Remembering loved ones

I wouldn’t normally do any sort of ‘show and tell’ at a service like this but today I’ve brought a chalice…. Apart from the oddness of a show and tell at this service, it’s quite odd also to bring a chalice to a service where there is no Communion. However to explain myself a bit, earlier in the week when I was leading a Eucharist service, not in this church, I suddenly thought of how many people had received wine from that particular chalice… 

Who were those people ? Some young, some old no doubt, perhaps some famous, perhaps some who come at times of celebration in their lives or others who come facing some sort of real crisis…. The chalice obviously can’t tell a tale but the lives of all of those people would make, I’m sure, a great story, one of happiness, sadness, intrigue, perhaps even controversy…. We will never know all of the people who have received wine from this chalice, but many of those people would know the love of people close to them and all of them could know of the love of God for them.

At this service we have come to remember, to remember loved ones who we no longer see day by day. We’ve come also to give thanks for them and to celebrate and cherish once again the memories we have and we’ve come also to recognise the fact that in death we can still have hope – some of those people who have received from that chalice may not be physically with us any longer, but in our communion with God we are brought closer to them as they, we pray, dwell in the closer presence of God…

We will know some who have received wine from that chalice, we will know others whom we love but don’t see any more; but there will be others known to other people and not to us, and there may be some who really are only known to and remembered by God…

But as we recognise God’s love in this service we are reminded of his faithful promises; he is the friend of sinners bringing hope in despair; he is the healer of the broken giving strength in weakness and the destroyer of evil bringing life out of death…. 

The pieces of music that are being sung throughout also remind us of God’s promises, his power and his love. He is the resurrection and the life and, one day, we will see him face to face – that is the hope we celebrate today. We remain sad perhaps about missing loved ones, but we remain hopeful… 

The reading we heard from Psalm 139 (Vs.1-12) help to cement this relationship with God, a relationship that is there whether we choose it or not – God loves us and he knows us inside and out. Sometimes we might try to seek privacy, sometimes we might want to keep things from other people because we’ll be afraid or embarrassed for them to know, or we might think they would lose respect for us or maybe not even like us, but God knows it all and accepts it all, and remains loving, caring and protecting… 

He is everywhere in ways that we can try to understand and in ways that we never will and this psalm really emphasises that we can’t get away from him even if we wanted to… And I think the last two verses we heard are some of the most special, “If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you;  the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

When a loved one dies a light goes out in our lives. It can feel very easily like there is darkness all around but the light of God still shines, the light of faith still comforts and strengthens us and that light can never be put out… God recognises darkness, but is never defeated by darkness… There was darkness as Jesus died on the cross but light on that resurrection morning and that light sines for evermore because of that resurrection which conquered death once and for all… 

The darkness is not darkness to God because his light shines out all that darkness… When we trust our loved ones into his care, we trust them into a new life. We don’t know exactly what it will look like, but we’re told it will be good, that it will be a place of no mourning or pain or tears…. It will be a life lived closely with God and his love will cover that place and those people so there is no darkness… 

Yes, we will miss loved ones that we’d love to chat to one more time, that we’d love to hug, and we think like that because those people remain special to us – love doesn’t die because we don’t physically see a person, but those loved ones remain even more special to God, who knows them so intimately, who made them, who cares for them, who loves them… 

And in our relationship with God, as I said earlier, we are drawn a little bit closer again to those we love… One of the passages that was sung earlier comes from the Old Testament book of Job (19:25-27), ‘I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed , yet in my flesh I will see God… I myself will see him with my own eyes…’

Today we give thanks for those we love but no longer see day by day, but we give thanks also for the love of God who sustains us, who protects us, who comforts us, who loves us, and in whose presence those loved ones, along with us at the right time, can know peace eternally… AMEN