st<\/sup>, so that the Lutheran liturgical calendar almost makes this a Reformation Sunday, part 2! Which I\u2019m guessing has you thoroughly confused! We\u2019re observing All Saints\u2019 Day, but it\u2019s actually All Souls\u2019 Day, but pastor\u2019s talking about the Reformation Part 2, so maybe your head\u2019s spinning! But I can explain!<\/p>\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As you may remember from last Sunday, Dr. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses or proposals for academic discussion on the doors of the Wittenberg Castle Church on the Eve of All Saint’s Day, All Hallow’s Eve, Halloween, as we call it.\u00a0 The choice of October 31st was not by chance, but by design, as Luther wanted his theses posted on the door of the church to coincide with what was really the three day observance that began with All Hallow’s Eve, Oct. 31st, when the folk of Wittenberg believed the restless spirits of dead relatives would walk the streets, looking for their still living loved ones, first, to solicit their prayers, and second, to warn them to mend their ways before it was too late.\u00a0 The observance continued on November 1st, when the frightened folk would go to the Castle Church, intentionally named \u201cAll Saints\u2019 Church,\u201d to view the extensive collection of relics gathered by Prince Frederick the Wise, displayed publicly only once a year, beginning on All Saint\u2019s Day. The faithful visited the Castle Church to pay the required fee and pray at the accumulated relics of saints, expecting that it would benefit their own souls but also the souls of their dead relatives, believing that the merits of the saints were a treasury that could be drawn upon to shorten the time you and your departed loved ones would have to spend in purgatory, speeding the time when you could enter heaven.\u00a0 You could draw on the treasury of the merits of the saints if you would make the required financial contribution and perform acts of devotion while visiting the relics of the saints. The observance continued on November 2nd, observed as All Soul’s Day, when the distinct focus was not on the saints, but on all the souls who had departed this life who were now thought to be in purgatory, needing desperately the help of those still in this life, to free them from suffering.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The message of All Hallows\u2019 Eve was, „No one lives forever–death brings a long, painful time of purging, by fire, for your sins in this life.“\u00a0 The message of All Saints\u2019 Day was, „The saints and martyrs have accumulated a vast treasure-house of merits that may be accessed for the benefit of you and your loved ones.“\u00a0 The message of All Souls\u2019 Day was, „Won’t you make a financial contribution, pray to the relics of the saints, receive an indulgence, freeing you, or your departed loved ones, from purgatory?“<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As you can imagine, these three days, together, were a powerful motivation for Christians in Wittenberg and the surrounding area, using fear, guilt, and hope as tools to manipulate them into visiting the relics in the Wittenberg Castle Church, making offerings, praying to the saints and receiving indulgences, that supposedly excused you or your relatives, from time in purgatory.\u00a0 Practically speaking, it was a great system!\u00a0 Christians who were worried about their own salvation or who were grieving the loss of a loved one could do something concrete and pro-active.\u00a0 The Church raised funds and the parishioners in Wittenberg received hope! Everyone got something and the Church and the people were pleased, for the most part, with this three-day observance.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone was pleased except Dr. Luther!\u00a0 Everyone except Martin Luther who believed the Church was leading individual Christians astray.\u00a0 Everyone except Martin Luther who believed the peasants should keep their alms for food and clothing and shelter, rather than purchasing indulgences or praying to the relics of saints, which Luther believed provided false hope. Everyone was pleased, except Luther, who encouraged the people of Wittenberg, instead, to pray to Christ for forgiveness and mercy; to pray to Christ, who died on the cross for our salvation, rather than to the saints, who may or may not be able to help you.\u00a0 Luther knew that by disrupting the common observance of All Hallows\u2019 Eve, All Saints\u2019 Day and All Soul\u2019s Day, he would not only be knocking a stool out from under common lay people, but threatening the important income his prince, Frederick of Saxony, would receive from the crowds of Christians who would flock to the Castle Church during these three days.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But Luther also knew that ultimately, earthly works and paying money to buy salvation and praying to relics, would save no one.\u00a0 Luther knew that knocking the two- legged stool of salvation by works out from under Christians, would allow them to stand,\u00a0 once again, on the solid rock, of faith in Jesus Christ!\u00a0 This was Luther’s desire and intention when he went to the Castle Church on All Hallow’s Eve, 1517 and nailed his 95 Theses to the door.\u00a0 Although the theses were in Latin, the language of scholars, and although his intention was to have these propositions debated by university theologians, the fact that he posted them on the Church door on All Hallow’s Eve, the fact that he posted them, publicly, the fact that he was addressing an issue that struck at the heart of the people’s faith and the income of both prince and Church suggests Luther expected some response, if not a Reformation.\u00a0 And Luther got a response.\u00a0 Immediately, almost as soon as the theses had been posted on the Church door, they had been copied, translated into German and printed for mass distribution.\u00a0 And we know the rest of the story.\u00a0 What we don’t often think about, or consider, is what it really means for us.\u00a0 We claim to be Lutherans.\u00a0 We claim Luther and the Reformation as our own.\u00a0 But do we grasp what this means for us and for our dear, departed loved ones?<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All Saints\u2019 Sunday is a day when we think, in general terms, about all the saints of God, living and dead, who strived to live and serve faithfully as Christians.\u00a0 But on this All Saints\u2019 Sunday, being observing on All Souls\u2019 Day, we might well consider, briefly, what salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ means for our departed loved ones.\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, we care as much for our loved ones as the Wittenbergers cared for theirs.\u00a0 Sometimes we may wonder where they are and how they are and how they stand, before God.\u00a0 We hope all of our loved ones have been received into heaven, to receive eternal life.\u00a0 We can almost understand folks in Luther’s world using all they had to purchase an indulgence, praying to the relics for hours on end to try to control, to attempt to determine what happened to departed loved ones after death.\u00a0 But we can’t determine that.\u00a0 We each have one life, here on earth.\u00a0 We have our chances, here, to hear the gospel, to experience God’s love, and to respond in faith.\u00a0 When we die, we are in God’s hands.\u00a0 And that’s the best news of all!<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once we leave this earthly existence, we are in God’s hands. In death and after death, we are in God’s hands, saints and sinners, alike.\u00a0 And that is enough.\u00a0 We know that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.\u00a0 We know that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.\u00a0 We cannot and we dare not say anything more than that after death, it’s all up to God.\u00a0 And for that we say, thank God!\u00a0 Because now we are free to live our lives, here and now, fully.\u00a0 Because now we need not spend our time worrying about our departed loved ones. We need not spend our short time on earth trying to finagle our loved ones or ourselves into heaven.\u00a0 It is for us, the living, to live!\u00a0 It is for us, the living, not to be consumed, obsessed with death, but to be fully engaged in life, here and now.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s what St. John says in our second lesson, when he writes, \u201cSee\u00a0what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called\u00a0children of God; and so we are\u2026 Beloved, we are\u00a0God’s children\u00a0now\u2026\u201d Because God loves us, we are His children. And we are to live as God\u2019s children now! Though we will at times be, as Jesus says in the Beatitudes, poor in spirit, mourning, reviled, persecuted, we rejoice, now! We rejoice and are glad, for our reward is great in heaven! Though life in this world is sometimes, as we read in Revelation, a great tribulation, with illness, suffering and trial, we have the promise of\u00a0 life in the heavenly city, New Jerusalem, when there will be no more hunger or thirst, where \u00a0the sun shall not strike us or any scorching heat, for the Lamb in the midst of the throne\u00a0will be our Shepherd, and He will guide us to springs of\u00a0living water,
\nand\u00a0God Himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes!<\/p>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is that promise and that assurance of eternal life with our Lord and with our loved ones who have died in Him, that gives us the courage and the strength to live without fear of death, to live without worry or anxiety about the future, to live fully and faithfully NOW; to live with joy and gladness, as God\u2019s children NOW, because \u201cSalvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!\u201d\u00a0Because our robes, soiled by sin and the cares of this world, will be washed white in the blood of the Lamb! Because the Lamb is our Shepherd, with us, leading us, every day, whether it\u2019s All Saints\u2019 Day or All Souls\u2019 Day! Our lives NOW and our lives to come, are in His hands! And because of that, we truly, as Jesus says, \u201cblessed.\u201d Blessed and blessed and blessed, because the kingdom is ours, and our reward is great, in heaven!<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
\u00a9David M. Wendel<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0 d.wendel@grace43081.org<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0 Westerville, Ohio USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Festival of All Saints, Cycle C, 02 November 2025 | A Sermon based on lessons Revelation 7:9-17, 1 John 3:1-3 and Matthew 5:1-12 | By David M. Wendel \u201cAll Saints, All Souls and the Reformation Gospel!\u201d St. Matthew 5:1-12 (English Standard Version) Seeing the crowds,\u00a0he went up on the mountain, and when he\u00a0sat down, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,157,853,108,629,110,150,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-25567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matthaeus","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-david-m-wendel","category-engl","category-kapitel-5-chapter-5","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25568,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25567\/revisions\/25568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25567"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=25567"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=25567"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=25567"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=25567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}