John 5: 19 – 25    All Souls’ Day 2009.

When I think on this service I often ponder on the difference between All Saints’ and All Souls’ – for surely there isn’t much difference.    

For we are here tonight to remember in a special way the lives of those we have loved, and still love, and to ask God to take care of their souls. Death may have taken them from us; yet there is no real separation from those who have died in the grace of God.    For that love which bound us together on earth continues to unite us, holding the people of earth and the people of heaven in one loving embrace. And as we remember them tonight we have faith that they remember us; and that their love for us, the good influence they were on our lives, remains.

Yesterday we celebrated All Saints Day and perhaps when we talk about saints we assume we're talking about the great people of faith. Those who put their lives on the line for their faith, those who made amazing sacrifices to witness for God. But most Christians who have departed from this life were not canonised or perhaps even particularly righteous they weren't particularly distinguished by their death or by their way of life, they just followed in the footsteps of Christ as best they could. Mainly, as I said, we are remembering, everyday, straightforward, ordinary people who nevertheless made a great impact on those around them. Who when they left us, were greatly missed, are still greatly missed, and to us they are saints.

So there is sadness in tonight's service as we remember loved ones, but it is a sadness of not being able to talk, to touch them, it is not the sadness of those who have no hope – for it is filled with faith in the resurrection and the eternal joy that awaits all who follow Christ.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who does not want to lose even one of his sheep - he wants to lead all of them, all

of us to salvation. Rather than an end, death is, for the Christian, a new beginning, an opening into eternity, a door which admits a soul into eternal life.

When we are born there is really only one certain thing and that is we will die. Life and death are intertwined, and we know that death must be accepted as an integral and inescapable part of life. Death accompanies us through life, as we face the loss of loved ones, each of us are brought to face our own mortality.

So on this day, All Souls day, the Church pauses to reflect on the meaning of our death, and through this I think the meaning of our lives. Both All Saints Day and today form a continued teaching about the wholeness, of God’s kingdom.

These two days unite the whole church – the living and the dead.           

It is a time when we think of our role in proclaiming the Gospel. For today we are celebrating the triumph of God’s love, the power of the kingdom, just as much today as we did yesterday.    And we are doing what the church has done since the time of Christ; we are giving thanks to God.

So as we sit and remember those we love whom we no longer see, as we give thanks for their love, we must also re-affirm our trust in God.   We talk of the saints interceding for us but many people still feel the presence of loved ones who have died in their lives. They feel their love, they are sure they are looking over them, interceding for them.

The Gospel assures us that those who die in the love of Christ are in God’s hands – they are safe. For them no more suffering, no more fears, nothing can harm them they are at peace.

In the reading from his letter to the Romans, Paul recalls a central teaching of our faith, that God loves us, more than we could ever merit.

It is a free and genuine love that was best seen in Christ’s willingness to lay down his life for us, even though we are in no position to deserve such love and devotion. Yet it is given freely to us. God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. We have here this most powerful testimony to the intensity of God’s love for us.

In the Gospel Jesus is assuring us of life after death, he is offering those who mourn comfort, he reassuring us all.  

So here we have it: the teaching about the loving and eternal embrace of God; the intensity of the love with which we are loved.

Sometimes I think it is hard for us to just understand God’s love for us, to understand what kind of love it is. It is not fickle like earthly love can be, it doesn’t give way under pressure, it is solid and constant. It can seem impossible that God knows us by our name, and loves us as sons and daughters, that we are not like a number on form, not anonymous creatures. We are children of God, his daughters and sons, and he really does know us by name, he knows our fears and our worries, he knows our weaknesses but through it all God loves us.

So when we meet again those we love but see no longer, we will know each other, because God knows us, calls us by name. Thus our personal relationships, our friendships, our personality and our love for each other will not disappear. Rather it will grow, because it will be transformed and enhanced by being strengthened by the source of all love, God himself.

In this service the whole Church is once again in communion – the living, and the departed.  To celebrate the Eucharist is the most important way we can remember our faithful departed, and be united with them. For those of us who still walk this earth, it is a foretaste of that loving embrace which awaits us all, as God calls us by name and welcomes us home. It is a foretaste of the life which is to come.     Amen.