All Saints Day

People were invited to donate flowers today to remember loved ones. We donated some in memory of the kids Aeris and Seth, also Grandma Millie and Grandpa Dean.

For fellowship time someone made chocolate cupcakes with orange icing and chocolate chip sprinkles. They were really cute.

When we were walking there this morning Abby was asking how much further, then she saw the building and said,"I can see MY church!"

Church Service:

Meditation: All of the places of our lives are sanctuaries; some of them just happen to have steeples. And all of the people in our lives are saints; it is just that some of them have day jobs and most will never have feast days named after them.

-Robert Benson

Children's Message:

Who are the saints that you know? None of the kdis answered so CAndance said she would give them a hint and said. "Turn around." A saint is a good model or mentor. In Corinthians Paul called the people saints but they were messing up left and right. A child said, "But WHY?" and Candance said that is the crazy thing. Our God forgives us and called us again even if we mess up.

Then she invited the kids to stay and join in the hymn about some of the saints they might know.

Presby hymn #364 I sing a song of the saints of God by John Henry Hopkins, Jr.

I sing a song of the saint of God, Patient and brave and true

Who toiled and fought and lived and died, For the Lord they loved and knew

And one was a doctor and one was a queen and one was a shepherdess on the green

They were all of them saints of God helping to be one too.

They loved their Lord so dear, And God's love made them strong.

And they followed the right, for Jesus sake, The whole of their good lives long.

And one was a soldier and one was a priest, And one was slain by a fierce wild beast.

And there's not any reason, no , not the least, Why I shouldn't be one too.

They lived not only in ages past, There are hundreds of thousands still.

The world is bright with the joyous saints, Who love to do Jesus' will.

You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at sea,

In church or in trains or in shops or at tea,

For the saints of God are just folk like me, And I mean to be one too.

Scripture was Luke 19:1-10 the Zaccheus story and Luke 6:27-31 the turn the other cheek scripture

Sermon: She began by saying even though voting is important she is sick of the political ads. The money that is spent on these ads could do so much. Only one of which is to lower the deficit which all of these politicians clain they want to do. The ads are mean spirited. The politicians attack each other for actiosn thatwere done previously in good faith. It becomes an us against them thinking among voters. She then goes into Zaccheus and explains that he was a chief tax collector. He socialized with the high and mighty in society. Who would this be today? Perhaps Hillary? Imagine Hillary climbing a tree to see someone. He was an established professional. Perhaps the tree was a safer place. Yes there were crowds below but Zaccheus was nopt a liked man. It would have been easy to have been jostled in the crowd. Yet it is him who Jesus calls to thru the crowd. The people in the crowd start to question Jesus. Why does he go to the tax collector? Is it to get in with the powerful, the political? You can see the crowd roll their eyes and mumble and grumble. Why does Jesus go with HIM?! The crowd is offended. There is a shift to a new enemy. He was supposed to be here for US not the bad guys. She went on to talk about an enemy that we keep in our backpockets for when we need someone to blame. Could be a collective enemy- a political party or a group of people. However at times the enemy can mvoe from the back pocket to right in front of us and we move from grumblign to violence. Gangs, bullying, anti-Muslims, even in our families, churches, societies.

Then we move to the other scritpure. This one is much more difficult. Love in the face of the enemy. Not being a wimpy doormat. Laws at the time said you cannot back hand someone so turning the other cheek results in the embarrassing action of breaking the law. Another law you cannot take both of a man's coats, so giving him your shirt is again placing the enemy in an embarrassing position.

Love in the face of your enemy is it easy. it is in fact very difficult. THere is a story about a scorpion and a man. THe man rescues the scorpion from a river and the scorpion asks, "Why? When it is my nature to sting you?" and the man replies, "That doesn't change my willingness to save you."

It is not "How do I open my heart? but rather "How do we recognize that God has already opened our hearts?"

Jesus called Zaccheus by name. How did he know his name? He said, "Come down. I am waiting for you." Zaccheus was not repenting, but claiming who he is. A shift had happened. The crowd hears it from Zaccheus. No one wants to know or give him credit, but he has already quietly been redistributing the wealth.

When on the cross Jesus says, "Forgive them." Like the child during the children's message, we want to cry out, "How?! Why?!" If God is working on me, He is also working on my enemies. We are not left up in the tree. Jesus calls us by name so that we can reach across and help each other. Paul considered all of us saints, saints of God. God's presence makes it so.

Read a poem Mother Teresa liked by Kent Keith. It ends:

In the end it is between you and God, not between you and other people.

(Will try to find and add.)

Welcome saints!