ll Saints' Day, also known as the Feast of All Saints, is a Christian day celebrated in honor of all the saints, known and unknown. In Western Christianity, it is celebrated on November 1 and commemorates the faithful departed. The Christian celebration of All Saints' Day stems from a belief that there is a powerful spiritual bond between those in heaven (the "Church triumphant"), and the living Church today.

Paul did not say he was happy about every circumstance. He said he had learned to be content in every circumstance. Contentment is not pretending that pain does not hurt. It is trusting that God remains faithful when life does not go according to plan.

Scripture teaches that courage does not come from confidence in ourselves but from God’s promise to be with us. This week we focus on leadership rooted in faith, shaped by integrity, and committed to justice. Through theological education, the Church invests in leaders who guide communities with wisdom and resilience.

Christian service is not a burden but a joyful offering to God. In every culture, joyful service reflects gratitude for God’s grace and a desire to bless others.

This week’s Scriptures show that joy and service belong together: we serve not to earn God’s love but because we already receive it.

Bold love is active, courageous, and visible. It goes beyond sentiment to shape the way we treat neighbors, strangers, and even those who differ from us. Jesus teaches that love is the defining mark of discipleship, and Scripture shows that love expresses itself through justice, compassion, and faithful relationships.

Encourage us to live as part of the whole of Creation, not in a false sense of ruling over it. For only you are the Creator, who has loved and breathed life into your Creation since time immemorial and who will love and sustain it well beyond our earthly lives. All honor and glory are yours, O God of all Creation.

A friend of mine worked for an orchard while he was in high school and during his summers home from college. He worked in several different aspects of the orchard, from picking fruit to basic tree care.

Bob told me about one season where he was helping to spray all of the trees from insects to insure that the fruit would not be infested when harvest time came.

But no matter how many times God’s Spirit came upon people, or was in people – nobody in the Old Testament ever got what you and I have. God’s Spirit had not yet been given as it HAS now been given to those who have become children of God.

Come, people of God, gathered by grace and called into community.

We come to worship the One who welcomes all with love.

The early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

We, too, seek to grow together in faith, sharing our lives as Christ has shared his life with us.

In Christ, there is room at the table for every neighbor, every stranger, every seeker.

And may you hear God’s words praising you, saying …”Great is your faith.” I pray that in those moments in your life when God seems so silent, when the silence seems deafening and painful, that you will go to him, worship at his feet, hear his invitation to you and respond in such a way that God proclaims “Great is your faith.”

A liminal season is a time where we are in a place between what we knew was comfortable and familiar and it comes before we know what the next season will bring us. We have not yet arrived there but are still on our journey.

Remember with COVID, not being able to worship in our sanctuaries. Then little by little, restrictions were removed and finally we could worship together again.

We know that future worship could be like we worship now but may not actually be the same from week to week as we try some new things.

We want to welcome new people and what you like best and what they may like best may not be exactly alike. So we all try different parts of the worship experience to see what combination will be good, or even best. But we have to take it one step at a time.

Jesus miraculously fed over 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish, demonstrating His compassion, divine provision, and identity as the Messiah.

The story is recorded in all four Gospels: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-14. After hearing of John the Baptist’s death, Jesus withdrew to a solitary place, but crowds followed Him on foot. Moved by compassion, He healed the sick and taught them about the Kingdom of God.

Let’s hear an eye-witness account, use your imagination:

Many congregations have members with intellectual disabilities who serve faithfully. One church member with Down syndrome became known as his congregation's unofficial hospitality minister. He greeted everyone by name every Sunday. He remembered birthdays, asked about people's families, and noticed when someone had been absent.

‍Visitors often commented afterward, "I've never felt so welcomed."

We know The world is a mixture of good and evil. Why is there evil in the world?

As followers of Jesus, we hold out hope  -  a living, driving, motivating hope for what can be. We lean into the promises of God with confidence, even as we recognize how far we still must go to reach that mountaintop.  As we move through this world, we hold onto optimism because our ultimate destination is always on our minds – ‍or at least, it should be. 

Who wants to be mediocre – not me!   Persevere.  Albert Einstein said, “It’s not that I’m so smart.  It’s that I stay with the problems longer.” Set your mind to be the kind of person that other people will want on their team.  Put your heart into whatever you set your sights on to do.  We must also Give ourselves permission to fail – not everything we try will work or be successful. we will learn great lessons from our failures.

Today, we come to a passage that directly attacks this problem. After explaining how great God’s grace is, Paul asks, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

I come from a low-income family of seven kids. I was the first to graduate from high school back in 1995. I remember telling my mom as a teenager that I had a dream of living in a permanent house with running water and electricity. When she looked at our current living conditions, she laughed at me and said, “Boy, that will never happen. It is just a dream.”

Let me ask ourselves today: Have we remained FAITHFUL? Have we remained faithful in prayer? Have we remained faithful in worship? Have we remained faithful in living a Godly life? Have we remained faithful in stewardship? If we are honest, there are areas in which we fall short in our lives.

God calls believers to fill the earth with the message of the gospel. God calls us to bring order to the chaos in our world. God calls us to reflect God’s image through how we live, lead, and serve. He calls us to steward people, creation, and resources faithfully. God is still calling His people to be light in the world today.