In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
There are several strands that are woven together to make up Remembrance Sunday. One was the overwhelming need in the United Kingdom and other places, in the wake of the unprecedented carnage of World War I, to pray concerning the war dead, to bring the staggering losses solemnly before God. Since then of course there have been other wars, one, World War II, even more terrible in terms of deaths.
Another strand comes from deep within Christian liturgy and history. November begins with All Saints Day, the commemoration of God’s faithful servants. This feast is at least 1500 years old. For over one thousand years, the day following All Saints Day, November 2, has been kept as All Souls Day, when all the faithful departed, indeed all the departed, have been prayed for as a kind of charitable extension of the celebration of the obvious saints. Whereas All Saints Day is an all-inclusive celebration of the heroes of the faith, All Souls Day is an all-inclusive requiem mass.
Time has brought together still other strands for Remembrance Sunday. Here at Saint Thomas each year we give thanks for the departed “brethren, kinsfolk, and benefactors” of our congregation whose generosity makes our continuing existence possible, with our great liturgical-musical heritage on this remarkable street corner in the center of the World’s City. Then a short six years ago 9/11 added still another reason for us to pray in our Remembrance Sunday observances. In all of these strands, there is one constant, and that is the personal strand; for each one of us has lost, or will likely lose, a known and beloved one to death, and each one of us, most assuredly, will experience our own singular, individual death.
Thirty six years ago as a graduate student at Keble College, Oxford, I saw my first Remembrance Sunday observance at the little church of Saint Mary Magdalene in the center of the city. Several of the strands I just wove were there. It was beautiful, and I resolved, when given the opportunity, to introduce Remembrance Sunday to the parishes at home where I was serving. I am grateful Remembrance Sunday has become so particularly beautiful and beloved at Saint Thomas.
Not least among the good purposes of this observance on Sunday is the opportunity to teach about the meaning of the Requiem Eucharist, or more broadly, the meaning of Christian prayer for the dead. This observance is much more than a time of grateful patriotism, or parochial thanksgiving, or even personal remembrance and reflection. Remembrance Sunday stands on the very ground of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What we heard from the Apostle Paul this morning in his First Letter to the Thessalonians (perhaps the earliest book in the New Testament) stakes out this ground clearly for us: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”
Why does the Apostle use the words, “fallen asleep” rather than “died”? He is not talking around death with a euphemism. He is borrowing from the Lord himself, who said, concerning Lazarus who died, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to wake him up.” In other words, death is an interlude within life, an intermediate state between the life we know of time and space and eternal life.
The saints, all of whom we celebrated on All Saints Day, are those servants of God in whom the triumphs of Christ and of God’s grace are fairly obvious. The Apostle addressed the entire membership of a church as “the saints.” By virtue of baptism, we are joined with Jesus in his death and resurrection. Sainthood is a status given to us; it is our life’s work to live up to this calling. The fact is, however, that most of us are works in progress. “Be patient with me; God isn’t finished with me yet!” So on All Souls Day, on Remembrance Sunday, in prayer for the departed, we pray that God will bring to fullness, to perfection, the good work that he began in those who have died, and that this perfection will be manifest in the Day of Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life, and, as he said, no one comes to the Father but by him; therefore, all truth, all goodness and all grace, wherever it may be found, belongs to Christ. A person may, for whatever reason, not be an explicit Christian believer. Nevertheless, if that soul desires the truth, tries to resist evil (especially when others aren’t watching), wants to move from darkness to light; then that soul anonymously belongs to the Lord, who restrained his hot-headed followers from reading the riot act to non-disciples over this very point. (See Mk 9:38-41) Christ’s great dictum, “I am the way…” is not a prescription for a narrow test of assent but rather a statement that Christ, being God the Word himself, is the source and end of all truth. This is the ground on which the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to the world. This is also good news on Remembrance Sunday, on All Souls Day.
Prayer for the departed is not a plea for a second chance, much less a belief in re-incarnation. Prayer for the departed recognizes that the Resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion is the fact that created the Christian Church as it is. It is the fact of all facts about God. Because God raised Jesus, God wishes all to come home to him. The only thing that can possibly stand in the way is our own refusal, and so we pray that the attractiveness and generosity of the Almighty will overcome and outlast even that. If you want to go to hell, you’re going to have to insist on it! But God forbid. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” May they rest in peace and rise in glory.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
