Ruth 1:1-18, Hebrews 9:11-14 and Mark 12:28-34

I write this on Halloween. Or rather All Saints Eve. Kids of all ages tend to enjoy the “scary” night of costumes and candy! Fun scary not really scary. Behind the ghosts, zombies, Frankensteins, action heroes, and cartoon characters, there is a whiff of the real thing: our death. And also those of whom we love.

All Saints Day celebrates those who have become the Church Triumphant, the Church at rest, the Church at the Eternal Banquet Table. But the only way there is through Death and Resurrection and that too only through the Risen Lord Jesus. Our scriptures have the “bookends” of the grief of Naomi and the utter loyalty unto death by Ruth AND the High Priestly death of the sacrificial Lamb of God in Hebrews 9. In between those we have Marks’s Jesus describing the full life in loving God, neighbor, and self!

Death is real but love of God, neighbor, and self is greater still. And so we remember Jesus and all our hidden-in-Christ family and friends this Sunday. Dead, not forgotten, and ultimately alive in a Kingdom that has no end and has only the Light of God in whom there is no darkness!

Come to worship and Fellowship in this All Saints Sunday!

Pastor Barry