The Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost
The Eve of All Saints’ Day
Sunday, October 31, 2021
The Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost
Scripture citation(s): Revelation 19:1, 4-10
A Sermon by
The Rev. Canon Carl Turner
on
Revelation 19:1, 4-10
✛
The Eve of All Saints
bbook_id:
The bbook_id [] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
audio_file: 282859
There was once a man who was incredibly wealthy but, as he grew older, he became very aggrieved and anxious because he had worked extremely hard for his money, and he wanted to be able to take it with him to Heaven. So, he began to pray fervently that he might be able to take some of his wealth with him after he died.
An angel heard his plea and appeared to him and said, “Sorry, but you can’t take your wealth with you.”
The man implored the angel to speak to God to see if he might bend the rules.
The angel reappeared and announced that God had decided to make an exception, and that he was allowing him to take one suitcase with him to heaven.
Overjoyed, the man gathered his largest suitcase, filled it with pure gold bars, and placed it beside his bed.
Eventually, the man died and showed up at the pearly gates.
St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said, “Hold on, you can’t bring that in here!” But the man explained to St. Peter that he had permission and asked him to verify his story with the Lord. So, Peter went to ask.
Sure enough, St. Peter returned, saying, “You’re right! You are allowed one carry-on bag, but I’m supposed to check its contents before letting it through.”
St. Peter opened the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found too precious to leave behind and exclaimed, “You brought sidewalk?”
As we gather in Church this afternoon, all over New York, children will be trick-or-treating, and enjoying Halloween. Halloween, of course, is actually ‘All Hallows Eve’ – the Eve of All Saints. And this month of November, this month of the holy souls and the remembrance of the dead, is a chance for us to reflect on what we truly treasure, and the fact that worldly treasure will be useless after death.
Tomorrow, we keep All Saints’ Day with its gold vestments and glorious music; the next day, November 2, we keep All Souls’ Day when the vestments are the color black for mourning, and the music is more austere and reflective. Even the color of the candles changes.
All Saints and All Souls; sanctity and mortality; life and death; joy and mourning. These themes are at the heart of our celebrations on Monday and Tuesday. On the one hand, we rejoice in the Communion of Saints and the fellowship of the Saints with us now in heaven. ‘But’, some of you will say, ‘St Paul said that we are all saints.’ And, indeed, we are all called to be saints – a words that simply means ‘holy’ – for Jesus reminded us that we should be perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. In the First Letter of Peter we read, “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16). And St Paul also knew that there are those who have set the example of holiness and that such people are an encouragement to us on our earthly journey. Writing to the Philippians, Paul says these words: “Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.” He then goes on to say,
Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. (Philippians 3:17-4:1)
And in the first letter of John we read, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” (1 John 1:1a)
The feast of All Saints is , therefore, our affirmation that we are all called to be saints – to be holy – and more intimately, to recognize that we are all children of God and that our true home is in heaven with all God’s elect. It is also a feast that recognizes that some of our brothers and sisters have shone like lights before us, and still do! They gave us encouragement during their lives on earth and they continue to do so even after their death.
Equally, the Saints are those who knew that their own mortality was also a part of their human nature and they were able embrace it in such a way that turns even their death into a means of grace. As I am sure you were taught in Sunday School, the definition of a saint is ‘someone who knows that they are a sinner.’ And because of that, the Saints were not spared the fear of death or even the pain of death: we think of St. Agnes, or St. Felicity, or St. Laurence who were horribly tortured during the days of the early Church; we think of St. Francis and his stigmata; we think of a young St. Thérèse dying slowly and uncomfortably of Tuberculosis; but all of them, and so many more, embraced their death as part of their journey of life – to life; they showed us that it is also a moment of growth. No doubt people thought that Therese of Lisieux’s death at 24 years of age was the waste of an early life (which is a hard thing to say to any parent who has a dying child) but St. Therese corrected them, “I am not dying,” she said, “I am coming to life!”
My mum died eleven years ago but I still think of her often. Now, my mum was no saint! She had her flaws like any other mum. But she is still my mum and I still love her even though she has died. Nowadays, I only have the photographs of her, many memories, and the funny ways I live my life in the ways that she taught me. Her death was beautiful and pain-free (like my father’s) in a hospice with the family holding her hand. As I priest, I have also been at the bedside of those whose deaths were hard, dying alone or in pain. Does that mean that, somehow, God was absent? We only have to look to the cross to see that God is as much present in a difficult death as in a ‘so-called’ beautiful one when we hear Jesus cry out in his anguish and dereliction “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)
I pray for my mum and light candles for her just as I pray for my dad and my dear friends who died too young and whose company I wish I could still be enjoying now. My friends, our prayer for the dead is a sign of two things; of our love for them which is not made any less real because of their parting, and our faith and trust in Jesus who told us that he has gone to prepare a place for us. It is to be unselfish as all prayer is. That is why Spiritualism is wrong, not because poor sad and lonely people want to be close again to their loved ones – that’s quite understandable – but because it is inherently selfish and not about growth. We cannot bring them back; All Souls’ Day is not about Halloween costumes or trick-or-treating – that is mere fantasy.
But, just as the origins of some of the customs of Halloween come from praying for the dead and that cosmic battle that we read of in the Book of Revelation, so we are reminded that the whole of our life is, of course, a journey to our own death. And being reminded of our mortality should not be fearful for Christians, for preparing to meet the Lord is something we long for and something which we prepare for every time we go to Church.
I remember Michael Ramsey once teaching about purgatory; a word, he said, that Anglicans had come to dislike. He once said to me “Have you ever hurt someone but not known that you have done it and then discovered how hurt they have been? Well, Carl, when you die and meet God face to face and discover all that you have done to hurt him, how do you think you will feel?” That, he said, is purgatory…or that lovely words, paradise.” It is the coming to terms with the fact that death is not just an end but also a beginning, and that growing can still be part of who we are even after death – not in terms of years and the ridiculous practice of indulgences and winning favors to cash in after death, but the understanding that after death comes a new way of living with God’s nearer presence. Now we understand what Jesus meant when he talked in John’s gospel about going to prepare a place for us. [See John 14:1-6] Many old translations use the term ‘mansions’ or a place with ‘many rooms.’ Of course, we immediately get the idea that we will have our own place and our own little door to keep us safe, or keep people out! Another problem of some Anglicans is that they think there will be a special mansion just for them – and a rather grand one of that, with plenty of smoke detectors (though, as my old Dean used to delight to say to more protestant members of his congregation, “There are only two smells in the after-life, incense or brimstone – you had better get used to one!”) But the Greek of John’s Gospel doesn’t really mean rooms as in static places; it really means ‘staging posts’ and suggests that even after death there is growth towards becoming a more perfect image of God. And it is true – I do believe that some of the saints have got there already! If they haven’t, well, what hope is there for me! It’s like people who have problems with the honor given to Mary by the Church; as another old priest said to me once, “The trouble with some Anglicans is that they treat Our Lady as if she were a dead Roman Catholic!” But that takes me back to my lovely mum; if I hope for her what I hope for myself, can it really be that the Mother of God’s own Son is not there already, and with countless others rejoicing in what Jesus taught his followers to hope for and expect?
As Paul said to the Corinthians,
If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.”(1 Corinthians 15:16-19)
Monday and Tuesday belong together, and I hope that many of you will come to celebrate All Saints’ Day at 12pm or at 5.30pm and do the same on Tuesday. In many respects, All Souls’ Day helps make sense of the extravagant feast of All Saints because we walk together in hope and love on our Christian journey, praying for our loved ones and feeling the loving prayer and fellowship of those who have gone before and now enjoy the fuller presence of Christ.
Listen to the words of Jesus:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.(Matthew 6:19-21)
