{"id":33,"date":"2012-04-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/11\/sunday-4th-november-2012-feast-of-all-saints\/"},"modified":"2012-04-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T00:00:00","slug":"sunday-4th-november-2012-feast-of-all-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/11\/sunday-4th-november-2012-feast-of-all-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday 4th November 2012 &#8211; Feast of All Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"paragraph\" style=\"text-align:left;\">The Word This Week:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"\">\n<li style=\"\"><a title=\"\" style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=226#hebrew_reading\">Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9<\/a> <em style=\"\">or <a title=\"\" style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=226#hebrew_addl_reading\">Isaiah 25:6-9<\/a><\/em> and <a title=\"\" style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=226#psalm_reading\">Psalm 24<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/li>\n<li style=\"\"><a title=\"\" style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=226#epistle_reading\">Revelation 21:1-6a<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0<\/li>\n<li style=\"\"><a title=\"\" style=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu\/texts.php?id=226#gospel_reading\">John 11:32-44<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thoughts on The Word:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Revelation 21:1-6a     <br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,<br \/>\u2018See, the home of God is among\u00a0mortals.<br \/>He will dwell with them;<br \/>they will be his peoples,<br \/>and God himself will be with\u00a0them; <br \/> he will wipe every tear from their\u00a0eyes.<br \/>Death will be no more;<br \/>mourning and crying and pain will\u00a0be no more,<br \/>for the first things have passed\u00a0away.\u2019 <br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>\u00a0And the one who was seated on the throne said, \u2018See, I am making  all things new.\u2019 Also he said, \u2018Write this, for these words are  trustworthy and true.\u2019 Then he said to me, \u2018It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the  beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from  the spring of the water of life. <br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span><\/strong><br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <br \/><span>Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints.\u00a0 Now I understand that there are many Christian denominations out there that have completely done away with the idea of celebrating saints days &#8211; and even this general thanksgiving and celebration of All Saints.\u00a0 Can I say at the outset that I view that as a great shame.<\/span>\u00a0 We as Christians can learn so much from those who have come before us!\u00a0\u00a0 Today is about giving thanks for the gift to the world that the lives of Christians past, and present are and have been &#8211; it is not about putting these people in exalted positions in place of God &#8211; it is about looking to them as ones who point the way to God.\u00a0 What do you think of when you recall the love and compassion of St Francis of Assisi, and the faith that made him say, whilst undergoing great pain and suffering which eventually led to his death: &#8220;I thank you, Lord God, for all my pains; if it pleases you, Lord               increase them a hundredfold. I shall thankfully accept whatever               sorrow you give, not sparing me; for in the fulfilment of your               will I find my greatest solace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>When I read of his life and death I give thanks to God, I pray to the Father that I might be able to emulate the faith, love and devotion of Francis &#8211; I certainly don&#8217;t elevate him to any position of deity.\u00a0 That my dear friends i<\/span><span><\/span><span>s the point of days like this &#8211; we celebrate and give thanks for the Saints &#8211; for those known to us like Francis and for those who are unknown, the ones who have been and still are faithful servants in the Kingdom of God<\/span>.\u00a0 We pray today that like them we can be faithful, and we ask God that we might follow their example of devotion to God.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p><span>On this day I also want us to remember that we are members of a communion of saints.\u00a0 Those of us who recite the creed as part of our worship each week say that we believe<\/span> in&#8230;\u00a0 &#8216;the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.&#8217; .\u00a0 How often have you read or said this without thinking on what it means<span>? If we are a part of a communion of people who have everlasting life what does that mean? Christian tradition has since the earliest times of the church held that this means that we faithful witnesses don&#8217;t worship alone, but that we worship together with all the angels and saints who have left this world and are now alive (cf. Jn 3:16) and in the presence of God.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Please as you reflect on this reading from the Revelation of St John, look forward to the new heaven and the new earth, and <\/span>give thanks for the promise contained within.\u00a0 Give thanks for those Christians who are in the presence of God now, and for those who roam the earth now.\u00a0 Pray that we like those who came before us can be faithful servants in the Kingdom of God, so that at the end of our earthly lives we might join with them in worshipping our King in eternal life. <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"\"><\/span>I finish this week with this prayer I have blatantly plagiarised from the Anglican Communion Facebook page \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>Almighty God, your saints are one with you in  the mystical body of Christ: give us grace to follow them in all virtue  and holiness until we come to those inexpressible joys which you have  prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord,  who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and  for ever. <strong>Amen<\/strong>. <br \/><span style=\"\"><\/span>  <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Word This Week: Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 or Isaiah 25:6-9 and Psalm 24\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Revelation 21:1-6a\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0 John 11:32-44 Thoughts on The Word: Revelation 21:1-6a Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/11\/sunday-4th-november-2012-feast-of-all-saints\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Sunday 4th November 2012 &#8211; Feast of All Saints&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewordthisweek.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}