Sunday
11/05/17 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “Well done good and faithful servant”
New Testament
Scripture: Revelation 7:9-17
New Testament
Scripture: 1 John 3:1-3
Gospel Lesson:
Matthew 5:1-12
Friends, sisters and brothers in Christ, welcome again on
this our All Saints Sunday, and this the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost.
While All Saints Day, was this past Wednesday November, 1st,
we celebrate this day, this tradition, this holy day in the life of the church,
this morning. On this day we celebrate all of the great men and women who have
gone before us. Those men and women who loved Jesus, who served, who sacrificed,
and who loved, so that the gospel would be proclaimed and lived out.
Part of my sermon this morning, is going to be a video clip
towards the end of it, so this sermon will be shorter this morning.
With this said, I remember attending a funeral once, and at
the funeral, a much older and wiser minister than me, commented about how this
individual that passed on would hopefully be received by God in heaven. In
quoting the gospel of Matthew 25:23, he said:
His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you
have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter
into the joy of your lord’ (Mt. 25:23, NKJV).
In funerals that I have officiated, I have sometimes said
that it was my hope that the person we were celebrating would be greeted by God
with the words ‘Well done, good
and faithful servant” (Mt. 25:23, NKJV).
When we think about those that have went before us, starting
with those first disciples that Jesus called, the great men and women of the
church, the scores of Christian Martyrs, and the many who have served and have loved
Christ, we celebrate them as saints of the church. In the Roman Catholic
Church, a saint is made an official saint, and is given the title as such. For
example, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, was made Saint Mother Theresa of Calcutta
by the current Roman Catholic Pope, Pope Francis.
In
the United Methodist tradition, we consider all believers that went before us,
whether famous, or not famous, rich, or poor, to be saints of God, and saints
that we honor. For this reason, today we not only celebrate some of the
historic and famous saints of the church, but we also honor and celebrate all
believers that have went before us.
I
would also consider everyone here to be saints in training, and because of this,
when I show the video that I have in just a couple of minutes, it is my intent
to honor all of you, as well as all of those who have gone before us.
What
I wanted to do very quickly this morning, is look at our scripture from the
Book of Revelation. We do have a great gospel of Matthew reading for this
morning, on the “Sermon on the Mount,” or the Beatitudes, in which Jesus is
challenging us to live like him. I found our reading for this morning from the
Book or Revelation however, to just have the imagery of the saints of God.
In
the reading from the Book of Revelation for this morning, we have beautiful
imagery about the triumphant return or second coming of Jesus Christ. The
reading says:
“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. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation
belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:9-10,
NRSV).
In
this beautiful scene, we have countless people from every nation and tribe,
which means Christians from all over the earth. In this scene, all of these
people are clothed in “white,” which symbolizes salvation and victory (African
Bible Commentary). In this scene, these countless people, or as scripture says,
“a great multitude,” are holding palm branches (Rev. 7:9, NRSV). One
interpretation of the palm branches, is that they are meant to symbolize
triumph (African Bible Commentary).
So
we have this beautiful scene in the Book Revelation for this morning, about the
second coming of Christ, and how countless multitudes are around him.
The
scripture then goes on to discuss how angels, elders, and creatures worshipped
God, and sang God’s praises. The scripture says of these countless people, that:
“they have washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 7:14, NRSV).
We
then hear in the rest of this scripture about how those countless people, that “great
multitude” will worship God day and night, and how they will have peace,
security, no more pain, no more hunger, and no more tears. To me, the imagery
of the scripture from the Book of Revelation that we are given this morning, is
just beautiful. It is a scene of the followers of Christ, the saints of God,
coming into the heavenly connection that we believe is to await all believers.
We can debate what eternity, the afterlife will look like, but on all this All
Saints Sunday I believe that those believers that have went before us, were
greeted by God with the words, “well done good and faithful servant” (Mt. 25:23, NKJV).
While
we are still pained by being separated from those names that were read or were called
out this morning, it is our Christian belief that we will be reunited with
those we love in heaven.
In
this way, to better honor those who have gone before us, and to honor all of
you, I want to show you a video of the song “Thank You,” by Ray Boltz.
This
day we remember all the saints, and honor all the saints in training. God bless
you all. Amen.
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