Stir up your power, and come! The psalmist’s plea in Psalm 80:2 has become familiar to us in the Advent prayers. Isaiah wants God to rip the heavens open. Both cry out for an apparently distant, angry God to show up, to save, to restore. When we hear Jesus describing the coming of the Son of Man with stars falling from heaven, it can sound dire and horrible, not like anything we would ever hope for. But when we really look at the suffering of people God loves, we can share the hope that God would tear open the heavens and come.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom” This refrain from the Psalm for Sunday summarizes our readings well. It also summarizes our basic approach to life as children of God – children of light as Paul calls us. As we each wait the ultimate fulfillment of God’s grace and love for us, we are given the gift of life to be used and lived well by seeking things like  wisdom, truth, and justice for the vulnerable and suffering.

We will gather again this Sunday as we hear passages encouraging us to use our lives with integrity and honesty – seeking justice and God’s ways. We keep awake for God’s presence in surprising and sometimes delayed ways, always trying to keep our lives focused in the Spirit.

All Saints Sunday will be an important hour where we will honor and remember the saints among us who have now gone on before us into light eternal: Matthew Barker, Rev. Bonnie Bell, Suzanne Duval, Kirk McMilin, Al Mitchell, Delores Price, Ginny Ruble, and Judy Webber.

We will call to mind and heart all the ways that God’s grace, love, joy and peace came to us through their lives as we lift them each up in prayer and memory.