November 3, 2017, All Saints Sunday

“6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

This year is the 500th Anniversary of the Lutheran Protestant Reformation. During the Reformation Season, I want to talk about various themes that have always been important in the Lutheran Church even now. So far we have talked about Faith Alone, Grace Alone, Christ Alone, Scripture Alone, and Indulgences. Today I want to talk about the theme of At the Same Time Saint and Sinner. As with the other themes, they are so important that we even remember them by their Latin names, and this becomes shorthand, like a slogan, for all the deeper understanding and application of the theme. “At the Same Time Saint and Sinner, Simul Justus et Pecattor.” I saved this theme for today only because today is All Saints Sunday and the word “saint” is in this theme. We who have believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior have been made pure and holy through his blood that was shed on the cross. That is why we are called “saints.” And yet at the same time we are sinners who live in this world of sin and commit sin.

In the church we talk about two kinds of saints. There are those saints who have the word “Saint” with a capital “S” in front of their name. St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John in the Bible, great teachers in the church like St. Augustine or St. Jerome, great role models of faith and charity like St. Catherine or St. Francis. Then there are those saints whom we spell with a lower case “s,” and this means all Christian Believers who have been made holy through the blood of Christ shed on the cross. This includes you and me. In many churches we also pause on this day, All Saints Sunday, to remember those saints who have died and are now with the Lord in Heaven. This is part of the definition of the word “saint.” By the way, the English word “saint” comes from the Latin word “santus” which means “holy.”

In the Bible the word “holy” means more than just pure and sinless. “Holy” means being connected to God who is holy. So, “God’s Book” is the “Holy Bible.” God’s Church is the “Holy Apostolic Christian Church.” God’s people are holy people. You belong to God, so you are holy: you are a saint. When you do God’s work you are doing something holy, something worthy of being a saint. In Holy Baptism, God made us his: he put his Holy Name on us. Put the word “saint” in front of your name; how does it sound?　

And yet……..

At the same time, it is easy to understand why we are sinners. We live in this world with all the temptations that we fall into. We Christians find this very frustrating. In the words of the Confession of Sin we say, “We confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.”

In the Bible the word “sin” and “sinner” means more than just doing bad things. It means the opposite of “holy.” It means not being connected to God. Separated from God, means that even if we do nice things, that those things are not holy and pure because they are not the things of God. And so, if a saint is someone who is saved; a sinner is someone who is condemned.

When we use the expression “At the Same Time Saint and Sinner, Simul Justus et Pecattor,” we are talking about our human situation. It is a reality. It is the conflict that we Christians have. And the devil, our sinful hearts, the world around us tells us that we are not holy because we sin. Everything tells us that we are unfit for heaven. When we are honest with ourselves, we know that that is true. Except, that we who have believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior have been made pure and holy through his blood that was shed on the cross. That is our only hope. It is Faith Alone, Grace Alone, Christ Alone, and Scripture Alone.

The temptation for Lutherans is to celebrate “Simul Justus et Pecattor” and so do not take sin seriously. “I’ll be forgiven later, so it is okay. Sin boldly so that grace may come abundantly.” Actually it is a great comfort for hearts troubled by sin to know that God’s promise of forgiveness is stronger than our sin. The baptismal promise by God and the renewal of that covenant promise in the Lord’s Supper is sweet relief and comfort and joy for a Christian. But it is no excuse for us to sin.

On a scale of 1 to 10, from sinner to saint, where would you place yourself? At the 50% mark? It is the goal of a Christian to work toward becoming closer and closer to being a saint. That is called “sanctification” or “holiness.” It is an excellent goal. But it is not how God judges whether we are saved or not. We are not saved by our works. We are saved by the work of Jesus on the cross, even though we are sinners. St. Paul said it this way, Romans 5:6-11.

“6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

This is the dynamic of our lives. We are at the same time saint and sinner, “Simul Justus et Peccator.” It is a very realistic understanding of our Christian lives. It is a contradiction, saying that we are saved and damned at the same time. But it is the powerful dynamic of God's love in our lives. It is that love that will wipe away our sins, that will wipe away our sorrows, that will wipe away our fears. In the midst of our deep sin and anxiety, there is the shocking, amazing, radical, awesome love and grace of God.

Today we rejoice and remember all those who have experienced this wonderful, amazing grace of God. We remember the saints of old and the saints of today. And we thank God that we are in their number.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church

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