Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: November 1st 2026

Jan van Eyck - Adoration of the Lamb

All Saints -

'The power of gentleness and the gentleness of power' NT Wright

We deserve to treat our spiritual lives better, we deserve to discover the gentleness and humility of Jesus by learning again and again to really listen to his presence in the 'Word', primarily in the Scriptures. I write this with a sense of almost desperation at the noise and almost truths spouted at us by Christians from all kinds of denominational backgrounds, who rant about their favourite religious obsessions on our social media platforms, causing a great deal of confusion in the process. There are alas, clergy of our own tradition who pontificate on all kinds of issues or opine on things written or said by others that, when examined carefully, show they have just not listened to, nor perhaps even read the actual words, nor examined carefully the total context of the subject matter. Nowadays I try not to read or listen to this babble of misinformation too much, it is certainly not 'godly', nor is it edifying in the sense of building up one another's faith, but it does reveal a lot of insecurity and anger about religious belief and practice.

We 'seem' to be far more intolerant and polarised and certainly quicker to criticise others who might not share our values. But I do not find this too disturbing, for at the heart of this noise, clamour, negativity and scandal mongering of others, is a sense that something real is taking place, that the reign of God and the Kingdom are constantly being revealed, for this is as the last Beatitude of the gospel of Matthew puts it :"Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.h Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you". (Mt 5:11,12)

This great feast of All Saints is a necessary antidote to our confused world and in particular at this point the false celebration of `Halloween', a celebration that is muddled in the extreme, and which, unlike the folksy aspect of Christmas which has at least a tenuous link to the birth of Christ, does not have the sense that it belongs to something greater and more powerful. The connection to All Saints and its twin All Souls, All Hallows Eve, has been eroded to the point where it has become totally obscured in a strange mix of folk customs that have lost their way and become submerged in yet another example of consumer culture. There is a challenge here, to put back the celebration of All Saints and All Souls as something central to out Christian lives and the Kingdom, but how?

Matthew is the gospel of this feast, the text chosen is the teaching of the Beatitudes as taught by Jesus, found in Chapter five. It is worth our while to spend sometime in reading, listening, and meditating on these blessings, for they are foundational to our faith, non negotiable elements of being a follower of Christ in the Kingdom of God already present. I have found renewed inspiration in reading and listening to one of our great New Testament scholars, NT Wright. Whilst he speaks from an evangelical Anglican perspective, his understanding of the New Testament is profound and valuable. This is part of my own recommendation to myself, to go back to reflective study and better relearn my scriptures, to 'hear them' again. In his work, Surprised by Hope, Wright reminds us of a basic truth:

"When we learn to read the story of Jesus and see it as the story of the love of God, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves - that insight produces, again and again, a sense of astonished gratitude which is very near the heart of authentic Christian experience."

This helps me to understand the Beatitudes as part of the experience and vocation of those called to be 'saints', the holy ones of God, it also takes me out of any complacency and the false security of any attempt by myself to mould my faith into something I find easy or comfortable to deal with.

So what of the Beatitudes? We need to see them something more than a 'to do' list of pious actions, and far more then just a moral framework by which we regulate our lives. They are an announcement by Jesus of the Kingdom already present and about us, seen and found in the meek and gentle of the earth but also discerned in the helplessness and problems of existence:

'"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
* Blessed are they who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek and gentle,

for they will inherit the land". (Mt 5:3-5)

In case you might wonder why the stress is on meek and gentle, or those who mourn, thirst for righteousness and so on, then think of how God is described by Jesus when involved in caring for others, it is as a shepherd, but a vulnerable, gentle, loving, good shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep, who seeks the lost whilst protecting the remainder in the safety of the enclosed arms of their sheepfold, which is also his calling ! This is the value system of the Kingdom, for when God truly operates with us, it is significant that it is as a servant, as one who reaches into the depth and for whom the values of this Kingdom are antithetical to most of those the successful world counts as power and might.

On this double feast, as we celebrate the glory of those who reflect the Shekinah of God, those who like Moses shine with God's divine light and love, our saints. But we also draw in the feast of All Souls, the not quite yet of mortal life and endeavour, those who have struggled as we do and tried to exemplify the life of Christ by being the beatitudes in real time. This is us today, for as we look towards those we cannot see yet in faith sense these ones in peace with God, the 'saints', we also acknowledge the need for 'metanoia' and sure and certain hope that even in death as those 'all souls', the merciful love of the Holy One will reach us in that gift of salvation. Both feasts are ours and even if we suffer for Christ's sake, we know as I pointed out earlier, that this is part of God's topsy-turvey Kingdom meeting with our human rule of imperfection and sin. So we take heart and return again to reflect on these words of salvation :

"Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you". (Mt 5:11-13)

Lectio

Picking up on the Beatitudes

St John Chrysostom on Gentleness

"When your enemy falls into your hands, do not consider how you can pay him back and let him feel the sharp edge of your tongue before sending him packing; consider rather how you can heal him and restore him to a better frame of mind. Continue to make every effort both by word and deed until your gentleness has overcome his aggressiveness. Nothing has more power than gentleness. As someone has said: A soft word will break bones. And what is harder than bone? Well then, even if someone is as hard and inflexible as that, he will be conquered if you treat him gently. There is another saying: A soft answer turns away wrath. It is obvious, therefore, that whether your enemy continues to rage or whether he is reconciled depends much more on you than on him. For it rests with us, not with those who are angry, either to destroy their anger or enflame it." (John Chrysostom, Homilies on David and Saul)

Choosing to become one that follows Christ

Simply Christian N T Wright

"Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamour for vengeance. Made for relationship, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment. But new creation has already begun. The sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world ... That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God's new world, which he has thrown open before us."

NT Wright Surprised by Hope

"The Resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating that God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven."

"The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it."