Good morning and welcome to the broadcast of the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
To help you follow along, the Order of Worship for today's service is available under the radio tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org.
The Lord bless you today through the hearing of His word.
our worship service on this All Saints Day.
We'll begin with our opening hymn, number 904, blessed Jesus, at your word.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities, with which I have ever offended you, and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment.
But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them.
And I pray you of your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the holy, innocent.
bitter sufferings and death of your beloved son Jesus Christ to be gracious and merciful to me the poor sinful being upon this your confession I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the word announce the grace of God unto all of you and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the
intro.
Let's do
Glory
be to God on high.
the right.
The Lord be with you.
And
with thy
spirit.
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, you knit together your faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion, the mystical body of your Son Jesus Christ.
Grant us so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that together with them we may come to the unspeakable joys you have prepared for those who love you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The first reading for this all Saints day is from the book of Revelation chapter 7 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the Sun with the seal of the living God and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm Either earth and sea saying do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads and I heard the number of the sealed
144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed.
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben.
12,000 from the tribe of Gad.
12,000 from the tribe of Asher.
12,000 from the tribe of Naftali.
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh.
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon.
12,000 from the tribe of Levi.
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar.
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number for every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages Standing before the throne and before the lamb Clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne
and to the lamb.
And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.
And they fell in their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying amen.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.
Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothes and white robes and from where have they come?
I said to him, sir, you know.
And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple.
And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.
The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat.
For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the gradual.
The epistle is from 1st John chapter 3.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God.
And so we are.
The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
Beloved, we are God's children now.
And what we will be has not yet appeared.
But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.
And everyone who thus hopes in Him
purifies himself as he is pure.
This is the word of the Lord.
We stand in honor of the gospel.
The holy gospel according to Saint Matthew the fifth chapter.
Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, bluster the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Bluster those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Bluster the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Bluster those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Bluster the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Together we confess our faith has written in the words of the Nicene Creed.
I believe in one God, the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God, very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven.
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures and descended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father and he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead.
whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together were shifting the Lord from, who is spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
And I look.
for the resurrection and the life of the world to come.
In joyful expectation of the resurrection to life eternal, we remember before our Lord, our departed family and friends who have gone before us in faith and all those who are in our hearts and minds this day.
Joe Hakes.
Timothy Jones.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, we remember with thanksgiving those who loved and served you in your church on earth and who now rest from their labors.
Keep us in fellowship with all your saints and bring us at last to the joy of your heavenly kingdom through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
Amen.
In
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Please be seated.
Reverend Dr. Thomas Eager, currently Seminary President and Court of Seminary.
Life in this world has often been described as a veil of tears.
It's an old English way of saying valley of tears.
And that expression comes from a single Bible passage, Psalm 84 verse six.
Our English Bibles today don't translate the Psalm verse with the valley of tears.
They just use the Hebrew word baka.
Lester those who strength is in you Oh Lord as you go through the Valley of Baca They make it a place of springs Valley of Baca that Hebrew word Baca is related to weeping so it's the Valley of weeping or the Valley of sorrows the veil of tears It's a way of describing the pilgrimage of God's people through this life through this Valley of tears on our way to the eternal joys of God's kingdom
Even though our English Bible no longer used the phrase The expression valley of tears is still known to us in the experience of life as a valley of tears is well known to us That experience is true for everyone including God saints and we who believe in Jesus are God saints But we're not immune to sorrows Quite the contrary Yet on this all Saints day we rejoice because yes life
in this world is often a veil of tears, but the day is coming when God will wipe away our tears forever.
This world truly is a veil of tears, even though there may be some promoting messages and images on advertisement, social media, suggesting that you can escape or avoid pain and sadness, that doesn't change the reality of life's tears.
Tears are so many sources.
Tears from our physical pain, from illness, from injury, from the effects of getting older.
Tears from the grief over death.
Feel deeply when a loved one dies, when we remember them.
And when we anticipate the death of somebody we love.
Tears from injustice, mistreatment, persecution.
The innocent are punished while the guilty are protected.
The younger trafficked.
Vulnerable or abused.
The feeble are neglected.
The unborn are killed.
Those who stand up for what is right are persecuted.
There's tears from loneliness or rejection.
We long for love and companionship and feel loneliness even when surrounded by people.
We feel pain when we're rejected.
Here's from our own sin and guilt.
The Bible, we see those who weep greatly and bitterly before God over their guilt and their sin.
If we saw our own sin rightly and fully, we too would weep greatly and bitterly.
Sometimes we do.
The Psalms describe the grief in
Grief of life and vivid terms here some some of those Be gracious to me.
Oh Lord for I am in distress My eye is wasted from grief my soul and my body also My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long.
Where is your God?
And I am weary with my moaning every night I flood my bed with tears
I drenched my couch with weeping.
Even in the happiest moments, there's often sorrow.
Author Henry Nowan observes, there's a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our lives.
It seems that there is no such thing as clear cut pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence, we sense a tinge of sadness.
Every satisfaction, there is an awareness of limitations.
In every success, there is the fear of jealousy.
Behind every smile, there's a tear.
In every embrace, there is loneliness.
In every friendship, distance.
And in all forms of life, there is light.
There is the knowledge of surrounding darkness.
When you touch the hand of a returning friend, you already know that he will have to leave you again.
But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond the limits of our existence.
It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy.
Joy that no one shall take away from us.
In compassion for us, Jesus entered into our veil of tears.
God is not blind or deaf to our weeping.
He knows
our pain, our suffering.
What tears have you shed?
What tears are you shedding these days?
God has seen your tears.
He has heard your weeping.
The Psalms speak about God storing up our tears in a bottle, keeping record of them in a book.
But God has done more than just notice our tears.
In Christ, He has entered into our valley of sorrows.
There's no room for Jesus' parents in the end.
Soon after his birth, Herod would come seeking his life and many mothers of slaughtered boys would be wailing.
Jesus himself experiences all the sorrows of this world.
He weeps.
Weeping with Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus.
Weeping over Jerusalem in its coming divine judgment.
Crying out in sorrow over the bitter path of betrayal.
abandonment and death that laid before him.
Christ also came to do more than simply weep with the sorrowful.
He came to take away their tears.
To the widow at Nain, Jesus comes to raise her dead son, saying, do not weep.
To those wailing at the death of a man's little daughter, he says, do not weep.
For she is not dead, but sleeping.
First they mock him.
But soon the girl is alive and their tears are gone.
Where Magdalene weeping in the garden outside his tomb, Jesus comes to speak her name and bring her resurrection joy.
One day, our God will wipe away every tear forever.
The world is a veil of tears, but its tears are temporary.
This is God's promise to us.
Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament.
that the world will rejoice, will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come.
When she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish or joy that a human being has been born into the world.
So also, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
It is coming.
When John's vision John's vision and revelation will be our vision a huge multitude from every nation all covered in white home branches Song worshiping Christ the lamb no hunger thirst tears The blood of the lamb will have made all the difference in that day God
We'll wipe away every tear from our eyes forever.
Wiping away someone else's tears is an intimate and personal gesture.
Those empathy, passion, caring one, acknowledging and sharing the hurt and the grief behind those tears.
The act of wiping away someone's tears is not simply joining with them in grief.
It's not just...
Weeping with those who weep.
Making your finger and drying someone's tears says something.
Personally, promises hope.
Let me dry your tears.
You're not alone.
I'm here to help.
To shoulder the burden, to mend things.
And for now we wait, and often we weep.
In this life we sow in tears.
The last are those who mourn.
Jesus says, for they shall be comforted.
And as we wait for the day that God will dry our tears, we look for opportunities to dry the tears of others, to extend to them God's own compassion, to bring them the good news of Jesus who saw their tears, carried their sorrows, cleansed them by his blood, who will one day wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Today we celebrate God's faithfulness to those who have died in the faith, whose struggles and sorrows are over, whose tears have ended.
God's saints shed many tears in this world, but for his saints in heaven, there is no more crying, just joy.
They will behold the face of God and God will behold them.
He will reach out his nail-marked hands to them and to us.
My boy, every tear forever.
Amen.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen Please stand.
In peace, let us pray to the Lord, Lord, have mercy.
For the poor in spirit, who gather this day to receive God's grace, instead fast love by which we are made rich in Christ, let us pray to the Lord.
For the ministers of the church, that by their preaching the spirit would gather the lost, kindle faith in those who do not yet believe, and sustain us all to the day of Christ's coming, let us pray to the Lord.
for fathers and mothers that they would be strengthened to raise their children in the faith, for those who long for families, that their prayers would be answered, and for expectant mothers and their little ones, that they would be preserved and protected.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For all peoples, nations, and tribes that under God's rule, they may faithfully promote good and punish evil, and that God would reform them when necessary.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For the sick and the recovering.
Especially Vicki, Lynn, Anita, Lois, Lewis, Mary, Marlis, Greg, Grant, Thorfinn, Doris, Matthew, Megan, Melissa, Mark, Ethel, Dave, Fred, Harold, Joan, Diane, Jaden, Rick, Virginia, Lacey, Marilyn, Marlene, George, Ann, Myron, and Florence.
that they would be granted health and healing according to God's wisdom.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For those who commune this day, that their hunger and thirst for righteousness would be satisfied by the body and blood of Christ under bread and wine.
Let us pray to the Lord.
For faith to follow the example of those beloved saints who served among us and now rest from their labors,
that we too may seek out ways to serve our master who so faithfully serves us.
Let us pray to the Lord.
Amen.
Almighty Father, we give you thanks that you have washed us in the blood of the Lamb, written our names in the Book of Life, and made us a royal priesthood in heirs of an eternal inheritance.
Though we are unworthy of your saving grace, we pray you to hear us in the name of Jesus Christ, in whom, with whom.
and through whom all honor and glory is yours, heavenly Father, with the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all.
Lift up your hearts.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God.
It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and at all places give thanks to you, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, everlasting God, in the communion of all your saints gathered into the one body of your Son.
You have surrounded us with so great a cloud of witnesses that we, encouraged by their faith and strengthened by their fellowship, may run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
And together with them,
receive the crown of glory that does not fade away therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud in magnifying your glorious name ever more praising you and saying
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Thine is the kingdom and the power.
and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat.
This is my body, which is given for you.
This due in remembrance of me.
In the same way also he took the cup after supper and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you This cup is the new testament in my blood Which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins as to as often as you drink it in remembrance of me
The peace of the Lord be with you always.
Thank you for tuning in to the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
May the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know.
You may call us at 715-723-6380 or stop by and visit 110 East Grand Avenue in Chippewa Falls.
If you're looking for a church home, we'll gladly tell you more about Zion or help you find a congregation near you.
These broadcasts are paid for by generous gifts made to our radio fund.
If you'd like to contribute, click the Give tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org, or send a check to Zion Lutheran Church Radio Fund, 110 East Grand Avenue, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 54729.
Zion is a member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.