God’s not
god of the dead but of the living; to him all are alive. Luke 20:38
On All Souls day we seek God, to whom all people living or
dead are alive, on behalf of those we love but see no longer.
Christianity’s a faith built on resurrection. Always, to the
eye of faith, the sadness of death gives way to the bright promise of
immortality brought by Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
God’s our contemporary – he’s always beside us. There’s no
place we could ever go and lose him, unless our hearts are set on a trajectory
away from him, like that Voyager space ship set to move relentlessly away from
earth until it burns out.
We shouldn’t see death as such a journey away from us. Death
isn’t a place of diminishment, like the image of that receding space ship, but a
passing into a realm of enhancement that’s near to us. The dead live more fully
because ‘to God all are alive’ and as Paul says if ‘living is Christ, dying is
gain’ (Philippians 1:21).
There’s huge irony in the hallowe’en cult of shadowy ghosts
and ghouls. It is the residue in our culture of the Christian celebration of
the full, solid, glorious realm of resurrection on All Saints and All Souls
day.
Many of us in accompanying the last passage of our loved ones
felt we touched that realm! Many deaths I’ve been privileged to attend as a priest have had about them
that sense of passing to solid joy and lasting treasure, to journey’s end, with
end not ‘finish’ but fulfilment!
Our departed loved ones have passed beyond our sight but not
beyond our love, indeed our love for them is being expressed through attendance at All Souls day eucharist. If
those we love but see no longer are kept in our
imperfect love, how much the more will they be kept in the unselfish love
of God?
He sees all, he sees we mortals on earth, our loved ones
departed beyond this world and those freed from sin who stand beside him
awaiting the completion of God’s purpose in creating us. The writer of the
letter to the Hebrews says this of that vigil of the elect for their betterment
God has provided something better so that
they would not, without us, be made perfect. Hebrews 11:40
On All Souls Day the vestments are the black of mourning
decorated with the silver of resurrection glory. The black represents our sorrow
and that of our dear departed at the separation of death. The silver represents
resurrection faith that nothing’s lost at death and that all things are working
together towards God’s grand outcome to be unveiled at the completion of God’s
bettering of his creation.
God’s not
god of the dead but of the living; to him all are alive.
God is the eternal
ground of being itself. The coming of
God’s Son to be one with us has made him our contemporary.
This afternoon we recall tearful moments of parting from our
loved ones. As we do so the Church assures us by pointing to Jesus who wept
over Lazarus before raising him from the dead.
Life and love are one in God. We mortals suffer the end of
life and very often the end of love. In Jesus Christ there is no end to either life
or love! In him humanity is remade so that, as we rest upon the Lord, we live
and love in a greater fullness.
I cannot tell you exactly what happens after death but I can
affirm with full confidence there will be that love stronger than death which
is ours in Jesus. His resurrection is the pinnacle of history and no one has
found serious grounds for disputing it.
As Christ is raised he is our contemporary. ‘Remember’ he
says at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, ‘I am with you always, to the end of the
age’ (Matthew 28:20b)
This is surely why we’re here at the eucharist, because Jesus
is the living word, who speaks still through the Bible, and the living Bread
who feeds us with himself through sacred elements.
We’re here – and Jesus is here – and as we read the list of
our dear departed he is as close to them as we’re close to one another in St
Giles this afternoon, but closer, for in
him we live and move and have our being.
Acts 17:28
God’s not dead, he’s alive! Neither our loved ones who live
in his orbit!
God’s not
god of the dead but of the living; to him all are alive.
Our prayers this afternoon enfold and advance the living and
the dead because that is the very purpose of the living God who is awaiting
with great compassion our heartfelt prayers this afternoon.
Let’s pause for a moment and rest in his eternal love.
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