All Saints Day Sermon
Sermon for All Saints Day
God who sits on the throne will dwell with them. (Revelation 7:15)
The government is very keen that those who have come to live and work in this country undergo citizenship classes. Before they can get their passport and go anywhere else, as a British citizen with the full legal rights that implies, they must know and understand something about the culture and heritage of the United Kingdom.
Look around. We are different! We perhaps are not all citizens of the UK. But we are citizens of heaven. Christians are not the same as the people of this nation and this world. Our baptism and incorporation into the Body of Christ sets us apart. And today we have added one to our number - Maximilian. Yes - we all start out the same. We are all born as helpless infants. In need of constant care and protection. Unable to do anything for ourselves. We are all born into a helpless condition. We are born into a world of slavery to sin and death. We all experience the agony of separation from God when things go wrong. We all experience the pain of separation from loved ones when death occurs. Like all humans we experience death. Both the little ones, dying daily, and the big one. The death of loved ones and eventually our own death. Being helpless is the universal of the human condition that all people face at one time or another.
So what makes us so different? Could it be that we are saints? According to Christian tradition and language we are the saints. We are the citizens of God's kingdom. We are the ones who have washed our robes in the blood of the Lamb. (Rev. 7) In that sense we are saints, but in a very real way we are no saints. We sin, we hurt others needlessly, we cause ourselves pain, we forsake and abandon our God. True we are forgiven, and I hope that by the power of the Spirit we Christians are a little more loving and faithful than the people of the world. Despite that forgiveness, we are by no means what most people mean by a saint. We are not perfect. Not yet anyway.
So how are Christians different? Well we are people of vision who look forward to the promise of eternal life. And that we call heaven.
What does heaven look like? Try and picture it. Maybe you have clouds and angels playing harps in your head. Maybe rainbows and green valleys, or something like a golf course (with no bunkers we trust!). After Thursday’s rehearsal of Mahler’s 8th symphony, I pray for a heaven with no sharps and flats but what John Donne calls ‘one equal music’!
St. John was exiled to the prison island of Patmos for being a Christian. There, as an old man, he had a marvellous vision – and he wrote down what he say in “The Book of Revelation”. And while Revelation is filled will all sorts of the images John saw, some of them difficult to understand, and some even quite scary, we also see here some of the clearest pictures of heaven in all of scripture.
One striking thing about heaven, pictured in Revelation, is that it's not so much a place as a people. Or, should we say, a situation – between God and his people. John doesn't so much describe the surrounding environment – that's not what's important. But what is important is who is there, and why.
God is there. That's what makes it so heavenly. That's what makes it a good place – a place we want to be. Heaven means a blessed reunion of God and humanity – a relationship restored to full and perfect harmony, lost in Eden. To be cast away from God forever is Hell. But to be in his presence forever, singing his praises, is heavenly. John certainly pictures God throughout his vision – both as a mighty king on his throne, but also as the Lamb who once was slain – Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the dead.
But on this All Saints Day, it's worth noting who else is there – his people. Earlier in the Book of Revelation (Chapter 7) we see two pictures of God's people. First, we have the 144,000. It does not mean there's a limited number who can be saved. It's not as if heaven has a big flashing “no vacancy” sign, and the rest of us are out of luck because the places are taken. It’s a symbolic number – 12, the number of God's people throughout scripture – squared and multiplied by 1000. It stands for the totality of all God's people, the church, the chosen ones of God.
Then there is the great multitude no one could count. And these are really the same people – God's people..
John sees this great crowd, and one of the elders asks, “who are they?” One wonders if John didn't recognize some of them. Perhaps as he looked on the crowd he saw Christian friends – apostles and martyrs who had gone before him. “Oh there's Peter, there's Matthew. There's my brother James” Who are they? Its obvious. “Sir, you know” he says. But this moment is worth comment. Of all the visions in Revelation, few are explained to this extent. The elder makes it plain, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” These are believers in the glory of eternal presence. These are, in fact, all the saints. Can you see their faces? There are God's people we’ve known and loved, people whom we shall name and remember associated with the life of this one church. And there, by the grace of God, you and I will be too. For in Baptism, our robes are washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. There we were first clothed with Christ. And his righteousness covers us even now, and even forever.
And all the troubles of this world compare to the glory revealed there. There, in the presence of God, there is no more pain, hunger, thirst, suffering or sorrow. Death shall be no more.
What a beautiful picture it is, that God will wipe every tear from our eyes. Like a loving parent whose kiss makes all the bad things go away and get better, but even more perfect and full. God’s tender, loving, mercy will take away all cares and troubles, not just for a moment, but forever. It's almost impossible to comprehend. Death shall be no more.
By rights, heaven is already ours. We already stand in the merciful presence of God, by grace through faith. For we are accounted in the 144,000, the totality of God’s people. One day we will see it in all its fullness, but we possess it even now. Yes even now, God gives us a taste of it. We have the awareness of the forgiveness of our sins, and the peace with God that brings. We have the promises of blessings now and future, and in those words we trust. We have the hope of the resurrection, the certainty of things unseen. And we have his gracious presence even now - “Lo, I am with you always”. He says: “My peace I give to you”.
Even now, before the great marriage feast, we have a foretaste, a token, of that heavenly banquet prepared for all. When we gather at the rail and kneel to receive the body and blood of Christ, we participate in the great communion – the community – of heavenly host, together with angels, archangels and all the company of heaven. It's as if the saints themselves are here with us, praising and thanking the God who has brought us salvation.
That's why we sing the same songs. Power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and blessing and glory to God and to the Lamb, forever and ever, amen. We, like the saints, will live forever. And that eternal life with God has already begun. Death shall be no more.
All Saints Day – not a day to mourn or bemoan those who have departed this world, but a day to rejoice in triumph with those who have joined the everlasting company, the great multitude in the eternal presence of God. All saints – all holy people – who continuously praise the Holy One, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Today we see images, visions, with St. John of the glories of heaven: "I saw a new heaven and a new earth." This day we remember those who have died, this last year, and the years before us. We remember all who have struggled to listen to Jesus and be part of the Church despite the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil as the old baptism service put it. And that is our heritage , the heritage of the Church of which we are part. Tradition is a strange thing ... it is about remembering ... but more than that, it is about relationship. G.K. Chesterton said,
"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about." - G.K. Chesterton.
That's us. Today we remember that we are part of a greater host, we who walk, standing in the footsteps of saints who know well how to struggle to be the church. We rejoice in their fellowship and we are inspired to be disciples of Christ.
Commemoration of the departed: Read from Book of Remembrance
May light and life eternal rest on them.
For the promise of glories to come, and for the present blessings you so richly reveal – we thank you, O Lord. For all the saints who from their labours rest, we thank you, O Lord. And for the grace to remain in that great company here in life and there for eternity we pray, keep us always, O Lord, in Jesus Christ. In his name. Amen.
