{"id":462,"date":"2019-11-03T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=462"},"modified":"2019-11-04T16:13:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T16:13:02","slug":"all-saints-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/11\/03\/all-saints-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"All Saints Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ephesians\n1:11-23<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\npray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a\nspirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so with the eyes of\nyour heart enlightened, you may know the hope to which he has called you, what\nare the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the\nimmeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe\u2026.\u201d Paul wrote these\nwords to a congregation who, while knowing the love of God in Jesus Christ, were\nexperiencing persecution and heartache; they and others of their community were\nbeing arrested and some killed. The power and dominion that Paul described as\nabove all rule and authority (in the following verses), was something far\nremoved from the experience of the Ephesians, in fact they felt vulnerable;\nthey were scared. Paul\u2019s words, were intended to remind them that it was God\nwho held all of the power and to soften the fear, the anxiety and pain suffered\nby the congregation in Ephesus, but Paul\u2019s words were not \u201cpie in the sky\u201d\nwords offered by someone who did not know suffering and the words did not\ninclude a promise of peace and tranquility. Paul understood well their\nsuffering and that feeling of being powerless; it has been recorded in\nScripture, the times that Paul himself was beaten, imprisoned, even stoned, but\namidst his suffering Pail had gained strength by the one true Spirit of the\nLord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\ncrazy and violent as our times seem to be today, we are not among the\npersecuted; we are among the very fortunate, we live in relative safety,\nsharing in a great prosperity, the poorest among us is considered rich by many\nin the world; we maintain a certain level of security in spite of our\ngovernment\u2019s policies and lack of policies to keep our world safe. Many of our\nworld are not so fortunate; it is important that we remember that fact, but\nPaul did not need to remind his readers, the congregants of the church in\nEphesus, of that point, at least not in this message, they needed Paul\u2019s\nreassurance; they needed very much to be reminded of the power of God over all\nthings, over life itself. We who are among the fortunate, we sometimes, confuse\nour suffering with persecution. The people to whom Paul wrote were really\npersecuted and truly needed to understand that power rested not in their persecutors\nbut always in the Lord, and that they were always within the boundaries, within\nthe reach of that power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today,\nthere are many within the immigrant population, both legal and illegal that\nfeel the weight of the government upon them, uncertain of its justice and even feeling\nit, as persecution. Among our African and African American population, they too\nfeel the weight of the government, feeling that the justice system is not\ntreating them justly and may even be targeting them unfairly. I\u2019m not an\nidealist, I understand that there are some valid reasons for some of the\ncurrent treatment of immigrants and darker skinned people in our country, but\nwe cannot discount the level of racism and misplaced anxiety that stands behind\nmuch of the injustices and the way our population has excused abuses towards\nthese people. Some of us may feel the burden of our taxes and may not like the\npower that the energy and telecommunication companies hold over us, but they do\nnot threaten our existence. Some of us are burdened by educational costs and college\nloans; they are often excessive, but we chose them; the banks and loaning\ninstitutions likely take advantage of the young and their families and\nsomething should be done to help these people them with their debts, but they\nare not so much suffering from persecution, as they are greed and opportunism,\non the part of our banking and loaning industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nwe are less in need of the hope that Paul offers through the reassurance of\nGod\u2019s power, Paul\u2019s words can certainly speak to us in our not so hopeless<\/strong>\nsituations. We certainly can benefit from the spirit of wisdom and revelation\nthat Paul prays will reach each and every one of us; I know there are\ndefinitely times when I seem lacking in wisdom and revelation. Anyone who is\nhonest to his or herself will feel the same. We can all benefit in having \u201cthe\neyes of our hearts enlightened\u201d by the Holy Spirit; could it be that this\nenlightenment will give us a sense of empathy for those who suffer? We can all,\nunfortunately, only imagine how our world would improve were we, and those\naround us, to make each decision prayerfully, listening for the Spirit to\nshower us with God\u2019s wisdom and a feeling of empathy for the less fortunate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life\nis not forever, and so all of us need, also, to be reminded of the hope\nproclaimed by Paul, the hope of a glorious inheritance among the saints of old.\nTo paraphrase a passage that I read, at almost every funeral, \u201cnothing in all\ncreation can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord,\nincluding even death.\u201d It is important to be reminded that the promise of this\ninheritance is a promise of salvation and that it is never far from us. One way\nthat we celebrate All Saints Sunday is to remember our lost loved ones, and to entrust\nthem to the love and salvation offered through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\nIt helps us to know that they, as saints are receiving their inheritance, the\npromise of salvation and the joy of being with the Lord, but that is not the\nonly way that we celebrate All Saints Sunday. We (also) often recognize the\nnewly baptized and we celebrate the lives of all who have been baptized, those\nwe call saints, made so by Christ through baptism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again,\nand again, I have called you saints in this sermon, you are, but don\u2019t get a\nbig head. We are, as taught by Martin Luther, both saints and sinners. That\ntells me that we are not worthy of Jesus\u2019 love and forgiveness and that we all need\nthe Spirit\u2019s help, the Spirit\u2019s wisdom and revelation, and the empathy, that is\noffered us. Don\u2019t be foolish; take advantage of all the Lord has promised you. Celebrate\nJesus\u2019 love for us and for those who have died and have gone to be with the\nLord. Work together, using the gifts the Spirit has given, to make our world a\nsafer and more loving world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ephesians 1:11-23 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ \u201cI pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so with the eyes of Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}