All Saints

Collect

Almighty and eternal God, you have kindled the flame of love in the hearts of the saints: grant to us the same faith and power of love, that, as we rejoice in their triumphs, we may be sustained by their example and fellowship; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

God of glory, touch our lips with the fire of your Spirit, that we with all creation may rejoice to sing your praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Lord of heaven, in this eucharist you have brought us near to an innumerable company of angels and to the spirits of the saints made perfect: as in this food of our earthly pilgrimage we have shared their fellowship, so may we come to share their joy in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament

In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream: I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.

As for me, Daniel, my spirit was troubled within me, and the visions of my head terrified me. I approached one of the attendants to ask him the truth concerning all this. So he said that he would disclose to me the interpretation of the matter: ‘As for these four great beasts, four kings shall arise out of the earth. But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever—for ever and ever.’

Daniel 7.1–3,15–18

Psalm

1    Alleluia.
O sing to the Lord a new song; ♦
sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful.

2    Let Israel rejoice in their maker; ♦
let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.

3    Let them praise his name in the dance; ♦
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and lyre.

4    For the Lord has pleasure in his people ♦
and adorns the poor with salvation.

5    Let the faithful be joyful in glory; ♦
let them rejoice in their ranks,

6    With the praises of God in their mouths ♦
and a two-edged sword in their hands;

7    To execute vengeance on the nations ♦
and punishment on the peoples;

8    To bind their kings in chains ♦
and their nobles with fetters of iron;

9    To execute on them the judgement decreed:♦
such honour have all his faithful servants.

      Alleluia.

Psalm 149

Epistle

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1.11–23

Gospel

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

‘Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.

‘Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.

‘Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

‘But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.

‘Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.

‘Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

‘Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.

‘But I say to you that listen,
Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you,
pray for those who abuse you.

If anyone strikes you on the cheek,
offer the other also;

and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6: 20 – 31

Sermon on All Saints

I have been reading a novel this week whose main character lets her mind wander time and again throughout. On each page she goes off on a tangent – and every time it is interesting in itself, and relevant to the moment. The novel is an impression of how one can allow philosophy – or philosophical thinking – to impact on life in general and specifically. This novel has intersected very nicely with a book by a French philosopher, Gaston Bachelard.

He writes about philosophy as “reverie” – thought in the form of dreams and daydreams, thoughts rational and non-rational, which become real things in speech and art, in the playthings of poets and philosophers. The objects of reverie are not, however, children’s toys which have no consequences. Rather these items of the mind’s eye are very real and reveal more about ourselves than what we choose to announce loudly to one another. In reverie philosophers approach anything, and every single thing, openly as the novel “A Distant View of Everything” depicts. And the poets in their reverie also bring about insight of the world in which we live as they paint pictures of things in new relations which only a daydream can elicit. There can be no harm from this active imagination as these images swarm and attack the common sense of the everyday – like when we question accepted norms. At that moment of question, in that twinkling of an eye, there can only be revelation about life in all its fullness, don’t you think?

But, ‘the visions of my head can terrify me’ to paraphrase the prophet from our reading this morning. Visions are very real experiences for all of us. In reverie we open ourselves up to vision. You might think that the windows of perception are to be cleansed through the daily exercise of dreams. Or, perhaps, with Timothy Leary and his friends, you might be tempted to “Turn on; Tune in; and Drop out” with or without some synthetic help, as many cultures have done in the past, as many individuals are now doing all around us. Perhaps the visions of Leary’s dreamy sleep will become a reality, forsaking the clear sight of religion.

Religion is not the opiate Marx suggested a century ago. I say this because in religion there are often visions, like night terrors. The OT is full of the might of Jehovah over against a sin full humanity – even God’s own people quake in their sandals whenever their Lord nears. The NT describes its own view of the future with the Apocalypse appearing with dreadful power – with its power to terrify. Even our Gospel reading for today speaks of the final times and the eschatological reversal of life as we know it. – The humble being exalted, the mighty cast down to the depths, the happy saddened, the mournful joyful – nothing we ordinarily expect, is it? All the everyday aspirations of life are turned on their heads.

This revolution is one which happens in our own dreams, like the daydreams of the prophet and the poet, when the everyday is suspended and the extraordinary are realised in one’s own experience. In my philosophical reveries, I contemplate “the good life” – not that of suburban Tom’s and Barbara’s, but that of Socrates’ philosopher-king in the Republic, that state in which the wild horses of emotions are bridled to traverse a more beneficial course, where we all dwell in the ideal realm of moral righteousness.

No wonder “the visions of my head terrified me” when I returned to the everyday world of political intrigue, warfare cold and hot, open and clandestine. In the normal crowd, I find a place of secrets and lies, of falsehood and deception, the place where “they” say, “It has always been so,” and accept this wretched status quo and take no action to change what they want to find in life. We are drugged to mindless unseeing by the crowd’s everyday illusion.

This season of the year is exactly one in which “the visions of my head terrify me” for we are in the time of remembrance. I worked in France off and on for short periods and a friend kept talking about memories as ‘souvenir’. It struck me as an interesting way of thinking of what we hold in mind. This French word calls up English ‘souvenirs’, those nik-naks we can handle and rearrange, which we can man- handle and coerce into new significances which may have no relation to the event remembered. Souvenirs are reconfigured and rearranged on the shelf of memory. That French word recalls a philosopher’s state of mind. I think religious reverie and daydream attempt to make remembrance a reality, for instance that state of mercy and grace, of righteousness and holiness, where all the saints and all souls dwell – a place of heavenly reality which we expect for all creation. – Don’t we think this way in this season of remembrance?

I would suggest that remembrance is reverie on our beloved heros, personal and national. We entangle ourselves in the perceptions of the past and free ourselves for the future. We establish our own dream-time – through our reverie, our remembrance – on the reality of our lives. I would like to say, remembrance is the bedrock on which prayer is founded. Last week at the Benefice Eucharist, Mary Tucker promised to speak about prayer, so I feel obliged to mention prayer today because our congregation is divided into its separate parishes. It is not a stretch to go from the reveries of my philosopher to Mary’s prayer mode, for both actively engage with matters past and present in detail, allowing free association between the elements.

This season of remembrance allows us the time to dwell on our souvenirs. We can contemplate those memories of the past which are caught up in our lives – we can pray using our own souvenirs in reverie, for instance, the joyful smile of the beatified saint, the holy wrath of the terrifying preacher, or the hand held in the deepest of friendship’s affection. There are so many memories which can begin our prayer, and we must be aware of them as they fly past the windows of our perception, while we forget them in the dust of the attic storeroom or the clutter of the crammed basement. Wherever and in whatever condition they are, these souvenirs must be inspected and considered again. “Souvenirs” act as markers on our way, pointers which call us to reverie and prayer – that prayer that orients us in the eschaton, the time which God gives us, the time during which the mundane and profane everyday becomes an extraordinary and sacred moment, the joy of the divine in our lives. — These are the moments of true remembrance, when our reverie transforms merely existing into life in all its fullness, when, like St Paul, we pray unceasingly for others throughout the world because the saints and souls who have passed before us have allowed us to see the glory which should be universal here and now.

Amen