SERMON: REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY
November 14th, 2010: 10 am
Readings: 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13; Luke 21: 5-19
************************
Symbols of suffering and renewal
Symbols help us to remember.
Symbols help us to interpret life and death.
Symbols point us to the inner reality that they represent.
I have been particularly affected this year by the pictures and symbols which have surrounded this season of remembrance, and particularly the symbols of destruction, of sacrifice and of renewal.
You may have seen the BBC TV programme last Sunday, which presented aerial photography of the devastation wrought in the First World War around the western front. There were pictures in 1916 of a village church near Passchendaele surrounded by a patchwork of farm fields and narrow country roads; and a year later pictures of a lunar landscape of pitted earth, a ruined church and unremitting bleakness. I could have been looking at an image of Hiroshima.
Then there was the opening, last Friday, of the new gallery at the Imperial War Museum devoted to holders of the Victoria Cross and the George Cross. I visited this exhibition, called Extraordinary Heroes, to see the medals and the other personal items of these brave men and women. This is partly because, with my hobby as a numismatist, I’m interested in coins and medals. But I was also interested to find out about the people who received these awards for exceptional courage, and acts of self-sacrifice.
It’s invidious to single out individuals, but I was particularly moved by the story of Noel Chavasse, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, who has been the only holder of two Victoria Crosses, both awarded because in situations of extreme danger, he rescued and tended the wounded, at the Somme in 1916 and at Passchendaele the following year, where he died. But heroism is not confined to holders of medals – there have been many acts of personal courage both in and beyond the theatre of war over the centuries.
And these Victoria Crosses and George Crosses, by their very shape, and symbolism, and their reminder of personal sacrifice, remind us of the crucifixion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ – who made the ultimate sacrifice of his life on the cross, that we may live.
And directly beneath the Extraordinary Heroes exhibition in the Imperial War Museum is the chilling Holocaust gallery. This made me reflect on the evil which wars may have to confront, and it made me recall the ghastly images I saw of brutality to the Jewish people when I visited the remains of the concentration camp at Dachau, near Munich a few years ago. This reminded me as to why there is a long tradition in Christian thought which accepts that there may be circumstances in which, as a last resort, war may be justifiable under certain conditions – a tragic necessity to prevent a worse evil.
In the Bible we read of war as an instrument of God’s righteousness, and we read of Israel’s deliverance from oppression. We also hear how the God of Israel shows himself to be Lord over all the nations. But we also see the ultimate vision of a great feast for all the people, a feast beyond comparison for its hospitality.
The vision contained in Luke chapter 21 (of which our gospel reading forms part), is sometimes described as the Apocalyptic Discourse – a picture of future events and of the Second Coming of Jesus. And this is a vision that we find also in Mark and Matthew. We read that the age of destruction will pass away; and in the age to come, death will be replaced with life, and sorrow with joy. In the power of the risen Christ, the Kingdom of God is already breaking in on this world, but it is also a kingdom which is yet to come. Meanwhile we, and the whole Church, must seek to bring peace to our needy world and to work for the coming of the kingdom.
We read in Luke’s vision of the hostile reception that the good news of Jesus can encounter. But in times of persecution, there is the strength of Christian witness. In the early Church, described in the Acts of the Apostles, many acts of witness are described, and the followers of Jesus suffer for their faith. The Christian witness of the past two thousand years has been costly, and the cost is still being borne by followers of Jesus today. Meanwhile we are called to be faithful, watchful and alert. And we are called to declare our faith in word and deed, even where this may be costly for us.
And so today, we remember and honour those who have lost their lives in war and conflict, seeking to defeat tyranny and to establish peace. The past must be recalled in the present, but we must remember well.
Symbols help us to remember, and to learn. The destructive symbolism of the lunar landscape at Passchendaele; the star of David - the Holocaust symbol of suffering - which was used by the Nazis to label, abuse and kill the Jews; and the heroic symbolism of the Victoria Cross and the George Cross.
We will shortly receive the bread and wine of Holy Communion - living symbols of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we remember well that in his dying and rising Christ set us free and gave us new life. May we offer this Eucharist for the healing of the nations. And may we look to the time when the conflict of the present world gives way to the harmony and joy of the Messiah’s banquet.
Amen. Come Lord Jesus.
DW 13/11/10