Encouraged by saints and souls

Passage for reflection: Revelation 7: 9 - 17

I can’t believe we have reached November. The beginning of November is a special time in the church year when we remember those who have gone before us, without who we would not be the people we are today. 

I love history. I love to think who walked the streets I am walking on in the past. I am very aware I am part of a long story of God’s people which has been full of amazing characters. So it’s good that on All Saints Day, November 1st and All Souls Day, November 2nd, we pause to remember with thankfulness.

On All Saints Day, we celebrate the famous saints of old who lived Christianity and shared it in what were often difficult circumstances. In Ripon, we remember St Wilfrid, in Whitby, where we were last Friday, we remember St Hild, on Lindisfarne, we remember St Aidan and St Cuthbert, in St Albans, where I went to school and we went to the cathedral for our special services being a C of E school, we remember St Alban, the first Christian martyr in this country, and in Canterbury, we remember St Augustine, who brought Christianity to us. I find the board in the cathedral with all the Archbishops of Canterbury on it very moving with Justin Welby at the bottom and St Augustine at the top. On All Saints Day, we remember we are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses, who encourage us from the reward of heaven. The crowd is huge! 

Revelation, the last book of the Bible is not the easiest book to understand, but in it are lovely details of the abiding of the faithful with God in eternity. On Sunday afternoon in my service we will listen to these words “Come let us join our cheerful songs with angels round the throne, ten thousand thousand are their tongues but all their joys are one.” 

In chapter 7 of Revelation, the writer describes a great multitude that is countless, numbering those from every tribe and people, and language. There is no limit to the scope of this multitude, be it geographic, ethnic, numeric, linguistic, economic, and on and on the list goes. This multitude is a blow-your-mind kind of multitude that no one can fully grasp. 

The multitude is clad in white, it is waving palm branches, and it is crying hymns of praise in a loud voice. The praise will be “forever and ever.”

Not only is this particular multitude to be known for its loyalty, this multitude is to be known as an active group. This group is comprised of individuals who have washed their robes. They are not passive, but active. They do not wait to be served by God, but they actively seek to serve God regularly. John, the writer of the vision gives us a clear picture of this group living out their vocation of worship and praise.

When asked by one in power, John describes not only their current actions but the results of their actions. They remain loyal to the Lamb, they wash their robes, and they worship in the temple. As a result, they are sheltered, they are fed, they are quenched, they are protected. What a place to be! 

The famous saints have their story written in history books, recorded for ever, but there are other stories only known by a few. This is where All Souls Day comes in. I like to read Ecclesiasticus 44 from the Apocrypha in November. The chapter starts by reminding us to sing the praise of famous people but it goes on to say this: 

“And some there be, which have no memorial; 
who are perished, as though they 
had never been; and are become as though 
they had never been born; 
and their children after them.

But these were merciful men, 
whose righteousness hath not been forgotten.

With their seed shall continually remain 
a good inheritance, and their children are 
within the covenant.

Their seed standeth fast, 
and their children for their sakes.

Their seed shall remain for ever, 
and their glory shall not be blotted out.

Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.

The people will tell of their wisdom, 
and the congregation will shew forth their praise.”

Who are the souls who you remember who have been part of your life, who you give thanks for? Who are the souls who shared their faith with you and showed you something of God? Who are those who, for you, their name liveth for evermore? Your family, dear friends, people who sat where you sit in your church, people who had vision. 

This weekend some churches will encourage folk to remember those who have lost their lives in the Covid pandemic. This weekend some churches will hold memorial services where people will come and light candles to remember ordinary lives many of us know nothing about, but for them they were precious and will always be remembered. 

I was walking round Ripon Cathedral with a friend on Monday and spent some time reading memorial stones on the walls. One was about a lady called Margaret Chettle who educated young girls. We are told “heaven graced her humble walk in life with majesty of mind and look and acts of pure benevolence, for though her scanty means sprung only from her own industry, she made them flow with silent sweetness to help the work of charity.” I’ve never heard of Margaret Chettle but many young women had life made better because of her and when she died they would remember her, and a wall in a cathedral invites us when we pass to remember her too. Go and read some memorials or gravestones. They tell unique stories. My Grandad’s gravestone in a village cemetery in Hertfordshire has some simple yet powerful words: “life’s work well done.”

We remember saints and souls to remind us how we should be living today. History must always move us to change the present. We learn from it. Paul in his letters addresses the churches he writes to as “the saints in, for example, Ephesus.”

We are called to be saintly. We are called to reflect God because our souls belong to him.

Nadia Bolz-Weber in a fabulous book called

“Accidental Saints: finding God in all the wrong people” says this about our call:

“And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of it... all of it is completely worth it.”

We are called as those we remember to bring some light and hope into the world which folk need badly at the moment. How will we be remembered? Hopefully that we made a difference and did our best to live the right way in a mad world. 

I found this prayer to end this reflection. It’s written by the comedian Bobby Ball who passed away on Thursday. Rock on Tommy! 

Pray these words remembering those who rest in the Church triumphant and remembering how we should carry on their work...

In this world of ever-changing faces, help me to stay on the straight line I was destined to be on.
Help me to try and put right my faults, but to realise that my strengths are gifts.
Help me to be patient with others who are as impatient as myself.
Help me to learn the value of each minute of each day that I have on this earth, that I can bring love and happiness into someone elses life and not just my own.
Teach me to be honest with myself because if I am not honest with myself first, then it is impossible to be honest with others.
Make me slow to speak but quick to listen because others have a point of view too.
Help me gain a little wisdom as each day goes by because the smallest grain of wisdom is worth all the riches on earth.
Grant me peace and serenity that I may enjoy the days that I have left on earth.
Help me to see the good in others before the bad.
And last of all, help me to be honest in all that I do, because in spite of all our insecurities and faults we are the children of God and he gave us life.
So I shall try each day to become a better human being and, when my time comes to leave this wonderful world, I can go to God in the knowledge that at least I tried.
Amen.