Title: Recognition Text: Rev. 21:27 Date: Nov. 2, 1997 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our message today is based up the 27th verse of Revelation chapter 21. This verse says: "Nothing 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." This is the Word, you may be seated. We would all like to be recognized for our accomplishments. It starts early. Children like to know that their parents notice when they clean their rooms. When they eat what is put on their plate, they also like to be recognized. At school they sure want to see a good grade from the teacher when they try hard on an assignment. In sports and other activities, recognition is a basic part of what we do, from the printed programs with the youth's names in it to the announcer giving the starting line-up. There are award banquets and pins and letters. We like to be recognized for our achievements. Adults like to have recognition too. Whether it is our bosses, or peers, we like to have others notice when we have worked hard and done an outstanding job. A complement is nice. A raise or promotion is even better. Generally people like to have their names appear in the newspaper. Radio and TV are an even greater treat. How nice it is to have people we don't know come up to us and recognize us for a job well done. If someone goes out of their way to visit us, we like that too. People tend to worry about recognition beyond death too. Anticipation of this post-death recognition seems to be important to many people. It is a standard statement of someone feeling sorry for themselves to say that "there will be nothing left to show that they ever lived once they are dead." We want there to be some mark we have left on the world. I find it hard to believe we are going to care about this once we are dead, but while living we worry in anticipation of our death. Perhaps you looked at the cover of our bulletin today. I would imagine that is a picture of Arlington National Cemetary. Row upon row of graves for the soldiers who have died. Each grave is nearly identical to the next. One soldier has no greater recognition on their grave marker than the next does. Many people become very uncomfortable at the thought of only being just another gravestone at death. Perhaps this worry was what led to the Christian Church falling into the tradition of recognizing certain persons as saints. Some people were called saints at death and, others were not, in this mistaken practice. To remember these saints, the church assigned certain days of the calendar to particular saints. Though not every Christian who died was designated a saint, there soon got to be many more than 365. A catch-all day was added to honor the rest and so "All Saints Day" was created, being assigned the date November 1. All Saints Day was for the leftovers who didn't get a special day of their own. Still, those who were designated saints were more special than the rest of the Christians. You will notice that today is November 2, which is not the traditional All Saints day. Somehow, the creators of our bulletin covers decided November 2 should be celebrated as All Saints Day instead. Interestingly, when our new hymnal, Lutheran Worship, came out in 1982 it had a new calendar for the church year. November 2 was designated the "Commemoration of the Faithful Departed." This day was added to try to make up for the errors associated with All Saints Day in the past. The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed was intended to cover the rest of the dead who were not covered on November 1. They were faithful and so have been granted a secure place in heaven. As the back of your bulletin comments, we have several special days in a short time here. October 31 is Reformation Day. Then the next day is All Saints and the following is the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. There still remains a strong interest in saints, however. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who died recently, has been a subject of much discussion regarding sainthood. Some people want those who continue the practice of designating saints to add Mother Teresa to their list. There is an established protocol however. Mother Teresa must, while she is dead, perform a miracle when someone prays to her. This, of course, is foolishness, and quite un- Scriptural. It does show the lengths we will go to in order to give and get recognition for our deeds. All this concern over being recognized by others and recognizing some who we consider as special is a bit misplaced isn't it? After all, human recognition has a very minimal impact upon us. At most, being recognized by other people can last only as long as our earthly lifetimes. After we are dead, the recognition of others will not matter to us. As we then spend an eternity in heaven or hell, it won't matter what other people thought of us during our earthly lives. No, the concern over human recognition is misplaced. We really ought to be concerned about what God thinks of us. He is the one who can destroy our body and soul in hell. He is the one who can send us to heavenly, eternal bliss. So, let us direct our concern to God's recognition of us. What does the Lord think of our deeds? Will He praise your deeds? God's judgment of our deeds is important. After all, there are strict requirements about who will be allowed to enter heaven. Heaven's entrance requirements are given in our text. The passage from Revelation describes who will be in the "Holy City, Jerusalem." This city is the place where God will be located and so it is the same as heaven. Our text tells us, nothing impure will get into the Holy City. Nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful. We would be deceiving ourselves to say that all our deeds have been pure, free of shame and deceit. Of course, many whose lives are full of deceitful deeds just continue the pattern and deceive themselves about their own deeds. If we are, rather, truthful, then we see our deeds are not going to qualify us for the Holy City. We impurely seek recognition by others. We shamefully demand that we get human recognition for what we have done. And we are deceptive about our selfish desire to have others acknowledge our supposedly good deeds. Rather than entrance into the new Jerusalem, we deserve to be punished. Thus says Isaiah, "See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins." As we humbly understand that this is what we deserve, we are left only able to turn to our Lord for help. The Lord has helped us for He sent Jesus as the sacrifice in our place. The Lord did indeed punish the sins of the people, but that punishment went upon Jesus. There on the cross Jesus hung for our impurities, our shameful and decietful deeds. There Jesus died and took those sins away and rose again to prove God was satisfied. Trusting in this deed of Jesus, we end up turning to the Lord alone for our salvation. Isaiah also says, "all that we have accomplished You have done for us," and "Your name alone do we honor." We give God the recognition and the honor. We credit Him with any deeds we have done which are good. As we give the Lord the recognition, we become "poor in spirit." No longer is our spirit willing to seek recognition for our deeds in God's eyes. No more is our spirit thinking we might be pure and free of shame and deceit. This poor spirit then is then blessed. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," says our reading from Matthew. Trusting in the Lord alone, coming to Him with poor spirits, acknowledging our guilt and need of forgiveness, we are then blessed with citizenship in heaven. Though we die an earthly death, our life in heaven is coming and assured. Isaiah makes it clear too, "But your dead will live, their bodies will rise." Here is an excellent Old Testament witness to the personal resurrection of those who are the Lord's; those who trust in Jesus. Another way to think of our citizenship in heaven is to realize how God looks at us through the eyes of forgiveness. Even though we are living lives which do not meet the entrance requirements of heaven, God sees us forgiven of all our failures and sins. God sees us, now, today, as pure, as free of shame and deceit. We already are residents of heaven because, through the forgiveness that comes by Christ, we are pure and holy. Our text comments further that "Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life" will enter the Holy City. By the grace of God, our names are now in that book. The Lamb, Jesus Christ, writes our names there as the Holy Spirit grants us the faith to trust in Jesus. And, as ones who have our names in the book of life, we are already saints. We are already citizens of heaven. We are currently residents of that Holy City which shines with the glory of God. We are saints today. We don't need a special day to honor us, but if you recognize All Saints Day, then that day is for you and for me. We don't need the recognition of other human beings. We only need the recognition of the Lamb. The Lamb, Jesus Christ recognizes all who believe in Him as ones who are written in the book of life. By grace, through faith in Jesus we become pure and our deceitful and shameful deeds are removed. Blessed are you, for the kinddom of heaven is yours. Blessed are those who honor the name above all names, Jesus Christ. Amen. 6