Lectionary Bible Study for All Saints Day - 1 Nov 2026
Jesus Teaching - DWE sourced
Lectionary Bible Study
(a brief overview of Sunday texts for reflection!)
Part of The Bible in Time Blogsite
Texts for Sunday, November 1, 2026
All Saints' Day | Book of Common Prayer | RCL | Year A
The Collect
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable* joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
*Beyond Expression: Something so intense, overwhelming, or wonderful that language cannot capture it (such as deep joy, profound grief, or staggering beauty). Google AI quoting TicToc.
The First Lesson
Revelation 7:9-17 — A Multitude No One Can Count
On All Saints’ Day, John gives us one of the most beautiful pictures in Revelation: “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” They stand together before God and the Lamb.
That word multitude matters. Just before this passage, John has heard the very specific number 144,000. But then John looks—and what John sees cannot be numbered. God’s people are larger, broader, and more wonderfully diverse than anyone can count. The saints are not simply the famous holy people whose names appear on church calendars. They are people from every nation, race, culture, language, and generation—including ordinary people whose names history has forgotten but God has not.
And these saints have not escaped suffering. They have come through “the great tribulation.” Revelation was written to Christian communities living under the enormous social, economic, and political pressures of the Roman Empire. John does not promise them that faith will make life easy. Instead, John offers a vision of where their faithfulness is leading.
That may be especially important on All Saints Day. We remember people we have loved and lost. Some endured illness, grief, injustice, loneliness, or hardship. We remember not because their lives were perfect, but because somehow God’s grace was present in their lives—and through them, perhaps, God’s grace touched ours.
Then comes the promise: they will hunger no more and thirst no more. The Lamb will become their shepherd and lead them “to springs of the water of life.”
And finally comes one of Scripture’s tenderest promises:
“God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Notice that Scripture does not say there were no tears. There were many. The promise is that tears do not have the final word.
On All Saints’ Day we stand, at least for a moment, with that countless multitude. We remember those who have gone before us, give thanks for those who walk beside us, and realize that we too are being invited into this enormous communion of saints.
Who are the saints—known personally to you—whose lives have helped shape your faith?
What does John’s vision of people from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” say about what the Church should look like today?
Where in your life, or in our world, do you especially long for God to “wipe away every tear”?
Epistle/First Lesson
1 John 3:1–3 — Children of God, Here and Now
“See what love God has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”
There is something wonderfully reassuring about those words. John does not say that someday, if we become good enough, faithful enough, or holy enough, we might become children of God. That is what we are. Here. Now.
The community receiving this letter needed to hear that. The church had experienced disagreement and division. Some people had left the community, and those who remained were struggling with questions about faith, identity, and their future together. Into that uncertainty John says, essentially: Remember who you are.
You are beloved. You belong to God.
That seems especially appropriate for All Saints’ Day. We sometimes think of saints as exceptionally holy people—the spiritual superstars of Christianity. But perhaps sainthood begins much more simply. Saints are people who know they are loved by God and then spend their lives learning how to live out that love.
John also acknowledges that the story is unfinished: “what we will be has not yet been revealed.” I especially like that. Our Christian life is not about having arrived. We are still becoming. God is still working within us, transforming us into people who more clearly reflect the love we have already received.
And that hope has consequences. John says those who have this hope “purify themselves.” I don't think this means earning God's love by becoming morally perfect. God's love comes first. Rather, because we know ourselves to be God's children, we try to live like members of God's family.
Perhaps that is one way to understand the saints we remember today. They were not perfect people. They were people still becoming—just as we are. And through God's grace, their lives sometimes gave us glimpses of what we too might become.
What changes when you begin with the assurance, “I am a beloved child of God”?
Who has shown you through their life what it looks like to live as a child of God?
If “what we will be has not yet been revealed,” what might God still be inviting you to become?
Matthew 5:1–12 — Blessed Are You
“Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are those who mourn… Blessed are the meek…”
We know these words so well that perhaps we don't hear how startling they are.
Matthew places Jesus (still early in his ministry) on a mountain, teaching the disciples and the crowds. The image naturally reminds us of Moses and Sinai, but Jesus does not begin with commandments. Jesus begins with blessing.
And notice whom Jesus calls blessed. Not the powerful, successful, wealthy, or influential. Jesus looks toward people whom the world often overlooks—the grieving, the meek, those longing for justice, those showing mercy, those making peace, and those suffering because they have chosen the way of righteousness.
Jesus is not saying that suffering itself is a blessing. There is nothing blessed about hunger, persecution, injustice, or grief. Rather, Jesus announces that our present circumstances do not determine our place in God's kingdom. The world's judgment about who matters is not God's judgment.
That makes the Beatitudes particularly powerful on All Saints’ Day.
Perhaps we sometimes imagine saints as unusually religious people who managed to achieve extraordinary holiness. But Jesus gives us another picture. Saints may simply be people who trusted God's promises enough to live differently. They showed mercy when cruelty would have been easier. They sought peace when others demanded conflict. They hungered and thirsted for justice when remaining silent would have been more comfortable.
And saints mourn. That seems especially important today. On All Saints’ Day, many of us remember someone whose absence still hurts. Jesus does not tell us to stop mourning. Jesus enters directly into our grief and says, “God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
The Beatitudes describe a world that is already beginning but is not yet complete—the Kingdom of God breaking into our world. And Jesus invites us to live as though that promised world is already becoming real.
Perhaps that is what saints do.
They live God's future in the present.
Which Beatitude speaks most directly to where you are in your life right now?
Who have you known whose life demonstrated mercy, peacemaking, humility, or a hunger for justice?
How might we, as today's communion of saints, help make one of Jesus' promised blessings visible in our community?
In Summary — The Saints: Them, Us, and Who We Are Becoming
These three readings give us a wonderful way of thinking about All Saints’ Day.
In Revelation, John looks and sees a multitude so enormous that no one can count it—people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.” They have known suffering, yet they stand together before God. Their tears have not been forgotten. God promises to wipe those tears away.
Then 1 John brings the vision much closer to home: “See what love God has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” We do not have to earn our place among God's beloved people. We already belong. Yet John also reminds us that “what we will be has not yet been revealed.” We are beloved children of God who are still becoming.
Finally, Matthew shows us what that becoming can look like. Jesus calls blessed those in the world —the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the humble, the merciful, the peacemakers, and those who hunger and thirst for justice. God blesses those who do the right thing.
Taken together, I think these readings change the way we might understand the word saint.
The saints are not simply extraordinary Christians from long ago. They are the countless ordinary people who have gone before us, the faithful people walking beside us, and—perhaps most surprisingly—us.
We remember the saints not merely to admire them but to continue what they began: loving, showing mercy, making peace, seeking justice, comforting those who mourn, and trusting God's promise when the world around us suggests otherwise.
Revelation shows us where the saints are going.
First John reminds us who the saints are.
And the Beatitudes show us how saints live along the way.
Notes and Sources:
Working Preacher Brainwave blog for All Saints Day, 1 November 2026
Working Preacher Commentary from Luther Seminary. Note the right-side panel or the Gospel down arrow key to access the other commentaries
The New Oxford Annotated Bible, 5th Edition.
The BibleGateway offers over 150 translations of the Bible with vast resources at your fingertips.
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
The Collects, Psalms, and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.
Texts from The Lectionary Page: http://lectionarypage.net
Edited by the Rev. Katheryn M. King.
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