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.
But one of the most important things about remembering is to 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.
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 marginalized.
That is the time toward which Paul and the early Christians were looking. In the face of pain, 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, all of the people who contribute to war efforts seek to offer a glimmer of light to many for whom the world must seem a very dark and bitter place.
We need to remember them, 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. This Festival of Remembrance that we celebrate each year puts an enormous amount of moral responsibility upon world leaders, those who make the decisions about sending people to war, but we have responsibilities too, albeit on a much smaller scale.
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 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 and honour it as a legacy to be cherished and continued. AMEN
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