Dear Disciples of Jesus Christ:
I love the movie “The Prince of Egypt.” If you haven’t seen it I strongly encourage you to watch it. There is one song in particular that I want to focus on. It’s called, “Through Heaven’s Eyes.” It takes place after Moses has killed the Egyptian, after he realizes that he has treated his own Jewish brothers and sisters literally like slaves, after he has been told that his whole life is based on a lie. He runs wildly through the wilderness and eventually ends up exhausted near the area of Midian. As a result of everything that he has done, he comes to the conclusion that his life is completely worthless. Then he meets Jethro, the High Priest of Midian. Jethro sings to Moses and tells him that he can’t realize his value and his worth from this limited human perspective. He cannot know his value to God. Moses is an intricate part of God’s plan. Jethro compares one person’s life to a thread in a tapestry or one small rock on the peak of a mountain. He teaches Moses to look at his life, the way that God looks at it. As one part of God’s huge overarching master plan.
All Saints Day is November 1st. It is one day of the year when we look back at the lives of people who have completed their time here on earth. We look back and remember them. And maybe now, after they are gone, we have a broader perspective of who they were and what their life meant to us. I am not romanticizing this process. We all know the people who have died before us were not perfect. But being a saint doesn’t mean perfect. That is not how the word translates. It means being set apart and made holy. It means living a life in the grace of God, and understanding that your life, no matter how small and insignificant you think it is, has something to do with God’s plan for this world. Being a saint has a lot more to do with the gracious love and plan of God, then it has to do with what we think or how we behave.
Sunday November 2nd, we celebrate All Saints Sunday in Worship. We remember those who have died this past year with the tolling of a bell, or by just naming them out loud for the world to hear. We also name those who have been baptized this past year, the new saints that God has formed through the water of Holy Baptism. We take intentional time in worship to remember and reflect and thank God. As Romans 14: 8 reminds us…. “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” Sunday November 2nd , we remember the saints that were, and are, all apart of God’s plan in this amazing world we share together.
God’s peace and strong presence be with you and your family.