On Sunday, November 6th, 2022, we gather for a Worship Service in-person at the Chapel (2700 W 14th Street) at 11:00 A.M.

There is No Zoom Service this week (we hope to resume Zoom services later this month).

To join us at the Chapel, buzz Zion Church (Keith Konet) from the Directory at the front of the 2700 Building on the campus of San Sofia Apartments or enter from the accessible ramp from the rear parking lot. When you arrive, call Keith at 330-604-6939 to open the parking lot gate.

In consideration of the health and wellbeing of worship participants, we encourage the wearing of a face mask during worship in the Chapel. Disposable face masks are available at the Chapel for those who desire one.

Guest Preacher Sunday, November 6, 2022

Is the Rev. Doug Horner of the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland, OH. Rev. Horner is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, US Marine Corp. veteran, Advocate for our Homeless neighbors, and served as Senior Pastor of St. Paul’s Community UCC of Ohio City for 17 years of ministry – retiring in 2020. St. Paul’s, with roots in the Inner City Protestant Parish movement of the 1950s, has always been a community center as well as a wor-shiping congregation. It hosts daytime drop-in programs, a thrift shop, free meals, after-school youth activities, occasional evening “coffee house” performances and more. Rev. Horner most recently served as an active staff volunteer on the Justin Bibb campaign for Cleveland Mayor. Please give Rev. Horner a very warm Zion Church welcome!

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, BEVERLY WURM

Beverly began a part-time position… She will be keeping some limited Office Hours at church/home. The days and hours are:

Monday – 9am – 1pm
Wednesday – 11am – 4pm
Thursday – 9am – 1pm

Beverly can be reached at: [email protected] or by phone at: 216-273-7561 (church) or 216-310-6810 (mobile).

NOTE:

Beverly Wurm is at home recovering from a respiratory infection.

Patti Augustine is at home recovering from an ongoing respiratory infection.

Pastor Scott Rosenstein and Bob Bucklew are at home recovering from COVID infections.

Please keep Beverly, Patti, Bob, and Pastor Scott in your thoughts and prayers for their full and speedy recoveries.

Since so many are out ill at this time, Holy Communion (usually held on the first Sunday of the month) will be rescheduled to another Sunday in November to hopefully allow more of congregation to participate.

The bulletin is attached. You may use it to follow along with us in the worship service or as a Devotional this week.

All Saints’ Sunday (November 6th)

All Saints Day is celebrated on November 1st or the first Sunday of November (November 6h, 2022). The ancient church set aside such a festival day to remember martyrs and saints not honored on special days. By the 8th century the Pope had established November 1st to honor all the saints, known and unknown, and to make amends if any of the saints’ feasts had not been sufficiently observed. The night before All Saints Day was called All Hallows’ Eve, or in the old English, Halloween. In generations past both children and adults would parade in costumes that represented the saints. Once a minor holiday, today’s Halloween has emerged as one of the top six for retailers with estimates that in 2019 shoppers in the US spent $8.8 billion on costumes and candy.

It’s interesting to note that the Celtic pagans had long observed this same day, October 31st, as Samhain (sow’-en). In the northern hemisphere, it’s halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice, the final harvest celebration, and therefore the last day of the old year. As the earth seems to be dying, Samhain emphasizes mortal death and so is believed to be the time when the veil between this world and the next is thinnest. It’s easy to see why the popular emphasis on things that “pierce the veil” persists.

Since the Reformation in the 16th century Protestants shifted away from the Roman Catholic idea of saints as somehow super-holy disciples who can intercede between us and God. So November 2nd is more our day. It’s All Souls Day, more attentive to remembering all the commonplace, everyday saints who have touched our lives.

In many Lutheran, United Methodist and United Church of Christ congregations, All Saints’ Day is celebrated the Sunday after Reformation is celebrated (the date for Reformation Day is October 31, so Reformation Sunday is celebrated on or before October 31st). In most congregations, the festival is marked as an occasion to remember the dead. The names of those who have died from the congregation within the last year are read during worship and a bell is tolled, a chime is played or a candle is lit for each name read. Prayers and responsive readings may accompany the event.

While the dead are solemnly remembered during worship on All Saints’ Sunday, the festival is ultimately a celebration of Christ’s victory over death.

In English-speaking countries, services often include the singing of the traditional hymn “For All the Saints” by William Walsham How. The most familiar tune for this hymn is Sine Nomine by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Other hymns that are popularly sung during corporate worship on this day are “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” and “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones”.

As the hymn, “I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” says, the saints of God are just folk like me… and like you. We know how the love of God shines particularly through some people. I can list a handful of people I’ve known over the years who were true examples of the life of discipleship. You likely can, too. Let’s take a few moments in silence so each of us can remember and offer a prayer of thanksgiving.

By remembering those of the past, the church is inspired to live faithfully as Christ’s disciples in the present.

The Scripture Readings are:

First Reading: Job 19:23-27

The short passage of Job 19 contains Job’s plea to God. Job knows that God lives, that God hears his prayer, but he wishes God would answer. Job wishes his words were inscribed as a testimony of what he has been through, as evidence. Though Job’s friends have tried to find fault with Job,a reason for Job’s suffering, Job knows the only one who can answer truthfully is God.

Psalm Response: Psalm 17:1-9

Psalm 17 is the psalmist’s plea for God to answer their prayer. They know they have done nothing wrong and if God were to test their heart, they would be true. The psalmist has refuted the ways of violent people and has stayed true to God’s ways, and they know God will respond. The psalmist beautifully calls upon God to guard them as God’s precious one, to keep them safe from evil.

Second Reading: 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

The Epistle reading continues its short series in 2 Thessalonians, turning toward mentions of Christ’s return and the day of judgment. The writer (purporting to be Paul) urges the readers to not be worried. Instead, they ought to live as if the day of God was already there. They need to be prepared for deception by leaning on the teachings that have been passed down to them so they can remain steadfast in the gospel they have received. There is a lawless one who isn’t named in this letter, but some political or religious leader of the time who put themself above others and claimed to be from God. It is Christ, the writer prays, who will bring comfort and encouragement.

Gospel Reading: Luke 20:27-38

Some Sadducees challenge Jesus in this story in Luke 20. The Sadducees were one of several Jewish groups in the first century C.E. They were part of the priestly group that was in charge of worship at the temple, and disagreed with the Pharisees, who were probably more closely aligned with Jesus’ views on the authority of scripture and on the belief in resurrection, and the Pharisees were not involved in the temple worship. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and use a story of a woman who was married more than once as an example of why there couldn’t possibly be a resurrection. According to the Levitical tradition of the time, when a man dies with a wife and no child, his brother is to marry the widow. In the story, each brother died without children and then the woman died. If that’s the case, the Sadducees ask, then when they all die and are resurrected, to whom is the woman married? Jesus responds by telling the Sadducees they are thinking about the resurrection wrongly. Marriage is a human institution, made necessary by our culture and tradition, but not necessary in God’s reign. And when God in scripture refers to their ancestors of the faith in speaking to the prophets, such as Moses, God refers to them in the present tense; so therefore, they must be living. To God, all the ancestors of the faith are alive. The way we view our world and our lives is not how God views us at all

The Sermon/Reflection is by the Rev. Doug Horner, our Guest Pastor this Sunday.

Please join to give thanks to God this Sunday at the Chapel. And please give Rev. Horner a warm welcome!

Pastor Scott
216-273-7561 – church (new phone number)
216.577.1514 – mobile

Bulletin Cover Image:
The Story of Christ
by Elizabeth Wang, Image 2 0f 9
When we Worship we are united with Christ in Glory and with the gathering of His saints Radiant Light
https://radiantlight.org.uk/images/image/531?gallery=6