October 29, 2026 - Blessings ans Saints

Friends

In an old Seinfeld episode, Jerry suggests that instead of saying “Bless you!” when someone sneezes, we should say, “You are so good-looking!”

It’s a funny thought, but it reveals something about how we understand blessing. We tend to associate blessing with good fortune, good health, happiness, even good looks.

Yet in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1–12) Jesus offers a very different picture: he calls blessed those who grieve, who are poor in spirit, who hunger for justice, or who face persecution.

Perhaps, then, blessing is not about living a fortunate life—or being declared so good-looking. It is an affirmation that we are beloved and held in holy love, whatever life may bring.

This Sunday is also All Saints’ Day. We often imagine saints as exceptionally virtuous people set apart from everyone else. Yet in the New Testament, Paul frequently calls every member of the early Christian communities a saint—flaws, struggles, and all.

Saints, then, are not people who have achieved extraordinary holiness. They are ordinary, imperfect people called to reflect God’s love in the world. Sometimes that love becomes visible in the simplest ways: through people who encourage us, challenge us, or help us recognize God’s presence.

On All Saints’ Day, we remember the communion of saints: the great community of faith that reaches beyond our congregation, across generations and even beyond death. It’s an affirmation that the love which connects us in God is not extinguished by death.

We remember how those who came before us have shaped us, how our companions sustain us, and how we are called to pass on what we have received. As our fiftieth anniversary approaches, we celebrate the generations who formed this community, including many who are no longer with us. We belong to a story far larger than our own.

This Sunday, we will pray and light candles in memory of those who have gone before us. As we do, I invite you to remember someone whose life has been a blessing to yours. And perhaps to wonder how your own life might become a blessing to someone else.

Bless you

William Brook