bright, that stands with palms and sings its psalms before the throne of light. And I watched my grandma, hunched over in her wheelchair, turned her ear up to listen, smiling a sweet, sweet, smile, looking up, not really at her sons, but off into the distance, and I saw a tear roll down her wrinkled cheek. I think I was pretty oblivious at the time, not giving much thought to the way that this old winding tune and flowery verse was painting a remarkable scene of the saints of God, streaming to his throne from every direction, raising their voices loud and unified in praise of the one true king. It is straight out of this text from Revelation. In the new hymnal, the hymn title has been changed to Behold the Host. I have to admit, I am a little partial to the way we used to sing it, quoting the elder of revelation in asking, Who is this host? Because it seems honest. We wonder this too. Who are these people coming? Who s going to be there? Who really are the saints of God?
We confess it whenever we say in the Apostles Creed, I believe in the communion of the saints. When we say this, we aren t talking about Holy Communion, at least not exclusively. What we are talking about our union with God, and with all God s saints, and I believe that circle of community is much bigger than we often imagine. Saints aren t just exceptionally good and holy people of ancient or modern times. The Roman Catholic Church may see this differently than us, as they have a rather complicated process by which someone can finally be established as a Saint. But we Lutherans are following the New Testament, which uses the word saint and the term believer in Christ interchangeably. In our understanding, saints are ordinary, everyday people who have taken hold of the forgiveness of God in Christ, and allowed the light of the Holy Spirit to shine through them their whole life long. They don t even have to be dead! There are lots of living saints right here in this room! You might look around and think, Listen, pastor, that so-amd-so is no saint, believe you me. But here we are, all together, seeking Christ s love and forgiveness and direction, and you know what, that means we re in. So turn to your neighbor, make sure you know their name and then say, Good morning Saint John, Saint Eva, Saint Steve. Go ahead!,,,,,, If you don t feel too much like a saint, remember this, those saints of God gathered round in Revelation, they are not dressed up in their own acts of goodness, they aren t singing their own praises, they have put on Christ. That is why they are wearing white, as a symbol of his righteousness, grace and purity. We remember that this is our inheritance as children of God long before death, when we clothe our babies in white as we bring them to the font, when we dress our confirmands in white, and finally when, at some funerals, a casket is covered in a white pall.all of these rituals remind us that we are claimed by Christ, the cross on our foreheads marks us as his, He died for us, forgave us, and set us free from death. He has clothed us in the glorious garment of his grace. So while in this life we are never completely free from sin, we are still righteous before God, forgiven, and pure as snow.
This Sunday we are going to be baptizing 3 babies, that will bring our total to 57 so far this year. My goodness, who is this host arrayed in white? We can t possibly know every child, every adult in this large congregation. No, not even me as a pastor. But we welcome each one by name, because they are our new little sisters and brothers in Christ, and Jesus knows their names. They are a part of his communion of saints. But this community that we belong to extends far beyond these expanding walls. This text reminds us of that when we make our way to God s presence, we will be joined by saints coming to the throne from every tribe and nation. We do not wait until then to understand that no matter whether we are singing Holy, Holy, Holy or Santo, Santo, Santo we are already singing it together, as we sing to the lamb upon whom we have pinned all our hopes. Who is this host? Who are these people? Who are they to us? When we remember the communion of Saints, we think about the physical cross, the vertical arm connects us with God in Jesus Christ, and the horizontal beams are like God s arms embracing all his people. Those arms extend all around the world, encompassing all the people, gathering this day in huts and courtyards and churches and basements, often in hiding, who are doing just what we are doing today, worshiping God and clinging to Jesus today as the source of their salvation. It doesn t matter that we ve never met them. They are our family. And so are some we have considered enemies, but who count Jesus as a friend, and yes, those arms also include the blessed dead. And no matter where they are, in heaven and on earth, we are worshipping with them today, we are singing God s praises with them today, and also, in some mysterious way, we are truly eating with them today. That is why we call it communion. I want you to think about that, as you come to the Lord s Table today, that as full as this room is, there are many more here unseen, all the host of heaven,we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, including our dewar and loved ones. They are at this table with us. So we might ask, who is this host, the one who welcomes us to the table, and finally, to his eternal home?
This is the lamb. He is the one who has washed us clean by his saving blood. This is the one who has clothed us in his grace. This is the one who promises to walk us through this life, and through the valley, to the place he has prepared for us, where a spot is saved for each of us at the banquet that never ends. And on that day, he will wipe away all our tears, and mourning and hurting and aching will be at an end, as we are united face to face with all those saints we have been separated from. I think about my grandma, listening with such fervor to that old hymn, looking off in the distance as the question is asked, Who is this host? I swear she was seeing them seeing her mom and dad, seeing her husband who had gone before. Reaching out to hold the two infant baby girls she never got to know. Seeing Jesus face to face, and seeing many more faces new to her then, brothers and sisters she has surely come to know as dear brothers and sisters in Christ. As for myself, when we sing that song today, I will be looking far off too, and I will be thinking about my grandma welcoming my dad and ushering him into the presence of the host of heaven. Oh what a scene. I imagine him singing to her once more, and I am looking ahead to the day when I will join them. Until then, I will light a candle for my dad and my grandmas, and I will endeavor to live my life in such a way that the legacy of faith they have given to me radiates in my life, so that maybe someday someone will light a candle in gratitude for the faith that I shared. May their light shines through me, and through you all too, shining, shining as children of God, the communion of saints, the host of God. Amen.