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'Remembrance' [Luke 20:27-38, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17] Ian Goldsmid, Sunday 11 November 2007 Introduction A few years ago, when our daughter Catherine was at school we decided to spend a few days of half term at Arras in Northern France. Our reason for going was twofold. Catherine was doing a history course work project on World War 1, and as part of the project she was asked to write a diary as a soldier might have written it at that time. Quite an undertaking for a 15 year old! We had chosen to go to Arras for a particular reason. My mother’s younger brother, Sidney, was already a young career soldier at the beginning of the war, and was one of the first to be sent out to France. Within the first two months of the war he had been killed in battle, along with many thousands of others. His grave was at Cabaret Rouge Cemetery just outside Arras, and as far as we knew, it had never been visited by a relative. We knew exactly where to find his grave because we have a letter written to my grandmother, from the Imperial War Graves Commission, at last informing her of the exact location of the final resting place of her son: Grave no 4, Row E, Plot 21. The letter is dated 12th September 1925, some 11 years after he was killed in action! The letter states that they were only able to identify his body by a regimental button on his uniform. Our visit to the cemetery was unforgettable. It was a cold, dull, damp, misty late autumn day and the trees were already stripped of leaves. I imagined that it would have possibly been on a similar sort of late November day that he died in battle. Catherine’s project diary contains a photograph of the scene. It shows row after row of headstones disappearing into the autumn mist. There must have been thousands of men buried in that cemetery, which is just one of the many hundred within a 30 mile radius of Arras. What a terrible thing war is! That visit to Arras gave us some small insight into the reality of war but most of us find it difficult to understand what it must be like to have to put ones life on the line on a daily and weekly basis.
Let me read you a quote from an article written by an Army Padre serving in Iraq. He writes: “In war, soldiers are placed in abnormal circumstances, and working through the dissonance between some of the feelings they may have and what they have to do, is vital. Before and during the fighting, some soldiers would say: “I’m scared. Most would say something like: “I don’t know if I’m going to come through this.” What I said was: You’re right, you don’t know and nor do I. So how are you going to find inner strength to face this and do your job?” Some would do it through writing letters home, others through writing a diary. For many people it would involve keeping busy and focussing on the job in hand, for others it would be a call to the big man. The truth is, we are all going to die. Yet most of society refuses to look at that. We are frightened of death. War makes you confront your own mortality and bring death to the forefront. There were certain points where I was scared too. I’ve been to Kosovo, Bosnia, and Northern Ireland, but this was my first time at war. Before I left the UK, I wrote a sealed letter to my wife and children, only to be opened if I didn’t come back. It was left with my will. While in Iraq I tried to stay focussed on doing my job and left the rest to God. Some people become very aware of spirituality in such circumstances. I don’t think there are many flashes of enlightenment, but soldiers (whatever their rank) think about their own mortality. They often asked for a copy of the New Testament to carry in their webbing. There were around 75 that I gave to people. For some soldiers it might have been a talisman, a good luck charm. Others wanted to read bits and pieces and gain inner strength. He concludes: You manage yourself at a certain level because you have to. Soldiers are trained that way. But when reflecting on tragic events, some of the emotions that they have pushed down begin to surface. It’s at that stage that they will seek me out.” I don’t know if it is my imagination, but it seems to me Remembrance Day has received a much higher profile this year, especially in the media.
Why is Remembrance Day so important? Firstly, whatever we might think about the rights and wrongs of war, I believe it is appropiate and proper that we honour those who have given and are still giving their lives in the service of their country. But, as that Army chaplain said, Remembrance Day is also a time when we are forced to remember our own mortality. In a culture in which most of us find it so difficult to face up to the whole subject of death this is no bad thing.
In such circumstances, what difference does being a Christian make? Can I firstly say that although as Christians we have a sure and certain hope of eternal life, this does not mean that we can take death any less seriously. When Jesus stood by the burial place of Lazarus, we read, “Jesus wept”. We know that from the sequel to that event that he was about to raise Lazarus from death. Why then did he weep? I believe it was for two reasons. Firstly, he wept at the fact of human mortality, and the sorrow that death brings. He wept because death was not a natural part of God’s original creation. It came about as a result of human disobedience and sin. Secondly, he wept because in a fallen world, it is a natural human reaction in the face of death. Don’t ever think that the loss of a loved one is any less painful because we are Christians. We should and must grieve, but we do not have to despair, because we believe that death is not the end.
Question of Resurrection In our two readings this morning, the common thread to be found in both of them is the comfort that comes through the gospel, and whilst there may be deep sorrow, there should never be despair. The main subject in our gospel reading from Luke 20 is the question of Resurrection. It should be noted that Jesus himself did not raise this subject. It was raised by that section of the Jewish community known as Sadducees, in an attempt to ridicule and discredit Jesus. The strategy they used was to present a ludicrous scenario, which had some basis on OT law, in order to pour scorn on the whole idea of resurrection. The Sadducees were the aristocracy of Judaism. They were rich, powerful and politically astute. Commentators tell us that they were opposed to the idea of resurrection for political rather than theological reasons, because it threatened their power base. Most of the ordinary people followed the teaching of the Pharisees, who taught that there was a resurrection. It was from this group that what we might today call ‘radical Judaism’ came, which encouraged acts of terrorism in defiance of Roman occupation. The Sadducees saw Resurrection teaching as encouraging the idea of voluntary martyrdom, very much in the same way that it might be seen as appealing to Islamist suicide bombers today. But political expediency can never dictate what we are to believe, and Jesus quickly exposes their ignorance of scripture, of the power of God, and of their misunderstanding of resurrection. Whilst affirming the principle, he also takes the opportunity given to him by the Sadducees, to expand on the nature of resurrection. For instance, in the new life of resurrection, our relationships will be changed, but above all, we will no longer be concerned about death. In v.37, 38 Jesus says: …”the fact that the dead are raised, Moses himself showed, in the story about the burning bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him, all of them are alive.” But when all is said and done, resurrection remains a mystery. Our finite minds can never fully grasp that which is infinite.
Learning from physics One day last week, I had the radio on whilst I was driving and listened to a presenter interview a Quantum Theory physicist who was describing the latest findings in this particular field of physics. I know practically nothing about quantum theory, but this particular scientist had the gift of explaining what is a total mystery to most of us, in language that we can more or less understand. What he was claiming, was that recent developments of the theory indicate that there must exist a parallel reality, or even possibly many parallel realities to that which we experience. For instance, he claimed that an atom, or any other matter, could be proved to exist in more than one place at the same time. He appeared to see this as an argument against the existence of God. My immediate reaction was to think: yes, I can see why he might believes that. His problem is that the God he doesn’t believe in is too small! To me, this idea of a ‘parallel reality‘ exactly fits what I see as the biblical understanding of heaven, the realm of the resurrected.
I would like to finish with a quotation from Tom Wright’s booklet, “New Heavens, New Earth” A Biblical Picture of the Christian Hope. At the end of his booklet he writes what I believe to be a very appropriate conclusion to our thoughts in this Remembrance Sunday: “Christian hope, therefore, is for a full, recreated life in the presence and love of God, a totally renewed creation, and integrated new heavens and new earth, and a complete humanness in itself. Of course, the most glorious feature of the whole renewed creation, the new heavens and the new earth, will be the personal presence of Jesus himself. ‘When he appears we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.’ 1 John 3.2”
Amen
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