Here's my reflection from today's Eucharist at
St Andrew's Wickford:
From its earliest days, the Church has recognised as its foundation stones those heroes of the faith whose lives have excited others to holiness and have assumed a communion with the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. That is where the celebration of All Saints Day begins. We celebrated All Saints on Sunday, although the appointed day for All Saints was yesterday.
'The believer's pilgrimage of faith is lived out with the mutual support of all the people of God. In Christ all the faithful, both living and departed, are bound together in a communion of prayer.' This simple, agreed statement from the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission explains the purpose of the celebration on All Souls Day. Again, we held our annual
All Souls Commemoration of the Departed on Sunday, although All Souls Day is today. Since its foundation, Christians have recognised that the Church, the ecclesia, the assembled people of God, is at its most perfect when it recognises its unity in God's redeeming love with all who have said, who say now, and who will say in the fullness of time, 'Jesus is Lord'.
In today’s Gospel reading (
Luke 14. 27-33), Jesus says that we need to make our decision about saying ‘Jesus is Lord’ carefully, in a considered way. We have a choice. Do we want to become people and a society who are selfish regarding ‘greed as good’ or do we want to be people and a society that live in love? Our lives are not pre-determined and the decisions we make alter our lives for good or ill. Before we decide to say 'Jesus is Lord,' Jesus says we should first count the cost of making that claim.
Jesus tells two stories to illustrate this point. In the first, a man wants to build a tower but because he doesn’t make any plans he only gets as far as laying the foundations and then runs out of money. As a result, he becomes an object of ridicule. In the second, a King realises that he doesn’t have enough soldiers to win a battle against another King with a bigger army and so he asks for terms of peace. In the first story, the builder doesn’t plan ahead and can’t finish the job but in the second story the King does plan ahead and wins peace for his people.
As we reflect on these stories and the importance of planning ahead and counting the cost, we might also reflect on the mini-budget that Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz Truss recently introduced and the negative effects it has had on our economy because they hadn’t planned ahead, thought it through or counted the cost. Jesus says that if we are to be a people and a society that seek to follow him and live in love then we have to do that; plan ahead, think it through and count the cost in order to see it through and stay the course.
It is not easy living in love with others because others are not easy to live with. Jesus says it is like carrying a cross and walking towards your own death because what you do is what he did; you sacrifice yourself for the sake of others. It is much easier the Bible says to live for yourself and try to make as much and keep as much for yourself as possible. Many people live their lives that way today but, if you are on the receiving end of someone else’s greed, if, for example, you lose your job because someone else has made money from the collapse of your employer, you quickly realise what a miserable way to live life selfishness actually is.
It is not easy living in love with others Jesus says. You need to sit down and count the cost first before beginning but, ultimately, it is the only way not to destroy ourselves, our society and our planet. Fortunately, there are many that have followed Jesus in carrying their cross and walking the narrow path.
Which will we choose? The current turmoil in the financial markets, the example of the mini-budget, this service, these readings, the example of the saints; these are all opportunities for us to count the cost of our life choices and to decide whether we believe that greed is good seeking to live our lives selfishly or whether we will hear the call of Jesus and take up our cross to live a life of love for others.
When we do the latter, we become saints and join ourselves with all souls - past, present and future - who have said, who say now, and who will say in the fullness of time, 'Jesus is Lord'.
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