A short service and reflection for All Saints' Tide

 

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. Amen.

May God our Father forgive us our sins, and bring us to the fellowship of his table with his saints for ever.  Amen.

               Revelation, chapter 21, verses 1 to 7 :-

I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had vanished, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice proclaiming from the throne: ‘Now God has his dwelling with mankind! He will dwell among them and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There shall be an end to death, and to mourning and crying and pain, for the old order has passed away!’

The One who sat on the throne said, ‘I am making all things new!’ (‘Write this down,’ he said, ‘for these words are trustworthy and true.’) Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water from the spring of life as a gift. This is the victors’ heritage; and I will be their God and they will be my children.

               John, chapter 11,  verses 32 to 44 :-

Mary came to the place where Jesus was, and as soon as she saw him she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he was moved with indignation and deeply distressed. ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked. They replied, ‘Come and see.’ Jesus wept. The Jews said, ‘How dearly he must have loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not this man, who opened the blind man’s eyes, have done something to keep Lazarus from dying?’

Jesus, again deeply moved, went to the tomb. It was a cave, with a stone placed against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him, ‘Sir, by now there will be a stench; he has been there four days.’ Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you have faith you will see the glory of God?’ Then they removed the stone.

Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me, but I have spoken for the sake of the people standing round, that they may believe it was you who sent me.’

Then he raised his voice in a great cry: ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with linen bandages, his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said, ‘Loose him; let him go.’

Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.

Reflection on the Readings

British Summer Time has ended for this year, on the latest day that British Summer Time can end, and from today the dark evenings begin. If, like me, you tend to suffer a bit from the winter blues, you’ve perhaps not been looking forward to today. Not did our ancestors, even though hundreds of years ago they had no British Summer Time, and probably no clocks either - but the conflict between darkness and light is there in many of our ancient traditions, and deeply imbedded in our psyche.

And this dark time, for Christians, begins with All Saints, the first day of November, but now also celebrated as we’re doing, on the Sunday nearest. Today is really the eve of All Saints’ Day, or Hallowe’en, to give it it’s folk name. A name which actually has nothing to do with witches or demons or pumpkins, but simply means the Eve of All Hallows, or in other words, of All Saints.

Nowadays the Church often tries to counter the Hallowe’en fixation with ghosts and witches by holding ceremonies of light, or light parties for children, things like that. Or maybe just by preaching against it. But when I was little our church always held a Hallowe’en party, and I seem to be none the worse for it. Of course, we didn’t have all the tat that fills our shops these days, now that Hallowe’en has become a big commercial enterprise. But we did dress up, and we made horrible lanterns out of turnips and mangels rather than pumpkins, and we bobbed for apples, which I was never any good at.

It was, I suppose, a little brush with darkness, before we celebrated the lights of all the saints the next day. Something that was safely a little scary for a smallish boy, and we do need that brush with darkness perhaps, in order to appreciate the light.

The idea of the perfecting of our imperfect world, and therefore of a light to end all darkness, is very much the theme of our first reading, from the Revelation of St John, the last book in the Bible. “I am making all things new” is the ringing statement at the heart of this passage; and in this new world the bad stuff - death, mourning, crying, pain - is all ended for ever. These words were written at a time of great persecution for the young Church, when many were tempted to give up; John writes of the victors’ heritage made ready for those who press on and persevere.

And John in his Gospel gives us the story of Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha, and all of them great friends of Jesus. Lazarus has died, after just a short time of illness. Our world is imperfect, even the world in which Jesus walked was imperfect. Things go wrong, to such an extent that Jesus himself wept, in sorrow for what had happened to his friend.

But then, despite the protests of those around the tomb who know full well that this man is dead, more than three days’ dead, Jesus commands the tomb to be opened, and then Lazarus to come out. The world remains imperfect. Lazarus himself emerges still dressed in his grave clothes, for he will still die one day. But Jesus shows that he is more than a master for the bad stuff and the imperfections of our world.

And we see something of his life and love and light in the saints we honour at this season. Their lives of faith reflect the one true light that they and we can find only in Jesus. They weren’t perfect; they made mistakes; but they were doing their best to follow, to imitate their Lord in acts of love, to persevere in his name and for his sake against all the world could throw at them, including death. So we honour them not for themselves, but for the one to whom their lives point us.

They stand as signs that in our life’s little brush with darkness, the love of Jesus is the one thing that is sure and strong - a cross-shaped and cross-centred love that forever reaches up to God, and out to embrace the world.

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 - At All Saints’ tide, pray for churches dedicated to All Saints, and that we, like the saints we honour today, may shine the love of our Lord into every part of our dark and imperfect world. Today in the world Church pray for Christians in north Africa, and especially the Anglican Province of Alexandria, in Egypt, north Africa and the Horn of Africa. Pray for our own Diocese and for Bishop Richard, and  for the churches and communities of the Ludlow Deanery.  

Pray for the world, and for all who are working and campaigning for peace and justice, as well as for those who are treated unfairly and exploited. Pray for the continuing campaign to combat the Covid virus worldwide; pray also for the COP26 climate change conference and all who will attend.

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, pray for all who suffer from stress-related illness, and for all who provide care and support.

Pray for our families and friends, and for the life of our churches and communities. Pray for our planning as we prepare for Advent and Christmas. 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.