November 3, 2024
Lighting the Christ Candle

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship
In all our weakness and strength, with our youth-filled spirits and aging bodies, we come to be your people, O God.

Strong in faith and eager with questions, singing our praise and whispering our prayers, we come to be your people, O God.
Filled with saintly determination yet mindful of our human limitations, we come to be your people, O God.
Made strong in your endless love for us, we know ourselves to be yours and we come to be your people, O God. We come to stand in your Holy Space. Amen. 

 

Hymn:  611  For all the saints vv 1, 2, 4, 6, 7

Prayer of Adoration

O Living God of past and future,  we praise you  for this present moment.  We thank you for the joy of coming together in worship, the joy of praising you in prayer and in song.

Fill us with your joy and empower us with your Holy Spirit,  that our strength may be renewed  to sing a new song of your glory  in a world which longs for your justice and peace.

May our worship this day, be a sound pleasing to  your ears, and a joy to your heart.   All this we ask in the name of Jesus,  in whom we become  your new creation.

We are grateful for the grace and mercy of forgiveness that makes us a new creation, in humbleness we confess  you before you our sins, asking for forgiveness….

Prayer of Confession:

Beloved God, who was known to our mothers and fathers, and even to our spiritual forebears, have mercy on us.
We do not always love as you would have us love.  We do not always do as you would have us do.  In our stubbornness, we turn from you when we should turn toward you.
Hold us, O Holy One – comfort us when we mourn the passing of friends and family, and help us to know that they are rejoicing in your presence.
We praise you for the grace you shower on us, constantly forgiving our errors, especially the ones that we don’t share with any but you.  Hear now the silent fears and worries of our hearts.

(silence)
Thank you for hearing our hearts and remind us that you have called us to stand in your Holy Place.  Amen

 

Assurance of Pardon

Our Gracious God, has promised to make all things new:  restore peace where there has been hatred, reduce tension where there has been anger, rekindle friendship where there has been enmity, and relieve suffering where there has been violence for the good of the people and for the peace of the world.

Praise be to God, his forgiveness is complete and restores us completely.

Thanks be to God.
Passing the Peace

Hymn:  667  God you touch the earth with beauty

Scripture:

Isaiah 25: 6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21: 1-7 

Sermon:  Who may stand in God’s Holy Place?

The Psalm we read today is often referred to as a song of procession and was meant to be sung as the people entered worship.

As the people enter worship they ask the question, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?   Who may stand in his holy place?  Ps 24: 3 NIV

That’s a complicated question.  Worship at this time was something that happened only at the Temple, and yet there were restrictions about who could enter and where they could go.

The Temple consisted of many rooms.  The outer courts, along the walls was where the Gentiles could come for worship.  There was a special court for the women, where they could listen to worship, and see a little bit from behind the screens that separated them from the inner holy sanctum.

This was where only the men could enter, and then only in the little area facing the altar.  Only the priests could come and stand by the altar.

Then there was another section, called the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the covenant was stored.  Only the priest elected as the representative for that year could enter that room, where he would make a special offering.

The incident of a priest entering the Holy of Holies we are most familiar with comes from Luke, and is often read as part of the Christmas story.

In Luke we read:

8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.  Luke 1: 8-10 NIV

We know from the story that while he was there making the special offering, Zechariah encountered an angel of the Lord, who told him that Elizabeth would soon have a son, and that they were to call his name John.  He would grow to be John the Baptist, baptize Jesus and speak of the coming kingdom of God.

So, to answer the question in those days, it depended on where in God’s Holy Temple you wanted to be able to go.  Only men, only priests, or only the selected priest.  And then only if you were,  The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,  who does not trust in an idol  or swear by a false god.[a]

5 They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, God of Jacob.  Psalm 24: 5,6 NIV

Whether the person who could come to stand before God was limited to the Holy of Holies, or could be anywhere in the Temple is not clear.  What is clear is that only a very select person could enter the Holy of Holies, which makes what happened when Jesus died on the cross so important to our understanding of “Who can stand in God’s holy place.”

In Luke 23 we read:   44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”[e] When he had said this, he breathed his last.  Luke 23: 44-46

And the curtain of the Temple was torn in two.

This was the curtain that closed off the Holy of Holies, the curtain that shrouded the area that only the duty priest could enter.

That torn curtain is a symbol of what was given to all people in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

All people, all the people of God, all the saints are those who can stand in God’s holy place.

When we read the Psalm  we noticed that a part of the question included the question, “Who may ascend the mountain?”

The mountain is the place where God encounters his people.   The High Holy Places were where instructions were given, God’s presence affirmed, and God’s blessing given.

We note the story of Abraham when God substitutes a ram as the sacrifice.

We note Moses on the mountain when he saw the burning bush, and then on Sinai when God gave him the Commandments.

We recall Elijah on the mountain when his burnt offering was accepted over Ahab’s offering.  Then later in the mountain cave where God passed by in earthquake and lightening, and spoke in a still small voice.

The mountain where Moses and Elijah came to speak with Jesus.

What is important is that the people ascended to God.  What was more important is that God descended to them and met them on the mountain.

In the reading from Isaiah, we are reminded that is the mountain where God provides the feast.  A literal feast is what Isaiah describes, but underneath in the words we see the evidence of a spiritual feast, where God provides calling and blessing.

The commentator Heffelfinger points out that Isaiah is speaking of a feast that displays the power, generosity, goodness and abundance of God.

All of it displayed in a banquet of fine wine, and rich food and that came with a promise that God had removed the shroud of death and swallowed up death forever.

One of the attention grabbing points in this prophecy is that the invitation is given to all people.

All people.  You and me.

All people—politicians and the homeless.

All people—kings and murderers, even kings who are murderers.

All people—billionaire employers and the employees who struggle on minimum wage.

On days like All Saints Sunday, we are encouraged to count ourselves among the saints, and to remember all those saints who have laid the groundwork for us to come and know God.  Grandparents, parents, Sunday School teachers, Ministers, the person in the pew near you who always has an encouraging word, and the prayer warrior whose prayers for you, you may never know anything about.

Today, we remember the saints of the past, and we look around us at the saints of the present; but the significance of this day is much greater than that.

The feast of All Saints invites us to look forward into God’s future, even as we remember the saints of the past.

Who can enter God’s future?

Heffelfinger points out that this future is best appreciated by us when we hunger for the righting of the wrongs in this world.  That hunger arises from the promise we encountered in the Psalm:  Who may stand in the Holy Place?   The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,  who does not trust in an idol  or swear by a false god. Psalm 24: 4

The great feast is a banishment of tears and hunger.  The great feast is the end of war.  The great feast is the promise of justice.  The great feast is the eternal expression of joy.

We participate in that feast, here and now, and at the same time anticipate what that feast will mean for us on the day that our own death reunites us with all the saints who stand at the Holy Place before the throne of God.

It will be the feast of unity, where regardless of the creed and rules that bound our worship and feasting on earth, we will all come together before the table and Jesus will break the bread and pour the wine and call us all together as the Saints who are vindicated by God, and blessed beyond all of our wildest expectations.

This feast was opened to all people, on the cross.  It was pointed to by Isaiah and the invitation is for all people who have clean hands and a pure heart.

The commentator McCann tells us that this inclusion is the affirmation of God’s claim on the whole world and all the world’s people.  All of it and all of us belong to God.  All who live in submission to God’s claim on their lives will enter.

McCann reminds us that complete trust in God will mean the willingness to be shaped by God’s instruction.  The resulting blessing is not a reward for good behaviour; but rather, the result of the satisfaction of being in a full and right relationship with God.

not a reward for good behaviour; but rather, the result of the satisfaction of being in a full and right relationship with God.

 

This is why we are both participants in God’s feast and those who glimpse what that feast will mean in the future.

The future is near.  How near only God knows.  On the day that Jesus returns all Christian believers will enter a new reality, the reality of which, for now, we only have glimpses.

On that day, when Jesus returns, we will know an eschatological reality.   For now, we live in the tension between our present reality and the future in the Holy of Holies.

Who may stand in God’s Holy Place?

All who love God in Christ.  Past, present, future.  All who love and serve God.  All whom Jesus came to save.

When may we stand in God’s Holy Place?

Here at worship.  At home  in prayer.  In the community as we serve the least of these.  All of us, everywhere.  That is what it means to be a Saint of God; to be those who live for God in his Holy Place, here on earth and in the Kingdom to come.

Amen

 

Hymn:   644  May the mind of Christ my Saviour

Offering and Doxology 830
Offertory Prayer

Great God of Heaven and Earth, you call us to follow you into the future.  We see your future beckoning us onward, but we also see the present days, and we hear the Jesus calling us to care for the least of these.   We remember that we are called to serve all whom you call to stand in holiness, regardless of circumstances.

May this act of giving be a gesture of our willingness, to love as you love, serve as you serve and to follow where you lead.

In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession

Almighty God, we thank you for those who have gone on before us, pioneers in faith and ministry, thought, word and deed.  We thank you for their example of living a Christ like life We know that they were no more perfect than we are.  We thank you that we are all counted as your children.

Help us to remember when we are running the race of life, that all these people stand by us, cheering us on, praying for us, and loving us.

In that same holy love, we bring before you, the saints we know, the saints in our community and the saints that inhabit this world.

JOY

COCERNS

THE WORLD

 

Today we celebrate your saints here on earth, and remember those saints who stand with you in the holy places.

Lord in your compassion, comfort those who are grieving the loss of their saint(s).

Comfort the congregations who grieve for those saints who have loved and been loved among them.

Comfort the Pastors who preside over services that celebrate the movement of dearly loved members from the church on earth to the church in heaven.

Comfort and call  all of us, when looking at the difficulties of this earth, attempt to live with your heart and become those who have the power to make a difference.  Show us how to stop the hatred and the greed that is on the rise.

Bring us back to a world where peace and love abound and all live in fellowship with one another.

All this we ask in the name of Your son, Jesus, who came to bring Light to the world.  We pray in his name, saying together the prayer that he has taught us… saying:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen

Amen

Hymn:  689  Simply trusting everyday

Benediction

The God of truth, has promised us a blessing . Through deserts and up mountains we follow Jesus, and there we find the Holy Place and  find ourselves as we were meant to be.

Remember and rejoice that the faith of Jesus lives in you, and you are given his freedom.

Remember and rejoice that the  grace of God is forever upon us.  Even as we walk the plains of every day, we walk in the way of God’s holy place.

Rejoice in the full grace of Jesus, the immense love of God, and the deep presence of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

Blessing Song:  Go now in peace

Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
Public Domain

3 Fold Amen