All Saints Sunday, 3 November 2024, Eldroth, Clapham
On this All Saints Day we recall all those ghosts, saints, and souls we hold in blessed memory:
We recall those first signs of our first human ancestors,
200,000 years ago, in what we now call the Rift Valley, Kenya;
the Mesolithic People; the first ‘Britons’ in a land
we would recognise, after the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago:
We recall Abraham and Sarah, and Isaac, about 4,000 years ago, 2000 BC,
journeying into the unknown, with just their Trust in a Hunch;
and beginning the Story of Faith that is the Bible;
to become Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and
the Renaissance, the Human, Social and the Political Sciences:
We recall Naomi and Ruth, Isaiah and the ‘discovery’ of YAHWEH
by the powerless people of Israel:
John The Baptist and all the Prophets,
who spoke God’s truth no matter the cost:
We recall Mary, full of grace, called to be the singer of the song
of the poor, and the mother of the Lord of the Dance:
We recall the Men of the Disciples, who came to understand
WHAT HE HAD DONE FOR THEM;
And Lazarus, who did nothing but simply die – to be resurrected by the One
whose own resurrection was soon to follow:
We remember Lazarus’ sisters Martha and Mary
and the Women at the cross, who were the first to ‘UNDERSTAND’ the resurrection:
We recall George, who battled THE DRAGON:
We recall Columba, Cuthbert, and the Venerable Bede of Jarrow
for guarding the sacredness of these Celtic British Lands:
We recall John of the Cross and the ‘Cloud of Unknowing”,
and all those who dared to show the dark face of God:
We recall Arthur Pendragon, King of the Britons;
Llywelyn of the Welsh, Robin Hood, Rob Roy MacGregor, King Edward The Confessor,
And all those who became the stuff of legend and myth:
We recall all the risk-takers, peacemakers and martyrs of our own time:
among them Abraham Lincoln, Mary Secole, Mahatma Ghandi, Dag Hammarskjöld:
We recall all those prophets and ‘saints’ of the Church across the ages;
Augustine; Ignatius; Francis; Thomas Aquinas;
Hildegard of Bingen, Gustavo Gutierrez, Pope John the twenty-third,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Brother Roger of Taizé;
William Wilberforce, George McLeod of Iona, Martin Luther King Jr, Billy Graham, Nelson Mandela.
We recall all poets and prophets, writers and singers, scientists, philosophers and artists
whose works have inspired us:
William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, J.R.R.Tolkien, the Wesley brothers, the Isley brothers;
We recall Ludwig Von Beethoven, Leonardo da Vinci, Lennon and McCartney;
Glen Miller, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash:
We think of Dylan Thomas, T.S.Eliot, Wilfred Owen, Roger McGough;
We remember Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper, Stan Laurel and Spike Milligan;
Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh:
We recall our sporting heroes of different eras and codes;
We celebrate all who gave heart to us by giving their heart.
We are grateful for those who built Jerusalem
as a holy meeting point of the world;
for those who have rebuilt Jerusalem over and over from the rubble of many conflicts and wars,
and will do so again – soon, we pray, let it be soon;
and we honour those who would build Jerusalem here in England’s green and pleasant land:
We recall all the heroes, holy ones, saints, and souls
remembered by us alone, or God alone:
we especially bring to mind the saints of our own lives
who invested teaching, friendship and trust in us;
We recall all those of our own hearts and minds,
who were of us, and informed our spirit for our way.
John Davies. Based on a wonderful original by Robert Gallagher, November 2015
Revised from my blog post, 1 November 2015