Dearest e-votees-
This coming weekend is All Saints Sunday. It is a time when we reflect upon the great cloud of witnesses (present and past, living and dead) that form the body of Christ.
May your time be blessed this weekend as you gather with a great cloud of witnesses to give thanks and praise for an even greater cloud that have faithfully testified to the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Peace,
Karl
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See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.<br>
John 3:1-3, NRSV
There is no greater love than one who lays down one’s life for another. That is what Jesus tells us in John 15:13. Jesus then calls his followers his friends.
In this text we are reminded that God’s love has given us the gift of adoption. We are not only friends with God. We are not only friends that Jesus was willing to lay down his life on our behalf. We are brought into the very family of God. We are God’s children. We are sisters and brothers of Jesus.
We don’t begin to understand what all that will mean as God’s promises continue to unfold and come to pass in our lives. It has not been entirely revealed how things will look and how we will be in the final times—contrary to some books and some movies that claim to have it all figured out. What we can understand is that we are called to hope and trust and believe in God who engenders our hope, who is trustworthy and who is believable.
As we dwell in that hope we are made pure and drawn more into God’s likeness.
This Sunday we commemorate those who have died and been sealed in that hope. This Sunday we give thanks for those who have shown and taught us about this hope. This Sunday, and hopefully every Sunday, we are reminded that this hope is for us too.
We may not entirely get it but that’s okay—God has gotten us entirely. We are saved and we are loved and we will never be abandoned. Thanks be to God.
God, thank you for folding us into the great cloud of witnesses. Help us celebrate well all those who have surrounded us and preceded us in the faith. Teach us to lean hard into the hope we have in you and to be made more pure in the process. Amen.
This coming weekend is All Saints Sunday. It is a time when we reflect upon the great cloud of witnesses (present and past, living and dead) that form the body of Christ.
May your time be blessed this weekend as you gather with a great cloud of witnesses to give thanks and praise for an even greater cloud that have faithfully testified to the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Peace,
Karl
---------
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.<br>
There is no greater love than one who lays down one’s life for another. That is what Jesus tells us in John 15:13. Jesus then calls his followers his friends.
In this text we are reminded that God’s love has given us the gift of adoption. We are not only friends with God. We are not only friends that Jesus was willing to lay down his life on our behalf. We are brought into the very family of God. We are God’s children. We are sisters and brothers of Jesus.
We don’t begin to understand what all that will mean as God’s promises continue to unfold and come to pass in our lives. It has not been entirely revealed how things will look and how we will be in the final times—contrary to some books and some movies that claim to have it all figured out. What we can understand is that we are called to hope and trust and believe in God who engenders our hope, who is trustworthy and who is believable.
As we dwell in that hope we are made pure and drawn more into God’s likeness.
This Sunday we commemorate those who have died and been sealed in that hope. This Sunday we give thanks for those who have shown and taught us about this hope. This Sunday, and hopefully every Sunday, we are reminded that this hope is for us too.
We may not entirely get it but that’s okay—God has gotten us entirely. We are saved and we are loved and we will never be abandoned. Thanks be to God.
God, thank you for folding us into the great cloud of witnesses. Help us celebrate well all those who have surrounded us and preceded us in the faith. Teach us to lean hard into the hope we have in you and to be made more pure in the process. Amen.
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