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Edward Bouverie Pusey

November is a month when the veil between heaven and earth seems particularly thin.  On Tuesday, we celebrated All Saints’ Day, giving thanks for and reflecting on all the saints, all of the Holy People of God over the ages.  We tend to think of the word, ‘Saint’, as referring to the special Saints, but whenever the New Testament uses the word, ‘Άγιος’, or its plural, ‘Αγίων’, it’s talking about all of the Holy People of God in a particular place.  If St Paul were writing to us, he’d address his letter to, ‘The Saints who are in Winchester and all those who are with them on-line’.  We are the saints.

On Wednesday, we kept the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, All Souls’ Day, remembering those people who have been special parts of our own lives.

Next Sunday is Remembrance Sunday, and the following one, the last Sunday of the Church’s Year, is the Feast of Christ the King – which then leads us into Advent.

November is a month when the veil between heaven and earth seems particularly thin.  So much so, that in its 2000 revision of the calendar, the Church of England gave these weeks the option of being called ‘The Kingdom Season’, acknowledging the special ‘feel’ of the Liturgy in this period of the year.

As the nights darken, so we spend some time reflecting on the Christian hope, both in this life and in the next.

Our Gospel reading this morning is a powerful statement by Jesus of the Resurrection of the dead – our God ‘is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive’ [Luke 20:38].  It’s a powerful statement of what is means to be a Christian, to have a focus which is both on this life and on the life to come.

Jesus is talking in the context of the trick question which the Sadducees pose to him, ‘In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be?  For the seven had married her [Lk. 20:33]’.  Jesus’ reply seems to indicate that the Resurrection life is not going to be a copy of this life, in which there are literal experiences of marriage and so on, but that it is going to be an ongoing state of being in God’s presence as ‘Children of God [and] Children of the Resurrection’ [Lk. 20:36].  I think that’s a very striking phrase – ‘Children of God [and] Children of the Resurrection’.  It indicates a dependency on and closeness to God in the new life which is the Christian hope.

Jesus quickly moves on from the narrow question of the Sadducees, expanding the minds of his hearers to the wideness of God’s being, drawing them to the story of Moses and the Burning Bush, and reminding them that God ‘is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all… are alive’ [Luke 20:38].

As we reflect on the wholeness and the sweep and the splendour of the Kingdom of God in this season of Remembrance – the Kingdom of God ‘now and not yet’ here on earth, and the Kingdom of God in all of its completeness and glory in heaven – as we reflect on the wholeness and the sweep and the splendour of the Kingdom of God, we might be led to ponder our place in this long story of God’s dealings with his people.  We ‘share in the inheritance of the saints in the light’ [Col. 1:12].  We have a part to play in the story of the dealings of God, the God of the living, with his people, those whom he has created, whom he loves, and whom he wants to draw to himself.

I wonder whether you can define the purpose of your life, in one sentence or a few words.  What do you think we are here for?  What you are here for?  Why has God placed you on the earth for this short span of life?  What is your part ‘in the inheritance of the saints in the light’?

In the 1640s a group of puritan clergymen, from England and Scotland, produced the Westminster Confession, which eventually became a basic doctrinal statement of the Church of Scotland; and they also produced the Westminster Shorter Catechism, 107 questions and answers about faith.

Just by the by, I wonder whether there are any who can remember learning the BCP Catechism when they came to be confirmed?  It’s a practice which has largely been dropped now, as our learning styles are very different from what they once were, but there are many good things in the Catechism which have stood those who memorised them in good stead.

Be that as it may, the Westminster Shorter Catechism is most famous for its first question and answer: ‘Q. What is the chief end of man?  A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever’

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Shorter_Catechism].

That is, I think, a very good definition of what our lives are about.  It focuses on this life, in which we are to glorify God, in our worship, by our lives, by who we are and who we become in God’s hands; and it focuses on the next life, on our resurrection faith, when we shall enjoy God for ever, in the company of all of the saints and angels. the whole Church on earth and in heaven.

One could say that our goal as Christians in this life, is to glorify God – and we try to make sure that we are leading lives which do this more and more.  That’s why we come to Church, to do it consciously; why we confess our sins and ask for God’s forgiveness and presence in our lives; that is why we give generously of our time and our resources; and that is why the Church is involved in service to the world – all to the greater glory of God.

In particular, especially for this generation and those which are to come, we have a particular call to glorify God by caring for the glorious creation which he has given us.  COP27 begins today, and we need to be making changes to our lifestyles, our consumption, our transport and our heating, individually, as Church communities, as a wider society, and as a global community.  We need to be praying for the success of COP27, and for all of our Governments, who have really significant decisions to make over the coming years if the balance of nature is to be maintained, and the glory of God’s creation nurtured.

Our goal as Christians in this life, is to glorify God.

And the goal of our future life is to enjoy God for ever.  Difficult as it is to see what the next life might be like – for whatever it is, it will be beyond our wildest imaginings – as difficult as that is, we believe that we will be with God, and will enjoy his presence for ever.  That is what Jesus came for, died for and rose again for – as we shall declare in a few moments in the words of the Creed.

So, we look backwards and forwards: backwards giving thanks and remembering all of the saints, the holy people of God in every generation, we also remember all those whom we have loved, and all those who died in Service of their country in war; and we look forwards to the completion of God’s plans for us and the whole of creation; and as we do this, we have a simple calling – to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever’.

How each of us fulfils that calling might be a topic for reflection during this Kingdom Season, as we prepare for Advent in three weeks’ time, and in turn for the celebration at Christmas of Christ coming into the world in human form, and as we remember that our God ‘is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of [us, in this world and the next] are [very much] alive’ [Luke 20:38].