Sermon preached on All Souls Sunday – 5 November 2023

Revd. Fr Terry Hemming – St Paul’s Athens

 

I have a confession to make I am an agnostic. There are lots of things I don’t know and there are lots of things I think I can’t know. It’s true of science – I love what we are learning about black matter but I shall never have the maths to understand it fully – it’s true of life and of the life to come. I am sure of the life to come but what it will be like I do not know and I suspect if I did would not have the language to explain it.

 

Therefore I am treading on holy ground when I talk of the life to come and of those whom we love but now worship on a different shore.

Jesus taught that there was a life to come.

 

You will remember there were two groups who had difficulties with Jesus. The Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had a large argument because the Sadducees had a spirituality which was only for this life. The Pharisees firmly believed in a resurrection. You will remember how Paul, brought up a Pharisee, used this when he was accused of preaching against the Hebrew Scriptures.

 

This is something we repeat in our creed every week for as Paul wrote, 1Cor. 1619 “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ is not raised your faith is vain/useless; you are still in your sins. Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished”.

This is the work of the triune God

Jesus’s hearers were smarter than many today. They realised he was claiming equality with God, that his miracles were not just the act of a magician but the demonstration of God working before their very eyes. They didn’t like it. It was blasphemous. Jesus shows his intimacy with the Father. Both the Father and the Son verse 21 raise the dead. Paul in Corinthians makes clear the work of the Spirit in this and we shall be raised with a spiritual body.

 

This is a work of love and mercy.

Alas the church has often been decorated with pictures of hell and destruction. The Domesday paintings in Mediaeval Europe, the frescoes in Byzantine monasteries and churches. Or even more grotesque the paintings of the torments of hell by Hieronymus Bosch. That is not pictured here. Verse 24 shall not come into condemnation. It is not to be feared. But shall have everlasting life. This eternal life is not merely talking about length but about richness. To be recreated. To be made fully alive. To be made the best “us” that we can be.

 

Jesus here is explaining his ministry to his opponents who wanted an earthly political solution to their problems. He is trying to get his disciples to understand. He is leaving his teaching for us.

 

Take this for your comfort.

We are remembering our loved ones today. Thursday was All Souls or All Hallows. Right to remember, to reflect, to be grateful. But as Paul tells us we do not mourn as others do. Yes we cry and hurt. Jesus wept at the grave of his friend, Lazarus, and that is a strong word, not just shedding a tear but visceral. Yet we know they now worship God without the hindrances we have, Perfectly, holy, healthy and happy they worship God around the throne.

Take this for your encouragement.

 

The early church struggled. Probably the church in Rome who received that glorious letter from Paul was no larger than we are. Think how many more Christians there are in Athens. How many Christians do you think there are in the world. Only God knows but the estimate is over two and a half billion! But those early Christians not knowing the future of their movement took comfort in this hope. Look at the evidence of the catacombs in Rome and Naples.

 

Take this as an exhortation. This is not only the future of our loved ones who have died. It is our future. John tells us those who are part of this resurrection will be made like him, He then says those who have this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

 

As we remember loved ones and pray for light perpetual to shine on them, we pray that we may struggle with this hope clearly set before us.