A couple of announcements to draw your attention to:

  1. Our food bank at Faith provides food for anyone who is able to come to the church to pick it up twice a month.  There are a number of volunteers who work hard at this ministry.  I am told that we have nearly run out of the plastic grocery bags that are used to hand out the food.  If you have plastic grocery bags that we can use, please bring them with you to the church on Sunday or drop them off sometime during the week.  We can even arrange to have them picked up, if that is easier for you.  Just call the church to make arrangements.
  2. The 20th Faith Scouts are raising money through the purchase of bags of coffee beans.  Check out how to support our Scouts by going to www.ScoutCoffee.ca.  After checking it out and deciding to purchase some coffee beans, be sure to use the Group Name: 20th Brant so that the money raised goes to our Scouts.  Contact Jane Redin for more information.

Wishing everyone a fun a safe All Hallows Eve!

Gathering

Welcome

Prelude

Remembrance of All Saints

P:         Let us remember all the saints before God.

We praise and bless you, O holy Trinity.  You have shown us that love is stronger than death and your passion more fierce than the grave.  We rejoice in the lives of those whom you have drawn into your eternal embrace, especially our brothers and sisters of Faith Lutheran with whom we shared our lives in Christian community through worship, witness, service, and learning: 

Joe Miller

Dave Pickering

Ruth Uehre

Earl Telfer

Roger Wonnick

Doreen Churchill

Lis Orf

Herb Hagglund

Dieter Perlitz

Nelly Seewald

Katharine Mueller

P:         And we remember with profound love former members of Faith, family members, friends, and neighbours who have gone before us:

Ivan Turcotte                                     Paul Cherwinski

Lorraine Mahn                                  Debbie Dedrick

Marie Batchelor                                Betty Egerdee

Richard Wagner                                Muriel Rayner

Eva Tombol                                        Meta Stahl

Richard Wolfe                                    Gustav Stahl

Dorothy Todd                                                Brigitte Hengherr

Clarice Todd

P:         Keep us in joyful communion with all of these beloved until we join the saints of every people and nation gathered before your throne in your ceaseless praise.  Help us to remember them as an encouragement to holy living and exciting us to love.

Hymn        “Sing with All the Saints in Glory”             # 426

Sing with all the saints in glory, sing the resurrection song!
Death and sorrow, earth’s dark story, to the former days belong.
All around the clouds are breaking, soon the storms of time shall cease;
in God’s likeness we, awaken, knowing everlasting peace.

Oh, what glory, far exceeding all that eye has yet perceived!
Holiest hearts, for ages pleading never that full joy conceived.
God has promised, Christ prepares it, there on high our welcome waits.
Ev’ry humble spirit shares it, Christ has passed the eternal gates.

Life eternal! heav’n rejoices: Jesus lives who once was dead.
Shout with joy, O deathless voices! Child of God, lift up your head!
Life eternal! Oh, what wonders crowd on faith; what joy unknown,
when, amid earth’s closing thunders, saints shall stand before the throne!

After the hymn, the presiding minister leads the Dialogue:

Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

And you will find rest for your souls.”

Special Music

Greeting

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

And also with you.

Let us pray,

Most High God,

You have knit your people together in one communion in the mystical body of Jesus Christ our Lord. Grant us grace to follow your blessed saints and lives of faith and commitment, and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who love you, through Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

A reading from 1st John, the 3rd chapter.

1See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Word of God.  Word of Life.

Thanks be to God!

Gospel Acclamation (sung together)                                               page 142

Alleluia, Lord to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Gospel

The holy gospel according to Matthew, the 5th chapter.

Glory to you, O Lord.

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon

Hymn of the Day        “Give Thanks for Saints”          # 428

  1. Give thanks for those whose faith is firm

when all around seems bleak:
On God’s good promise they rely,

so while they live and when they die

how forcefully they speak – the strong, who once were weak.

  • Give thanks for those whose hope is clear,

beyond mere mortal sight:

Who seek the city God has planned,

the true, eternal, promised land,

and steer on toward the light, a beacon ever bright.

  • Give thanks for those whose love is pure,

a sparkling precious stone:

They show by what they say and do

an inward beauty, warm and true,

for God’s concerns they own – God’s love through them is known.

  • Give thanks for saints of ages past

and saints alive today:

Though often by this world despised,

their hearts by God are richly prized.

Give thanks that we might say we share their pilgrim way.

Words: Martin E. Leckebusch, b. 1962, © 2003 Kevin Mayhew Ltd. Reprinted with permission under ONE LICENSE #A-736296. All rights reserved.

Creed

P:      We are made God’s people through our baptism into Christ.  Living together in trust and hope, let us confess our faith:

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to the dead.

On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of the Father;

he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.  Amen

Prayers

Hear us, O God.  Your mercy is great.

P:      Into your hands, O God, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord who teaches us to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.  For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen

Sending

Announcements may be made.

Benediction                                      

Sending Hymn           For All the Saints”        # 422

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.  Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.  Alleluia! Alleluia!

Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine,
we feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.  Alleluia! Alleluia!

Dismissal

Beloved of God,

go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God!