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All the Saints
- Peter Perry
- 21 hours ago
- 3 min read
God has blessed St John’s with fantastic partners in the Gospel: Emmanuel Sudanese Lutheran Fellowship and Vida Nueva Lutheran Church! We’ll be meeting for a combined worship & picnic on Sunday Nov 2 at 11am. We will sing and worship in English, Dinka, and Spanish! We will eat and play and laugh together. It is a preview of heaven: all the saints from every tribe, language, people and nation who have been set free by Jesus from Sin, Death, and the Devil (Rev 5:9)!
Hold this vision in your mind as you deal with divisions in our society. It’s not simply that people disagree about immigration, sexuality, and education, it seems like extreme voices dominate and call for the destruction of their opponents’ ideas (and sometimes the people themselves!) From the way some people talk, there’s nothing in common between Republican and Democrat, no common ground, nothing good that can be said about the other.
If you find yourself thinking that way, see again the vision of all the saints around the throne of God. There are people who identified as Democrat and Republican there, right next to you, praising God! That family member or former-friend who you can barely talk to right now, they are someone for whom Jesus shed his blood. Even if you can’t talk politics, you have Jesus in common! Jeuss is the only source of eternal unity! From Jesus, try to find some shared value; for example, treating others with respect.
One of the values of Jesus is telling the truth. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is the “faithful and true witness” (3:14; see 1:5). The witnesses of Jesus are those who tell the truth that the powerful empire is really idolatrous (15:2). Empires and rulers pretend to be gods, claiming to save and provide eternal comfort and safety, while really consuming human lives for their own gain (17:6; see 18:7). God’s people call out these lies and discipline themselves to tell the truth, even when it goes against their temporary comfort.
If Jesus calls us to treat all people with respect and to tell the truth, even when uncomfortable, then Christians can’t be silent as people are swept up in immigration raids, taken from their work places, shoved to the ground, handcuffed and immobilized for hours. Our government says that it is taking dangerous criminals off the street, but news story after news story shows broad sweeps, not targeted action against people accused of dangerous crimes. U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents are swept up, which further demonstrates the lie.
Cary Lopez Alvarado was almost 9 months pregnant when she was detained over eight hours, handcuffed with a chain across her belly, saying the whole time that she was a U.S. citizen. When she was finally released, she went to the hospital in labor, with cuts and bruises from her detention. This is just one story—it doesn’t take long to find many more. It is not the truth to claim that these immigration raids are targeted at dangerous criminals.[1]
The saints are suffering. How can we be silent? As we celebrate all the saints, I pray that all Christians will speak out against this unfair treatment of people who are just trying to go to work, feed their families, and be helpful members of the community. Many are the saints: forgiven sinners who trust Jesus died for their sins and is alive now, loving and leading them. Will we lift our voice with all the saints?
Trusting Jesus is our unity and leader,
Pastor Peter
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