Sunday 1 November 2009, ALL SAINTS, 1 Peter 4:12-19, John 11:32-44, Bruce

Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints. For many this is the time when we call to mind those who have loved the Lord Jesus and gone before us. Our reading from John reminds us that Jesus has power over death. He is not unmoved or casual about, he still wept at the grave of Lazarus; but he is not subject to its power either.

He raised Lazarus to life again, although we know that he would die again, and this was a foretaste of the greater victory when God would raise Jesus himself from death. As Jesus has been raised from death, so he promises to give eternal life to all his saints.

But who are the saints? Stained glass images come to mind of Michael, Peter, King David, James or John. Perhaps we call to mind images from the book of Revelation of countless souls carrying palm branches and standing round the throne, while prayers go up before God like incense. (There is a problem with this that we shall come back to.) Perhaps we think of modern’ saints like Albert Schweitzer, Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, or Tim and Linda Ng?

The bible, however, makes it plain that all who believe in Jesus are his set-apart ones, his saints. The feast of All Saints is when we remember that we are all part of this heavenly family, those of us here on earth (the church militant) and those who have gone to be with God (the church at rest).

To be a saint is not, and never has been easy. You might be laughed at by your friends. If you choose to wear a cross, or offer to pray with your clients, you might risk losing your job. You might be taken advantage of if you choose to split and the other chooses to steal.

And yet we still have it incredibly easy here in the UK, in Camberley.

On 20 July 2008 a mob in the town of Andulo, Angola killed one school age girl and left another with head wounds requiring 20 stitches.

At least 50 Christians were murdered in Orissa by Hindu extremists in August 2008: the Barnabas Fund distributed aid to the displaced.

Hundreds of Christians were killed and an estimated 7,000-10,000 fled their homes after rioting, started by Muslims on 28 November, engulfed the city of Jos, Nigeria.


Martha Samuel, an Egyptian convert from Islam to Christianity, was detained, stripped and beaten at Cairo airport on 17 December as she tried to emigrate with her family. Her two children witnessed her assault and were deprived of food to pressure their mother to return to Islam. The judge, who tried her case, imprisoning her for a month, told her that if he had a knife he would kill her for leaving Islam.

The Rev. Noble Samuel, a Christian minister at a United Reformed Church in London, UK, was attacked by three men in March on his way to the TV studio where he films a Gospel programme. Police characterised this as a ‘faith-hate crime’.

Christians, our fellow saints, are persecuted in many places throughout the world, and are called upon to live with the firmness and perseverance that Peter writes of in his letter to persecuted Christians in the first century.

What can we do? First, we can live well. Our fellow Christians overseas and those of other faiths in this country are amazed at the laxness and half-heartedness that they see amongst so-called Christians here in the west. Far from facing persecution for our faith, Christianity is seen here by many as one among many competing lifestyle options, to be fitted in at our convenience. Our ethos here at St Michael’s is deliberately to be low key and not hound people – you have to be motivated by the love of Jesus and by his Spirit deep within. Nevertheless, we shall all be judged and will give an account of ourselves.

Second, we can pray and take action. There are hopeful signs. A debate has been started within Islam as liberal and moderate scholars are arguing for an end to the death penalty for apostasy. On 4 June 2009 in a speech in Cairo President Obama argued for this and called for human rights for all. We can sign the petition to our government to work for the end of the apostasy laws.

So we can pray for those in authority and for the weak, the innocent, the downtrodden, and especially for our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

In Revelation 7 and 8 it speaks of the martyrs around the throne of god, who have come through the great tribulation. And it speaks of the prayers of the saints offered up like incense before God – but the saints doing the praying are us here on earth. And our prayers have an impact, as an angel pours them back out here on earth, there are rumblings and lightning flashes – pictorial language for God at work changing situations.