From the Pastor's Pen, November 2007:
“All Saints Day”
November First is All Saints
Day, probably my favorite day of the Church year. I love the day for what it
stands for, what it means. It’s a reminder that that Church (in the Capital C
sense, God’s people everywhere), is more than just “us”, the particular group
of people gathered at First United Methodist Church on any given Sunday. All
Saints Day (which we’ll celebrate in worship on November 4) is about the
communion of saints, that belief in the larger Body of Christ, God’s people not
just everywhere, but every-when. We celebrate that the people of God we’re
connected with are through all times, all places, the ones who God has loved,
and who have loved God and tried to do and be what God called them to do and
be.
That’s all of us some of the
time. In the New Testament understanding of the word, “saints” simply meant
“people of God.” Not better-than-us people of God, not impossibly
good people of God whose example we can never live up to. Just people of God.
But All Saints Day is also a
connection with those we’ve loved and lost, including those members of First
UMC who we’ll remember in worship this year, who have died since last All
Saints Day: John Osbo, Nelson Wood, Ed Kivela
and Lillian Ross. It’s
a connection with those we’ve loved and lost longer ago. Each person’s list is
different---parents and grandparents, heroes, Sunday School teachers who’ve
shown us an example of faith, people we’ve never met but who we admire,
mentors, martyrs in faith, loved ones. And it’s a connection with those still
living, who continue to set an standard of faith we’d like to live up
to---those who “we want to be like when we grow up!” If we were to write a list
of those folks whose example, whose lives we’re thankful for, we’d likely come
up with a great long list; and it would be great.
Get the idea? All Saints Day
shows us a larger view of the Church. It’s a Big Idea, a more abundant view of
who God is, what God’s people do, and who God’s Church
is for.
I like Big Ideas. They
remind us that there is something and Someone beyond
us. They get us out of our own little existence with its big and little
problems, and make us look up.
There’s something besides
All Saints Day, too, in the life of our congregation this November.
For one, our Consecration
Sunday is November 18. This annual celebration gives us an opportunity to focus
on what we want to give back to God for all that God has given us. It’s
important, not just so we can underwrite a lot of good causes in the church
budget. There are lots of good causes out there in the world. But Consecration
Sunday invites us to look at life the other way around (funny, that’s what
Jesus did all the time) by saying THANK YOU to God first. With
our lives, with our words and actions, and yes, with our pocketbooks. It’s
another Big Idea, one that makes us change our usual ideas. By saying thank you
to God first, we are making a bold statement that God has first priority in our
lives, and that we choose to live into that belief. We are invited to say with
our giving what we want to believe with our lives, and then show it with our
lives, too.
Several months ago, as
you’ve probably heard me mention in worship, I had the privilege to attend a
wonderful preaching conference, the Festival of Homiletics, in
What’s the Big Idea God is
inviting you to? How is God calling you to live your thankfulness? How might
you respond to God’s grace?
On the Journey with you,
“If the
only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”
-Meister Eckhart
e-mail Pastor Baker-Streevy
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