1 November 2026 • The Feast of the All Saints • 1 John 3:1–3; Matthew 5:1–12
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 Jn 3:2).
This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.
In a few minutes, during the Prayer of the Church, you will hear a list of names. We read the names of those among us who have died this past year. Every one of them was called by name once before, at a font. Water was poured, a name was spoken, and then the Name was put on it: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God called that one His child.
That is the word St. John wants you to see today. Called. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1)
On All Saints, most of us think of other people: the apostles, the martyrs, maybe even Grandma. A saint is someone better than we are. When we say at a funeral, “She was a saint,” we mean she was kind, she never complained, she baked for everyone. Saints are especially good, and at funerals the dead get promoted.
But St. John doesn’t talk that way. He doesn’t say, “See what kind of people we have become.” He says, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed.” Saints are not made by how they lived. Saints are made by what God calls them.
Then John holds two things together, and he won’t let go of either one. “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). You’ve heard this before: now, and not yet. Both are true at the same time. Both are true of you. Both are true of every name we will remember today in our prayers.
First, the now. “Now we are children of God.” Not someday. Not when you’ve finally got your act together. Not after you’ve proven yourself. Now.
When we call a man a saint at his funeral, we’re usually trying to be generous. I’ve gotten in trouble before for bringing up someone’s sins in a funeral sermon. But when God calls a man His child, it happens. “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). He says to His people, “I have called you by your name; You are Mine” (Is. 43:1). It is done. God’s calling makes what it names.
So it was at the font, for you and for me. The angel in Revelation cries out, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads” (Rev. 7:3). Sound familiar? Before the trouble comes, God has already marked you as His own. You were marked with the sign of the holy cross upon your forehead and upon your heart, to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. You were sealed before the storm, not after you survived it.
Of course, here the Law catches us on both sides. Some of you hear “saint” and think, “Good. That’s me. I’m here every Sunday. I’ve served on boards and committees. I know my catechism.” But if your sainthood rests on that, then it rests on you. And you know what you are. You know what the Commandments say about you. You know you will die like every other name on that list.
Some of you hear “saint” and think, “That can’t possibly be me. You don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know what I think when no one’s looking.” You think you’ve already shut yourself out. You think the word is too big for you.
But your opinion of yourself doesn’t matter. God doesn’t ask what you think of yourself. He calls you His child. That is His word for you, not yours. The one who thinks he’s earned it and the one who thinks she can’t have it hear the same thing: Now you are children of God, because of the Father’s love, because of His calling, because of the water and the Word.
Now the other side: “It has not yet been revealed what we shall be.” If we’re honest, we don’t look like children of God. Maybe this morning, right now; but not on Monday morning. Not with your knees or your back or the bills. Not when you snap at the people you love most. As the Law does, look in the mirror. No one would pick you out of a crowd as a saint.
And John tells you why. “Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him” (1 John 3:1). You are saints of God, but the world can’t see it. Most days you can’t see it either.
The names we read are not yet revealed either. Those who died in the faith are with the Lord. “They are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple” (Rev. 7:15). But their bodies lie in the cemetery, in the ground or in an urn. That is not what they shall be. They’re still waiting too. The whole Church, in heaven and on earth, waits for the day when He is revealed.
Even the Beatitudes run the same way. “Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). Shall be called. Future tense. “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). Shall see. Blessed is present tense now, but the sight comes later.
We want to break this tension. We can’t even stand it. Either we pretend it is all revealed already: the Church looks good, we look good, everything is fine. Or we give up on the now and decide it’s only a name, a nice thing pastors say at funerals. Don’t do either. Hold on to both, as John does.
How can you hold on to both the now and the not yet? You can’t hold on to them by trying harder. Jesus was both before you were, and He was both for you.
At the Jordan, the Father called Him: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). There He was called. He was the Son right then. But the world didn’t know Him. On the cross He didn’t look like the Son of God—not to the world, not to anyone. He looked like a criminal. Even the ones who passed by said, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matt. 27:40). His sonship was hidden under nails and blood and death. Nobody could see it.
Of course, He was hidden there for you. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21)—our verse for this week. The pure One took on all impurity. The beloved Son was treated as the enemy, so that you, the enemy, would be called a child.
And on the third day it was revealed. The tomb was empty. Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power… by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).
That’s your road too. Your sonship is His sonship already now, but it is hidden the way His was. Your revealing as sons of God, children of God, is His revealing. “We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). You will see the Lamb “in the midst of the throne” (Rev. 7:17), the same Lamb who was slain, shepherding His sheep. You will be like Him, body and soul, raised from the dead. God Himself will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Not yet, but it will be.
Then one more word from John: “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). When He says “purifies himself,” I know you’re thinking this sounds like a ladder, something you need to do. “I have hope that I will be raised, but in the meantime I’ve got to clean myself up.” Again, we default to the religion of the old Adam, of our flesh: try harder.
But that’s not actually how John uses that word in his Gospel. Listen to what he says in John 11: “The Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves” (John 11:55). That’s what it is. To purify yourself is to get ready for the feast. Put on your clothes. Wear your baptism. You do it because the feast is coming.
That is John’s hope. Not “become pure so God will receive you.” No, He’s already called you. The feast is coming, and the One who is pure is the One you hope in. Your hope is not in your purity; it is in His, His righteousness bestowed upon you as a gift. And He is the One who gets you ready Himself. It’s what He’s doing today. He’s absolving you. He’s feeding you with His own body and blood, the foretaste of the feast to come. He’s preparing you for the not yet every time we gather. The getting ready is His too.
Again, in a few minutes you’re going to hear a list of names. Now you can hear both things in them. You can hear the now: each one was called by name, sealed with the sign of the cross on the forehead, and marked as a child of God. But hear the not yet: the cemetery, the ongoing grief, the waiting. Don’t let go of either. They’re both true.
And hear it about yourself, too. You are not yet what you shall be. The world doesn’t know you or even recognize Christ in you. Some days you probably don’t even know yourself. But the Father has spoken. He has called you by name. You are His.
Beloved, now you are children of God.
In the holy name of Jesus. AMEN.
Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School — Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin