10.28.2020 Devotional
All Saint’s Day
Most of us seem to find the idea of sainthood as daunting. I suspect many people today look at the traditional “saints” as either inaccessible, otherworldly and beyond mere mortal comprehension. A saint is someone whose image is stamped on a medallion or carved into statuary. Or someone who died a gruesome death for witnessing to his or her faith in Jesus Christ. Sainthood seems to suggest sinlessness, or at least a single mindedness of devotion or piety or virtue that we could never muster. And maybe it conjures humorless, holier-than-thou-ness.
Sainthood reminds us how small and disappointing our own lives sometimes seem. We know ourselves. We are aware of our worst impulses, the choices we regret and the hurts that we have inflicted. We know how judgmental, petty, prideful and preoccupied we can be. We know that we can fill our hearts with a thousand things other than the way of Jesus.
We know that our faith is often shaky—something we can barely admit to ourselves, let alone to others, let alone admit to God. And yet we are told that our calling is to be saints?
On All Saints’ Day we often include hymns such as “For All the Saints,” singing “Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine,/We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; yet/All are one in thee, for all are thine. Alleluia, Alleluia!”
Yes, we may be struggling, we may be feebly faltering, but we are part of that communion of saints right along with the apostles, Augustine, Perpetua, Hildegard, Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dr. King and a host of the unnamed faithful.
We, dear friends, are God’s children, and this is very good news indeed. We are loved, we are called children of God, and even though we may not fully comprehend what it means to be part of that great communion and never-ending story, we are nonetheless included. Our very calling as Christians is to reflect God’s great love – not our own pitiable attempts at goodness – so that the world may see God.
This week, reflect on examples of everyday saints that you can point to in your life? We have the witness of such saints, past and present, the well-known and the hardly-heard-of, in whom we see the goodness of God.
Indeed, in the company of such saints, past, present, and future there is much about which we may rejoice. Thanks be to God!
Pastor Denise
**Prayer Requests:
Janie Haney-Stover: My Dear 94 year old friend Helen who is declining and her caregiver Sally, Continue prayers for my Uncle Lindy in WV he is improving, all those touched by cancer and suffer from Chronic Pain. Those who suffer from Depression and feel lonely during this difficult time.
Sybil Thompson: Continued prayers for George & Sybil as they try and navigate these Covid times while maintaining George's health and Sybil's hopes of seeing him regularly.
Below is a list of Birthdays & Anniversaries. Please take time and send a card or 2, we can all use some cheering up! A couple of these folks are reaching big milestones (90).
If you need someone's address, please send me an email and I'll get it right back to you.
November Birthdays:
4-Tom Lund
4-Karen Snook
5-Dorothy Tyler
15-Craig Eagen
15-David Langlois
17-Elaine Greenhagen
19-John Gerth
19-Sara Lyon
19-George Thompson
23-Linda Clark
25-Tammy Ansbro
26-Gisela Taber
27-Bob Scheuerman
November Anniversaries:
3-Daryl & Betty Mills
29-Scott & Maggie Schoengarth
29-Todd & Janie Stover
