Sermon for Remembrance Sunday, 11^th Nov. 2007.

Does God really protect those who worship him?     Yes.

Both the readings we have just heard are about the resurrection. Holding faith in the mystery and power of the resurrection is a challenge to all of us. We, like the early Christians, are tested and tried by both outside influences and our own inner worries.

And today of all days reminds us that the power of death and the power of evil are always with us. When we feel we need reassurance of God’s care for us  we have many passages like these ones which focus on the reality of the resurrection, we have Jesus’ explanation and his promises. Unlike the very early Christians we have the Bible to both strengthen and inspire us.

Now if we also used the Old Testament readings we would have heard a passage from Job. That marvellous OT book which faces head on the problem of suffering. Job had taken for granted, like many other people through the centuries, that if you worship God then you will be protected from all the bad things in life, and when this proves not to be the case Job feels he has reached the end of his tether, he has been abandoned not only by all his family and friends but also by God.

He was mighty angry with God, and yet there was something which was stopping him totally turning away from God. What he wanted was an explanation from God as to why he was having to suffer. But in the midst of his anger and suffering he knew that God was still with him and he said the words now so well known ‘I know that my Redeemer lives.’ He knew that God was with him, that God still loved him, and that is God’s promise to us all, when we are suffering it is not that God has left us, but that we in the midst of all our grief we sometimes  cannot see him. So what Job found out and sang  ‘I know that my Redeemer lives’ is true for each of us.

To me particularly on this Remembrance Sunday it is important to accept that it is alright to be angry, even with God, God is big enough to cope with us, when bad things happen, when for example we think of young lives lost in war, but the important thing is even in the midst of anger and distress to know that God is still with each one of us, understanding suffering, suffering with those who suffer.   Christ wept over Jerusalem, so I believe he weeps now with all who suffer.

Just as the Sadducees questioned Jesus, over the centuries countless believers have questioned what the resurrection means. Through the mystery of the resurrection of Christ, we are promised a life in the resurrection with Him and with all of the saints and angels who have gone before us. This is Christ's promise to his followers throughout the generations. Our part of the agreement is that we will keep the fire of God’s love alive in our hearts, and work to create God’s kingdom here on earth, to make the world that better place so many have willingly given their lives for. Amen