(All Saints’ Day)

Lutheran pastor Martin Taylor tells a delightful story which he says he heard from another pastor, an elderly gentleman, at a pastor’s meeting. As a young man this pastor had been studying for the ministry and was asked to serve a small congregation in Canada over the summer months. His father who was also a pastor urged him to accept the opportunity, but he was reluctant. He was young, inexperienced. The idea of serving a congregation and especially the writing of sermons terrified him. His father said he would help him with that. He would simply provide him with some of his old sermons that he could recycle as he needed.

Reluctantly the son agreed to this proposal. And things went relatively well . . . until the day that a member of the church died. The son panicked. …