If Christianity is vitalising that’s not why we’re in
it. We’re in it for the praise and service of God. Vitalisation comes with the territory.
You’re vitalised by the friends you keep and being
friends with Jesus fills your spirit with unalterable youth.
Our first two readings for All Saints Day speak of
heaven using the symbol of Mount Zion the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem innumerable angels in
festal gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled
in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-23 with this from 2 Esdras 2:43), In their midst was a young man of
great stature, taller than any of the others, and on the head of each of them
he placed a crown, but he was more exalted than they.
In such words centring on their risen Lord Jesus early
Christians spoke of communion and
fellowship in the mystical body of … Christ … and the inexpressible joys …
prepared for those who truly love God.
We’re
a society passionate for inclusion but the inclusion we’re talking about today
comes from the unalterable newness of Jesus that reaches beyond death to knit
together a mystical body ignorant of mortality.
Christians don’t age or die in spirit.
They’re kept young, in the prime of
joy, by the most precious and meaningful and awesome reality – I mean the age
and death defying Lord Jesus.
The church bell rang 33 times this morning
as it does before every service because at that age death encountered the Lord
Jesus. ‘Who is that young man who is placing crowns on them and putting palms in
their hands?’ He answered and said to me, ‘He is the Son of God, whom they
confessed in the world.’ So I began to praise those who had stood valiantly for
the name of the Lord. (2 Esdras 2:46-47)
I don’t see God as an old man white a white beard
sitting on a cloud – do you? I see him in the 33 year old youth and power of
Jesus and in the saints. If I see God in the weak Babe of Bethlehem and the
powerless figure on the Cross, in solidarity with the weak and powerless, I see
him ultimately in the ring a ring of
roses youthful dance of heaven where God’s joy is written large in festal
gathering, and the assembly of the firstborn.
It’s the first day of November, month of holy souls,
when in the northern hemisphere falling leaves are reminders of mortality. In
the southern hemisphere trees are blossoming. Life on earth has such cycles and
they’re pointers to a higher realm, revealed to us by Jesus Christ, recorded in
Bible and creed and celebrated at the eucharist, with angels and archangels and
all the company of heaven. That realm runs above and counter to the joylessness
of materialism, false religion and scepticism none of which come near God.
You can’t know God exists without joy and joy’s the sign
you’ve come near to him. You can’t imagine heaven without joy - that is our
destiny, to enjoy God forever with
all the saints.
If you think about why you’re in Church this morning
you won’t have to think long before identifying holy souls who’ve helped shape
your active faith. They’re in our past and they’re among us now, in very
surprising places. In recent weeks I’ve found quiet joy visiting church members
in the harshest of circumstances. It was to people in such circumstances, theirs
linked to persecution, that the 1st
century authors of Hebrews and 2 Esdras were inspired by God to write with
reassurance about the world to come. Today’s liturgical celebration is given to
write that reassurance large.
In the Gospel reading from Matthew Chapter 5 we have
the secret of eternal youth from the lips of the Son of God. Jesus announces attitudes
that pave the way to possessing unalterable joy with all the saints saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…
those who mourn… the meek… those who hunger and thirst for righteousness... the
merciful… pure in heart… peacemakers and those who are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3-10)
These qualities aren’t so much rules or doctrines to
grasp but a line by line description of how you live real. To live real you
need undeceiving by the world, the flesh and the devil, by a media which at
times says the very opposite to what Christ says of the triumph of humility,
meekness, purity and enduring humiliation for the truth’s sake. People with
these qualities are our best teachers on the route to holiness. They reveal the Lord’s reality and all we are
considering today about heaven is based on that and nothing less.
Christianity’s a revelation more than it’s an
explanation of what’s real. Like our spire it points beyond the pursuits of
this world to what’s real, to the
inexpressible joys … prepared for those who truly love God.
Do you
truly love God? That’s the challenge
in today’s gospel. Without setting your heart as Jesus says, with his help and
for his glory, that love isn’t true. You know, it’s the sort of ‘I love me and
want you God’ sort of love not found among the meek, merciful or poor in
spirit.
Archbishop Robert Leighton, a pastor of great unselfishness,
who in 1684 was buried here wrote If you
ask, ‘how shall I do to love?’ I answer, ‘believe.’ If you ask, ‘how shall I
believe?’ I answer, ‘love.’ ‘Believe, and you shall love; believe much, and you
shall love much. Leighton preached in this very spot and wrote on the
subject of sanctity we address on All Saints day: The journey we are engaged in is indeed great and the way uphill; but
the glorious prize which is set before us, is also great, and our great and
valiant Captain who has long ago ascended up on high, supplies us with
strength.
Robert
Leighton sensed as many Christian teachers sense today that the issue for
humanity is nothing more or less than the supernatural and that the denial of
the supernatural is ultimately dehumanising. In other words human beings can’t
go it alone and never were meant to go it alone. We have within us our own
unmaking and ageing to death in our pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice
and sloth. We can have though, also within us, if we invite him, the supernatural
power of our re-making and revitalising
through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
God who is in
us is greater than the evil inside of us
writes St John (1 John 4:4b). Believe it! Be loosened from sin’s shackles! Let
the youthful exuberance of Jesus shine forth within you to counter inner
tiredness for as Isaiah prophesies those who wait for
the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings
like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.(Isaiah 40:31)
Saints of God,
come to our aid, lend us your prayers, that we may truly love God and make God
loved in this place!
At your prayers
and ours may St Giles grow in faith, love and numbers into the unalterable
youthfulness of Jesus, to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit now
and for ever. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment