At Once and For All Time
One month from today, we will celebrate All Saints Sunday. In this highly important liturgical feast, we acknowledge that in God and through our baptism we are proclaimed as members of the eternal body and life of the Church and God’s Kingdom. We remember those who have come before us and proclaim that the fulness of life in which they now participate is at the heart of our hope as well. In the same service we will both baptize a little one and pronounce at the altar all the names of those we have lost in recent times. Since we were unable to gather last year, we will remember those whom we have lost over the last two years. If you have family members or friends you would like remembered, please let us know.
There is a beautiful poignancy in celebrating All Saints with both remembrance and baptism. The hope we proclaim as we mark the newly baptized as Christ’s own forever is the same hope we proclaim in recognizing the fullness of the cloud of saints who have completed their journey. In our adult education class last night, Korey spoke about how our lives are bookended with the love of God who both creates and fulfills.
You, who are reading this, find yourself somewhere in between the first hope and the fulfillment of all hope in your life. We spend so very much of our time here moving through the days which fill themselves with all sorts of glorious, hard, or non-descript moments. All Sundays are meant to bring awareness of the fullness of God’s time and love for all of us here and now, but I’d say that All Saints really offers us a wonderful chance to breathe in deeply the promise and assurance that you are loved and redeemed once and for all. I pray you will make plans now to be there as we celebrate and hope together.
We love you and God loves you,
Josh Condon+