At 10:30 a.m. worship this Sunday, November 6, Tyrone Presbyterians will remember soldiers and government servants, reflect on the afterlife and recognize that the finest saints are often ordinary folks.
To start with, since election day and Veteran’s Day occur the first week of November, church members will open this service of remembrance with the Pledge to the American Flag and the Star Spangled Banner, in honor of soldiers and government servants.
Also, for All Saint’s Sunday, as they read the names of church members deceased in 2005, Presbyterians will reflect on eternity while they sing six songs of the afterlife. These songs will include old time gospel favorites such as Shall We Gather At The River and Beyond the Sunset.
Lastly, the Presbyterian choir will encourage worshippers to recognize God’s Power in ordinary lives when they render the enjoyable Episcopal hymn, I Sing A Song of the Saints of God. Early in November, on All Saints’ Sunday, generations of believers have found comfort in the quaint lyrics of Lesbia Scott’s 1940 Episcopal children’s hymn, which defines Saints as ordinary people.
Wrote Scott, “You can meet them in school, or in lanes, or at the sea / In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea / For the Saints of God are folk just like me / And I mean to be one too.”
In the final analysis, Agnes Jackson Wilson captured the commonplace character of sainthood in a book she wrote about the World War II Tyrone Presbyterian pastor, Dr. James Renwick Jackson. During his first pastorate at Union Tabernacle in Philadelphia, a young man came to Dr. Jackson asking if he would preach the sermon at his ordination into the ministry, once he grew to manhood. Dr. Jackson heartily agreed to that.
Yet, by the time of the ordination, Dr. Jackson had died. Said the young man, “How sad I feel that Reverend Jackson cannot preach the sermon at my ordination.”
Yet after a moment of reflection, he said, “But actually, he already has preached that sermon, his life was that sermon.”
This Sunday, November 6 at 10:30 a.m., Presbyterian Pastor Bob Dunkelberger encourages all citizens to join Tyrone Presbyterians for a Service of Remembrance to recall soldiers and government servants, to reflect on the afterlife, and to recognize those ordinary saints now departed whose lives provided a visible sermon for all with ears to hear and eyes to see.
