John 6:37-40

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

In times of elections, such as the current one in the USA. Or when government decisions loom as large as they do at the moment – the word ‘elect’ feels connected to winners and losers. In the chapel at Westcott House, where I trained for the priesthood, there is a large stark white East wall, uninterupted but for an icon of Christ holding the scripture open to a passage from the Gospel according to John which states: ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you.’ It was a reminder that God knows each one of us and elects, or chooses, each one of us to live with him in eternal life.

Of course living in eternal life, 
isn’t just something that starts when we die. Eternal life is something that we can begin living now – it is the opportunity to live life to it’s full, trusting in God’s love to keep us through the hard times. 

All Souls and Remembrance Sunday are always poignant moments in our annual calendar, as we remember loved ones.
As we mourn and pray for those who mourn. This year, in the midst of a pandemic, 
as we head into a second lock down,
with an increasing number of people who have died in the last year this season is all the more poignant. The importance of remembering and praying for those who have died and those who mourn is all the more important.

In our limited understanding of death, as Christians, we believe that those who die continue, that they will be resurrected, that they are joined together with us all in the glorious and mysterious body of Christ. And that they join us at this feast every time we share in it. We mourn them and pray for those who mourn. But we also remember that their death is not the end. That their departure is not a disaster, it is not their destruction, but that they are at peace.

God chooses each one of us by name 
and Jesus comes to us to reveal God’s Kingdom, to reveal that living in God’s eternal life we can abide with God in love
because grace and mercy are upon us. As children of God we are called to be salt and light in the midst of a tumultuous and paranoid world. To give spiritual respite to those who are distressed and to those who are warn out. But that is no easy task and we too will find ourselves distressed and paranoid and warn out.

Therefore, as we pray for those who are with Christ, they pray for us and for our world. We join with them in looking for that day when Christ will lift us all up. In the mean time we can remember that we too abide in that same love that those who have gone before us are fortunate enough to have realised in God’s kingdom. Be comforted that we have each been chosen by God to receive his gift of grace and mercy. And that God is with us.

The Reverend Robin Sims-Williams