Remembrance Sunday is a symbolic day in the life of
our nation. We remember and honour the lives of service man and women who, for
our freedom, fell in the trenches and wastelands the length of the Western
front; we remember and pay tribute to the memory of those who fell in the
second global conflict that took such a terrible toll on humanity; we remember those
who fought in more recent campaigns, Korea, the Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq and
Afghanistan. And finally we remember those drawn into the maw of war from the
Empire; we are proud to honour their citizen’s sacrifice for Britain. Today in
this service and later, we honour and pay tribute to the memory of all the
fallen and particularly those who fell in the line of duty from this town. The
best tribute to those who died and are still dying for their country comes
today around the town’s cenotaph. It will take the form of silent, reverential
homage. In the words of Lawrence Binyon’s poem “For the fallen”.....we shall remember them.
But remembrance is
not static – it’s a constantly growing and evolving action which gives us the
opportunity to take hold of the past and transform it. As a result of military conflict
and the horrors of war we humans have a choice, we can either generate
destruction through the practice of hate or generate peace through the practice
of love. Many of our fellow country men and women have chosen the latter way, to
reach out with grace, understanding and healing, a way not of denial and
revenge, but a way of love, of trying (and I like that humble little world) to love
one’s neighbour. Such is the power of love that our fellow countrymen and women
reach out with ever greater acts of love and compassion. And by their action life
is regenerated and people miraculously thrive and are healed. So today, I with
you, would wish to salute and remember
not only the fallen but to give thanks for the many individuals, groups and
organisations who as a result of military conflict are making a positive difference
to our world, our country and community, who are finding ways of providing healing,
hope and peace.
A
way of love shown by the inhabitants of Wooten Bassett; a royal title has been
bestowed of the small Wiltshire market town. The honour came in recognition of
the years when the bustle of everyday life stopped on 167 occasions to honour
the repatriated bodies driven through its streets.
A
way of love shown by the England football team’s personal response to wear
poppies on their black armbands at yesterdays match against Spain.
Alas our country is still at war. Our nation is
beset with deep uncertainties. Security
pervades our daily lives on an unheard-of scale making us feel even more
insecure; and if that were not enough, a global economic crisis that is
probably the worst for more than a century and which will take years, maybe
decades, to recover from. The world is not the same as it was. We live in precarious
times which make us very afraid for the safety of our world and the future of
our children.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a 20th Century Roman
Catholic theologian, shifts our focus from why things happen to asking “how
will we respond” to the sadness and destruction of war and to an uncertain and
insecure world. As we all know, enmity,
hatred, revenge and bitterness are almost inevitable consequences of violence
and war. Jesus Christ was the first human being in history to make the divine
revelation: ‘Love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you.’ This might
sound unrealistic, almost ridiculous and certainly extremely difficult to
follow. Every one of us has the choice:
to surrender our hearts to anger and revenge, or to allow the risen Lord to
help us fulfil His commandment to love our enemy and to remember always that
love never falls. That is our choice: to repay evil with evil or to show the
humility to repay evil with an act of love. The Royal British Legion, Help for
Heroes, the inhabitants of Royal Wooten Bassett and countless thousands of
individual members of the British public in their dedication and fund raising
efforts have found another way, a way of love that leads to peace. Beloved
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “Goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger
that death; victory is ours, through Him who loves us.”
To
remember, then, is to engage in an activity that reconstitutes us. By
recollecting and recalling, we make and pledge ourselves anew to each other,
and to God. So remembering is not a dry duty. It is a vital and hopeful form of
recall that reshapes us for the better. Remembering the dead is really all
about facing the task of living anew. It is about hope, and about recommitment.
However, there is a world of difference between reminding people of the past
and remembering it. Reminders simply recall, and can all too easily lead, if
one is not careful, to the perpetual contemplation of pain (and the anger that
evokes). The wounds never heal; they are left open, and are prodded and poked
on a regular basis, so that others may participate in the pain afresh.
But
remembrance is different. It is a faithful and engaged act of recollection,
which is both constructive for the present and hopeful for the future.
God is love and when we translate this love into
action, we become rooted in God and God becomes rooted in us. We imitate the one whose words and works were
life-changing for those on whom he turned the light of truth and looked with
the gaze of love. For then we find that as his heart speaks to our hearts we
begin to face the future with equanimity, and even with hope. In bewildering
times, we are right to be suspicious of easy speeches, grand designs, quick
fixes. If we think this is Christianity, we have not been paying attention. Yet
we can be sure of Love’s great ways. We are more than conquerors through him
who loved us. We remember. We do not loose heart.
As
one Jewish sage put it, while dining with his friends and with his betrayer at
hand: "Do this in remembrance of me."
Amen
Ray Anglesea is a self supporting minister working
in St Andrew’s Dawson Street LEP, Crook and in the wider West Durham Methodist
Circuit
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