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You may be seated.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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What a prospect.

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Just envision

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we someday we'll will also be joining with those

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whose presence we miss today. But those who have gone before us to be

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with the Lord with will be able to join those whose robes are

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washed in the blood of the lamb and sing with them blessing and glory

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and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power be to our god forever

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and ever.

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But when you think about it

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we're already in their company.

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Our lives are also blood soaked scarlet pure in the in the sight of our

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creator.

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We are those who are experiencing the blessedness

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that our Lord tells us about in Matthew 5.

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We have seen the Saints

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and they are us.

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Now, I will grant you that

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if after the service you would run into Saint Athanasius and Professor

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Elowsky outside together, you'd be able to tell which was which.

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If you see a professor Maxwell and and Cyril.

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You'll know which one wants you to talk in Greek same with Professor

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Herrman and Dr.

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Luther.

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But you know, they sound the same.

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They sing the same praises to our God.

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Some here some more immediately in his presence.

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They all give witness to him whose blood was shed to cleanse us from

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all the impurities of our sin and to wash away our shame and guilt and

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to comfort Us in every time of fear.

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All Saints Day is our day too.

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We know with Philip Melanchthon that we are today to thank God

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for the demonstration of his grace in our lives and the lives of those

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whom we've just lost and in the lives of those around us.

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We know that we can find in the lives of those around us examples of

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the calling that living Saints have as well as those who have gone on

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before. We have the same advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the

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righteous one.

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Who shares his righteousness with us.

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For a sermon I preached recently

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I used the text from 1st Peter 2.

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They called the saints of God living stones in his Temple.

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And I realized how this building that that the Holy Spirit makes out

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of us is taking a whole lot longer to complete

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then even the cathedrals of the Middle Ages.

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But the temple into which we are being built as his Saints is much

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more indestructible.

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No, fire can destroy.

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No tyrant can eradicate.

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No hypocritical political exploiter of the church can damage its

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spirit and permanently damage at least these living stones.

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Peter's use of the phrase reminded me and when I was a kid, we didn't

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have much money until we didn't we didn't go someplace on vacation

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each year. But West Bend Iowa was not far from Fort Dodge and in West

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Bend Iowa, you will still be able to visit The Grotto of the

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Redemption. The product of the hands and the eyes and the imagination of

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Father Dobberstein.

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We said he was a Polish priest, but he really really was German.

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And he had come as a youth to this country

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train food for the priesthood.

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And was there in West Bend, Iowa where there wasn't all that much to do

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and he collected rocks.

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And other people collected rocks for him and he started putting them

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together and and for a kid to visit with his gentle old that you he

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was.

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10 years younger than I am now, but I hate this old man who who would

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take us under his wing and and talk about God's creation in these

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stones. And who he was building at that time the seven Stations of the

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Cross and he would he would show us the Lord's way to the cross.

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But the stones they were living they were beautiful they sparkled and

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he knew just how to chisel them just how to hammer them.

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Just how to polish them.

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To make the artistry of God's creation really come alive for us.

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And so as Father Doberstein knew how to use his tools on each rock

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that we that he was working with.

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So the Holy Spirit takes the means of Grace

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and hammers on us so that we will glisten with his glory and be able

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to sing our praises now and forever as new creatures of God in Christ.

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The Holy Spirit has a quarry back there at the entrance from which

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he mines, he harvest his living stones, I've seen it happen myself.

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He brings us to this altar

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to polish and chip away at our sin and restore us to the beauty that

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God wants us to have.

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But we are magical stones.

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We we come together here as his Temple as his body as his church, but

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we then go into all the world to radiate

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the Artistry of of God's hammering and polishing that takes place when we

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hear his life-giving promise.

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We go into the world today.

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Into a world that's filled with grime and dirt filled with fears

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that breed anger and defend and and self defenses that are shaped by

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animosities.

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A world filled with hurts and sores and holes and tears.

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With lives around us that are barely hanging together if at all.

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And we bring a message of the love of God of human decency as God created it that

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reflects God's love a message of consideration and care for those

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around us. A message that lets the witness of our savior come through to

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those whom God wants to bring into his family as living stones.

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We living stones are flintstones sparking new life into the lives of

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others just as the Holy Spirit has done through through those whom we

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commemorate today.

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And through you and me. He chisels away and he hammers away.

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With his word proclaimed and poured and fed.

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And through that promise he gives us you and me as Saints who will

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someday sing with the whole company of Heaven

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his praise. He makes us with our sparkle those who make a difference.

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As we set aflame the lives of those around us.

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That's the way it is as we as a community celebrate All Saints Day in

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his year 2020. May the peace of God, which passes all understanding keep

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your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.