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Psalm 119: 142-144

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,

and your law is the truth.
Trouble and anguish have come upon me,
but your commandments are my delight.
Your decrees are righteous forever;

give me understanding that I may live.

March as Saints

by Joey Capuano

On this week where we celebrate All Saints Day, we are reminded of how precious life, love, and togetherness are. It is a day where we pause to thank God for and remember our loved ones who are now resting eternally with Him, and also an opportunity for us to live out their legacy and faith. We know that it is also a very hard day for us, as we feel sad that we are no longer seeing our loved ones in our earthly home. But, have comfort. We gather together - on this day and others - and can comfort each other. We can pray for God to offer us guidance in how we can offer this comfort. And, most importantly, God always comforts us!

This year, this day arrives at a time where we as a world are facing many hardships: sicknesses, medical procedures, economic stresses, political turmoil, divisions among us, weather catastrophes, wars, heartless and senseless violence, and most sadly, humanitarian injustices. In times like these, let’s remember Pastor Mary’s two words that ring true: But, God!

These words are what our saints lived and raised us by. We can use this All Saints’ Sunday as a call to live out that humble, trusting, and beautiful faith. We are also called to sharing it with others. I love the following quotation from the Discipleship Ministries newsletter from this week:

 
"All Saints Sunday is one of those celebrations with a bifocal emphasis. On the one hand, it is an in-house event, a celebration of the community of faith and those who have walked as a part of the community and now have entered God’s eternity. We give thanks for their lives and witness among us, embracing the unique giftedness they shared as a part of the fellowship. While worship on this day is not a funeral for those who have died since last we celebrated, there are often elements of lament and grief that reside alongside the gratitude and celebration of life and the witness of the community as a whole. This service can be, and often is, an intensely personal one to the congregation that gathers week by week. 

On the other hand, All Saints is an opportunity to look beyond the walls of the local congregation and be reminded that, in Christ, we are bound up into a larger fellowship of those who look like us alongside those who do not look like us, sound like us, or gather like us. We can push the horizons wider to see that we are a part of something bigger than we can imagine. On this day, we celebrate the saints who have contributed to our growth, even though we may never have met them. We give thanks for those who have taught us about discipleship even when they spoke a different language or gathered with different traditions. It is another opportunity to unite with the worldwide body of Christ as we worship this day."

This is our calling! We always can work to share Christ’s faith, hope, and love with everyone we meet, without exceptions; these are blessings that we need as a world now more than ever. We can commit to this, and march like saints! Let Psalm 119: 142 - 144 inspire us on this awesome journey we are on together. 

¡Que Dios nos bendiga, todos! May God bless us, everyone!
Joey

Bridgewater UMC is making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!  

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Bridgewater, VA 22812

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