You may wish to light a candle before you begin.
May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.
Collect
God of holiness, your glory is proclaimed in every age: as we rejoice in the faith of your saints, inspire us to follow their example with boldness and joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Confession
We have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels, to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. Let us confess our sins in penitence and faith.
We confess to almighty God and to one another that we have sinned in our thoughts and our words, in the things we have done, and in the things we have failed to do; and with the saints of every age we come to kneel before his throne of grace, praying to the Lord our God in the name of Jesus our Saviour, that we may receive his forgiveness and mercy.
May God our Father forgive us our sins, and bring us to the fellowship of his table with his saints for ever. Amen.
God’s Word - I John, chapter 3, verses 1 to 3 :-
Consider how great is the love which the Father has bestowed on us in calling us his children! For that is what we are. The reason why the world does not recognize us is that it has not known him.
Dear friends, we are now God’s children; what we shall be has not yet been disclosed, but we know that when Christ appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. As he is pure, so everyone who has grasped this hope makes himself pure.
Matthew, chapter 5, verses 1 to 12 :-
When Jesus saw the crowds he went up a mountain. There he sat down, and when his disciples had gathered round him he began to address them. And this is the teaching he gave:
‘Blessed are the poor in spirit; the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Blessed are the sorrowful; they shall find consolation.
Blessed are the gentle; they shall have the earth for their possession.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst to see right prevail; they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are those who show mercy; mercy shall be shown to them.
Blessed are those whose hearts are pure; they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers; they shall be called God’s children.
Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of right; the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
‘Blessed are you, when you suffer insults and persecution and calumnies of every kind for my sake. Exult and be glad, for you have a rich reward in heaven; in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
Reflection on the Readings
What exactly is a saint? What is special about saints, and how are they different from the rest of us? I remember asking a group of youngsters at some school event. Lots of hands went up. Saints have funny lights on their heads, said the first child. Fair enough, saints have haloes. Saints are boring because they have to be good all the time, said someone else. Saints live in heaven where they have wings and play harps, said a third. Certainly that’s what saints in cartoons seem to do. What do they all have in common? - I asked, hoping to get an answer to do with faith, and following Jesus. One hand went up. They’re all dead, was the answer.
Well, yes, they are. They have completed the race, you might say. They’ve been promoted to glory, to use a different euphemism. They’ve all passed, to use a phrase current today. And maybe they have all passed, to take a different meaning of that word. In some sort of celestial version of the old eleven plus exam, they’ve attained a score that qualifies them for grammar school, or whatever the equivalent is up there. But what about us, when our turn comes? Will we be condemned to eternal metalwork and domestic science in some heavenly secondary modern?
I can see I’m going to have to give up on this educational theme fairly soon, but not before I at least suggest to you that what God in his love and mercy offers us is not divisive but comprehensive. Salvation is for all, his mercy is needed by all, even the best of us, and everyone who takes the cross of Christ to heart as their sign is brought into the fellowship of all the saints.
Many a saint can be found occupying a stained glass window, and that’s not a bad place for them. Like the figures in a stained glass window, saints are radiant. They shine in a way that brightens the world around them. But again, like the figures in the window, they shine with a light that’s not their own. Saints shine with the joy of Christ, with the love of Christ, with the compassion of Christ. Saints shine with the light of Christ.
So how does that help us? I think first of all that they can be examples to us of how to live as Christian folk. These are people who’ve met many of the same problems and issues and stumbling blocks that we face, and they’ve kept going, they’ve not given up, their courage hasn’t failed them. And not because they are somehow so much better than us. There isn’t a saint in the book who would have thought himself, herself, better than us. What they were though, perhaps, was specially open to Christ, specially in tune with his will.
Saints can instruct us in Christian living. And they can also inspire us. Some of the stories of saints are hugely inspirational, enormously moving. When I was a new boy at school, the Sixth Form prefects were supermen, gods almost, whom we both envied and feared. Then one day we got to that pinnacle ourselves, and to our slight disappointment found that we were still just ordinary kids. But maybe to the new kids then, we were the same godlike figures the prefects had been back then.
I think it’s a bit like that with the saints. They were just ordinary people, who maybe did some special things but didn’t actually stop being ordinary people. One of the titles given to the Pope is “servant of the servants of God”. And all saints are servants of the servants of God - ready to follow and to serve, but knowing that the one the serve said to his friends, “I am among you as one who serves. Let the greatest among you be the servant of all.”
Were I a Roman Catholic like my uncle, I would pray to the saints, choosing a particular saint depending on the cause. That’s not my practice, but the idea is that you ask a saint to pray for you; and I have no problem with the idea that the saints pray for us. Surely they must. Like in our school marathon each year, those who’d already crossed the finish line would stay there to cheer on the ones still running. I do like to think of the saints as those who are cheering on the ones still running - you and me - as well as proving that the race is worth the running. We run, not to receive an empty wreath, but to thank God for life that is already ours in Christ.
Statement of faith -
We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayers -
On All Saints’ Day, we pray for churches dedicated to All Saints, and that we may minister with the same love for Christ and for his people that we honour in those we call saints. Today in the world Church we think of Christians in West Africa, and especially the Anglican Province of West Africa. We pray for our own Diocese and for Bishop Richard, for this week’s Diocesan Synod meeting, and for the churches and communities of the Ludlow Deanery.
We pray for the world, and especially for the government and people of the United States, as the election campaign there draws to its close. We pray for all in our world who are working and campaigning for peace and justice, and for all who are treated unfairly and exploited. As lockdowns and other measures to combat the Covid virus happen in many places, we pray for their success, and for all who are working to develop a vaccine.
We pray for all who are ill today, for their care and treatment, and for those who provide that care, especially in those places where hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed. In the week of National Stress Day we pray for all who suffer from stress-related illness, and for all who provide care and support.
We pray for our families and friends, and for the life of our churches and communities. We pray for those who will serve the churches of our group and deanery as churchwardens over the coming year. And we pray we may continue to act with responsibility and care, looking out for each other, and keeping safe ourselves.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing -
May God keep us in the fellowship of his saints, may Christ the Servant-King enable our service in his name, and may the Holy Spirit unite us in holiness and joy on our pilgrimage together. Amen.
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