| ANGLICAN PARISH OF ATWELL/SUCCESS
THE CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION Sunday Bulletin All Saints Day– 1st November 2009 |
All Saints
The term ‘passed away’ is often used when we are referring to someone who has died. All Saints Sunday is a day when we remember those who have died, those saints of former times, members of our own family, and especially those who have died in the faith. The vision that appears in today’s reading from Revelation uses the words ‘pass away’. The term is used for the passing away of a world and then for the passing away of all the first or former things. What is surprising is that in Revelation the term is used in the opposite sense from dying. We assume that things ‘pass away’ when death comes, but in today’s reading things ‘pass away’ when death goes away. The first or former things that have passed away means that death will be no more; crying and pain will also be things of the past. The first heaven and earth that pass away constitute the world in which death was operative. To take death out of the picture is to bring about a new world.
Creation is what God does and here we hear of a new creation. Death is real for those whom God has created, yet in Christ, there is also the promise of resurrection, and resurrection is an act of new creation. This is the promise of a new and transformed existence. This is also what John envisions in his writing for the world itself. Death affects all of us and the world to which we belong. There is no escaping this, yet in his restless will to redeem us all, God holds out the promise of making us and our world new. In this new world where there is no death, all the marks of the former imperfect and sinful world have passed away. God is the alpha [a] and the omega[w], the beginning and the end. In God the future holds the promise of everlasting life.
Fr Clive
Sentence
And a great multitude, from every nation and tribe and people and language, cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ Revelation 7.10
Prayer of the day
We praise you, heavenly Father, that you have knit together your chosen ones in one communion and fellowship in the body of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord: give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that we may come to those inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who truly love you;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns,
one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
First Reading: Isaiah 25;6-9
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
For the word of the Lord; thanks be to God.
Psalm 24
1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it:
the compass of the world and those who dwell therein.
2 For he has founded it upon the seas:
and established it upon the waters.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord:
or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 Those who have clean hands and a pure heart:
who have not set their soul upon idols, nor sworn their oath to a lie.
5 They shall receive blessing from the Lord:
and recompense from the God of their salvation.
6 Of such a kind as this are those who seek him:
those who seek your face, O God of Jacob.
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors:
and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is the King of glory?:
the Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors:
and the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is the King of glory?:
the Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.
Second Reading: Revelation 21:1-6
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
For the word of the Lord; thanks be to God.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to John 11:32-44
Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord:
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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NOTICES
Today: We welcome Fr Clive McCallum to preside and preach.
A big welcome back to Jeff & Corolie Wilson after their trip through central Australia.
Please stay for a cuppa after the service.
Lakelands Church Trash & Treasure Saturday 7th Nov 8.30am -1.00pm
Readings Next Sunday, Twenty Third after Pentecost, (G), 8 Nov 2009.
1 Kings 17:8-16; Psalm 146; Heb 9:23-28; Mark 12:38-44
Filed under: pew sheet
