A note from Pastor Travis 10/28/21

Dear FUMC Family and Friends,

This Sunday we are celebrating All Saints Day, which is officially November 1. On All Saints Day we tell important stories. We tell the stories of those whom we love who have died. We remember the ways that they touched our lives and how their love shaped us. We give thanks for them and find assurance in knowing that their story continues in Christ. This allows us to commend them to God, as they join the long line of saints who have come before us and now rest in God.

We tell the story of our faith, for in it we find comfort and strength. It is a very old story that speaks of our experience of God and helps us to make sense of this experience. It is a living story that does more than speak of the past but is open to the movement of the Sprit of God, trusting in the ways that God continues to speak to us and to our world.

We tell the story of hope that recognizes that there are things that we do not understand and that we live in the midst of an unfolding story. This means that we often live in the ambiguity and it can be uncomfortable. At the same time the ever-evolving story of our relationship with God opens us up to trust. It acknowledges that ultimately God is mystery and understanding is incomplete. The future is yet to be written. However, we can trust that the God who has been faithful in the past will be faithful in the future. We hold onto the promise that the day will come when God wipes “every tear from their eyes; death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more,” for we trust in God, who is “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Ultimately, this is the story of All Saints Day. It is indeed a story of hope that reminds us that “even in the midst of death, we are in life.”

Join us this Sunday as we name the saints in our lives and remember that their story is part of our story, and that our story is in God.

Blessings,

Pastor Travis