Greetings on All Saints Sunday and the Feast of All Souls Day, a day and weekend where we celebrate the lives of the saints among us and the saints who brought us here.
Our invitation to worship is a prayer which helps us remember our connections with those who have been faithful before us and the joy we receive when we share our faith forward. Our first lesson from Daniel illustrates a nightmare which besets us and reconnects God to our deepest fear. The Psalmist’s refrain is a song which declares every day as a new day to find hope in God’s grace. The New Testament reading from the letter to the Ephesians offering hope for the church eternal – the reminder that our past and our present are fueled by God to share into our future. Our Gospel from Luke is Luke’s beatitudes and encouragement to not fall into the traps of the world’s perspective.
The reflection for today includes the reminder that the blessings of “scarcity” in Luke’s beatitudes can’t be used to lessen our worth nor rejoice when those who have “more” get the table turned on them. We are invited to listen to the encouragement given to the Ephesians, that they have received something from their predecessors, which would help them continue to spread the message of hope. The writer reminds us our faith grows, not from superhuman actions, but from everyday people doing things which are extraordinary in our time. Our faith and our mission is carried forward by the hope we share in a less than hopeful world.
What could you do to help remember the hope given us through our predecessors which remind us of God’s grace? Who needs to hear that message of hope? I invite your comments,
Les+
Readings: Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18; Psalm 149; Ephesians 1:11-23; Luke 6:20-31
Sermon link: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/all-saints-sunday-sermon-1
