For the past few weeks shops have been filled with bags of bones and skeletons, pumpkins and witches hats. Some clearly light-hearted, some with quite a scary and gory tone to them. My local paper shop even offers a plastic chainsaw, which I don’t think is for would be tree surgeons. 31st October, the eve of All Hallows, All Saints, has become associated with ghosts, evil on the loose and fear.
On its own that is a very dark view of the world. But it comes the day before the church celebrates the light of faith and hope in human lives. The saints of the past and the living-saints of our own day as we celebrate All Saints Day, brought forward to the nearest Sunday because it is so important. Our calling is to be those living saints. We are to be people who bring light, life and love to bear on whatever situations we find ourselves in.
We’ve had more reminders of the evil human beings can and do inflict on one another than I care to dwell on. So a place to hold that evil and remember that it never has the last word, has some health to it, but only of course, if we remember that it never has the last word. In Christ, the sting of death is removed in the new life and hope of the resurrection he holds out before us.
When we think about our calling to be people of light and life, there are some very practical things we can do. The first is to be renewed and refreshed in our faith. This tells us that life has a purpose and it is held and loved by God. We are held and loved by God. There may well be times when our on grasp on that is not as tight as we would like it to be. One of the gifts of the church is in its gathering together people who hold to this hope, and by so doing we strengthen and are strengthened in this outlook and its inner light. There is sometimes debate about whether it matters if we come to church. It does matter, because the church is what happens when those who seek to be God’s saints today come together. It doesn’t happen if they don’t. So each of us by gathering makes it come into being.
The second thing we can do is to let that faith so infuse our lives that we bring light and grace into a room. Perhaps expecting that all the time is a little ambitious and I know there are times I don’t always manage it. There are times I’m grumpy, but finding the grace and reconnecting with it is a way we can bless those we meet and in so doing find we are blessed in return.
Our second reading ended with a great encouragement, that since we are surrounded by the cloud of witnesses, the saints of the past, to run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). Running a race with perseverance does not imply that it is always easy, and may involve a struggle, not least in ourselves and our motivation and morale, but nonetheless it is a path worth taking. As a friend of mine is keen to say, ‘Be the light’.
Thirdly, with COP26 beginning their meeting in Glasgow today, we both make the changes we need to how we live, and keep the pressure on governments and industries to rise to the challenge we face. This is a critical moment and living with care and in a sustainable way shows we are living in line with the maker’s instructions, with gratitude rather than grasping, with grace rather than greed.
Today is also known as Reformation Day, the day that Martin Luther is said to have nailed his 95 Thesis on a church door and so sparked the Reformation in 16th century. It’s around this time of year that I realise I am very much a child of the Reformation. I pray through Christ and not through anyone else – we have no need of any mediator but Jesus Christ who gives us direct access to God. We don’t need to pray to Mary, we don’t pray to saints. In Christ our prayer is a direct call. We remember the saints and we can join our prayers with theirs in a great community of eternity, but we don’t need them to put in a good word for us – Christ has done that already and since Christ is God among us, then God has shown his door is open. All we have to do, is walk through it into his loving arms. And as we approach we find he has not only left the door open but come out to meet us, come out in search of us.
It’s for that reason that the Reformers abolished Chantries – endowments established to pray masses for the dead. They turned those into educational charities, the Edward VI school foundations. God has this, he holds us and none of our eternal destination relies on our efforts. If it did we would be well and truly sunk. That means that on Tuesday when we gather for All Souls Day, we are remembering in the sure and certain hope of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. This is not unresolved. At their funerals we entrusted the dead to God and that is where they rest. All Souls is a place for those heavy with grief to be reassured that God holds all life and never lets go.
So today is a day to be hopeful and hope-filled. To live as people who shine the light of that hope wherever they go. To make a difference in spirit and in action. We are to be the light we proclaim. The deeds of darkness do not have the final word. Have fun, if that is your plan, but remember the light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not able to overcome it. The victory is Christ’s, the pioneer and perfecter of all faith.
Sermon for All Saints Sunday, Newport Cathedral, Sunday 31st October 2021
Ian Black 