Remembering... Earn this...

I am pleased to have been part of a generation that has not seen a major world war – by saying that I am not reducing the importance of the conflicts in the Falklands and the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan and so on, particularly for those who have taken part, but it is now nearly 70 years since there has been a world war – a war that truly impacted upon the lives of everyone throughout this country on a daily basis. 

Memories have faded a little… those who took part have tried to wipe away the worst memories… time has helped to heal some of the pain from those who lost a loved one or loved ones. 

One of the best reminders people of my generation has of war is from films. Many actually help to romanticise the whole idea, but a few have tried to capture some of the horrific emotion of war. One such film was ‘Saving Private Ryan’. 

For those who don’t know the film was set during and immediately following the D Day landings in Normandy. It tells the story of a group of 8 soldiers on a dangerous mission to find Private James Ryan whose 3 brothers have already died in the war – leaving him as an only child. The mission involves going deep behind enemy lines to try and locate Ryan and then to bring him back safely. 

In the film, many of the emotions experienced by the 8 soldiers and eventually by Ryan himself actually mirror many of the emotions we have as Christians. Some of those emotions are positive, and some negative and it is some of these emotions that I want to think about today. 

The first is anger… or perhaps hurt or fright. These soldiers cannot understand why they are being asked to risk their lives for just 1 man – one line in the film says, ‘in purely arithmetic terms, risking 8 lives for 1 simply doesn’t make sense.’ They are wondering why Ryan’s life seems more important than theirs. They are angry at their instructions, and hurt by the circumstances. 

I’m sure if we’re honest there have been times when we have been angry with God – something has not gone quite the way we wanted – maybe someone we love has become seriously ill, or even died, maybe we have lost a job, a marriage has broken down… things don’t always turn out as we hope or expect, and sometimes we take out that anger, hurt or pain on God. 

And this can often lead on to doubt – Just as these soldiers often doubted the success of their mission, we can have doubts about God. It is all too easy to stand here and say we should trust in God, but we will all know that it is not so easy to do at absolutely every moment in our lives.

Another emotion which could be picked up from the film was persistence or determination. In spite of the anger, the fear, the doubts, the soldiers knew that they had no option other than to carry on with the mission. 

There was no turning back – and again in our Christian lives when we feel pain or doubt, that should also be our lesson – we need to be persistent – there are times when we need to work a little harder, perhaps a lot harder on praying and trying to get nearer to God… through some of the most difficult times, when God somehow seems far away, we can trust that he is not… 

The final emotion I want to think about for now is friendship…. even love. That group of 8 soldiers had been put together with no apparent psychological sense – there were different characters, but by the end they had built up a huge respect for each other – a close bond which would have led any one of them to risk their lives for one of the others. In adversity they had been pushed together. 

In many ways this is true of the Church. Throughout its history many of its greatest works have come in times of adversity. Much of the New Testament was written against a background of persecution and suffering… and some of the strongest churches in the world today are those which have faced adversity in some way – whether it be through persecution or poverty.

Some say war is character building, and I’m sure it can be, but of course we don’t want war… for the Church there is little doubt that adversity can be strengthening, but we don’t want adversity. 

And this is another place where Remembrance fits in so well – at this time we give thanks for those who have risked their lives in war, and those who have given their lives in war – and we remember families broken apart- we think of sacrifices made on our behalf. 

It is on this day that we think of the character of those people who have fought in wars, but rather than seek to have the same experiences we try to learn from past experiences. We must ensure that wars are not forgotten because they are part of our history, part of what has shaped our country, but also so that mistakes of the past will not be so easily repeated.

Of course there are some people who think we should no longer commemorate Remembrance in Church, that we should forget the wars completely – they are in the past and should be left there. But this is quite wrong – if we forget we will never learn and never be able to recognise what people have done for us in the past.        

As Christians we have in the past been guilty of making some of the worst mistakes – we preach a gospel of love yet throughout history the Christian religion has been associated with many wars and injustice. 

But our faith has no place for conflict or injustice… Jesus didn’t come into the world as many had expected as a great military leader – he came as a humble man of peace, not leading armies, but preaching peace and reconciliation. The fact that humans have got it wrong so many times in the world does not lessen the message of Jesus. 

Just as many of the emotions we can find from soldiers fighting in wars seem to mirror those sometimes expressed by Christians, so the history of war in many ways mirrors our relationship with God. 

In the last 100 years alone, we have had the so called war to end all wars, followed very soon after by another world war. Since that time we have had hundreds of smaller conflicts. The history of war is one of failing to learn from past mistakes, failing to learn from past sacrifices. 

In many ways the history of our relationship with God is very similar, humanity has turned from God, been given another chance, turned away, turned back and so on… 

In Saving Private Ryan one of the final messages from the film is Captain Miller, who had been in charge of the mission to find Ryan and who now lay fatally wounded. He tells the saved Ryan to live his life as a tribute to those who had died to save him. He uses the simple words ‘EARN THIS’.... 

The film then flashes to the current day showing Ryan as an elderly man looking over Captain Millers’ grave, one of thousands in Northern France marked by a simple white cross. He asks his wife if he had been a good man…, She assures him he has. 

I wonder how many of those who died in war could look at us now and say that we have earned their sacrifice… that what we are doing in the world today was worth them dying for, because surely the greatest tribute we can give to those who have died is to try and ensure that the world that they fought to make a better place, is that better place. ‘Earn this’ is surely the cry to all of us from those who have given so much.  

And of course, for a Christian it would be wrong to remember any sacrifice without remembering the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross – and I wonder what our response would be if we were to be standing at the gates of heaven as he asks us, ‘have you earned this?’…….. Have we earned his sacrifice, his love – have we tried ? 

On the cross those are surely the unspoken words coming from him – “Earn this…” And we never really earn his sacrifice and his continued love, that is an incredible gift of God, but we try to live as he wants us to live… caring as he cares, loving as he loves – indiscriminately!

We must remember those who have died, and those whose lives have been forever changed as a result of war or conflict and we must trust and seek the assistance of Christ to ensure that we make our contribution to making the world a better place in every way. AMEN