{"id":268,"date":"2019-11-01T14:30:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T14:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/?p=268"},"modified":"2019-11-01T14:30:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T14:30:26","slug":"all-saints-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/all-saints-day\/","title":{"rendered":"ALL SAINTS’ DAY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALL SAINTS\u2019 Day
\nReflection on Luke 6: 20-31 & Ephesians 1: 1-11
\nTodays is All Saints Day. Marie Lu is a popular young American writer who recently wrote, \u201cNone of us are Saints. We can all do better.\u201d While I don\u2019t doubt we can all do better, I have to take exception to her notion that a saint is someone who is perfect. The Gospel reading for All Saints Day this year is taken from Luke\u2019s version of Jesus\u2019 Beatitudes. The very first of the beatitudes in Luke is \u2018Blessed are the poor,\u2019 which Matthew recorded as \u2018Blessed are the poor in spirit.\u2019 Some make much of the apparent different wording between the gospel writers, but I believe it was a sermon Jesus repeated in village after village. After all it contains the heart of his teaching and even when one preaches the same sermon twice it does not come out the same. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps in our place and time it might have come out as, \u2018Blessed are you when you are spent emotionally and physically with nothing left to give.\u2019 Why? Perhaps it is then that we begin to truly rely on God. Or maybe Jesus would say, \u2018Blessed are you when you are broke or broken,\u2019 for the same reason. Our resources are spent and now at last we let go and trust God who as the Ephesians reading puts it, \u2018lavishes us with the riches of his grace,\u2019 (Eph. 1:8) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A saint is someone who knows they are broken and turns in faith to the God who came among us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, to pour out the currency of his life upon the cross that we might be made whole and live for Christ and enter into the inheritance of the saints. I prefer what Nelson Mandela said about saints, \u201cI am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.\u201d By the power of the Holy Spirit let us persevere as true saints do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer – Today\u2019s prayer is adapted from the Ephesians reading.
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of glory, we pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation that we might grow in our understanding of Christ, so that, with the eyes of our hearts enlightened, we may know what is the hope to which he has called us, what are the true riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for we who believe, according to the working of his great power\u2026.Amen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

P.S. I got away last evening for some time of meditation and writing but in addition to my devotional for the day I add the following poem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A SNOWY ALL SAINTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drove up to Meaford north of town
colourful leaves were mostly down
pumpkins on porches were aglow
but this morning I woke up to snow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes All Saints Day is robed in white
\nfor those who persevered the night.
\nIt will likely melt this afternoon,
\nbut can\u2019t get winter tires too soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark clouds rise over Georgian Bay
\nWill dump lots more in coming days.
\nBatten the hatches, fix the roof
\nwinter\u2019s coming, I\u2019ve got the proof!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALL SAINTS\u2019 Day Reflection on Luke 6: 20-31 & Ephesians 1: 1-11 Todays is All Saints Day. Marie Lu is a popular young American writer who recently wrote, \u201cNone of us are Saints. We can all do better.\u201d While I don\u2019t doubt we can all do better, I have to take exception to her notion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yorkminsterpark.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}