Hi everyone!
It occurred to me this morning that we’re about half-way between All Saints’ Day and Remembrance Day.
In our society the idea of All Saints’ Day tends to be drowned out by Halloween. This is understandable given everyone’s love for candy, but also a little sad since our heritage in Christian faith is much more valuable than all the horror movie stuff that has come to take its place. All Saints Day is also a better lead-in to November 11 and our times of remembrance for the sacrifices others have made to stand against oppression and for freedom.
Remembrance Day is not a celebration of war or of military strength. It is a yearly reminder that if it weren’t for the commitment and sacrifice of thousands of young men and women, Hitler and others like him would have come to dominate large parts of the world. Their sacrifice was precious. These were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, whose lives could and should have been spent in other, happier ways. But they took a stand for safety and freedom, and today we are the beneficiaries of their commitment.
We will pause to remember in the coming week, partly out of respect for those who gave themselves for us, and partly to reinforce in our own hearts and minds that freedom really is precious and something worth defending. It’s a good thing. I’ll be wearing my poppy. J
There is a similar sense in which it is good for us to pause from time to time to remember that the story of Jesus and the Christian faith which has so transformed our lives and brought us freedom from sin and death—that story has also come to us through the commitment and sacrifice of people who lived before us and who passed the message down to us. Many of those folks lived further back in history, and we don’t have as much memorabilia to call them to mind. We tend to forget about them—especially we of the Protestant tradition, which has been wary of putting too much emphasis on the “saints” of earlier days. But it’s a good thing to remember our spiritual heritage, and to say a word of thanks to God for the faithfulness of others before us who in some cases sacrificed a great deal so that the gospel could be preserved and passed along. Maybe we should include them in our thinking as we wear those poppies!
Remembrance Day should motivate us to be citizens who do what we can to uphold the freedoms and blessings that benefit our society. And All Saints Day should motivate us to be faithful in our own Christian life and witness, so that others who follow may benefit from the legacy we leave. Here I think of the words of Hebrews 12:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses [some named in chapter 11], let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
On reflection I’m glad that these two celebrations come so close together, reinforcing each other as they remind me of the blessings I have inherited by God’s grace.
On other fronts, this week will be our last session in 1 Corinthians until after Christmas. Next week we’re going to have a special Sunday to celebrate and renew our commitment to world mission. Then beginning November 24 we’ll be ramping up to Christmas. So I’m going to take the liberty of jumping ahead a few chapters, to look at Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4. It’s a short passage, but it points us into a wider set of lessons in Paul and across the NT. If you’re wanting to do a bit of preparatory study and you find 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 too brief, you might consider adding some reading from 2 Corinthians 8-9. We’ll return to the chapter-by-chapter format in 1 Corinthians 7 after the holidays.
That’s the news for now. Have a blessed week, filled with good reminders of God’s grace in the past, and fresh experiences of His blessing in the present!
Pastor Ken