So that I can live

November 6, 2016 Daniel 7:1-3,15-18 All Saints Day I want to put you all on the spot. We read the vision and mission statement earlier in the service. How many of you can say it again right now? What is a mission statement? What is a vision statement. Our mission is who we are and what we value, the vision statement is how we live that out. We say it every sunday to remind us that we should be living out our vision statement in everything that we do. When visitors and others come in contact with us, and then hear our vision statement, they should immediately say- yes I can see that in them. Where did we get that vision and mission statement? By looking around our community and seeing what is possible for God to do in this community. But we also got it from those who came before us, what they saw to be possible in this world if God were fully present. A vision statement is not just about who we are, but who we aspire to be. If we lived in a perfect world, what would it look like? How would we treat everyone? We would we be doing for one another. We get our vision from those who came before us. It is our job to live out their hopes and dreams. There is a shirt going around the internet that says “ I am my ancestors wildest dream”. Everything that they hoped for us comes true in us, and we pass it on to our children. So that they can live in the world that we envisioned. On this day, we want to honor the visions of those who came before us. We honor family and church members who are no longer a part of the struggle. We honor those who have gone on before us. They were a part of the vision of God, but now they have gone on to perfection. We want to honor them for all they have given to us and to the world on this all Saint’s Day. We don’t deal with the book of Daniel very often, as a matter of fact, this is the only time the book of Daniel is in our readings. Many people are afraid of the Book of Daniel, because it talks about dreams and visions. It talks of Daniel’s vision of the endtimes and God’s final judgement. The judgement is only scary if you are on the wrong side. If you know God and you know that we you have not made God the center of your daily vision, they you should be afraid. It was Daniel’s intention not to scare people but to give them hope. He wanted to encourage the saints – to continue to live holy. It is not the end that we should be afraid of-life gets better. He wrote his visions and dreams down- to show people that the tough times we are going through only came to pass, not to last. Daniel has a vision of 4 beast that have come to destroy the world, and the ancient one of days sits on the throne watching it all and eventually ending it all. He comes to judge all that has happened to his people. But He saves those whose names are written in the books of life. One book for those who are faithful and one book for those who are not. Those who are faithful will be saved from tribulation. Those who are in the book of life are not those who have done everything right, but those who in the midst of their sinning, still called on the of God as their savior. If you read through the new testament and the words of Jesus, there are two terms used for the faithful in the bible. There is the word disciple and the word saint. The mission statement of the United Methodist Church comes from the last words of Matthew – go therefore and make disciples of all nations. And today we honor the saints of our church. A disciple is one who is a student, who aspires to be just like his teacher. In this case we are disciples of Jesus Christ. A saint is one who has been sanctified, made holy in the presence of God. A disciple is one who is walking toward the future, a saint is one inherits the future. A disciple works toward the vision, a saint lives in the vision. And interestingly enough, the book of Matthew uses these two terms interchangeably. We are both disciples and saints at the same time. When we have a vision, we live in the now and what is to come at the same time. Our victory is that the race has already been won, the work has been done by Jesus Christ. But he still left some work for us to do. When we look at the world, the community, we don’t have to be discouraged by what we see, because we know that Christ has already declared victory over despair. The real winner of next week’s election is Jesus Christ. But how Christ will work in this world is still being determined. When I was ordained, one of the questions that the bishop asked us was are you going on to perfection? Do you strive to be a perfect person. We all know that as long as I am alive- I will never be perfect. Well the reality, I have already been made perfect in God’s eyes through the blood of Jesus. And yet when I stand before God – thejudge- I will be deamed perfect through my faith, and God’s grace. The only way I can achieve perfection is to do all that I can here, and to stand before God and say I did all that I could do. Today we honor those who have been made perfect in God. Who have fought the faithful fight and now stand at their eternal rest. We worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, and Jesus. In our world of good and evil, there are times when we clearly are not in control of what is going on around us. But we are in control of what is going on inside of us. On days like this, we need to be able to ask ourselves what areas of our lives appear out of our control. Whatever they are, All Saints reminds us that we need to look toward the one who gives us life so that we can live our life as God would have us live it. Our God is the same God who acted in the past, in the present, and will act in the future to protect that which was so carefully created. Our faith needs to mirror that of those who have come before as we struggle today to become the saints God would have us be. The biggest lesson of today, is that everything is going to be okay. Today we may be in pain, we may be going through hardship, we as a church are a little far off from living out our vision. But that is okay – it just means that we have something to strive for. As the faithful ones we are both disciples and saints at the same time. But we take this time to honor those who have gone on to perfection, so that we can have the strength to move forward, to live out the vision, and to face the problems of this world. We take the time to remember, so that we can live another day. Amen. Children’s Sermon…… PREPARATION: None or bring a picture of a family tree LESSON: How many of you know what a family tree is? (Let the children respond) (If you have a family tree, show it at this time.) A family tree is very special because it lists everyone in your family from several generations back up to the present--grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. It is always fun to look and see how we are all related to each other, isn't it? Has anyone in your family been adopted? (children respond) If you have an adopted brother, sister or cousin, they have just as important a place on the tree as you do. That is what adoption means. Adoption means to take for your own. When someone adopts a child, they have all of the legal rights as a child born into a family. They are treated as their own. Did you know that all of us are adopted into God's family? That's right. God chose us and adopted us into his family through Jesus. That means if we love Jesus and ask him into our hearts, we have all of the same rights before God as His Son, Jesus. That is pretty awesome! Another amazing part of this is the last part of the verse. It says that adopting us gave God great pleasure. God is happy to have us in his family. PRAYER: Thank you for loving each of us enough to invite us to be members of your family. AMEN Collected Sermons by King Duncan