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Event Series Event Series: All Saints Day – Year B

All Saints Day – Year B

1 November All day

Below you will find the Bible readings set for this occasion in the Revised Common Lectionary, with our Australian idiomatic paraphrases of them, plus prayers and sermons based on them.

Bible Readings (paraphrased)

Lections from The Revised Common Lectionary. Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common Texts(CCT) P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003, USA. Used with Permission.

The lives of good people are held safely in God’s hand,
and the horror of death will never get its claws into them.

The death of good people might look like a tragedy.
In the eyes of those who don’t know any better
it might seem like they’ve suffered the same fate as everyone else,
but it’s not so – they are at peace.

It might look to others as though they were punished,
but they are actually anticipating a life that death can never touch.

The reward they receive will more than compensate
for the discipline they endured.
They were put to the test by God and they passed with flying colours.
They came through the fire like refined gold,
or like a sacrifice offered to God through the fire on the altar,
and God was proud to accept them.

When God comes to reward them they will be radiant.
They will leap and dance like a string of fireworks.
They will be put in charge of nations and their people,
rejoicing that the Lord is their king forever.

The key to understanding the truth is to put your trust in the Lord.
Those who are faithful will share a life of love with God.
The Lord’s chosen have dedicated themselves to God.
They are showered with extravagant generosity and mercy,
and the Lord keeps a protective eye on them forever.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Every people on earth will be invited to the sacred mountain
for the huge party thrown by the LORD who rules over everything.
It will be the feast to end all feasts,
with the very finest of foods and wines:
choice meats, wines aged to perfection,
gourmet delicacies to make every mouth water!

And right here on this sacred mountain
the LORD will tear off the pall of death
and release the nations from the coffin that held them.
The LORD will swallow up death once and for all.

With that, the Lord GOD will wipe the tears from every eye,
and God’s people will no longer be humiliated and despised;
The LORD says so and that settles it.

When that happens people will say,
Wow! This is our God!
We hoped, we waited, we trusted God to save us.
And our waiting has not been in vain.
The LORD has not let us down.
Celebrate! Sing and dance,
for God has come to our rescue and set us free.

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

The whole planet belongs to you, LORD —
the earth and everything that lies in it,
grows from it, or walks on it.
You raised the land above the seas,
and secured its foundations in the depths.

Who will be granted a permit
to climb your sacred mountain, O God?
Who may scale the summit to your holy presence?

Those who have played a straight bat,
acting with integrity,
not selling themselves out to delusions,
or playing fast and loose with the truth.

Your rich goodness will come their way, LORD,
and you will declare them innocent
and set them free.

These are the people who take no shortcuts
in their search for you.
Their greatest hunger is to know you,
the God of their ancestors.

We hear the call:
“Wake up! On your feet!
Open the gates and form a guard of honour!
Roll out the red carpet
before the glorious sovereign.”

Who is this majestic ruler?
It is you, LORD, supreme and dynamic,
the conqueror of conflict.

We hear it again:
“Wake up! On your feet!
Open the gates and form a guard of honour!
Roll out the red carpet
before the glorious sovereign.”

Who is this majestic ruler?
It is you, the LORD who rules over everything.
This majestic ruler is you, our God.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

I, John, had another extraordinary vision. I saw a completely revamped heaven and a radically reconstructed earth. The first heaven, the first earth and the sea were all but a memory. Then I saw Jerusalem, the city dedicated to God, now made completely new. She was coming down the aisle from heaven itself, from God, and she looked sensational, like a bride on her wedding day. I heard a loud voice coming from heaven’s throne. It said:

“See, God has moved in and set up home among ordinary people.
God will live with them and be their God,
and the people will gladly belong
to the God who lives right in their midst.

God will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be abolished forever;
pain and grief and tears will be things of the past.
All these things have been made obsolete.”

Then the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new – absolutely everything!”

“Write all this down,” he said, “because these words can be depended on. They are the truth.”

This is what he said: “The job is done! I am the whole story, from A to Z. I am the beginning and I am the end.”

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Jesus had arrived at Bethany where Lazarus had recently died and been buried by his sisters, Martha and Mary. When Mary saw Jesus, she embraced him and sobbed, “Lord, if only you’d been here. I know my brother wouldn’t have died if you had been here.”

Jesus was stirred up, deep in his guts, by her tears and by the crying of the people who were with her. “Where did you bury him?” he asked.

“Come and we’ll show you, Lord,” they said. As they went, Jesus too began weeping. This prompted some of the people to say, “He must have really loved Lazarus,” but others were more cynical, saying, “If he loved him so much, how come he didn’t do something to keep him from dying? After all, he had no trouble giving sight to a blind man.”

Jesus arrived at the tomb, and by now he was quite worked up. The tomb was a cave with a big rock sealing the entrance. Jesus gave orders for it to be reopened. Martha, the other sister of the dead man, protested saying, “Lord, it will stink to high heaven. He’s already been dead for four days.”

But Jesus said, “I told you, didn’t I, that if you believed, you would see things so amazing that they could only be credited to God?”

So they went ahead and removed the rock from the entrance of the tomb. Jesus paused to pray, saying, “Father, thank you for hearing my prayer. I know you always do, but I want this crowd to hear me giving the credit to you, because then they might believe that it was you who sent me.”

Having said that, he raised his voice and bellowed, “Lazarus, get out here!”

And sure enough, the dead man came out, still wrapped up like a mummy from head to toe. Jesus gave the order to unwrap him and set him free.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Prayers

Let us lift up our hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,
for you are preparing a rich banquet for all your saints
that we might rejoice forever in your salvation.

The earth is yours for you founded it,
and you have made your home among its inhabitants.
Through your prophets you gave us a vision
of a world made new,
and of suffering and grief abolished forever.

In your son, Jesus Christ,
we have seen your deep anguish
over the death of your faithful ones,
and in his life-giving ministry
we have seen your glory.
Though he passed through the fires of death,
we now see him raised up and making all things new.
In him is our hope of resurrection
and vindication for all who have trusted you,
for their souls are safe in your hands
and you have declared them to be worthy of your life.

Therefore with .....

©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

We give thanks for your son, Jesus Christ,
who is making all things new,
and securing our resurrection
and the vindication for all who have trusted you,
for their souls are safe in your hands
and you have declared them to be worthy of your life.

©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

(Preface reformatted for use apart from communion)

We give you all thanks and praise, O God,
for you are preparing a rich banquet for all your saints
that we might rejoice forever in your salvation.

The earth is yours for you founded it,
and you have made your home among its inhabitants.
Through your prophets you gave us a vision
of a world made new,
and of suffering and grief abolished forever.

In your son, Jesus Christ,
we have seen your deep anguish
over the death of your faithful ones,
and in his life-giving ministry
we have seen your glory.
Though he passed through the fires of death,
we now see him raised up and making all things new.
In him is our hope of resurrection
and vindication for all who have trusted you,
for their souls are safe in your hands
and you have declared them to be worthy of your life.

Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

©2003 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

These words are trustworthy and true:
Christ Jesus is making all things new.
The first things have passed away,
and our disgrace is removed.
Vindication has come from the God of our salvation.

Sisters and Brothers,
  your sins are forgiven;
    be at peace.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Go out confident that your lives are safe in God.
Keep your hands clean and your hearts pure.
Do not act falsely and do not swear deceitfully.
Trust in the Lord, even in the face of death,
and follow in the footsteps of all God’s saints.

And may God keep a protective eye on you;
May Christ Jesus show you his grace and mercy;
and may the Holy Spirit give you a vision
of the life of the world made new.

We go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
   In the name of Christ. Amen.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Sermons

Sermons will open in new tabs from our SYCBaps church website.

  1. Life, Death and Tears
    A sermon on John 11: 32-44; Revelation 21: 1-6a & Isaiah 25: 6-9 by Nathan Nettleton

Details

Date:
1 November
Series: