HG103 Luke 10:25-37 Remembrance Sunday 2018
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Welcome today to our Remembrance Sunday Service. We are starting a little earlier so that we can join the 2 minute silence at 11.
Today is 100 years since the armistice was signed. All who lived then are no longer alive. But we shall remember those who gallantly laid their lives down as a sacrifice for peace and freedom, king and country, and for those injured in the same cause, some physically, others mentally. The Kohima Epitaph in North East India says 'When you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today.' It was meant to be the war to end all wars but even in our present day, wars are fought and soldiers live, die and are injured. One Day, though, the Prince of Peace will come and wars will cease, at last. In the meantime we are to pray so let us do that:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we remember with thanksgiving those who made the supreme sacrifice for us in time of war. We pray that the offering of their lives may not have been in vain. By your grace enable us this day to dedicate ourselves anew to the cause of justice, freedom and peace; and give us the wisdom and strength to build a better world, for the honour and glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There is no better Psalm, I think, that speaks into troubles that come including war, so let us hear that Psalm: (2min)
To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Robert Palmer (1min10)
How long, O Lord, how long, before the flood
Of crimson-welling carnage shall abate?
From sodden plains in West and East, the blood
Of kindly men steams up in mists of hate,
Polluting Thy clean air; and nations great
In reputation of the arts that bind
The world with hopes of heaven, sink to the state
Of brute barbarians, whose ferocious mind
Gloats o'er the bloody havoc of their kind,
Not knowing love or mercy. Lord, how long
Shall Satan in high places lead the blind
To battle for the passions of the strong?
Oh, touch Thy children's hearts, that they may know
Hate their most hateful, pride their deadliest foe.
Let us stand:
Let us stand:
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.
Silence
Silence
Let us pray:
Gracious Father, we pray for peace in our world: for all national leaders that they may have the wisdom to know and courage to do what is right; for all men and women that their hearts may be turned to yourself in the search for righteousness and truth; for those who are working to improve international relationships, that they may find the true way of reconciliation; for those suffer as a result of war: the injured and disabled, the mentally distressed, the homeless and hungry, those who mourn for their dead, and especially for those who are without hope or friend to sustain them in their grief. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hymn
Hymn
Notices with collection and song
Notices with collection and song
Hymn (children to SC)
Hymn (children to SC)
Prayer
Prayer
Reading (Helene)
Reading (Helene)
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
VIDEO: Woodbine Willy (7min)
VIDEO: Woodbine Willy (7min)
Who is our neighbour?
The month of November is all about remembrance; We have the 5th November which is Guy Fawkes Day, we have Remembrance Day/Armistice Day and today is Remembrance Sunday (which so happens to be on the same day this year). In America they also have Thanksgiving remembering what God has done for them.
Remembrance Day is to remember what those in the armed forces do for us and have done for us. I don’t think many of us have experienced war. It is not pretty. It is not good. It is very scary. It is not something to wish for. These Remembrance Days are really the celebration of the end of World War I which ended at 11am on the 11th November 1918 but not before it had killed over 17,000,000 people and wounded a further 20,000,000. And, of course, we also remember World War II in which over 60,000,000 people were killed. And we also remember all the other conflicts since. These wars, especially the World Wars, were about keeping our freedom, saving our democracy. We have freedom to be who we are, freedom against those who want to control us, freedom to choose, freedom to be a Christian, freedom to live.
All of our histories, with our grandparents and great grandparents and great, great grandparents they were the ones who suffered and fought in wars against people like Hitler who hated the Jews and hated true Christians and hated freedom. When we look back at our UK history for the last hundred+ years there is a great deal of sadness. We had the two Great Wars that were supposed to end war and since that time we have had the Cold War, Ireland, Rhodesia, Falklands, Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq and no doubt we have taken part in other conflicts too in some way where our armed forces are part of NATO or UN Peacekeeping and the like. This means, of course that there will always be casualties resulting in death and injury to those who are part of our armed forces as well as civilians.
Today we are remembering those who put themselves in harm’s way for King and Queen and Country.
Ruth Rayment, is surrounded by army memorabilia that belonged to her brother, Christopher. 'I was 16 when he died,'. 'When the men in uniform came knocking on my door, we knew what it was straight away. I remember my mother screaming and collapsing in the front room, I will never forget the wailing.' Christopher Rayment, a private with the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, died aged 22 when a security barrier fell on him while he was manning a checkpoint. He had been in Iraq for more than five months and died just 10 days before he was due to return home to his parents, Pamela and Gordon. Years on, his room remains virtually untouched. 'Everyone expected it to hit me hardest, but I didn't mourn for a year,' says Ruth. 'I started crying on the anniversary of Chris's death - that's when the trauma hit me. It came like a black cloud; it consumed me, and I realised I was depressed. I kept hearing my brother's voice. His presence wasn't frightening, just permanent.' 'Since Chris died I've been going to church, and last week I was finally baptised. People might think I could be angry with God for what has happened to my family, but my belief in God helps me to come to terms with what has happened.'
No one knows what would have happened in the UK if Hitler had won the 2nd World War. Would we have the freedom that we take so much for granted? It is very doubtful. We would have suffered the same fate as Karl Barth, a German theologian, who spent the war years in prison for not complying with Hitler's wishes or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another theologian, who returned to Germany from the USA, having been given a way to escape, who said that
"if I do not lead His people during the war how can I take part in its revival of German Christian life after it."
He was put to death two weeks before the liberation of the concentration camp he was been held in for his attempt to rescue Jews. This man lived and died the book he wrote called: The cost of discipleship. Or maybe we would have been those who would compromise? There were very many that did.
The motto of the times encapsulated by the philosopher Edmund Burke was: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
This reminds of a well-known but poignant poem (poss, by Martin Niemöller):
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.
There is no way to know how we would act until we are at the sharp end of the stick. We cannot know what we would do if our faith was challenged in such a way that our very life was threatened. The Apostle Peter certainly didn’t believe that he would deny Jesus until it actually happened less than a day later.
All of these wars that are in the physical sphere also have a spiritual dimension for there are battles going on in the unseen realm over the souls of people. On this day we think of actual wars in the earthly sense but there are battles against God’s people also.
We as the Church are to remember but we are also called to remember the forgotten Church, the Church underground, those who cannot meet up without the fear of intimidation and violence. There are public profile cases like Asia Bibi whom we should pray for and for her safety. She is not out of the woods yet.
There are many others who we do not know. Today we are called to remember those who for the faith of Jesus are persecuted and how hard it is for them too:
18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
Wars are something that will always happen. I counted 62 armed conflicts going on around the world today and, as of Friday it is known that 132,527 at least have died as a direct result of war this year alone. Who would have guessed that there would be war in Ukraine? It caught everyone by surprise. Who could have foretold Yemen? The only thing we have to be thankful for is that not one new conflict has started this year, yet.
We live in an uncertain world where terrorists who do not have allegiance to a particular nation can produce and set off dirty bombs with biological or radioactive material. We also live at a time when nuclear weapons are proliferated – we must not, we say, let Iran or North Korea or now, Saudi Arabia get Nuclear Weapons. But what of those nations that have them now like the UK, the US, France, Israel, Pakistan, India and so on? What is to say that any of these nations will not be volatile in the future, if indeed we might consider some of these to be stable? We only need to look at history to see how quickly things change.
When we consider all these things it is perfectly natural to be fearful. But perhaps I’ve painted this picture so that we might feel as so many people do in this world on this very day – they feel fear – not because of what might happen but of because of what is happening. People are running for their very lives, they are hungry, without shelter. When aid comes in its little trickle the crowd surges forward, and there is a crush and a young girl dies under the feet of equally desperate people; just one of a multitude, but many more will die in the days to come for there are too many. These are not soldiers but civilians; normal people eking out a living as best as they can when war came to their village or town. When people call for help we must help.
Who is our neighbour? Are they the persecuted in China, North Korea, Iran, India, and elsewhere? Is our neighbour those suffering in the war in South Sudan, the starving in Ethiopia, who will remember that mother in the Congo, the hungry of Eastern Europe, those who mourn in Wales for their lost ones, the homeless in Swansea, the lonely in our street, the fatherless children of next door? It is easy to be neighbour to someone on the other side of the world but harder as it gets closer to home.
In the Luke passage Helene read Jesus said we are all neighbours even to our hated enemy. The moment we go out our front door we are confronted with a needy next door, street, community, town, city, county, country, continent, and world.
What can we do? We can be a neighbour.
I am just one, you might say. Jesus was one – and He worked with one person at a time. I am just one, You are just one – but Jesus lives in us and we can affect one life at a time. We are God’s workmanship created for good works in Christ. Together we can achieve great things. And sometimes we just need to speak up on behalf of another who has no voice.
Here is something we should speak out about from a news story out of that troubled land of Israel. Will you speak up?
An innocent man has been executed in Israel on the orders of the government when they knew he was in the clear, he was innocent but they found him guilty of treason. Yet this man evidently loved his country – He was a true humanitarian – he cared for the sick and poor – he was well known in Israel and the Palestine Territories but nevertheless he gained many enemies. He was a Rabbi but the orthodox Jews didn’t like him. The other Rabbis didn’t like his style and thought he was a heretic. I wonder, did we hear the news about him?
I think that you have all heard about him as some of his claims have made it even into our newspapers: He claimed to be the Messiah and the Son of God. Even so, the State had him put to death. His name, I suspect, you have all heard, He loved His neighbour unto death and that is why we remember Him. His name, of course, is Jesus.
On this Remembrance Sunday let us remember those who sacrificed their all for our freedom, those who suffer persecution to bring freedom in Christ to others, and in Christ who sacrificed His life to save us from sin, death, and hell. We follow in all their examples. To whom will we be neighbours?
Benediction
Benediction
36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”