All Saint’s Day

November 7, 2004

Mt Hope Lutheran Church, Pastor Hesse

“Your Reservations are in the Book”

Theme: By Christ our names our written in His Book of Life

Rev 21. 22-27

²²I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. ²⁵On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. ²⁶The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. ²⁷Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

We live in a world that is all falling down

            There is a little children’s chant that is familiar to us. We know it by heart, but do we know where it comes from? It goes like this: “Ring around the rosy, pocket full of posies; ashes, ashes; we all fall down.” For most of us, that brings to mind children holding hands playfully turning a circle, laughing and chanting, and at the ‘all fall down’ they tumble to the ground laughing. I have seen it a thousand times.

            But the chant has a rather sad origin. The Black Plague had swept over most of Europe. Killing three quarters of its population. It was called the Black Plague because it left black blotches on the body. In their ignorance the people believed that the polluted air was the cause, although today we know that it was transmitted by infected fleas.

            Because the polluted air was thought to cause the plague, people tried all sorts of things to bring about a cure. Some people were taken to rose gardens to smell the fresh air; others put flowers, posies, in their pockets. Unfortunately, when the breaking of blood vessels close to the surface of the skin caused “rosy” blotches to appear, death would follow. The dead were often seen on the carts, posies still in their pockets as they were taken out to be cremated - “ashes, ashes; we all fall down.”

            Our ancestors lived in a perilous time, the Black Death haunting them. We too live in perilous times. Even today we are surrounded by plagues.

 We have plagues of war, disease, and disaster along with hard economic times and harsh weather conditions. These wide spread conditions seemingly seek to plunge us into hopelessness. As bad as these are, an even greater plague, a more sinister Black Death, lurks out there for all of us - sin.

Sin is like blood poisoning. It confuses our thinking and reasoning. It leads us into personal miscommunication and discommunication choking off our relationships. This is often followed by the paralysis of indifference or a raging fever of hurt and hate. Many of us are then racked with depression and others confused by uncertainty, the boils of unforgiveness lead us into deadly and painful resentments. Some of us are carriers of the disease - on the surface everything looks fine, and we may even report feeling fine, but everyone is infected. “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1^st John 1.8) The symptoms of the disease are all around us, the Black Plague, the Back Death. It leaves us all falling down, it leaves us all dead. “They all fall down.”                                    

We have a Savior who came to give up His life for us  

John writes of heaven, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful. (Rev 21.27) That sentence leaves all of us infected with the Black Death of Sin standing outside heaven where “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This Black Death would have consumed us all if it were not for the love of God. Jesus came even when we carried the stench of rotting sin; the dark shadow of death was lurking over us. Yet, Jesus came. The prophet, Isaiah, writes, “Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53.3-5)

            The cure for us was found only in a compete transfusion. Jesus took from us our bad blood infected with the sins of our rebellion against God and the sins of our hate and indifference towards our neighbors. As He took our blood from us He gave to us His very blood.

This is seen so clearly in communion, take and eat this my body given for you; take and drink this is my blood given for you for the forgiveness of your sins. In My blood is forgiveness of our sins, and where there is forgiveness of sins there is life, and salvation. We are forgiven by the blood of the Lamb of God!

            Infected with our sins Jesus went to the cross. This transfusion for the sins of the whole world cost us nothing, but it cost God everything. His Son died on the cross. He died that we might have life, not life in the darkness, not life in the shadow of death but life today and forever, life in the light. 

On the third day, Jesus rose again. Through baptism, we were united with Him even into His death that “just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Rms 6.4) In the resurrection is our assurance of eternal life. John writes, “Who ever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” ( John 5.24)

He has changed our reservations

            In a BC comic strip the two girls were reading a book and talking. One exclaims, “Oh my goodness… it says here that Jesus descended into hell!”

“Your kidding,” says the other.

“Oh, not to stay but to cancel our reservations.”

            We had reservations in darkness, in the depth of Hell, but Jesus canceled them. There was a cancellation fee. All His blood, His very life bled out of Him on the cross, but He willingly paid it for you and me. He then rewrote our reservations and the reservations of all who would believe, not for hell, but for heaven. John writes of Heaven: “only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life,” will enter in. (Rev 21.27) Our names are written there because He has written them. His nail scared hands have written our names. Paul writes, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.” (Col 1.21-22)

He will be there to greet us

We have a card that hangs on our refrigerator. It is picture of a man arriving in heaven after a long journey, and Jesus is there with arms wrapped around him, obviously welcoming him home. John writes, “God will wipe away all the tears from their eyes,” Picture for a moment God Himself there to welcome you home. God with His big strong arms wrapped around you. (Rev 7.17) Isaiah writes, “and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.” ( Isaiah 35.10) …a place of never ending joy. John writes,  “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light into it.” All this prepared for you and me from the foundation of the world.

The Black Death still engulfs those around us

All around us are people who are dying from the plague, the plague of sin. They are chanting, “Ring around the rosy pocket full of posies; ashes, ashes; we all fall down.” They are in need of hearing that life not death is there for them. Jesus came that they might have life. Not just life here, but life in heaven where there is no more hurt or pain or suffering. Let us go forth sharing with all, the cure that is the Gospel of Christ.

            “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those walking in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Isaiah 9.2)  Amen.