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Accidental
Saints

When All Saints’ Day rolls around each year, I think of Nadia Bolz-Weber’s book, Accidental Saints – Finding God in all the Wrong People. Nadia’s book is an honest, insightful description of the realities of who we are – human, flawed and loved.
Nadia reminds us that God is revealed through our very humanness, even as we come with all our imperfections. Life is messy, and we all come as both saint and sinner, and it’s all sacred. If we pay attention, we see that Love shows up in the middle of the messiness. It was great to hear Nadiaspeak again at the Evolving Faith conference I recently attended.

As early as the fourth century, All Saints’ Day was a feast day commemorating all the Christian martyrs. Still today Catholics and some Protestant denominations take this day to remember all the saints of the Church, known and unknown. Within United Church circles, we acknowledge we are all part of the whole Communion of Saints – a community of believers past, present, and future.

This week, on November 1, we acknowledged All Saints’ Day. Our study groups took some time to remember who is in their cloud of witnesses – the saints and sinners and faithful people who went on before us and who influenced our lives, one way or another. I encourage you to take some time to think about those who mentored you on your faith journey. Maybe you would like to light a candle and call them by name. Where has God’s loveshown up for you through the lives of others?

Peace and joy,

Nancy