Sermon for All Souls’ Day, 2 November 2025
Isaiah 25:6-9
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44
Today is All Souls’ Day (2 Nov). Yesterday was All Saints’ Day (1 Nov). The day before that was Halloween (31 Oct). Let’s start at the beginning.
The traditional, Christian understanding of Halloween is very different from the meaning it has acquired in popular culture over recent times, where it has become associated with ghosts and ghouls of every sort in novels, movies, games and so on. In pop culture, children dress up as witches, skeletons, mummies, pirates, whatever, and wander the neighbourhood extorting chocolate and lollies from their neighbours. Most of it is harmless entertainment, explainable on psychological grounds as a way of coping with the fear of death by making fun of it. There is some empowerment to be had by that, but not peace.
When we are dealing with something as confronting as death, the only real form of empowerment comes from God who made us, sustains us and is ready to receive us – if we wish to be so received. This latter response to the reality of death has been central to the lives of holy men and women for thousands of years. It was drawn into very sharp focus by the teaching and practice of Jesus of Nazareth, which has directly influenced an untold number of people over the last two thousand years to live a God-filled, outward-focussed life that brings life to the world.
Those people strove after holiness – the holiness of God – and their example so touched society around them that they were recognised as holy people, hallowed people or saints – the three terms are synonymous.
The traditional purpose of Halloween was to prepare Christians for the celebration of the memory of those holy people the following day – the ‘een’ on Halloween being a corruption of ‘eve’, the ‘evening or day before.’ Halloween was the start of Allhallowtide which culminated in All Soul’s Day on 2 November when people remembered their departed loved ones and prayed for their happiness in the next world.
They prayed for that cause because, having lived ‘up close and personal’ to those departed individuals, they knew that those people had not perfectly surrendered to the will of God. Those departed loved ones identified as Christian but there remained aspects of their lives that needed work – sanctification. Resistance within them to the working of the Holy Spirit was recognised as being a problem when they came into the presence of God who is perfect in every way. With the light of God shining on the departed soul, self-deception about its imperfection would no longer be possible, and the pain of regret – and no doubt other emotions – would be strong.
It is that sort of thinking which lies behind the concept of purgatory. Purgatory is a developed doctrine within the Roman Catholic Church, but the basic principle has been found helpful by many Christian thinkers. The concept rests on the reasonable assumption that most of us, at our deaths, have not surrendered fully to God, even though we have received the sacraments, recited the Creeds and responded to God’s grace by doing loving things. There will still, for instance, be areas of our lives that we have reserved for our selfish purposes. Those areas are going to need to be worked on in the after-life, so we can actually enjoy standing in God’s presence, and the zone of the afterlife where that takes place could be called purgatory. It is not there to satisfy any sadistic tendencies in God – love cannot be sadistic – but it is there to help us become the people we were always meant to be.
What I’ve said here is probably not going to wash with conservative evangelical Christians who would point out to me, quite rightly, that the NT is replete with references to Christ’s death atoning for our sins, and see me as undermining the effectiveness of the cross to get even the vilest of sinners straight into heaven.
In my defence, I too believe that faith in Christ can transform a person very quickly and reorient them towards God almost instantaneously, but I also believe – as they do too – that our response to that transformation is a life-long journey, full of challenges, the purpose of which is sanctification, the growth in holiness.
But I go a little bit further than them in seeing that journey extend into the afterlife itself. It seems reasonable to me, and other Christian thinkers I respect – to think in this way if we believe (as I think we all do) that, at our deaths, we continue as the person we are – as the same ‘soul’, loved by God, devoted (one hopes) to Christ, but imperfect.
I hasten to add, that along with conservative, evangelical Christians, I urge you and me to get as sanctified as we can in this life, by letting God take the reins of our decision making, more and more, because that will – strangely enough – not only reduce the discomfort we might face in the after-life, but will make our life in this world a lot more pleasant too – because it is very liberating to be living life in a way that isn’t self-focussed, bitter, resentful, etc.
At the end of the day (as they say in politics) I think it is likely that I will have work to do in the afterlife. I would welcome people praying for my success in that effort when the time comes, and I am very happy now, to pray – for your loved ones and mine – that God will continue to work in them the good purpose of his perfect will, and that the souls of those we love but see no longer, find in God, light, happiness and peace.
Tony Surman