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Sermon for the Solemnity of All Souls
Nov. 5th, 2014 02:18 pmI looked at the reading sheet for this feast, and was amused to see that there were no chapter and verse references, only the name of the book. So my heading simply quotes the beginning and end of the first two readings and the name of the parable for the Gospel. I am too lazy to look up the chapter and verses now; I will do so later.
We are in the midst of uproar here—our kitchen has been replaced and we had to buy a range, since the old one is leaking. It is difficult to compose oneself and write a sermon when one has not been able to cook for a week and is living on sandwiches. I hope that I've been able to do that.
Genealogy has lately become one of my interests. Some of the branches of my family tree are shorter than others, but I can get to great-great grandparents on both sides of my family, at least. One branch can be followed back to the 1630’s in colonial New England, and that is the branch from which dangles the leaf that I’d like to tell you about today.
The Child family in New England has a few illustrious members. Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, is my 7th cousin twice removed, for example. Horace Mann, the famous educational theorist, was married to a cousin of mine.
There are less illustrious members of my family as well. My great-uncle, Hervey Child, was one. He was born in 1899, served in both World Wars, and died in 1967.
However, he was the black sheep of the Child family. In the early 1900’s he served time in jail for robbing the poor box of the local church. I have a letter he wrote to his parents from jail, talking about how he would be turning his life around once he was released.
He married and had three children. But at the beginning of the Second World War, he was stationed in Birmingham, and met a woman who was to become his second wife. He divorced his wife, abandoned his family, and was married again here. He brought her back to the United States, and years after his death she returned to Selly Oak and died there in 1996.
The interesting thing about Hervey’s first family is shown in their obituaries, a few of which I have. When his first wife, Irene, died in the mid 1950’s, her obituary lists her as a widow, even though her ex-husband was stilll living. And when his eldest son, Arthur, died in 2010 his obituary listed his mother, but not his father.
The reason for the solemnity of All Souls is to have some form of remembrance for those of our family and friends who have died.
The New Testament speaks in many places of the assurance of eternal life with Christ after our own deaths. We do not know what form eternal life will take for us. It will not be the cartoon depiction of heaven: St Peter at the gates, men and women in flowing white robes carrying harps and sitting on clouds. There is no basis for this depiction in Scripture.
What we do know is that since we do not know when we will die, we must be ready at all times for our own deaths, and those of our loved ones.
So this solemnity is a way of not only reminding us of those who have gone before us, it is also a way of reminding us that, someday, we will be counted in the number of those who are remembered today.
My great-uncle was not remembered by those he had left behind, at least not in a good way. Even in their obituaries, they wiped him out of their personal histories. As far as they were concerned, he no longer existed, and had not existed.
How sad is this? I do not say that those who have committed great injuries in this life ought to be remembered with joy and happiness. But what the Church says to us today is that, for good or ill, every soul must be remembered.
We do not know who is saved, and who is not. Theology varies: for Calvinists, only a select few are saved. For some others, everyone is saved.
Indeed, the question of who will be saved and who will not is not one for any of us to answer. And anyone who believes that they know who is saved and who is not is very likely wrong.
So on this day we remember everyone who has died throughout the ages. We remember our mums and dads, our grandmas and grandpas, uncles, aunts, cousins, and those who have no one left to remember them.
We remember their struggles through life, the good things they did, the cuddles they gave you when you were sad, and the things they may have done that were not as good—falling in love while they were already married, robbing a poor box, or some other injustice they may have committed.
For we are all complex people, made up of great goods and also great shortcomings. We remember all those who have lived and died over the centuries. They have trod the paths that we ourselves now tread, and shown the way to live, and the way to die. We honour them, and we remember them; like them we know neither the day nor the hour.
Therefore to the One in whose gift all our days and hours rest, Jesus Christ, be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion, and praise both now and evermore. AMEN.
We are in the midst of uproar here—our kitchen has been replaced and we had to buy a range, since the old one is leaking. It is difficult to compose oneself and write a sermon when one has not been able to cook for a week and is living on sandwiches. I hope that I've been able to do that.
5th November, 2014 Solemnity of All Souls (translated)
Sermon delivered at St. John the Evangelist, 7:30PM.
First Reading: Lamentations (The Lord’s true love is surely not spent...punish any mortal man); Ps 23;
2nd Reading: Revelations (Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...and he a son to me)
Gospel: Matthew (Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids)
“Stay awake, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
In the name of God, the one, the Undivided Trinity. AMEN.
Sermon delivered at St. John the Evangelist, 7:30PM.
First Reading: Lamentations (The Lord’s true love is surely not spent...punish any mortal man); Ps 23;
2nd Reading: Revelations (Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...and he a son to me)
Gospel: Matthew (Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids)
“Stay awake, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
In the name of God, the one, the Undivided Trinity. AMEN.
Genealogy has lately become one of my interests. Some of the branches of my family tree are shorter than others, but I can get to great-great grandparents on both sides of my family, at least. One branch can be followed back to the 1630’s in colonial New England, and that is the branch from which dangles the leaf that I’d like to tell you about today.
The Child family in New England has a few illustrious members. Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, is my 7th cousin twice removed, for example. Horace Mann, the famous educational theorist, was married to a cousin of mine.
There are less illustrious members of my family as well. My great-uncle, Hervey Child, was one. He was born in 1899, served in both World Wars, and died in 1967.
However, he was the black sheep of the Child family. In the early 1900’s he served time in jail for robbing the poor box of the local church. I have a letter he wrote to his parents from jail, talking about how he would be turning his life around once he was released.
He married and had three children. But at the beginning of the Second World War, he was stationed in Birmingham, and met a woman who was to become his second wife. He divorced his wife, abandoned his family, and was married again here. He brought her back to the United States, and years after his death she returned to Selly Oak and died there in 1996.
The interesting thing about Hervey’s first family is shown in their obituaries, a few of which I have. When his first wife, Irene, died in the mid 1950’s, her obituary lists her as a widow, even though her ex-husband was stilll living. And when his eldest son, Arthur, died in 2010 his obituary listed his mother, but not his father.
The reason for the solemnity of All Souls is to have some form of remembrance for those of our family and friends who have died.
The New Testament speaks in many places of the assurance of eternal life with Christ after our own deaths. We do not know what form eternal life will take for us. It will not be the cartoon depiction of heaven: St Peter at the gates, men and women in flowing white robes carrying harps and sitting on clouds. There is no basis for this depiction in Scripture.
What we do know is that since we do not know when we will die, we must be ready at all times for our own deaths, and those of our loved ones.
So this solemnity is a way of not only reminding us of those who have gone before us, it is also a way of reminding us that, someday, we will be counted in the number of those who are remembered today.
My great-uncle was not remembered by those he had left behind, at least not in a good way. Even in their obituaries, they wiped him out of their personal histories. As far as they were concerned, he no longer existed, and had not existed.
How sad is this? I do not say that those who have committed great injuries in this life ought to be remembered with joy and happiness. But what the Church says to us today is that, for good or ill, every soul must be remembered.
We do not know who is saved, and who is not. Theology varies: for Calvinists, only a select few are saved. For some others, everyone is saved.
Indeed, the question of who will be saved and who will not is not one for any of us to answer. And anyone who believes that they know who is saved and who is not is very likely wrong.
So on this day we remember everyone who has died throughout the ages. We remember our mums and dads, our grandmas and grandpas, uncles, aunts, cousins, and those who have no one left to remember them.
We remember their struggles through life, the good things they did, the cuddles they gave you when you were sad, and the things they may have done that were not as good—falling in love while they were already married, robbing a poor box, or some other injustice they may have committed.
For we are all complex people, made up of great goods and also great shortcomings. We remember all those who have lived and died over the centuries. They have trod the paths that we ourselves now tread, and shown the way to live, and the way to die. We honour them, and we remember them; like them we know neither the day nor the hour.
Therefore to the One in whose gift all our days and hours rest, Jesus Christ, be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion, and praise both now and evermore. AMEN.
