At a school assembly some time ago where we were thinking about All Saints Day as we are today, I interrogated a group of children at the front of church over how they did at keeping God’s commandments. Were they a sinner or a saint? Did they deserve a halo or horns? Were they going to heaven? Don’t worry, we are not going to do the same thing in this service. Anyway, as each of the children owned up to the commandments they had broken I was left by myself at the front, not because I am not a sinner I should add but because I was the one who was getting to play God.
This exercise reminded me of an old story in Jewish folklore about what happens at the end of time. On Judgement Day, God summons all the people who have ever lived. “Here’s what we’re going to do”, he explains. “Gabriel will read out the Ten Commandments, one by one. As he does, those who have broken them will have to depart into everlasting darkness.” Commandment number one is read out and a number of people are led off. The same thing happens with each of the commandments until, having read eight of the ten, only a small crowd remains. God looks up to see this handful of stern, smug, grim-faced, self-righteous, joyless miseries staring back at him. He pauses and contemplates the prospect of spending eternity with this lot. “All right!” he shouts, “Everybody back; I’ve changed my mind.”
And that’s what I said to the kids in assembly too. “Everybody back,” because going to heaven isn’t primarily about being good and keeping God’s commandments. It is far more about knowing God loves you as you are and then loving God back; having such a heart for him that you want to keep his commandments because you want to love him better.
The Saints understood this point and therefore found a freedom that most of us can only long for. When we, like them, can get it then it fixes us in another dimension of living, it gives us different priorities, a different focus. It doesn’t, as we have said before, mean everything is going to be honky dory; it just means that we begin to have a foot in heaven as we wait for heaven, the kingdom of God to come in wholeness.
All of the world is waiting for that day and the imagery in our readings is very strong. When God’s kingdom comes in fullness, there will be no crying or sickness or war but, instead, peace, joy and lots of fab food. An endless celebration and delight for all.
The message is clear: where God is there is life and life in abundance. In so far as any of us grasp that then we are moving more and more into heaven.
We see it very clearly in the story of Lazarus. Lazarus is dead and buried. No life there at all. But Jesus comes and calls him out to new life. It isn’t an easy situation. There is the stench of death, Lazarus is bound in grave clothes and can’t move properly. Jesus, Lazarus’s friend, and the Lord of Life calls to him. “Lazarus, come out, come back to life.” And he does. Where God is there is life. And note that Lazarus’s friends are called upon to help set Lazarus free. He needed help to receive life. Presumably he got that help though we are not told in the story.
I wonder what is keeping us buried; whether we are bound in grave clothes and need to be set free to live again. I wonder if others around us need our help to rid themselves of their grave clothes. Can we hear God calling us to new life? “Come out!” Choose life. Choose heaven.
To choose life is to move closer to heaven and God and it also means becoming more who you are meant to be, not less. It helps you become the very best you can be, to fulfil your whole potential. It doesn’t change your circumstances but it does give us a new hope of the fullness of life that comes with Heaven. That’s what the saints understood.
It did not make them perfect people though. In fact some of them were extremely hard to live with. I am not sure that we would always appreciate them if they lived around us. St Martin, for example, a 4th Century bishop, was so compassionate that he was always giving things away. Constantly he would be in the vestry waiting to take a service and the churchwardens would come in and find he had given his clothes away to someone worse off than himself and so was sitting in his underwear. The wardens would have to go out and buy him some more clothes. Can you imagine if Edwina did that! When I was a nun I was told of a Sister who once gave away the ConventTV to a family who hadn’t got one. I don’t suppose she was popular.
Mother Teresa we all have heard about and know some of the good stuff she did in India. Apparently though she was a very strong willed and was very stubborn about having things done the way she thought they ought to be. I guess that could be hard to be at the receiving end of.
St Lawrence was told by the authorities to hand over all the riches of the church or be killed. So he paraded all the poor people before the authorities as he said they were the riches of the church. Needless to say the authorities thought he was taking the mickey and roasted him to death on a griddle. But hear what he stood up for – the poor, the weak, the frail. People like you and me. We are the riches of the church! Lest you don’t believe me, think of Bernadette of Lourdes. She was a 14 year old peasant girl when she had the visions of the Virgin Mary that made her famous. She wasn’t even especially religious at the time; certainly not a good churchgoer. Other saints like Therese of Lisieux were really physically ill or frail but still were much used by God. So take heart, whoever you are and whatever your circumstances.
Saints did not become saints because they were perfect but because they had such a love for God and were prepared to live that love out above and beyond anything else in their lives. For them, and for us, it means choosing God’s life, knowing that in doing so we glimpse heaven. And every step that we take towards God, every grave cloth we can shed leads us closer to heaven, that fullness of the Kingdom of God, which one day, along with the saints, we will all see. Let us think what steps we can take today to choose God’s life.
Susie