What are we doing as we commemorate the saints and remember our loved ones departed? Simply put, we are remembering with gratitude those who we have known and loved who have died and gone to God before us and we are giving thanks for those deemed to be saints and asking for their prayers as we try to live a good Christian life. The saints are those named by the church as being good examples to us of how to live a life dedicated to the service of Christ and to God’s people. They range from the obscure and eccentric to the known and remembered. They are remembered by the Church and us today as an encouragement in how we attempt to live our lives in the light of Christ. Like us the saints are flawed and all too human but that I think can be more of a help than a hindrance as we can see in them ourselves and we can be, as I say, encouraged in the lives we are trying to live. Alongside the saints we are also today remembering the departed loved ones we have known. 

In the SEC’s revised funeral rite there is a phrase in one of the prayers of farewell that asks that the departed will:

“...live on in the hearts and minds, courage and consciences of their family and friends...”

What this means is that every time we think of them be it with tears or with laughter, or when we do something they taught us, we keep their memory alive and in doing so bring ourselves comfort.

Our commemoration today encourages  us to remember our loved ones both with smiles and sorrow and it tells us not to squander the time we have left. I also think it says to us not to worry about what we may or may not leave behind either. For what legacy we leave behind is ultimately decided by those who are left, for it is they who remember what is important to them about us. The saints did not know that they would be declared ‘saintly’ - it was after their death that others decided their lives merited that honour. This does not mean that we should not try to live a good life, far from it in actual fact because I suspect we would all like the memories we leave behind for others to be good ones and who knows thy might think us saintly too!

What is the word of God?

This is a very good question to ponder on this Bible Sunday and a very good question to ask one’s self. 

In the reading from Isaiah we are told that the Word of God is, as God says:

“… everything that goes out from my mouth”   Isaiah 55:11a

Which is further explained by Isaiah as everything we might need to live a happy and healthy life, from what we eat and what we might or might not spend our money on. Which, says to me, that the Word of God is more than just ‘words’.

Paul in his letter to Timothy suggests that the ‘Word of God’ are the sacred writings and sound doctrines of the Early Christian community. Those teachings that have been handed down by those who first followed Jesus, building upon the teachings of those who also went before Jesus but pointed the way to him. Paul does, however, warn Timothy, to be wary of those with ‘itching ears’. A wonderful phrase that he uses to explain that not everyone will believe or follow the same doctrines and that many will choose the one they like the best, rather than the one which is true or closet to Jesus’s teaching. 

John, the writer of the fourth Gospel, tells us that the ‘Word of God’ is not Scripture but the living embodiment of those Scriptures - Jesus Christ. When reading John’s writings one, does, I believe need to keep the opening verses of his Gospel in one’s mind:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God … 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”      John 1:1-1 & 14

John’s testimony as recorded in his writings are vitally important for us Christians to remember.  

Why? To remind us that we are not‘The People of the Book’  we are in fact ‘The People, the followers, of the Word made flesh’. It is not words in a book that we follow first and foremost it is the example of the living Word, Jesus Christ that we follow and listen to. Yes, what we know of Jesus’ life and ministry is contained within our Christian Scriptures but we are not expected to simply read them but to pray them, ponder upon them and to use them as a guide to how we should live our lives and how we should treat each other in the 21st century. 

It is Jesus Christ who brings our scriptures to life. It is he, who is the fleshly embodiment of:

‘everything that comes out of the mouth of God’

as suggested by Isaiah and it is his way of life, teaching and ministry that gives us a template to follow - again the fleshly embodiment of Scripture and doctrine as suggested by St.Paul. 

So what is the ‘Word of God’?

Quite simply the Word of God is Jesus Christ. He is the Scriptures brought to life. He is the walking, talking, loving utterances from the mouth of God. One thing the ‘Word of God’ is not, is that it is not dead! 

Yes, we have the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments which tell us about the promised Messiah and his earthly life and ministry but they have to be encountered and lived through the ‘Word made flesh’. Without a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Scriptures would be just words on a page. Those words would and do give us guidance on how to live our lives but it is our encounter with the ‘Living Word’ that gives them a power, gives them a life to change not only our own individual lives but the lives of those around us and ultimately the life of the World and all humanity.

Today, we give thanks for our Scriptures as contained within our Bible and as today’s collect asks:

“ … help us to hear, to read, make learn and inwardly digest them … (so that we) may embrace and ever holdfast to the hope of everlasting life … given to us in our saviour Jesus Christ …” 

We may be keeping ‘Bible Sunday’ this morning but we cannot focus on the Bible alone our first focus must always be on the living embodiment of the Bible, Jesus Christ, the ‘Living Word’ and our ultimate guide and teacher in all we do.

In 1932 the German writer Hermann Hesse published a short novel entitled The Journey to the East. It’s about a group of men, members of a religious sect called The League, who set out on a difficult and demanding pilgrimage in search of Ultimate Truth. the travellers make progress because of the presence of a man named Leo. Leo does all the menial chores and, just as importantly, he does his best to keep everyone cheerful. He raises their spirits by his singing and by his very presence.

Then the travellers find themselves in a deep gorge and Leo mysteriously disappears. From that point, everything goes wrong. Disagreements break out among the pilgrims about who is in charge – people wanting status and power, like James and John in today’s Gospel. The travellers blame Leo for leaving them, wrongly accusing him of theft and they abandon their pilgrimage, angry with Leo whom they hold responsible for its failure. 

Years later, one of the travellers finds Leo and discovers that he was and still is the President of the League and that his disappearance was a test which the pilgrims failed because they hadn’t recognised and emulated the leadership that Leo was exercising by taking on himself the form of a servant.

Though Hesse was deeply interested in eastern religions, the influence of today’s Gospel on his story is clear. James and John are ambitious, hungry for glory. They boldly and rashly assert that they are willing to follow Jesus in order to attain that glory. Jesus tells them that his servanthood will involve suffering, the suffering prefigured in today’s passage from Isaiah, taken from a section of that book which is often called “The Servant Song”. The final words that Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel echo the Servant Song, for he says:

“…the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The second part of that saying – “to give his life as a ransom for many” – refers to Jesus’ unique vocation. The first part “not to be served but to serve” was the vocation to which Jesus was calling his disciples. For some of them, including James, that would lead to martyrdom. It’s unlikely that our call to Christian servanthood will cost us our lives in a physical sense, though it will involve setting aside our own wishes and desires in order to respond to the needs of others. 

Some people have made the mistake of assuming that when Jesus talks about being a servant, he’s talking about being a doormat – being one of those passive people who always does what others ask and, as a result, lets other people walk all over them. That’s absolutely not what Jesus meant. Rather he point us towards the fulfilment that is to be found in loving service to others.

Nor did he mean that aggressive form of servanthood identified by C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters when he wrote of a person “…who lives for others - you can tell the others by their hunted expression”. We’re called to discern the needs of others, not to view them as problems to be solved. And we’re not called to a hyper-active do-goodery. One of the things that makes Leo in Hermann Hesse’s story such an attractive character is that his servanthood is quiet and cheerful. His very presence infuses his fellow pilgrims with love and, once he is absent, they fall out one with another.

We are called to give of ourselves, our energies and abilities as freely as possible. Jesus is urging the disciples to concentrate on that, rather than chasing status and power. James and John wanted to be great men in the kingdom that Jesus was inaugurating, and Jesus’ response was to offer them a radically different view of what true greatness is. 

If servant ministry sounds demanding and difficult, it’s worth remembering what Martin Luther King said in a sermon on this Gospel passage. His point was a simple one - Christian servanthood is something of which all of us, without exception, are capable. The only qualification we need is one that we already possess if only we would cultivate it to the full - our humanity. 

But rather than paraphrase Dr King’s words, I’ll end with an extended quotation from that sermon. As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris contest the final stages of a presidential election and as Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick contend for the leadership of the Conservative Party, King’s words seem very topical: 

“If you want to be important - wonderful. If you want to be recognized - wonderful. If you want to be great - wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 

That’s a new definition of greatness. And…the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.

You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of Relativity to serve…You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”

Mark 10, 17-31 

One way or another this morning’s readings are all about righteousness. In the first reading, Amos, the prophet of Northern Israel, sees with deep concern the way of  life of his countrymen. They have turned away from godly living. In those days of walled cities justice was supposed to be dispensed “in the gate”, but this has ceased to happen. Men hate the one who reproves in the gate and abhor the one who speaks truth. They take bribes and push aside the needy. The Israelites as ever did not listen to Amos. It was not long before the Northern Kingdom fell to the invading Assyrians.

The great second reading is from the letter to the Hebrews. It speaks of the power of the Word of God and its insight into all hearts and minds. Then it goes on to praise the purity and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He was in all respects tempted just as we are but remained sinless. We therefore now can approach the throne of grace, the throne of justice, with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us. 

How different is the attitude underlying each of these two readings! The Old Testament reading is fraught with fear and uncertainty. In contrast, the unknown writer of the letter to the Hebrews is confident and positively joyful, urging us – yes, us! – to go boldly before the throne of grace.

And so to our Gospel reading. I find this reading very very moving. The young man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to attain eternal life. He is an attractive young man; Jesus looks at him and loves him. Jesus then challenges him to go and sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. (It is worth noticing that Jesus, so far as we know, never asks anyone else to do this in quite such a blunt manner.) The young man turns away. He cannot bring himself to do it.

The disciples are astounded. They cannot let it rest there. In those days, there was a strong belief in a link between riches and godliness. If you were rich, it followed that you were blessed and favoured of God. You must be righteous. Jesus is upsetting that fixed idea; if you are really wealthy your life is likely to be ruled by your wealth. God does not judge according to human standards. For him all things are possible.

Peter – it would be Peter, wouldn’t it? – is still not satisfied. He points out that he and the other disciples have in practice given up a great deal to follow Jesus, not just possessions but family, friends, lands and livings. Jesus responds gently. He is well aware that his disciples have made great sacrifices in order to become his followers. They will receive their rewards: blessings in this life and in the age to come life eternal. They  have already learned that just being with Jesus day by day is in itself a blessing. They do not want to be anywhere else. And there is the message for us: to follow Jesus day by day and, when our time comes, to go boldly before the throne of grace.

I’d like to end with a coda which I’m afraid will not be accessible to those who aren’t able to come to church this Sunday.

About 5 miles south west of Guildford in Surrey, just north of the village of Compton, there is a picture gallery dedicated to the works of G.F.Watts. One particular painting caught my eye on my first visit and I’ve gone back several time mainly to see it. I had hoped to be able to print off several copies to show you but the computer won’t let me, so I assume it’s under copyright. You can Google it. I have only a single postcard size copy of it, so I’ve mounted it on the font for you to look at over coffee. Please don’t take it away!

The title of the painting is “For He Had Great Possessions”. You will see how well it represents the opening passage of this morning’s Gospel. The young man’s whole attitude reflects  the shame and despair which he must have felt on hearing Jesus’ words: “Go and sell what you have…”

Hebrews 1:1-4 & 2:5-12

Whenever I hear the opening words of this passage:

"Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways ... "

I always think of the Advent hymn; 'Long ago prophets knew Christ would come born a Jew ..." a hymn that takes this bit of Scripture as its inspiration and celebrates the 'Word made flesh' in creation. The unknown author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is at pains to show that Christ is the pinnacle of God's marvellous creation as well as being fully divine as well. Christ is the one bit of creation that shows us men and women the human face of our divinity:

"He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being ... "  1:3a

Personally, I find the words 'the exact imprint' very powerful. For in Christ's humanity we can see the very essence of God, our Creator. What a strong image that is for us humans to recognise and it puts us human beings into a very special place within the creation. It also puts up on us a responsibility to live up to that position as well. For if we share in Christ's human imprint do we not also share in his divine imprint as well? For we share the 'imago dei' (image of God) with him and as such I believe it gives us a responsibility to care for God's creation and not to think ourselves above it.

The writer of the epistle also reminds us that as God's creation we should try to be like Christ and not ashamed to call each other brother or sister. The author is at pains here to emphasise our family relationship to each other. To remember that we are family with all the human race is no bad thing for the human race is not just a branch of creation, it is first and foremost the bit of creation that God chose to be born into and in being related to God through each other puts a responsibility upon all our shoulders to ensure that all God's people are all treated with respect, care and compassion. As Christ tells us we are not to ignore the stranger, the hungry, the sick or those in need but to try and provide for their basic needs when possible.