Holy Communion for All Saints Day: celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo. Junior Church takes place at the same time in the hall.

First reading: 2 Thessalonians 1
Gospel: Luke 19. 1 – 10

All Saints Day is a festival that prompts us to reflect on the church of the past as well as the present; to remember the example of the men and women formally acknowledged as saints; and to consider the great multitude of the redeemed who have gone before us. Nevertheless, the first reading raises some difficult questions: are we really comfortable with the idea of Jesus 'inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus'? The language suggests consequences like those in medieval doom paintings, which depicted tortures based upon the worst things human beings have invented to do to one another.

Paul goes on, however, to say that the main punishment is to be 'separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might', so that hell is presented as a state of spiritual exclusion rather than of physical torment. The same is described by the fallen angel Mephistophilis in Marlowe's 'Faustus', when he warns Faustus of the consequences of rejecting God:

Why, this is hell, nor am I out of it.
Think'st thou that I, who saw the face of God
And tasted the eternal joys of heaven,
Am not tormented with ten thousand hells
In being deprived of everlasting bliss?

In the play, Faustus is presented as the cleverest man in Europe, but he completely fails to understand what is being said to him. In contrast, the Gospel describes someone who does understand, appreciates that he has the opportunity to turn his life around, and joyfully takes that opportunity, which is open to all. It is natural for Christians to reflect upon our beliefs in judgement and salvation, and to wonder what happens to those who reject the Gospel or who never encountered it. Such questions, however, are matters for God; each of us, having heard the Gospel, is responsible for our own response.