Look at this. The first words out of Jesus' mouth are Gospel, pure, beautiful Gospel.

As Lutherans we always say it should be Law and then Gospel, but it may not always be spoken that way. It's more the way we experience it.

The Law gets us throughout the week. The recognition of sin in the world is always slapping us in the face--when we let someone down, or they let us down, when things go badly. Before we even swing our feet out of bed and place them on the floor, we remember that we are sinners or at least we are not in a perfect world, because in a perfect world, that alarm clock would not have been waking us up before we were ready. Then you find out someone else is in the shower when you need to get in, the milk has gone bad, you ran out of the cereal you like, the coffee maker didn't turn on, and that's just the beginning of the day.

Are you hit with your own sinfulness by this point? I'm sure you would have, although you might not recognize it. But then something happens, and then you can't help but recognize it. You feel guilt, shame, remorse, or anger and then regret. The Law has spoken to you. You can brush it off with, "Oh well, it wasn't that bad," or "Once again, I see that I am a sinner." I think you know which is the better choice. In case you don't know, you want to say "Once again, I see I'm a sinner." It's good to do that because if you don't see it, you don't need Jesus, and what good is a Christian without Jesus?

But speaking of Jesus, the very first words out of His mouth are Gospel-I mean the very first recorded words of His public ministry, are pure Gospel. He looks out at the crowd assembled below him scattered on the hills, opens His mouth and blesses them.

Here's the amazing thing. He's not just talking about the people sitting all around on the green grass. He talks about all the people who are blessed. It's not just those who have His words going into their ears at that moment. Who is poorer in spirit than Joseph sitting in a pit, waiting to be sold as a slave, and then at another time, purer in heart when Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him and he says, "How can I do this great evil and sin against my Lord?" Who mourns more than Sarah who had been told she was going to be the mother of nations, and she's over ninety years old and hasn't had a single child? Who hungered and thirsted for righteousness more than David who when confronted with his sin against Bathsheba cries out for mercy, "I have sinned against the Lord?" Or more merciful than Ruth who will not leave her mother-in-law Naomi, but has pity on this woman who has no hope of social support and nothing visible to promise her for support?

These are the people Jesus describes, and more. Not because they made themselves good people, but because these people in faith are covered with Jesus. Covered with Jesus by faith. Don't you know that as many of us who have been baptized have put on Christ? That's straight out of the Bible. Dressed in Christ. If you are baptized, you have been dressed in Christ. Therefore, His purity, His merciful nature, his hunger and thirst is seen as yours. Not just us, but all those Old Testament all stars, and all the unknowns who cling to Jesus alone for mercy. You join this long line of saints.

Is it appropriate to call believers in the Old Testament Christian? Was there Christianity before Jesus came? Sure. Track with me. We believe in a guy named Jesus who lived a perfect life for us and died the death we were supposed to die, rising from the dead showing that His death was sufficient for our payment. Right? They-these saints of the Old Testament-believed in a guy, whose name they didn't know, who was going to live a perfect life and die the death they were supposed to die, rising from the dead showing that His death was sufficient for their payment. How much different is it? They believed in the same Christ. He was to come for them. He has come for us. They are Christian just as much as we are.

And today, this All Saints Day we remember all these Christians, not just New Testament saints, not just Old Testament saints, but every saint who has every lived. We thank God for His faithfulness to all these people.

And now, the profound reality: We are considered part of them. Most of us would like or enjoy being part of the popular crowd, the "in" crowd. How important it is for those of us who are like this to be accepted by the popular group, the group in power, to have them talk to us, to have them consider us important.

Yet we are part of a group that no earthly groups could ever compare, not even close. When we have the attention of the leader of one of an earthly groups, we feel like the sun is shining on us, but this is no mere human whose attention and concern is showered on us. This is the Almighty God and we are in His group, His family. But if having Him concerned about us isn't enough, look at who else is in this group. We talked about Joseph, and David, Sarah and Ruth-all the heroes of faith. Plus the apostles, and generations of Christians. They and you are all part of this by His choice. And that's what makes us all the same.

This huge crowd--made up of people from every era, from different parts of the world, speaking different languages and living in different cultures---is remarkably alike. Big, small, young, old, intelligent, slow, rich, poor, you can hardly tell the difference because the faith is exactly the same. Despite the diversity, they are all the same. They know they are there because of nothing they have done, rather what God has done for them.

This realization affects the way they see worship. They see themselves as poor in spirit and ready to be filled-just like us. The saints of the O.T. like David, Abraham, Moses, Noah, and Adam looked for the fruits of Jesus' death to be given to them, the same as we do. The major difference was only in form as the Old Testament pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus, the New Testament points back. But the action of the people is the same, standing there waiting to be filled with the mercy of God. Waiting to be filled with the gifts of life and then no longer waiting, but actually being filled.

It marks our worship now. We come not so much to give, but to receive, to be given to. Our emphasis is still on that, as it has been through generations and generations of Christians, each of us taking our place in this company of saints. As one steps down to join the Church Triumphant, another one steps up, and all either stand or have stood in the same position, with hands and mouths open to be filled.

Even the format of the worship, for the most part, stays the same. The same way they worshiped, we still do, showing that it is one continuous stream. In fact, as we worship this morning, the saints of heaven join their continuous praise of the Lamb with ours as we gather as a congregation to receive the gifts of the Lamb.

Music and styles may have changed some but they defy being pigeon-holed into any particular time period, because of the timelessness of the entire company who are here as we worship, and because the culture of the church stands opposed to the culture we live in. If the whole company of heaven is here, as we are told in Hebrews and as church confesses, how could we convey it if we were to worship the way our current culture would dictate it? What if they had? They would have lost the sense of the communion of saints. We would do the same. Therefore, like those who have gone before us, we worship the same way they did 50 years ago, 100 years, 500, 1,000, even 2,000 years ago.

Do you realize what you have, here? That boring, dry liturgy shows that we are all part of the same family, even if most of us have already died and are in glory with Jesus. It shows that we are all the same, because we have all been dressed in Christ. The description Jesus gives in His sermon, again, is your description-at least as God sees it. A description of perfection. God sees holiness, unconditional and perfect love. He describes what His Father sees when He looks at us in Christ.

This is what God sees. What does the world see? More importantly, what does the world need? What does the world need a saint to look like? What do we want the world to see when they look at us, members of that company? Surely not a person concerned only about himself or filled with himself. They need to see not only a person poor in spirit, but who knows he is poor in spirit, who is humble, a peacemaker because they love peace, not necessarily opposing war, but with love for people and the truth to reconcile differences, a person who is meek, merciful, pure, and willing to be persecuted because the truth is unpopular. Your neighbor needs you to be that. This calls for self-sacrifice. And yet, not sacrifice, just love. Love and concern for people, love and concern which we all naturally have toward ourselves. This means you love your neighbor in all your callings. Serve your neighbor in everything you do, seek your neighbor's best, whether as a spouse, parent, other family member, employee, student or whatever.

This Tuesday you will answer a unique call, one as a citizen, everyone who is 18 and older. Surely you expected me to say something about it today. Not everyone in the world has this opportunity and it's only relatively recent in the history of the world, but you are given a voice in your government. How do you show you are a saint when you step into the little booth and pull the curtain behind you?

All the ads have been playing to the question, "What's best for me?" but that is not the question of a saint. The saint the world needs is the one who asks "What is best for my neighbor?" You ask the question, "Who is my neighbor?"

We hear a lot about the economy. It seems to be the biggest concern, we hear about taxes and keeping jobs in the U.S. We hear about the war, and everyone is concerned about the environment. But the Lord, the Creator of the earth and sky, your Redeemer, doesn't say too much about these things. He doesn't say which is the best economic system, whether capitalism, communism, or bartering system. He doesn't say which is the best form of government--democracy, monarchy or socialism. But He has spoken about morals, the things that used to be called family values. They seem to have been conspicuously absent in all the discussion, but it is in these we find our neighbor we are to serve. For children who have been conceived but under threat of not making it to delivery because abortion is considered a constitutional right. Here is our neighbor. For our neighbor who is a child, wondering what is a family, to vote so that the Creator's design for marriage and family is maintained. For our neighbor who is not able to contribute financially to our society and as a result is considered a burden and is endangered; These are your neighbor. Vote as you must with regard to everything else, but you must ask the question of the saint, "Who is my neighbor and how am I to serve him?"

You see, to get you to do what you should as a saint, it's not a matter of telling you what you should do, but rather telling you what you are. This reality that you are a saint and part of the company of saints is reinforced by the fact that we about to sit down at meal with the whole family as we are given the body and blood of the Lamb, something for which everyone in the family had hungered. Now they are filled, one day we will be also.

AMEN