On All Saints' Day (observed at our church this Sunday) we remember the following:
- Brothers and sisters in Christ who have died since last All Saints' Sunday. We will light a candle for each of these saints during worship, remembering each one with gratitude and thanksgiving.
- All who follow Jesus are given the name, "saint." We are saints because we have been claimed by God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is who we are!
- Anticipate that time in the future when Jesus will come again and God will renew the face of the earth. This is a very, very different view of the second coming than the popular rapture/Harold Camping theology which claims that believers will be raptured away to heaven and the world that God created will be destroyed. God is in the restoring/redeeming business, not the destroying business. See Revelation chapter 21 where heaven fills the whole earth. This is the heart of the Christian hope. This is why we call the message of the bible, "good news/gospel."
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
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