All Saints’ Day (Observed)
Sunday, November 3, 2013
“Who We Are and What We Will Be” (1 John 3:1-3)
Today as we observe All Saints’ Day, we look back and remember with thanksgiving the saints who have gone before us, who now rest from their labors and are with the Lord. We look around us, and even though we cannot see them, we know that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses to the faith, all of us united in the one great communion of saints, the whole church on earth and in heaven. And we look ahead, we look forward with hopefulness to the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns and raises our bodies and restores his creation to a glory that we cannot even imagine.
And so there is this “now but not yet” aspect to our readings on this day–and really, throughout the month of November, as we come toward the close of the church year. In November our thoughts turn to the last things, to the end times, to this earth as we know it coming to a close and Christ coming again to bring in the everlasting age to come. And in the midst of this, our forward look gives us hope–and calls us to holiness–even now.
This “now and not yet” dual emphasis is perfectly encapsulated in one of our readings for today, the Epistle from 1 John 3. Listen, for example, to this verse: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared.” And so our theme this morning: “Who We Are and What We Will Be.”
