Sermon Tone Analysis

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)

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:

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

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

Notices with collection and song

Hymn (children to SC)

Prayer

Reading (Helene)

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.