SUNDAY SERVICE – 1st November 2026
Call to Worship:
Holy, loving and inspiring God, help us to know that you are here amongst us, we pray. God who is Spirt; may we hear your voice. Amen.
Hymn: STF 244 - Youtube
1 Blest are the pure in heart,
for they shall see our God:
the secret of the Lord is theirs;
their soul is Christ's abode.
2 The Lord, who left the heavens
our life and peace to bring,
to dwell on earth in lowliness,
our pattern and our King.
3 Still to the lowly soul
he does himself impart,
and for his dwelling and his throne
chooses the pure in heart.
4 Lord, we your presence seek,
a vision of your face;
give us a pure and lowly heart,
a temple of your grace.
vv. 1, 3 John Keble (1792–1866)
vv. 2, 4 William John Hall
To ponder: What does ‘peace’ look like for you? Take a few moments at the start of this time of worship to find a space, or listen to a piece of music, or light a particular candle, or look at a particular image, which helps to conjure feelings of peace for you.
Sit in the stillness of that peace for as long as you dare, or time allows.
When you are ready, say these words, you may wish to read them aloud if appropriate:
Prayer: Holy God, Prince of Peace, Spirit of stillness, I come to you now in prayer and worship.
Bless this time, that I may come to know more of your grace at work in the world, more of
your love for me, more of your desire for peace for all people.
Bless the time that follows this one, as I take this aspect of worship with me into my daily life.
Help me to see opportunities to share your love with those around me, this and every day, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
You may now wish to say the Lord’s Prayer in a version or translation with which you are familiar….
Reading: Matthew 5:1-12
“And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain 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 they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Hymn 72 STF
Father God, I wonder how I managed to exist without the knowledge of your parenthood and your loving care. But now I am your child I am adopted in your family, and I can never be alone ’cause, Father God, you're there beside me.
I will sing your praises, I will sing your praises, I will sing your praises forever more.
I will sing your praises, I will sing your praises, I will sing your praises forever more. Ian Smale (b. 1949)
Responding to the reading
On All Saints’ Day, we remember the saints. Perhaps that word immediately brings particular images to mind - people in stained-glass windows, famous Christians from centuries ago, people whose faith seems extraordinary, courageous and perhaps slightly beyond anything we could imagine for ourselves.
But then we hear Jesus' words in Matthew 5:
- “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
- “Blessed are those who mourn.”
- “Blessed are the meek.”
- “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”
- “Blessed are the merciful.”
Does this reframe how we think about sainthood? Jesus doesn't seem to be blessing the
successful, he doesn't say: blessed are those who have everything figured out, or blessed
are those who always get it right.
Instead, he looks at ordinary, vulnerable, struggling human beings and says: ‘Blessed are
you.’ As Dallas Willard has put it in his book ‘The Divine Conspiracy’, it is the Beatitudes that fundamentally rethink how our world works because there is no ‘meritocracy’ in the Kingdom of God. You can’t gain any more of God’s grace or love by your hard work, you can’t earn it, there is no reward system based on ‘merit’ or ‘what you deserve’. That’s what ‘blessed are the poor in spirit’ means: those whose faith is a challenge, is riddled with doubt, is ‘poor’ – they are truly blessed.
Perhaps that is a good place to begin on All Saints’ Day: remembering that saints are not people who escaped being human, they are people who discovered something of God within the messiness of being human. Saints have doubts, struggles, tiredness, they make mistakes, grieve, get things badly wrong.
And yet, through their lives, something of God's love became visible.
Does that change the way you think about the saints you have known personally? You’ve probably encountered some people whose names will never appear in a history book but whose lives quietly shaped yours. Those people who showed us kindness when we needed it, who listened without judging, who stood alongside someone others had abandoned, whose generosity was never announced.
Perhaps these are saints as well: ordinary people through whom extraordinary grace occasionally shines.
The Beatitudes tell us something about the kind of holiness Jesus values: “Blessed are those who mourn.”
On All Saints’ Day, that may feel particularly important. For some of us, remembering saints means remembering people we miss, people whose voices we can still hear, people whose absence remains painfully present. Jesus doesn't tell those who mourn to hurry up and feel better. He reminds us: if that is you, you are blessed. God is making God’s self known even amongst grief, tears and pain.
Our grief is not evidence that our faith has failed.
Then Jesus says: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” The saints do not simply comfort the world, they disturb it. They notice injustice and refuse to accept that suffering is simply “the way things are.” They ask awkward questions and stand alongside people whose voices are ignored. They challenge racism, poverty, violence, prejudice and exclusion. They imagine that the world could be different.
The Beatitudes remind us that holiness is not simply about personal goodness, it is also about longing for justice, about refusing to make peace with a world in which some people are denied dignity, safety or belonging.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about All Saints’ Day is that it isn't only about remembering saints who have gone before us. It is also about asking: ‘What kind of saint am I becoming?’
Because the Beatitudes are not qualifications for an elite group of Christians, they are an invitation to all of us.
You don't need to perform miracles. You don't need perfect theology. You don't need unwavering faith. You don't need your life completely sorted out. You simply need to keep allowing God's love to shape you, to guide you, to invite you to discover what is yours to do in the mission of God.
This All-Saints Day, may you know that you stand amongst the saints of today and of years gone by: the famous ones and the ones known only to those who they lived alongside.
You, like them, are unfinished, imperfect, still learning what it means to follow Jesus.
Here are some questions for reflection this week. You might like to spend some time taking notes or talking with a friend about your responses.
1. Who are the ordinary saints whose love has shaped my life?
2. Which of Jesus’ Beatitudes do I most need to hear today?
3. Where am I being invited to hunger for justice, practice mercy or make peace?
4. What small act of love might allow somebody else to glimpse something of God
through me this week?
Blessed are the saints who have gone before us. Blessed are the saints quietly walking
beside us. And blessed are we, as we continue becoming the people God calls us to be. Amen.
Hymn 407 STF – Hear the call of the kingdom :
1 Hear the call of the kingdom, lift your eyes to the King;
let his song rise within you as a fragrant offering
of how God, rich in mercy, came in Christ to redeem
all who trust in his unfailing grace.
2 Hear the call of the kingdom to be children of light
with the mercy of heaven, the humility of Christ;
walking justly before him, loving all that is right,
that the life of Christ may shine through us.
King of heaven, we will answer the call. We will follow, bringing hope to the world,
filled with passion, filled with power to proclaim salvation in Jesus’ name.
3 Hear the call of the kingdom to reach out to the lost
with the Father’s compassion in the wonder of the cross,
bringing peace and forgiveness, and a hope yet to come:
let the nations put their trust in him.
King of heaven, we will answer the call …
Keith Getty (b. 1974), Kristyn Getty (b. 1980) and Stuart Townend (b. 1963)
Blessing
Christ before, and Christ beside - God all around me, and the Spirit at work in and through me,
May you take the relationship that is God with you, God with each of us, into the
relationships and situations in which you will find yourself in this week.
May you find ways to love with the divine love of God, Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen