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All Souls Service Date: 2nd November 2008 Preacher: Revd. Hilary Barber All Souls Day There are two times in the Churches year when it is appropriate to
remember the dead: Eastertide when as Christians we celebrate the promise of
Jesus to eternal life for all who follow him; and on the Feast of All Souls
Day, which is today. On this day the Church recognises that Jesus is Lord for
both the living and the dead, and acknowledges our communion with the living
and the dead through its unity with the redeeming love of God. This Memorial service has taken place for a number of years, and brings
together the worshipping community here at the Parish Church together with the
families and friends of those who died recently, and whose funerals took place
in the holy place. Those of us who are given the huge privilege of conducting
funerals, have always been aware of the process that has only just begun,
recognising that bereavement doesn’t finish at the end of the funeral service,
but spins on like a wheel, in the months and years to follow. Our experience of death will vary from person to person, and community
to community. The peoples of Iraq and Israel live with the experience of death
on a daily basis: not that I want to suggest it is any easier for them, but for
most of us, it remains a rare occasion that pops up a few times in our life
time. Scenes of death through the media, can never prepare us for the death of
one who has been our friend, our lover, our hero, those who have helped fashion
our life and the person we have become. There are different ways of dying: it can be quick and without warning;
it can be slow and painful. For the person who dies, to go quickly without
illness has to be preferable; but for those who are separated by death and
remain in this world, it can be particularly painful, without the chance to say
good buy, and with unresolved business left to deal with. For those who
watch and wait with people dying a slow and painful death, whilst there is time
to say farewell, there remains that sense of powerlessness to speed up
the process and relieve the sufferer from their pain. As human beings we love to play at being God, and have control
over pain and emotions, with a desire to euthanasia at one end of life, and to
medically enforce life after children have been born prematurely at the other. In my own short ministry there have been some memorable funerals: Sam
Wright the 5 year old killed in a hit and run incident; Jenny who died in
childbirth leaving behind her partner, her 2 year old and the child she
carried; Ruth who died leaving her 6 and 9 year old boys; Helen, who having taken
her GCSEs, went to join her sister abroad on a gap year, ended up drowning at
sea in Costa Rica aged only 16. Thank God, most of our funerals are of people
who die in the right order of things. They are people who have lived life to a
reasonable age, and most people have been blessed in many ways during that
time. It always feels strange when a child or a young adult dies before their
parents, the ladder gets all mixed up, and the order confused. The bereavement wheel is different for everyone: but often there is the
experience of denial, anger, the ‘if only’, depression, the anniversaries –
birthdays, Christmas, Mothers Day. Then there’s the family who want to just
make sure that we are OK. They come round everyday and stay for hours and
hours, leaving no space for reflection and personal grief. Some times we try too
hard to care for our friends and neighbours, meeting our own needs instead of
meeting theirs. Death remains for me a complete mystery – so often I simply don’t understand
the whys and wherefores? But then being human, we so often want to know more,
and find it hard just to accept. In thinking about death, we cannot but fail to
think of our own mortality, and of judgement, heaven and hell. Clearly Judgement is something that can be of importance especially if
we are seriously ill, or have any kind of conscious. If we claim to belong to a
faith community, our relationship with God will play an important role in how
we view our life style, and our own sense of worth in the eyes of God. Most
Christians come to church because they know that they are penitent sinners,
always seeking God’s forgiveness for their share in what is wrong with the
world, and trying to live out that sense of forgiveness that God, like any
parent wills for his children. Heaven is perhaps the place where we all hope to end up, reunited with
all those whom we love and see no longer, together with God, through Christ,
and the saints and angels who make up the company of heaven. The Book of
revelation gives us a few clues as what heaven may be life, where there will
be no more crying or pain, I will be their God and they will be my children. When
we think of heaven we can as humans only think of it in earthly terms, and
really we have little knowledge of what it is really like on the other side. Hell is the alternative, and one that I personally struggle to
understand and have any real understanding. I find it difficult to understand
why God would create me like a potter at his wheel, and then inflict pain and
suffering upon me, to finish off by committing me to some infinite experience
of hell and damnation. It doesn’t equate with the God of love, who though his
great compassion and mercy, sent his only Son Jesus Christ, to save us from our
sins and folly, to renew the covenant made between God and his people. For some
of humanity, life here on earth is their experience of hell; and one cannot
help but think of the world’s poor; those who go hungry day after day, the
homeless, the refugee, the innocent victims of war; especially women and
children. Surely death for these holy innocents of our world has to be
about God saving humanity and bringing us back to our spiritual home, from
whence we came through our mother’s womb. Death, judgement, heaven and hell are known as the four last things, and
have become the themes associated with the penitential season of advent. Yet
before we arrive at Advent Sunday at the end of the month, we are drawn to
reflect upon the Kingdom of God, as we celebrate All Saints, All Souls,
Remembrance Sunday, and Christ the King. And it is Christ the King, as depicted in George Hedgeland’s great east
window, of this church that we now turn towards. For he is our symbol of unity,
both in Word and Sacrament: he comes to us as we break open both the pages of
scripture, blending in God’s story with that of our own, and opening our hands
to receive him in the breaking of bread, the source of healing and restoration
for many who seek the Lord while he may be found. For it is in that
moment of the fraction, when the priest breaks the bread over the wine,
that God’s own brokenness, through the death and passion of Christ, his unique
experience of humanity, is somehow caught up within the divinity of the God
head, sharing the pain and burdens of this weary world, and to suffer and to
die, that we might also share his risen life. There can be no resurrection
without the death bit first, be it in the death of human beings, relationships,
life style or identity. Every eucharist is an expression of our dying and rising with Christ; as
Christians in this place we do it week by week, celebrating God’s gifts to us
of life and death, and of the saints who have travelled the journey ahead of
us. Every eucharist has to be an experience of Easter Day, celebrating that God
through Christ, is the one who can make all things new in him. So often
the church gets caught up with only focusing on death, reading endless lists of
those who are dying and of those who have already died. The Gospel of Christ is not only for the
dead but also for the living. The church is about daring to serve the local
community of which it is a part; to bring about God’s justice in the world,
God’s bias for the world’s poor, to bind up the broken hearted and set the
prisoner free. The church is about entering into the mystery of life, life
with God through Christ and becoming a pilgrim on The Way, the way to
eternal life. Some times because of the way we feel as human beings it becomes to hard
to pray, so it becomes necessary to hand our praying over to others who can
pray on our behalf. Many Christians have found this pray to Mary incredibly
helpful, especially when feeling completely and utterly empty and exhausted: so
I finish Hail Mary, full
of grace
the Lord is with thee. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen. |