Immortal Longings – All Saints
“‘Who are these, robed in white…?’ ‘These are they… who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” (Rev 7.13f)
‘And what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Every child gets used to that question.
My earliest longings were to be a cowboy - too much Roy Rogers and Lone Ranger!
Then I discovered music and wanted to be a conductor or a famous pianist - and then when I saw it on TV, to be a pianist who conducts from the piano!
And then I longed to be a missionary - my religious phase; and then to be a professor of mathematics - my precocious period.
And the result of all those boyhood dreams? - a Church of England Curate - some might say a combination of all those longings!
It is a part of the human condition to be absorbed by longings and desires. And as we move from childhood to middle age, we fulfil some of those longings, and realise that others are never going to be acjieved.
I know now that I shall never be a bishop by 30.
But we begin also to realise that behind all our desires and longings, there is a deeper longing; at once both inescapable, and unquenchable.
Fergus Kerr, the Regent of Blackfriars, Oxford, has written a fine book with the intriguing title: Immortal Longings (SPCK, 1997).
It looks at the philosophy of Martha Nussbaum, Martin Heidegger, Iris Murdoch... and others, through Barthian spectacles. You will be glad to know that we don’t have time to discuss it this morning.
Suffice it to say, that he examines the various ways in which philosophy has struggled with this universal human longing for transcendence - for the ‘there must be more to life than this’.
In everyday terms, we see it in the realm of beauty and mystery: art, music and the glories of the natural world. There is an inner longing to comprehend their magnificence, which is at times almost painful.
We see it in the realm of love and human intimacy - that too is an immortal longing.
Today’s readings emphasise, in our Lord’s words in the Gospel, that it is the pure in heart who will see God, whose longings will be satisfied. Now this mustn’t be confused on this All Saints day with ‘being good’, never doing anything wrong.
Our texts today makes clear that our robes are dirty – they are made white and clean by the Blood of the Lamb. The Saints are not those who have led blameless lives. They are those who have a pure heart; an attitude of godliness; or as Archbishop Temple put it ‘a passionate aspiration towards the holiness of God’.
Jesus was always concerned with the direction of the heart, the object of our longings. Do we long for God or for self-satisfaction? The Scriptures make clear that everything which stifles immortal longings and turns beauty, mystery, love and sex into objects of their own end, fosters ugliness, bitterness, hatred and violence – and the eclipse of our true selves.
Adam and Eve grasp the object of desire that they might become like gods. Their longing is not for God himself, but to usurp his power. As St Paul describes this human reversal of immortal longings: “claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God... and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator...” (Romans 1.21-25)
Or as Shakespeare puts it in the words of Cleopatra – for Shakespeare struggled with the ambiguity of his own longings: “Give me my robe. Put on my crown. I have Immortal longings in me.” (Antony & Cleopatra, V/ii/283)
And all the Saints, known and unknown have had immortal longings.
It was Pope Gregory III (731-741) who consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. Until then, only martyrs were regarded as worthy of a place in heaven with the Saints. Gregory IV, a century later, (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church, although the orthodox still keep it on the first Sunday after Pentecost.
And today we keep it, anticipated from Tuesday, to rejoice with all those with a pure heart who now see God – the object of their life’s deepest desire.
But in the question posed at the beginning of our text today: ‘Who are these, robed in white…?’
Well, the theological world has moved on since Gregory IV and we live, we hope, in a more generous Christian church. The Feast of All Souls which we will keep on Wednesday, was instituted to pray for all those Christian ‘commoners’ who hovered in purgatory, never receiving the Beatific vision of the pure in heart, until we, the church militant, had prayed enough for them; given enough alms; and most important, said enough masses.
But if we answer the question, ‘Who are these, robed in white…?’ in a post-reformation and more biblical way, then there is encouragement for us all.
There is Noah, who found favour in the sight of the Lord, and who shortly after landing the ark, was found naked, drunk and unconscious by his children.
There is Rahab the prostitute who helped the Israeli spies in Jericho, and who finds her way into the genealogy of King David and so of Christ.
There is King David himself, who killed 100 philistines to gain one of his wives; who committed adultery and had the woman’s husband killed; who lied and feigned madness to escape from king Abimelech, and who wrote a Psalm about it which we sang today.
The Old and the New Testament record God’s verdict: “This is a man after my own heart.”
There is the common thief who was crucified next to Christ – “today you will be with me in paradise!”
And seeing some of our friends from St Mary’s Bourne Street here today, there is Mildred Steele – a dear companion whose loss we are mourning.
Any of you who have visited St Mary’s would remember her: the 5 foot Hollywood actress with a ten foot personality; married three times – forty years to her last husband; with many Hollywood adventures recorded in the obituaries last week which recalled her MGM sobriquet, 'the pocket Venus'.
But Mildred had a pure heart, and a deep devotion to Christ, and now her colourful clothes, hardly spotless after 94 years, have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. She has joined the great army of saints triumphant, worshipping the Lamb that was slain, who yet lives.
And so let all our immortal longings, our pure hearts, our singleminded devotion, lead us to the immortal God and his overwhelming love and care for us. Then we will join with All the Saints, as we do this day around this table, and rejoice in the Lamb.
“‘Who are these, robed in white…?’ ‘These are they… who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’” (Rev 7.13f)
