welcome to canterbury cathedral and today to the presenter's house on this all souls day as we commemorate and pray for all the faithful departed oh god make speed to save us o lord make haste to help us your faithful servants bless you they make known the glory of your kingdom blessed are you sovereign god our light and our salvation do you be glory and praise forever now as darkness is falling wash away our transgressions cleanse us by your refining fire and make us temples of your holy spirit by the light of christ dispel the darkness of our hearts and make us ready to enter your kingdom where songs of praise forever sound blessed be god father son and holy spirit blessed be god forever our song this evening is psalm 13 how long will you forget me o lord forever how long will you hide your face from me how long shall i have anguish in my soul and grief in my heart day after day how long shall my enemy triumph over me look upon me and answer o lord my god light in my eyes lest i sleep in death lest my enemies say i have prevailed against him and my foes rejoice that i have fallen but i put my trust in your steadfast love my heart will rejoice in your salvation i will sing to the lord for he has dealt so bountifully with me glory to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and shall be forever amen our reading today comes from the gospel according to saint matthew chapter 1 beginning at verse 18 now the birth of jesus the messiah took place in this way when his mother mary had been engaged to joseph but before they lived together she was found to be with child from the holy spirit her husband joseph being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace planned to dismiss her quietly but just when he had resolved to do this an angel of the lord appeared to him in a dream and said joseph son of david do not be afraid to take mary as your wife for the child conceived in her is from the holy spirit she will bear a son and you are to name him jesus for he will save his people from their sins all this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the lord through the prophet look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him emmanuel which means god is with us when joseph awoke from sleep he did as the angel of the lord commanded him he took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had born a son and he named him jesus today all souls day is always a very moving and powerful day of the christian year and this year perhaps especially it is poignant as many of us mourn the loss of those near to us who have died from covet 19. it's a difficult time throughout our world and it's right that we take this day to mourn to lament but also to pray for those who have died that they may come to know the fullness of life in god's paradise forever this afternoon the cathedral celebrates a requiem for all souls and the choir sings the beautiful foray requiem as we hold in our hearts and offer to god our memories of all those who have died but because today is not a feast we do not have special readings for even song and the reading that i've read to you from matthew's gospel is just part of the course of readings and during which we'll read our way through this gospel and at first that may seem like a bit of a disappointment to a preacher um because it would be so much better if we had a reading that was directly on the theme for today in a very obvious way but sometimes there's a happy coincidence between what the lectionary offers and the day that we happen to be marking on this all souls day because maybe perhaps at first it seems rather odd that we should read about the birth of christ on this day that is so much taken up with our meditation on our prayers around death but actually there's quite a powerful message for us here to think about jesus verse in the context of all souls day and it's summed up in that one word that we heard jesus name emmanuel which means god is with us we often think of emmanuel god is with us in terms of the baby jesus it's something that we celebrate at christmas we sing things like tears and smiles like us he knew but perhaps it's even more the case that the end of christ's earthly life upon the cross is the ultimate moment of his solidarity with the human condition and with our human nature because of course surrounding the cross there were the mockers who cried out if you are truly the son of god save yourself step down from the cross and get on with the business of living and indeed within the history of the church there was a heresy known as dosetism which maintained that jesus himself didn't actually suffer on the cross he only somehow seemed to suffer on the cross perhaps another being kind of suffered in his place or just a phantom appearance of christ seemed to suffer because that was almost too much to bear that the idea that christ could be one of us should extend even to the hour of his death and yet that is nothing less than that name emmanuel claims god is with us with us not only as a baby with us not only in glorious moments of life with us not only in sufferings and difficulties but with us even in death the cross becomes the ultimate moment of christ's solidarity with our human condition his willing acceptance of all that it is that it means to be human and so as we celebrate all souls day to day we are comforted but also empowered by this truth for just as christ takes up solidarity with our death on the cross so he joins us with him in solidarity in his victory over the grave and his bursting forward to new life in the resurrection christ is not as it were an alien who has come down to us to teach us some secret knowledge and to offer us some powerful deeds but rather one who shares in the wholeness of the human condition and through sharing in it redeems it and conquers all that makes us suffer that at the last we may rise to reign with him in glory and so as we hold in our prayers all those who have died we remember before god with thanksgiving the life and the death of jesus christ we pray that we may be so deeply joined with him that we may know eternal hope and we pray that with him we may enter into heavenly bliss in a moment of silence let us hold before god all those who are particularly on our hearts today those whom we love but see no longer and ask that this day they would enter the father's kingdom eternal god our maker and redeemer grant us with all the faithful departed the sure benefits of your son's saving passion and glorious resurrection that in the last day when you gather up all things in christ we may with them enjoy the fullness of your promises through jesus christ our lord and we join these and all our prayers together in the words of the prayer that jesus himself taught us as we say our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen the lord bless you and keep you this night and always the father the son and the holy spirit amen