Mind the Gap

Sunday Readings: Revelation 21:1-5 & Matthew 5:1-12

Grace and peace are yours from the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

I was driving down Highway 100 in St. Louis Park, when I received a call from my mom. I picked up and she told me that my grandfather had just died. I was on the road from the University of Minnesota, where I was a student, to see him because we knew his time was coming near. I pulled off the highway and into the parking lot of a Holiday gas station. I sat there for 15 or so minutes in my little silver Saturn Vue, a car that same grandfather got me for my 17^th birthday, my Golden Birthday. I was a lucky kid to have had grandparents like Freddy on both sides of my family growing up.  I absorbed the news that I was now meeting the family at home instead of at the hospice center.

On each All Saint’s Day, I light a candle for my grandparents who have died. My two loving grandfathers and a grandmother. I light a candle each year hoping that they are now resting in God’s loving care. That they are a part of who Jesus calls “Blessed” in today’s Gospel text. A part of those who “will be comforted,” “will be filled,” “will receive mercy,” and “will see God.”

I hope that they will. I hope that they have received those things.

But, there’s a tension in that hope. A tension found in the future-tense of the words. “for they will receive…”  It’s a strange “already-but-not-yet” tension that I struggle with on All Saint’s Day.  

These beatitudes preached by Jesus Christ acknowledge that there are those who are blessed in the present, and yet the fullness of the blessing has not come for “they will receive” at some future point not disclosed.

Jesus acknowledges there is a separation between our experienced reality and our hope for God’s future. He acknowledges that we have one foot in God’s Kingdom, for we know we are blessed – for Jesus says so - and yet we also know we are not yet experiencing the full reality of God’s Kingdom. Because there is, after all, still sadness and mourning, there are those who are poor, and there are those who hunger.

The fullness of the blessings Christ says are due have not yet come to pass.

There is a gap. We live in the gap.

It is in this gap that I cling to hope. I hope that my beloved loved ones who have died are now experiencing the fullness of these blessings. I hope that they have entered the Kingdom of God. The Fullness of God’s love. The tenderness of God’s care. I hope they have received the things that Jesus says are due to those who are blessed in today’s beatitudes.

And yet, that hope is just as it sounds. Hopeful. It’s part of the experience of faith to hope.

And in just a few moments, I will invite you to join me in lifting-up this same hope for all the saints in our lives who have completed their pilgrimage on earth. We will name those members of this congregation who have died in the last year. And we will lift up in hope those members of the congregation who have been baptized and confirmed – hoping they catch a glimpse of God’s Kingdom. Each of you will also have an opportunity to come forward to light a candle for the saints in your lives whom you hope are now resting in God’s Kingdom and have received the fullness of the blessings which Jesus speaks of today.

All Saints Day is a day of hope. It is a day where the promises of God’s Kingdom through Jesus Christ are placed front and center for us to see through our ancestors who have gone before us. And through the sacrament of baptism. It’s a day where we see the gap in which we live, clearly. And yet, we also see just how narrow it is.  All Saints Day is a day where the Kingdom feels nearby. Because, I think it’s through saints, like my grandfather, that we can catch real glimpses of the Kingdom in which we place our hope.

I caught a glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven in my grandfather’s big sense of humor that he shared with all of us. In his habit of showing up on Saturday mornings with a box of sweet rolls to share. In the way he never took a serious family photo in his life. In his commitment to teaching all of us grandkids to drive by sitting in the passenger seat listening to Classical Public Radio pretending to conduct the orchestra as we drove along the freeway.  My grandpa gave me glimpses into God’s Kingdom. Into the promises to which Jesus gives us today:

“…for they will receive comfort”

“…for they will inherit the earth”

“…for they will be filled”

“… for they will receive mercy.”

“…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Check, check, check, and check. Grandpa gave us a glimpse of each one of those promises.

No, they weren’t the fullness of the Kingdom of God – that will only come through Jesus Christ - but grandpa indeed gave us a glimpse. We caught a glimpse through his blessed life, that beloved Child of God who took seriously his call to nurture the lives of other beloved children of God.

All Saints Day is a day of hope. It is a day when the promises of God’s Kingdom through Jesus Christ are placed front and center for us to see through our ancestors.

The Kingdom is indeed nearby.

I am sure there is someone in your life living or dead, family or chosen family, who has given you these same little glimpses of God’s Kingdom. Let them become a part your hope for God’s Kingdom.

Yes, we live in the gap. On All Saints Day we acknowledge just how narrow that gap is.

When, I get into my car and switch on classical public radio, the sensation of my grandpa’s love washes over me as I remember him conducting the orchestra as we drove together those years ago. There it is. A glimpse of the fullness of God’s Kingdom. Right there. In the here and now. The gap is narrow.

Christ’s promises of mercy, comfort, fullness, and love are here for us. The Kingdom is near. It can be glimpsed. Christ is coming and the Kingdom will come and God’s will be done. I cling to that hope in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Rev. Ryan | All Saints Sunday | November 1, 2026