Remembrance 2024
Today we remember all those have paid the ultimate sacrifice; both military and civilian who gave their lives in the Two World Wars and other conflicts since. But we must also remember those that have visual and those none visual injuries.Some people see this day as a celebration, nothing could be further away from the truth. We do not celebrate killing, we have come here to Remember the fallen. And we must continue to Remember, if not we forget what has happened in the past.Something to remember is that wars only happen once talking has failed. It is the last resort, something not to be taken lightly. If we listen to the news countries have gone beyond the talking and have resorted to killing one another.
There is a difference, isn’t there, between heroes and superheroes? Superheroes have extraordinary powers- like spiderman or batman or superwoman. They can do things which ordinary people-like us-cannot do. Heroes, on the other hand, are ordinary people. They can be tall or short, fat or thin, fast at running or slow at walking, good at maths or good at music, builders or accountants- you name it, and you could find a hero there. Heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things.
The soldiers some I knew and some I did not, who went into battle in the war were ordinary young men, coming from farms and factories, shops and offices, homes and families just like ours but they offered their lives in the hope of saving their country. Now that is heroism.
I prepared many a hero into areas of conflict, sadly all did not return. Something I have to live with. It is hard to believe in God when the world looks so very bad right now. But what Jesus was saying is that God’s power takes effect in us- when we turn to him and ask him to make us kinder and braver and stronger, and to lead us in the right direction. God can do extraordinary things with ordinary people-like us. Right now, the world, we badly need heroes: people who are ready to make a really big effort-an extraordinary effort- to move us from a bad place to a good place.
We need children who are kind to each other at school and who use social media to spread inspiring and funny things rather than being angry or nasty. We need families who take care of each other and respect each other’s needs. We need people who will smile cheerfully and exchange greetings even from a distance. We need to encourage each other in faith and in community. It sounds very ordinary but there will be many days yet when it will take extraordinary effort and when we have to be reminded to “be a hero.”
But today we are honouring the ordinary men and women of the past who became heroes by doing extraordinary things to save their homes, their families, their nation, their world. We must Remember Them. And as we thank God for their heroism, let us ask Him to make us heroes in our time, moment by moment, day by day. There hasn’t been one day in over two hundred years without some kind of war on earth. Political, tribal, religious, territorial, civil, regional and global wars. We’ve had a “seven day” war, a “thousand day” war and wars that have lasted a “thousand years” or more.
Some wars have cost the lives of a handful of people while others have taken the lives of tens of millions. Overall, it appears the very nature of mankind is to wage war. Referring to World War I, the hopeful phrase “War to End All Wars” was a short-lived misnomer.
Clearly, these are the days spoken of in the scriptures: I am reminded of what Matthew writes:
“ And they shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars. Behold I speak for mine elect’s sake; for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes,
1918 marked not only the end of World War I, but the end of at least three other wars that had been raging simultaneously: The Southern China Revolt, The Second Sino-Tibetan War and the Finnish Civil War. Not a breath had been taken before three new wars emerged in 1919; The Third Anglo-Afghan war, The Hungarian-Romanian war and the Spartacist Rising in Germany, wars few of us had any idea existed.
In 1920, there were ten concurrent wars raging, some of which started well before World War I and some that ended well after. That’s how it’s been for the past two hundred years or more. Back-to-back battles overlapping each other as though it were a race to end the existence of mankind.
Remembrance Sunday falls on the Sunday nearest the 11th November when the first world war ended in 1918. Today we try to remember. We must remember the victims of war and all those who have died to help bring freedom and to help make the world a better place to live in. But today is also a stark reminder that our world is deeply broken and divided because of human violence.
For the Christian, Remembrance Day also presents a unique opportunity for us to ponder on the way of peace. God calls us to look to Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace.
In the life and teachings of Jesus we see that God establishes peace in his world in an unconventional way. Jesus does not enter into physical battle in order to defeat the enemies of God.
Instead, Jesus chooses the way of non-violence. Jesus lays down his life and dies at the hand of God’s enemies in order to defeat evil. Only then does God raise Jesus from the dead in the victory over sin and death. In the person of Jesus, we see the perfect example of humble obedience, sacrificial love, and life-giving peace. With this in mind, Jesus words in John 20.21 come into sharp focus: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” Peace with us, if only that could be the case.
We are God’s sent ones, ambassadors for Christ, commissioned by the Holy Spirit to announce the good news of God’s peaceable kingdom. But what is more, we are called to embody God’s peace in the world. God is leading us to be his peacemakers. So, on this day of “remembrance” let us seize the opportunity and prayerfully take to heart the radical message of the Prince of Peace and follow his way of reconciling love. Let us discern together the ways in which God is calling us to be peacemakers in his world.
Martin Luther King Jr writes:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence’’
Today we especially ‘remember’ those who have given their lives through war in service of our country. They have left home and family often to foreign lands in the search of justice, freedom and peace; the effects of which we feel in our society today. The world could have been a very different place for us without their sacrifice, which cannot, should not, must be forgotten. I will never forgot those that I have lost.
The memories we recall this Remembrance Sunday should spur us forward in the search for true harmony and peace throughout the world. As the Lord commanded the apostles to “Do this in memory of me” we gather this day praying for the graces of the great sacrifice of Calvary to engulf the whole world that we may live in the harmony for which Christ prayed; and to our fallen we say “We will remember them”.
Let us finish with a prayer from which hangs in St George’s Chapel in Jerusalem:
Pray not for Arab or Jew, for Palestinian or Israeli,
but pray rather for ourselves, that we might not
divide them in our prayers but keep them both together
in our hearts.
