The Promise of God

• All Saints Sunday

Isaiah 25:6-9 and Matthew 9:9-13

www.FirstChurchBville.com   @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

Here we sit in a sanctuary, surrounded by stained glass windows with names at the bottom, a veritable “cloud of witnesses.” This is the oldest church I’ve served, but I’m amazed at the living presence of those window people: their names are among us today.

Someone asked me recently – and not maliciously or with judgment – when did I think our local United Methodist Churches would merge? I was somewhat taken aback, but I pondered the thought of three or four UMCs within just a few miles… Combined with the news that a former church of mine elected two weeks ago to discontinue.

Times have changed yet remained the same
back generations and centuries and millennia
Every generation has its glories and its dramas and its innovations.

Charge conference is upon us with its “t”s to cross and its “i”s to dot, budget and leadership to decide upon, what’s next, who leads, how will we fund it…

New but the same.

Hopefully and traditionally we carry on the work and vision of our window people…

…“to share the love of God with people in a hurting world…”

To effectively minister to folks in need in the Bville area,
To provide a spiritual home, a place to grow in faith, a place to belong,
To make disciples, lives transformed by God & reaching out to others.

• It’s easy to get sidetracked by the workings. But Jesus’ goal is people, transformation. Discipleship. Follow.

• God’s promise in Isaiah to give eternal hope
End of suffering, and completion of everything.
Hope of glory, hope that our window people know
freed from the bricks and mortar of life
in glory & salvation.

We look forward to worshiping with them! To that promise of God.

• Into remembrance of saints…
We remember, and we look forward to seeing again in glory,

Jean Allen      Greg Perry      Shirley Waugh 

• and we thank God for the promise of salvation, and the uniting with God’s people
in the sacrament of Holy Communion…

Matthew 9:9-13   Common English Bible (CEB)

⁹ As Jesus continued on, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. He said to him, “Follow me,” and he got up and followed him. ¹⁰ As Jesus sat down to eat in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and his disciples at the table.

¹¹ But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples,
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² When Jesus heard it, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. ¹³ Go and learn what this means: I want mercy and not sacrifice.^{[Hos 6:6]}
I didn’t come to call righteous people, but sinners.”

Isaiah 25:6-9   Common English Bible (CEB)

⁶ On this mountain, the Lord of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of choice wines, of select foods rich in flavor, of choice wines well refined.
⁷ He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples,
    the shroud enshrouding all nations.
⁸ He will swallow up death forever.
The Lord God will wipe tears from every face;
    he will remove his people’s disgrace from off the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ They will say on that day, “Look! This is our God, for whom we have waited— and he has saved us! This is the Lord, for whom we have waited; let’s be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”