REMEMBERING OUR SAINTS
Each year the church sets aside one week to remember those “saints” who have gone before us. During All Saints week, we are reminded that death has touched each one of us. We all know the pain of losing someone we care about. In worship, we will read the names of members who have died over the past year and you will be invited to light candles in memory of the “saints” in your life who have passed. By lighting candles, we remember that we have a God whose light shines even in the midst the deep darkness we experience.
John 11
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept.