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You could guarantee how the preacher would start their sermon. Every year, once a year. Every year a different preacher. Every year the same start. To be fair, they did have a point.
The Community’s Commemoration Day took place each November, normally on the first Thursday, depending on which day All Saints’ fell. It was a major gathering, with many people associated with the Community coming, and the Chapel was full. Hence, we used the pulpit, which by the time I came was only used on this day. The Chapel was initially designed without a pulpit, and the present pulpit was added in the mid-1950s. As there was no particular space for it, it was put half way up a pillar, near the sanctuary. The steps to going up to it are rather steep, and you need to avoid the bell rope, which is in the same place, and also avoid hitting your head!. Every year on Commemoration Day, the preacher would comment on the perilous ascent to the pulpit – at least, until we stopped using it for that also.
But it strikes me that they may have had a deeper, if probably inadvertent, point to make. Jesus tells us in Matthew’s gospel to enter by the narrow gate (see Matthew 7:13-14), and says that the way is hard that leads to life. That steep ascent into the pulpit is a kind of illustration of this. It’s not particularly easy to get to. Neither is the way to life. All Saints seems an ideal time of year to remind us of this. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life. The Saints know this well. None of them signed up for an easy ride; they signed up as disciples, followers of Jesus, and they knew that meant they had to give their all. That is hard. Reading through the gospels makes this clear. See Matthew 10; Luke 6:27-36 and Luke 14:25-33, among many others. The early disciples would have known this well. Now that Christianity is so much part of the culture, this message can be easy to avoid.
What exactly does it mean to enter by the narrow gate? I’ve pondered this over the years, and have never come to a clear answer. We seek for certainty, but we are led by a way that can only be trod by trust. What I am clear on is that, like the saints, we are called to give our all. This is not a way that can be followed by those who are only half in; it is total commitment. But it is not easy. It is not easy to discern exactly where to give our time and our talents. Giving our all does not necessarily mean dropping out of circulation, spending no time with family and friends or spending so much time at church that we might be living there. Rather, it is an attitude that puts Jesus first and foremost. Whatever we are, and whatever we do, Jesus is our priority. Which means love. Love for God and neighbour – as well as ourselves. It may be that the last is most difficult for some of us. Accepting that God loves us totally; that God’s compassion and mercy is there for us; that we are forgiven, and more than forgiven. Realising that the love God has for us must be accepted, and that it is that love which we then respond to in our own love for God and those around us. It is only by allowing God to love us, as totally as we are able to, that we can then love God. We cannot do it by ourselves, we can only do this through and with God.
That may be what the narrow gate is all about. It is about not putting ourselves first, however that may be for us. It is about giving ourselves to God, in whatever small steps we can do so; giving ourselves more and more to God, so that God may love through us. We cannot do God’s work; we can only allow God to work in us. In the end, we cannot come to God saying ‘look at what I did for you’; we can only come empty, allowing God to show us how much work was done through us – or not. For we are all sinners, and we all block the work of God in one way or another. Coming before God regularly in acknowledgement of that, is but one way in which we can enter through the narrow gate, in which we can soak ourselves in the love and compassion of God, and hopefully start to allow some of that love and compassion through to those we meet.
The Saints are there to encourage and inspire us; it is at All Saints-tide that we celebrate all the saints. This famous and those unknown; those obviously saints and those obviously not. It is easy to look at the saints and think – that is not for me. But what are saints except people who have given themselves totally to God, through whom God has been able to work? Is it not true that we are all called to this? Ah, but … yes, we are sinners; yes, we mess up; yes, maybe we think the saints have capacities beyond us mere mortals. But the saints too are mortals; the saints too are sinners. Human beings who have given themselves to God. Haven’t you and I done the same? Do you feel the call to enter through the narrow gate … or are you taking the easy way along the wide path?
This is probably a question which we cannot answer in this life. If we say ‘yes, I’ve gone through the narrow gate’, we may find that it is that attitude which proves we have not. If we think we haven’t, then we may actually have done so. Ultimately, it is not a question of us knowing which way we have taken, but that God knows. We are called to follow the way of the cross, trusting in God for each step of the journey. But we do not do this alone: God is with us, as are our Christian family – including all those saints who have gone before us and now cheer us on (see Hebrews 12).
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