Remembrance 2024
Notes
Transcript
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Have you forgotten yet?…
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same—and War's a bloody game…
Have you forgotten yet?…
Words from the War poet - Siegried Sassoon. The poem is called “Aftermath”.
Have you forgotten yet - that War’s a bloody game? He asks.
Today is a day to Remember, there is a great danger of forgetting.
Today we remember those fallen in battle. Those who gave their “today’s” for the sake of our tomorrows - to secure the peace, safety and freedom we now experience and yet so often take for granted.
We must not forget them.
There are other dangers in forgetting of course…
The Philosopher George Santayana said…. SLIDE “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.
And yet… despite our efforts in Remembrance, history does repeat itself…. and war rumbles on.
We mark this day around the 11th Nov in commemoration of the end of the Great War - dubbed the war to end all wars…. Except it didn’t.
A few short decades Later, at the outbreak of the second world war Churchill famously broadcast to the nation saying SLIDE “If we can stand up to Hitler, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands of peace”.
We thank God for all who gave their lives to defeat the great evil of Nazism. But today, rather than Sunlit uplands of peace… we have war on European soil again.
And that is not to mention the countless wars and conflicts which rage on across the globe, including those which don’t make the headlines.
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Why are we like this? Why all the conflict? What does God have to say about any of this? Does he know? Or care?
PAUSE
We’re going to look at this short paragraph - a sentence of two that Jesus said… which speaks right to these issues. Alex read it for us earlier.
That reading began with those most famous words “Greater love has no one than this…” we’ll come back to that. Notice first of all that the reading ended with a clear command, from Jesus, to us.
That’s our first heading - the first thing to see today.
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1. A Clear Command
1. A Clear Command
What was the command? v17… SLIDE
17 This is my command: Love each other.
PAUSE…
Ask yourself this question. What are the most valuable things in your life? Answer? At the end of the day the really valuable stuff is not property or possessions…. it’s people and relationships, isn’t it?
That’s why this day is so painful for some of us, as we remember those dear family, friends, or comrades we have lost.
The most precious things in life are relationships. Have you ever wondered why that is?
The Bible says clearly that reason we value relationships is because we reflect God - because we were made in his image, and he is a God of relationship.
Did you notice in our reading we have Jesus (of course) -the SON of God… he’s the one speaking. He also speaks of his FATHER (did you hear that?)
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John 15:15 (NIV)
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
Elsewhere John’s gospel speaks of the Holy Spirit. SO here is ONE GOD (yes)… but this ONE GOD is a united family of three - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - translation… at the very centre of who God is…. is relationship. And since we’re made in his image relationships are key to us as well.
We were MADE for relationships….. to put it another way, we were made for LOVE.
And this is my command (says Jesus) LOVE EACH OTHER. SLIDE
17 This is my command: Love each other.
How different the world would be if we obeyed this command. To LOVE each other. That brings us to our second point…
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2. A World at War
2. A World at War
Look around the world today though… and it isn’t so much love but CONFLICT that we see. Wars rage in Ukraine, in Israel - Gaza - Syria - and Iran, Today at here are more than 35 other armed conflicts in Africa alone… although these made fewer headlines.
And if you think (oh don’t worry - human beings are gradually getting better - more progressive, less violent….) then please remember that other statistic…. You will have heard (I’m sure) that more people were killed in armed conflict in the century just past than in all other centuries combined.
And if we’re honest… the problem of war and conflict isn’t just OUT there in others… and our issues with conflict aren’t limited to armed warfare… there are conflicts in our homes, in marriages and families, between siblings, within communities - you name it. It’s not just OUT THERE… it’s in here. All around us relationships are broken and we feel the tragic pain of it all.
And the question that hangs over it all is this… WHY?! If we were made for love…. Why are we like this? We so unable to love each other…. why so many fractured relationships… from domestic disputes to global conflict and catastrophe.
The Bible gives a simple, yet uncomfortable answer.
Who is to blame? We are.
As someone once said… SLIDE The heart of the problem… is the problem of the human heart. I don’t mean the muscle that pumps blood around your body… I mean our human nature.
We were made for love… that’s why Jesus command ‘love each other is such a good one’. AND Most of all we were made to live in a loving and obedient relationship with God. We were made to live under God’s loving commands - we heard that in our reading too, Jesus said….
SLIDE
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
But instead each one of us has chosen to break God’s loving commands - to push God out of the picture of our lives. To insist on my life, my rules my way - not his way.
The Bible calls that our sin.
(slowly)
Is the great TRAGEDY and the great TREASON at the heart of the universe.
BREAK OFF
John Amery SLIDE was a British subject, born in London in 1912. A staunch anti-communist…. He came to embrace Nazism.
Amery told his family he had travelled to Spain to fight Franco in the Spanish civil war.. which was a lie. He actually went travelling round Europe stirring up Fascist movements. During the second world war he met with Hitler who was impressed by the young Brit.
From a base in Germany, Amery waged a campaign of radio broadcasts into Britain to stir up a Fascist movement back at home. He was eventually captured by the British…. Tried… found guilty of Treason against the King…. And executed.
Amery was a treasonous rebel.
But the shocking claim of the Bible is that we too are also treasonous rebels. We too are traitors… Not against the British crown…. But against the King of Kings - against God himself. We don’t all embrace the evils of Nazism, of course… but our nature is to reject God as our King… to live our lives our way with our rules.
Truth is, we’re all at war with God.
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What can be done about this? How can we solve this problem that leads to conflicts great and small?
Some people say the answer is to try harder….. to “Be the change you want to see” If we could just be better as individuals then that might add up to a better world.
The problem is . It doesn’t work. The Bible says there is something corrupted and broken about us - so that, as a human race - left to our own devices, we are simply not able to change our hearts. And the evidence for that is splashed across newspaper headlines every day…
Don’t hear me wrong….. we, as people, also have the capacity for doing great good - and today is a day when we remember the heroism of so many who’ve given so much.
No, we are a cocktail of the capacity good - we’re made in the image of God after all….
And the bad - that image is marred and broken by our sin.
We cannot fix ourselves…. Which means that war, whilst always dreadful, is, in a broken sinful world - sometimes necessary. Sometimes necessary to defend the weak, sometimes necessary to challenge the aggressor.
But What can be done to fix our broken world? Here’s where Jesus’ words - properly understood as so amazing.
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3. An offer of Peace
3. An offer of Peace
We come back to that verse sentence in our reading - those famous words.
SLIDE
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
How many times will those very words be said at memorials and services of Remembrance today and tomorrow across the nation? Thousands? Tens of Thousands of times even? (REPEAT the VERSE).
But here’s the thing. Here’s the punchline today… my guess is that the vast majority of folks who hear those words will completely misunderstand them.
RIFF - LHS assembly… nobody seemed to know that these words were said by JESUS.
It’s understandable isn’t it, that when we hear those words we think of those who have died in armed conflict…. those who have paid the highest price - laying down their lives for us. Don’t get me wrong It’s quite right that we honour them today and remember them today.
But these words were said by Jesus 2000 years ago…. long before the Great War.
And Jesus wasn’t talking about military personnel when he said them. He said these words not long before he went to the cross TO DIE…. was talking about himself.
Greater love has no one than ME (said Jesus)…. I am about to lay down MY life for my friends.
See…. The penalty for our treachery against God is death. God is a God of absolute Justice. But God is also a God of absolute love… How can he rescue us from the mess we’re in? A penalty must be paid for our sin…
So God comes himself…. In the person of his son Jesus Christ…. And he dies the death we deserve.
BREAK OFF
Let me tell you the story of SLIDE Lieutenant John Robert Fox. The 29-year-old GI involved in the US Army’s campaign in Italy during the second world war.
American troops were attempting to take a mountain village in Italy - there was brutal fighting between US and German forces.
On Christmas Day, the US forces eventually gained control of the village, and the soldiers were handing out cheese and chocolates to villagers.
However, the next day, the German counterattack began and they re-took most of the town meaning the US troops began to retreat.
Lieutenant John Robert Fox was an artillery spotter. His job was to hide out and direct artillery and warplanes where to aim their ordinance. And so as US soldiers retreated… Lieutenant Fox was stuck in his position, inside the village which was being overtaken by the enemy.
Hiding in his lookout position on the second floor of a house, he used the radio to contact his command and request that artillery fire be directed at the village. This would provide the troops with enough time to retreat.
The artillery officer replied, “Fox, you’re in the village… the artillery will land on you,”
But Lieutenant Fox replied, “Fire it. There’s more of them than there are us.”
The artillery was fired, Fox died, but the retreating soldiers were protected anf they were able to retake the town the following day. He died… taking the fire himself…. so that his troops might live and be victorious.
AND THAT is a picture of what SLIDE Jesus is doing at the cross.
Because of OUR sin there is a price to bear… a penalty to be paid. God must judge our sin. And yet in his great love he sends his own son… and Jesus comes WILLINGLY (just like Lieutenant Fox) into the firing line of Gods judgement. He dies so that we can be saved.
SLIDE
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Jesus dies, bearing the judgement of God - judgement we deserved, so we might be free and forgiven. And then he rises from the dead, defeating death… and so now he invites you.. do you want this freedom and forgiveness he offers.
One day he promises to return, and to bring in a kingdom of perfect peace, where there will be no more war, no more conflict, no more tears, no more need to remember the fallen with grief. And so now he invites you…. do you want a place in his perfect Kingdom?
Please can I stress to you…. we do not have this automatically. We must come to Jesus in repentance (turning from sin) and faith - looking to him and trusting in his death to bring forgiveness.
Do you want that? Will you not do that?
And then, for his people… bit by bit, day by day, Jesus is also changing us… we are reconnected to God in loving relationship, and learning to love one another as well in God’s new community, the church.
BREAK OFF
SLIDE
Have you forgotten yet?…
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same—and War's a bloody game…
Have you forgotten yet?…
Today is a day to Remember. We remember with gratitude those who have given their lives in armed conflict. But even more, Jesus calls EACH of us to look to and remember him - SLIDE Greater love has no-one than Jesus, who laid down his life for his friends. Will you be one of his friends?
Let’s pray
