On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 the First World War officially ended. There was great rejoicing, and celebrations began, but for many people their lives had been devastated seemingly beyond repair. Eventually in 1921 after many calls for the dead and seriously injured to be remembered the first Armistice day parade was held…
Tragically of course the world would once again, in less than 20 years, be plunged into a huge war… Ever since, whilst people have remembered and commemorated Armistice Day, wars and conflict have continued. Today, amidst many smaller conflicts going on in the world, we see the conflicts in Ukraine and in Israel and Gaza highlighted daily in the news…
Back in 2008 I went on a study tour to the Holy Land looking at reconciliation and conflict there – it was a moving time – it highlighted the massive complications of reaching peace there but amidst the tragedy and complications we witnessed, there was also signs of hope.
There is Bethlehem, the town represented so much in our faith, the town where Jesus was born. Today it’s surrounded by a 28 foot high wall – a wall that the Israelis call a security fence, but the Palestinians refer to as a separation wall.
In many ways it’s a symbol representing the fact that peace and reconciliation doesn’t seem possible, and yet in Bethlehem there are stories of hope – there are the people offering hope in a hospital run for people who would otherwise find it difficult to get medical care; there’s an orphanage where children are brought up to be part of families, brought together not by any blood ties, but by tragedy and love…. There are people carrying on day to day lives praying for peace, and living peacefully….
And on that trip I also met 2 parents – one a Palestinian and one a Jew. Both are members of the Bereaved Parents Circle, an organisation set up for parents who have lost children in the troubles that are all too obvious in the area. Hate was one option for them, retaliation another, and yet instead they have chosen peace and reconciliation.
They have chosen to tell their stories in the hope that they can avoid others suffering as they have suffered. In Bethlehem, in the Bereaved Parents Circle – in the work of churches throughout the Holy Land, there is work being done which says that peace is possible, that darkness will always be overcome by light…
Choosing hope when life seems dark isn’t easy, but the Christian message is absolutely one of hope in darkness, of light, in the form of resurrection, coming out of the tragedy of the cross…
In the tragedy of wars of the past and the conflicts of today, we must learn and whilst it seems that we as humans are pretty slow to learn lessons about avoiding war, there must be a hope that one day things will get better, and the peace, which is surely the desire of all of us, will be complete.
George Santayana, an American philosopher said, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ It’s a statement of how we must from the past, and yet we must also forget the past in some ways in order to move forward, to not hold grudges, to not seek revenge.
In St Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians (4: 13 – 18), he wrote, "The day of the Lord is coming, when the heavens will open up and we will see Jesus Christ descending through the clouds to be with us once again, for evermore. He will come to gather us up to be together - the living and the dead - and to be in God's Kingdom. Until that time, take heart, have hope and never stop encouraging one another.”
One of the interesting things about this passage is that Paul doesn't take the time to describe the Kingdom of God in any detail, that’s because the followers of Jesus already had that vision firmly set in their minds. In other parts of the Bible the kingdom of God is spoken of as a place of peace and justice. We are told that God's kingdom will be one in which there will be no war and no suffering. It will be a place where everyone has enough to eat and drink and a roof over their heads. No one will be a slave to another. There will be no subservience. No one will be oppressed, persecuted or marginalised.
That is the time toward which Paul and the early Christians were looking. In the face of pain and for them persecution, the coming Kingdom was the image that gave the people hope, and reminding people of that image encouraged the people of Thessalonica to carry on in the face of great suffering.
In an odd kind of way, as we reflect on the suffering and death caused by wars, and give thanks for the freedom for which so many have died, I think in some ways those who went off to war were working toward a vision of the Kingdom of God… At first it sounds absurd - God's Kingdom is not one of warfare, bloodshed and suffering ! But it is one of self-sacrifice and one in which greed, selfishness, persecution and injustice cannot be tolerated.
We know that that Kingdom of God will not be completed until Christ returns at his Second Coming to finally defeat the forces of evil once and for all, but in struggling against the human forces of evil, we seek to offer a glimmer of light to many for whom the world must seem a very dark and bitter place.
As we remember those who have died fighting for freedom, we need to remember their struggle and sacrifice. And we need to thank God for the encouragement that they give to us when we wonder where our world is going and sometimes are tempted to lose hope.
We need as St Paul wrote to ‘take heart, have hope and encourage one another.’ And that reminds us that in our remembering we must take an active part in striving to build a better life for all and a better world.
Our responsibility must be to take on those words of Paul and encourage one another; and even more importantly to take on the words of Jesus to love one another in words and in actions. The torch of justice and freedom must be passed on to each generation.
That is why we must never forget, and that is why it is probably inevitable that sometimes people will have to go off to war to fight to preserve these things, but war is never good, and we must pray constantly and act positively to ensure that peace prevails in our hearts and in the hearts of people everywhere.
As we remember those who have died or suffered trying to build a better world, may we hold the principle of peace high in and through our lives, and honour it as a legacy to be cherished and continued. AMEN
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