Dear Siblings in Christ,

All Saints Sunday is an opportunity to give thanks for those who have gone before us in the faith.

The mystery of God lies in embracing and binding both the living and the dead with the bond of divine love. We are to live by faith in Jesus in the present while remembering and being thankful for those who went before us.

My Asian traditions have always taught thorough respect and reverence for our ancestors, so I often asked how I could confess and live in those Asian traditions within the same faith while believing in Jesus and living as his disciple. This very question led me to believe that the Christian tradition is not unfamiliar, and that we collectively maintain a sense of gratitude and remember our ancestors in the faith.

In that sense, All Saints' Day is a beautiful celebration that spiritually connects East and West and helps us get closer to the ranks of faith and sacred traditions.

When I re-read the message of Hebrews chapter 12, the phrase “witnesses like a cloud” makes me dream of a cross-section of God’s universal salvation. Memories enrich our lives today and allow us to humbly accept the greater truth.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” – Hebrews 12:1-2 (NRSV)

I would like to understand this mystical experience in Jesus Christ, along with this season, as a place of deep faith experience and transformation. 

Our faith is rooted. Those roots give us the beautiful wings of devotion to become witnesses of the gospel in this day and age. May we live this biblical dream to the fullest in our time as we look to Jesus, the Lord of our faith.

We remember a "great cloud of witnesses" surrounding us, encouraging us, and cheering us on.

Charles Wesley, John Wesley's brother, picks up on this theme in his hymn #709 in our United Methodist Hymnal. In the first verse of "Come, Let Us Join our Friends Above," he offers a wonderful image of the Church through the ages:

Let saints on earth unite to sing, with those to glory gone,
for all the servants of our King in earth and heaven, are one.

May we give our love and respect to those who have gone before us. God’s blessings!

Grace and peace,

Bishop Hee-Soo Jung