Remembrance Sunday – Sunday 10th November 2024 – St Anne’s, Wrenthorpe
Genesis 8:6-12 | Matthew 26:36-42
I would not normally stray from the Revised Common Lectionary. However, those preaching in North Wakefield Benefice were given the option to choose suitable readings for today.
Memory is important to us.
So much is experienced in every human life.
Each moment captured through all of our senses
Memory is also ‘inherited’ – the histories of others, of the world … to all be wrapped together as our memories.
Remembering can be quite a challenge.
All that has happened to us – some we wish to hang on to and much we may wish to forget.
It isn’t easily retained or easy to recall.
The need to instantly remember information .. names are something I am not good with!
The memories of loved ones, are precious to us.
And yet, memory fades and ultimately fails.
Collective memory is essential for communities to remember a shared history, events, success and failure – joy and misery.
This can a bond, and yet it can also divide.
And it is imperative that remembering where we went wrong might prevent us from doing so again.
For it is said:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 1
Remembrance Sunday is a time to publicly recall those who have died during the World Wars of the last century, and in so many other conflicts.
These days we recall not only those of the armed forces, but all who have lost lives in public service, through warfare and acts of violence across the globe.
And although this is a “national” time of remembering, in a specific way… it is also a moment when personal mourning meets hope, history plays into our futures and its ok to feel as you do, however that is.
We often use symbols to help us connect ideas, history and a sense of togetherness.
The poppy, has been associated with The Armed forces for over 100 years.
It represents the possibility that life that can grow in the wasteland, of the devastation that is war.
It isn’t a symbol that suits everyone.
To NOT wear a poppy isn’t necessarily a sign of disrespect or not-caring.
Each generation makes its own way with convention, tradition and culture.
Attitudes towards war and conflict will change…
And we will all find our own ways to deal with the pain of loss, and the memories that remain – sometimes to haunt…. Sometimes to inspire…
Central to our collective remembering, and hopefully our understanding of history, is RESPONSIBILITY.
Taking an ownership of decisions made, our choices in all aspects of life: from the ways in which our faith and belief can influence the way we raise families; how our conscience affects how we work, or vote or seek to redress injustice; the ways we treat others, and those choices that might end in failure, suffering and loss.
We must own them….
Fear might influence our choices, and yet it is a primal, human condition that we cannot ignore.
In the passage from Matthews Gospel, we see Jesus knowing real fear.
His arrest and likely crucifixion could come at any moment.
Yet He had made choices. He knew what must come to pass.
His was God’s mission… God’s hope for humanity.
What Jesus experienced in The Garden is not unknown to us.
Not all who place themselves in harms way would call themselves “brave”.
Not all those who prove themselves to be brave, as we understand the word, have experienced battle or peril, yet so many have, and still do.
Soldiers in the trenches of the First World War may have reconsidered their eagerness to ‘join-up’ with hindsight, wondering if perhaps today would not be their turn to “go over the top”.
All who serve to protect life and bring order to chaos, will hope to be led by women and men that will make good choices. We know this isn’t always so.
At the end of the First World War, no one believed that a global conflict such as that could happen again.
Then, after the Second World War, the United Nations was formed to promote world peace and avoid global conflicts.
And yet still, humanity seems intent on pushing aside peaceful efforts, to get what it wants.
There are many symbols of hope and peace in the Bible.
Like this one…. from my garden – a place I always find inspiration.
[Pause to wave branch a bit…)
And yes, unsurprisingly, the flag of the United Nations features olives branches embracing the globe.
What we call the Old Testament was based on collective histories.
The stories of Creation, in the Book of Genesis, serve to remind the reader of God’s love for the world – regardless of disasters and challenges.
And Noah – the chap with the big boat and way too many pets – was charged with saving what he could and, as the waters receded, hope was found in the leaves from an olive tree, returned in the beak of a dove, against all the odds.
The olive branch has symbolised honour and peace since the times of Ancient Greece.
The olive tree features a lot in the Bible and, should you ever visit Jerusalem, the site of Gethsemene’s garden is home to some magnificent olive trees thought to be over 2000 years old.
If they could speak to us, I wonder what memories they would reveal?
Memory. Remembering. Remembrance.
All of our individual lives may be lived, in their entirety, in the fear and doubt of being forgotten.
So much effort can and will be invested in being remembered for our achievements, whatever they may be.
If we could live, in the hope of being remembered for how we love, as people loved by God, then that is a life worthy of recollection….
Many remembered today, gave their all, for such a hope.
The responsibility to seek peace, at every turn; to honour the sacrifices made by others – rests with us now, and in our futures.
Will all the hopes and dreams, of those whose lives were taken in war, be rekindled in our dreams for peace and justice?
How will we show honour and respect…?
And your tomorrows….?
Will you talk of peace? Will you speak truth to power?
Will you seek to reconcile with others, and say sorry? Or help those who remain in darkness to see some light of hope?
I Pray you find some courage for this….
For now more than ever, the olive branch, the dove, an embrace, a handshake, even just a kind word: these must be known and seen alongside our poppies and our graves and memorials.
I finish with some words of Jesus, from the Gospel of John:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” 2
Amen.
Image: Ikea poster in our downstairs loo. Apologies for ghostly image of photographer!
1: George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man. (Here)
2: John 14:27 NRSV