SA3LEADER’S GUIDE

All the SaintsADORE THEE

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Leader’s Guide

A Service for All Saints

All the SaintsADORE THEE

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By Michael Hoy. Cover image: Shutterstock. © 2015 Creative Communications for the Parish, 1564 Fencorp Dr., Fenton, MO 63026. 800-325-9414. www.creativecommunications.com. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Purchase of this kit gives the purchaser the copyright release to use the material in any format for use in worship.

IndexNotes/Ordering Information ......................................................................................5

Newsletter/Bulletin Notices .......................................................................................6

Order of Service ....................................................................................................7-10

Complete Script For Worship Leaders ................................................................. 11-21

Scripture Readings ............................................................................................. 22-23

Children’s Sermon .............................................................................................. 24-25

Reflections .......................................................................................................... 26-28

Prayers .................................................................................................................29-30

Music Guide ........................................................................................................31-43

A Service for All Saints

All the SaintsADORE THEE

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Notes and Ordering InformationThis service for All Saints takes its title from lyrics found in the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” and looks at ways in which saints here below and those above adore the Lord. Mini-homilies with thematic hymns and readings reveal how all the saints adore the Lord for his love, forgiveness and everlasting life. A

Remembrance Ceremony honoring those who have passed away in the past year is also included. Hymns include “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” “Beautiful Savior” and “For All the

Saints.”

Printed bulletins (8 1/2” x 11”) are available. Code SA3A

Blank bulletins (8 1/2” x 11”) are available. Code SA3B

Call Creative Communications for the Parish at

1-800-325-9414 for current prices and availability.

Or visit us online at www.creativecommunications.com

A Service for All Saints

All the SaintsADORE THEE

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Newsletter/Bulletin Notices

Newsletter NoticeWe invite you to join us for a service for All Saints called “All the Saints Adore Thee,” which takes its name from lyrics found in the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” and looks at ways in which saints here below and those above adore the Lord. Mini-homilies with thematic hymns and readings reveal how all the

saints adore the Lord for his love, forgiveness and everlasting life. A Remembrance Ceremony honoring those who have passed away in the past year will also be offered.

Bulletin NoticeIn this worship service for All Saints we join with all the saints above and those here below in adoring the Lord for his love, forgiveness and everlasting life. Let the mini-homilies, thematic hymns Scripture

readings and a special remembrance ceremony honoring those who have died in the past year reveal to us the depth of God’s love for those gathered in this place and for all those who have gone before us to live

in his love forevermore.

A Service for All Saints

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Complete Script For Worship Leaders•The Opening Hymn is sung by the congregation to the tune Nicaea 11 12 12 10:

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee, Which wert and art and evermore shall be.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee, Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,

Only thou are holy; there is none beside thee, Perfect in pow’r, in love and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

A Service for All Saints

All the SaintsADORE THEE

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•The Opening Litany is spoken responsively by the pastor and the congregation:

P We gather with the saints around God’s throne of grace.

C Together with the saints, we are embraced in love.

P We gather with the saints around the Lamb who gave himself for us all.

C Together with the saints, we are forgiven and free.

P We gather with the saints in the fullness of the Spirit’s gifts.

C Together with the saints, we are abounding with eternal life.

P We gather in the name of our holy and life-giving God, Father, + Son and Holy Spirit.

C Amen.

•The Confession and Absolution is spoken by the pastor:

P Holy and Almighty God, we come to adore you. But we know also that we have not lived as your beloved people. We have been reluctant in our prayer, praise and thanksgiving. We have been unwilling to love as we have been loved. We have been fearful and have kept our distance from all those in need. We have been proud and arrogant rather than humble and pure of heart. Be merciful to us, we pray, as we confess to you now in silent reflection.

(Silence for personal reflection and self-examination)

P Brothers and sisters, through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, the God whom we adore is indeed most gracious and merciful. Our Lord does not stand apart from us in our sin, but graciously welcomes and calls us into his presence. Our lives have been washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, and our robes are whiter than snow. Through his death and resurrection, we inherit his righteousness. Your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

•The Hymn of Praise is sung by the congregation to the tune Lobe Den Herren, O Meine Seele 10 8 10 8 88 8:

Praise the Almighty, my soul, adore him! Yea, I will laud him until death. With songs and anthems I’ll come before him as long as he doth give me breath.

From him my life and all things came; bless, O my soul, his holy name. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

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Trust not in princes, they are but mortal; earth-born they are and soon decay. Naught are their counsels at life’s last portal, when the dark grave doth claim its prey.

Since, then, no man can help afford, trust ye in Christ, our God and Lord. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

•The Prayer of the Day is spoken by the pastor:

P Almighty and loving Father, you bless us with sacred things and make us your sacred people. Through the gifting of your Spirit, we pray that you will hear our songs of adoration and praise, and join them with the songs of all your saints in light; through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.

•The Responsive Psalm (from Psalm 34:1-10, 22) is spoken responsively by the pastor and another reader:

P I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

R My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad.

P O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

R I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.

P Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.

R This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord, and was saved from every trouble.

P The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

R O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.

P O fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for those who fear him have no want.

R The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

P The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

•The Children’s Sermon is delivered by the pastor or other worship leader:

P Today I want to talk with you about the word adore. I’m not talking about a place where you enter a building or a space—like, “O look, there’s a door over there.” The word I’m talking about is spelled A-D-O-R-E. It’s one word, and it’s a verb—that means it is an action, something we do. Adore means “to love, to cherish, to treasure and to prize.” We can think of some people we adore, right? Maybe our parents? Our best friends? Our teachers? Maybe even

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our pets! (Give children time to offer some of their own suggestions.) Good! These are all people and creatures whom we can cherish, treasure and prize.

You know what’s really neat, though? All those whom we adore also value and prize us. As much as we may want to hug and hold our parents and keep them close, they also want to hug us and hold us close.

And here’s another wonderful surprise. We also adore God! We cherish, love, treasure and prize God above all else—we worship God!—and not only because God is the Giver of all that we have and all that we can be. God also so dearly and deeply cherishes us. God comes to save us and make us his own dear people. God wants to hug us and hold us close and keep us by his side forever.

That makes us really dear and blessed people, doesn’t it? The word for these dear people of God is another word we use today—the word saints. We are saints—loved, cherished and held close by God. God sees all that we do wrong in life, and all that is wrong about our lives, and still holds us dear. God does because he sent his Son Jesus to be our Savior. Jesus is with us, to love us so fully, and to say, “You can all come and be with me and with all those I have loved. Together, we can be the family of God!”

That makes us to want to adore God all the more. So today, we join with all the people whom God has loved and we give thanks and praise, and we worship and adore God for how dearly and fully God loves us.

Let us pray: God, we adore you. We thank you for loving us so much; for sending your Son Jesus to hold us close and dear. Bless us today, together with all your saints. Amen.

•The Old Testament Reading, Jeremiah 31:3, 8-13, is spoken by the pastor or other worship leader:

P I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.” For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more. Then shall the young women

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rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

•This Hymn is sung by the congregation to the tune Hymn to Joy 87 87 D:

Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love; Hearts unfold like flow’rs before thee, praising thee, their sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the gloom of doubt away;

Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

All thy works with joy surround thee, earth and heav’n reflect thy rays, Stars and angels sing around thee, center of unbroken praise.

Field and forest, vale and mountain, flow’ry meadow, flashing sea, Chanting bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in thee.

•The Reflection: All the Saints Adore Him Who Loves Us is delivered by the pastor:

P “I love you!” How much those three little words lift us up when they are spoken to us. How much also they lift up others with whom we share them.

This loving word is what God speaks to his people. We must bear in mind that it is not because they (or we) deserve it. The people to whom Jeremiah the prophet proclaimed his message were in exile. Their exile was the just desserts for their misdeeds. They had abandoned their love for God; and they failed to care for those for whom God looked upon with mercy and love—the poor, the orphans, the widows, the disenfranchised.

But this proclamation of the prophet is about how even in this very desperate state, the love of God still reaches out to his people. It reclaims them. To be sure, it does not stare past the dark truth of their sinful lives; but love shines right through the darkness. “I love you!” “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” So much so, God says, that I will gather you together and bring you home! Weak and strong, young and old, women and men, no matter the depths of one’s suffering, you will be embraced by the God who loves you and will continue to love you.

God is our loving heavenly Father. “I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” God is not willing to abandon this deep relationship and bond. The greatest gift of love that God can give us is his Son, to bring us back and gather us in. “For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.”

The saints adore the God who loves. But the saints also love God and their neighbor. It is a saintly thing to use our words and our deeds to say “I love you!”—especially to those who so rarely hear such encouragement. The saints also understand, and are the first to confess, that

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whatever love they have comes as a gift from the One who loves them. God’s love reaches us in our weakest moments—even the weakest moments of the lives of God’s saints. But because that love reaches deep into the hearts and minds of all his faithful, the faithful live it - and love!—for the sake of humanity.

•The Epistle Reading, Revelation 7:9-17, is spoken by the pastor or other worship leader:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from 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 on 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, clothed in 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 anymore; 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 Hymn is sung by the congregation to the tune Schönster Herr Jesu 557 558:

Beautiful Savior, King of creation, Son of God and Son of Man! Truly I’d love thee, truly I’d serve thee, light of my soul, my joy, my crown.

Fair are the meadows, fair are the woodlands, robed in flow’rs of blooming spring; Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer; he makes our sorr’wing spirit sing.

Fair is the sunshine, fair is the moonlight, bright the sparkling stars on high; Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer than all the angels in the sky.

Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations, Son of God and Son of Man! Glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forevermore be thine!

•The Reflection: All the Saints Adore Him Who Forgives Us is delivered by the pastor:

P Blood does not normally cleanse anything. It leaves a stain. And the stain can be difficult to remove. Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth incriminates herself even as she sleepwalks with the

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Tune ................................................................................. Sine Nomine 10 10 10 and alleluias

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Sine Nomine 10 10 10 with Alleluias

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•The Closing Hymn is sung by the congregation to the tune Sine Nomine 10 10 10 and alleluias:

For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who thee by faith before the world confessed,

Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou wast their rock, their fortress and their might; Thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true light.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine, We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long, Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,

And hearts are brave again and arms are strong. Alleluia! Alleluia!

The golden evening brightens in the west; Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;

Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest. Alleluia! Alleluia!

But then there breaks a yet more glorious day; The saints triumphant rise in bright array;

The King of glory passes on his way. Alleluia! Alleluia!

From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast, Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,

Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: Alleluia! Alleluia!

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