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All Saints Day
SERMONS – Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 1st November 2009
Revd. Canon David Pickering
9.00am Holy Communion
10.15 Family Service
9.00am Holy Communion
John 11.35 Jesus began to weep
This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible, as it is the shortest verse especially in the Authorised Version Jesus wept
Sadly this has become an expletive in some quarters.
What has this got to do with our celebration of All Saints'?
Well this verse, probably nothing, but the raising of Lazarus does.
All Saints Day has always been a special day to me, as the Leicestershire village were I grew up in the faith has its church dedicated to All Saints.
So the 1st November has been an important day for me for as long as I can remember. And after moving to live on the other side of the English Channel, I am pleased to see that in France it is still a public holiday.
All Saints' Day celebrates those who have gone before us in faith and reminds us that we are all called to sainthood. It is very much a day of high festival as we embark on the season of 'remembering' which lasts through the early part of November. We have now moved from the Ordinary time that took us through the Sundays after Trinity. We are now in what is called the Kingdom Season, with its climax on the celebration of Christ the King in three weeks time.
Today we celebrate not the named and well known saints, but all those known only to God, and perhaps a few other people privileged to be close to them. They are very ordinary people and remind us of our own calling.
The twin themes of celebration and vocation ring through our readings this morning.
Our OT reading from Isaiah 25 is unashamedly forward looking; to the great celebration or feast of the nations at the end of time. People of all nations will be brought into the divine fellowship, not for what they can bring or contribute, but as welcomed guests. As saints we are all called into the welcoming fellowship of God. It is a misunderstanding of the divine goodness and love if we think we have to earn our place with God.
This is taken a stage further in the reading from Revelation in the opening words of the penultimate chapter of the Bible Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
We are invited to an experience and existence that is beyond and above what we know and can conceive now. The saints we commemorate today lived and live ordinary lives like you and I, but they have an extra dimension to their lives; the reality of God as the meaning and purpose of their lives. They don't live on a different plain, but the divine lives through them in the here and now. And that is our vocation too; to have God at the centre of all that we do. God is not an added extra. Saints seek to see and know God in everything. Even in their failings.
And that brings us to the Gospel reading. The raising of Lazarus may seems an odd passage for All Saints' Day. He doesn't have a very prominent place in the Canon of Saints in our Church. He is commemorated on the 29th July along with his sisters Mary & Martha as a lesser festival.
The raising of Lazarus is all about the foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Jesus. But we can perhaps see him as representing humanity – individually and corporately – and so he shows us to what we are called. Death is not the end because, even in their frailty and mortality, the saints demonstrate that Jesus is 'Resurrection and Life.'
For the saints death has no ultimate fear. There may be sadness and sorrow and fear of the manner of dying, but for the saint there is trust and hope in death.
I hope we have that in common with the saints we commemorate and celebrate today.
10.15 Family Service
John 11.35 Jesus began to weep
This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible, as it is the shortest verse especially in the Authorised Version Jesus wept
Sadly this has become an expletive in some quarters.
But what has this got to do with All Saints Day?
Well this verse, probably nothing, but the raising of Lazarus does.
The raising of Lazarus may seem an odd passage for All Saints' Day. He doesn't have a very prominent place in the Canon of Saints in our Church. He is commemorated on the 29th July along with his sisters Mary & Martha as a lesser festival.
The raising of Lazarus is all about the foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Jesus. But we can perhaps see him as representing humanity – individually and corporately – and so he shows us to what we are called. Death is not the end because, even in their frailty and mortality, the saints demonstrate that Jesus is 'Resurrection and Life.'
Lazarus shows us that in death there can be life. That even in the midst of life we can all be raised to a know life.
But we all also have something else in common with the Saints. The clue is on the piece of paper that is now being given out.
- Coloured paper to children.
- White to the adults
If you have it written in a foreign language show it to a child and see if they know what it is. …..
The Lord's Prayer is something we share with all the saints down the ages.
There are three very ordinary words that mean almost the same, which occur eight times in the prayer. What are they?
The First word – Our
'us' and 'we'
We pray this alone, but we don't.
Pray it with people of all languages.
Lets just look at these our, we and us. They are very important part of the Prayer.
Our Father – God is a loving God – loves us more than any one and all love comes from him…..
We and all people are his children – that makes us all brothers and sisters.
Give us today our daily bread
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
So let's de-privatise the Lord's Prayer
Make it the prayer of all Christians of all times, places and languages.
When we come to the Lord's Prayer – choose a language.
Change papers round if necessary.
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