Monthly Minute with Pastor Andrew

Hello to all the Monthly Minute readers of West Hempfield Presbyterian Church!

We had a great Sunday School Trick or Treat Costume Party Sunday, October 27 at the church. Thank you to the many people who helped make that a fun and successful event!

As the children run around in their costumes collecting candy for Halloween, we in the church remember that this holiday is also called All Hallows Eve.

Like Christmas Eve is the night before Christmas Day, All Hallows Eve is the night before All Hallows Day or the Feast of All Hallows.

All Hallows Day is November 1, though you may be more familiar with it as All Saints’ Day!

All Saints’ day is the day to honor all the saints of the church—past, present, and future —known and unknown.

Focus is often placed on the saints of the past, I think because the Catholic Church has the tradition of “canonizing” particularly virtuous people posthumously and granting them the title of “Saint.” Also, many churches will hold a moment like we did during worship on Sunday, October 27 and honor those who have entered the heavenly kingdom within the last year.

In its most basic definition, however, a “saint” is “a holy one” - someone “set apart” for God’s special purposes. And that includes all of us! All who have been saved, forgiven, cleansed, sanctified, and set apart as children of God by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

On All Saints’ Day, I think of Paul’s words that we read in worship on Sunday, October 27, from Hebrews chapter 12:1-2a.

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 

All Saints’ Day reminds us of our connectedness as Christians, throughout all time and space.

Hebrews says it is this great cloud of witnesses/saints that surrounds us (and Jesus who unites us) that gives us strength and courage to face whatever challenges lie before us. Saints, men and women who have put their faith in God, are a connecting thread reaching throughout history (both ancient and recent), today, and long into the future!

Happy All Saints’ Day!

Blessings,   Rev. Andrew Wirt