Remembrance Sunday, November 12th 2023
This is a day to remember before God, as the poet Wilfred Owen put it, ‘the pity of war;’ those brave men and women who laid down their lives for our freedom and fought against oppression and tyranny; and all who experienced appalling suffering, deprivation, and loss – both military and civilian – throughout the world. We do this best by keeping silence as a mark of respect for those who sacrificed themselves so that others could flourish and because words fail us in the face of such evil which has caused enormous pain, misery, and distress.
We particularly remember today the 70th anniversary of the armistice of the Korean war, sometimes called ‘the forgotten war.’ The war began when North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union, invaded the south in June 1950. Many countries sent troops to support the south, including Great Britain and Commonwealth countries. The three year was exceptionally bloody and led to the deaths of 3 million people and tens of thousands of causalities. The armistice agreed that the country would remain divided, as it does to this day.
And we also we remember the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush. It inspires us to commemorate the 6 million men and women from the Commonwealth who served alongside British forces in WW2, and the part played by so many of the Windrush generation in re-building post-war Britain.
But today it is impossible not to think about the conflict in the Holy Land.
Many of us were completely stunned by the unexpectedness and the savagery of the attack by Hamas on innocent men, women, and children just over a month ago and since then the untold suffering unleashed on the Palestinians in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, where thousands have been killed and many more injured. As so often, it is the innocent that suffer, and hearts are broken in two for all in the Holy Land who are frightened and hurt and facing an unimaginable future. While this conflict has dominated the news, we must not forget the war in Ukraine as well those in Yemen, and Sudan. It seems the world is living through a long night of wars, destruction, fear, hate and racism. The rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia in our country is shameful and must be resisted by us all.
After the Hamas attack in October, the parish priest of Bethlehem called together the faithful to pray for all victims, especially the civilians and hostages, and their families. At the same time, the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem articulated the challenge for Christians as he spoke to his flock: ‘Prayer does not produce results but generates true life. It does not spare us our work, but lights it up. It does not spare us the road but points it out to us. We are here to cry out to God and ask him to light up our work and point out the way to us and give us the strength to live in this situation as Christians, and even before that, as human beings….Prayer alone is not going to change this terrible situation, but it gives light to our hearts and to our eyes so that we may see this situation not with hatred but as human beings and with a heart where there is still, despite all, space for hope.’
The parable Jesus tells in the Gospel we heard today (Matthew 25:1-13) might seem an odd choice for Remembrance Sunday with all that is going on. But on the contrary, I think it is a very good thing for us to hear today. Jesus tells the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, who represent the expectant Christian community as they await the return of Christ (the Bridegroom) and the day of Judgement. Some of the bridesmaids are foolish and some are wise, and we hear the cry: ‘Our lamps are going out.’ And for me, this is a challenging piece of teaching by Jesus which compels me to ask what kind of resources we need as human beings to flourish in times of dire need and difficulty.
What kind of resources do we need not just to make war, but to encourage and maintain peace? What kind of resources do we need to ensure such things are present in our lives, nurtured and developed, if we are, as the prophet Micah puts it, to ‘act justly, to love mercy and walk humbly with your God.’ (6:8) In this sense it is a very challenging passage for us to hear on Remembrance Sunday. One of the essentials resources, the ‘oil in the lamp’ for Christians, for our life as human beings gathered here this morning is our Christian faith, our belief in Jesus Christ.
A few years ago, the historian Tom Holland, wrote a book called ‘Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World.’
He wanted to think about the nature of Christianity and how it influenced the development of culture and politics in western civilisation. He shows how our basic view of the human person, our devotion to compassion and mercy, our commitment to the moral equality of all persons, our deeply rooted conviction in the intrinsic worth of the human person, our sense of right and wrong, our belief in transcendent truth, our commitment to education and the liberal arts and so much else are the fruit borne from the roots of Christian faith.
And he goes on to say something that startled me. He says that what distinguishes the Christian idea of love from the romantic, erotic, touchy-feely sense it has acquired in modern times is that it has nothing to do with feeling. Love in the New Testament is a social practice, not a sentiment. How you feel about the person whose place you take in the queue for the gas chambers is neither here nor there. You don’t even have to know him. Only a love of this ruthlessly impersonal kind, which couldn’t care less about the gender, rank, skin colour or personality of whoever needs your help, could prove equal to what St John darkly calls the powers of this world.
“but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”
Coming together to renew our Christian faith, and the way it influences us and our world, every Sunday at Mass, is vitally important for the peace of the world.
How do you live life in the face of fear of destruction? How do you breed new hope and initiatives for justice and reconciliation? How do you keep on going struggling for peace?
Like some of the bridesmaids we begin to get frightened, our resources are running low, coming to an end, our lamps are going out. But the parable of Jesus teaches the expectant Christian community of the need of the precious resources of faith, hope and love under God, where even the most unpromising ground can yield fruit. The Latin Patriarch was right:
Prayers alone may not change terrible situations, but it can “give light to our hearts and to our eyes so that we may see this situation not with hatred but as human beings and with a heart where that is still, despite all, space for hope.’
We must not give in to despair as we see a cycle of violence, and no one seems able to act to change anything.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ holds out to us the hope, the belief, the conviction, that human beings are not doomed to replay the mutually destructive script until the end of time.
It is true, that we cannot once and for all re-order the world according to our own agenda. Yet we must find ways again and again of living with what we have not chosen – and at its worst with what threatens and paralyses us.
In bleak and discouraging situations, it is practical expressions of trust, hope and love that become the very stuff of our Christian discipleship, a defiant faith, in the coming of God amongst us, a people who are ready to receive Him with lamps well-trimmed.
What resources does it take for us to live properly human lives under God? That is a question I want you to live with this week, so that when we appear before the judgement seat, we may be known as peacemakers of our Heavenly Father.
As we contemplate deeply our Christian Faith, the gifts of creativity, practical loving care of others and of creation and the sacrificial giving of others, even with their very lives, so that we may live, let us be inspired in faith, hope, and love this day. Be peacemakers of your loving Heavenly Father
Be wise and take all in your vessels and trim your lamps!