Greetings on All Saints’ Sunday where we celebrated both the saints in our lives and the souls who have gone before us. It was a fantastic day of worship and fellowship. It has been “third summer” this past week, temperatures in the 70s and high humidity but nothing completely out of the ordinary. We had a couple visitors who wanted to do nature photography in the church grounds – which thrills us no end. Our prayers are offered for the strength of the present saints and for the memory of the souls who have brought us to this point. May the remainder of November go as well as the first week has.
In worship, as we celebrated All Saints’ Sunday, we were reminded that the saints are God’s people who work together to make daily life possible and joyful. Our work with the saints brings us joy in the middle of trouble and confidence in the future. Our reading from Hebrew scripture was taken from Daniel and was a portion of the first of Daniel’s apocalyptic vision. Daniel encourages us to look intently at the things we see but don’t understand to find God’s message in them. Our Psalmist sang a song reminding Israel (and us) that we should rightly praise God and sing God’s praises to the world because God is faithful. Our epistle reading was taken from the letter to the Ephesians and reminds us that there is a great reward awaiting those who are dedicated to finding God and God’s guidance in their lives and the world.
Our sermon was drawn from Luke’s account of the beatitudes. While Luke’s blessings and woes can be used as a guide for proper living, there is an encouragement for believers to consider the question, “what if?” Because God isn’t specifically calling us to be hated, rather to use the blessings and the good things of our lives to change our world, but only by asking ourselves the hard questions of faith.
I invite your comments,
Les+
Readings: Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
Video of worship: https://youtu.be/CD2RKHE56b4
Video of Sermon: https://youtu.be/KMY3UXjBEE0
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