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By contrast the people we remember today are known to us. Their names are carved on our War Memorials and every community in the country will today hear the names of those who gave their lives in the cause of justice and freedom.
In Epping, thanks to the painstaking work of John Duffell of the Royal British Legion, we know more than the names on our Epping Memorials here in Church and at the War Memorial. Each has a short biography and in some cases families are still part of Epping society. It is always fascinating to watch schoolchildren when they visit the church. Many stop at the war memorial over there and they recognize a name, often their own surname, and know that name to belong to a grandfather or, increasingly, a great grandfather.
Of course, one particular name is known because he died in the Afghanistan Conflict and his parents and family and friends still feel keenly the loss of Georgie Sparks.
The names of the armed forces and in our case, of the Civilians who lost their lives in two bombing raids, are therefore part of our story as a community. Unlike the girl in the concentration camp, their names will never be forgotten. Unlike the girl, they are also dead.
On Remembrance Sunday we do not tend to discuss the merits of whether any War is just, nor do we or get into a debate of whether it is a political act to wear a Red Poppy (as the International Football Association believed) or whether, as happened in the eighties it would be better to wear a white poppy as a symbol, so it was thought at the time, of Peace. This is not the day to debate whether we should be inside Afghanistan or out of it; and whether the NATO bombing raids on Libya went beyond the United Nations remit.
What we commemorate and Remember is the human stories of courage, suffering, bravery, death and loss and this will always be so, no matter what we feel about whether War and Christianity are at loggerheads with each other. Central to our Remembrance is a sense that in every conflict there has been a fight for justice and freedom; for peace and mercy, and ultimately a battle of good against evil, of love against hate. War is always, in a sense, an admission that diplomacy has failed; that negotiation has not borne the fruit or the result we hoped for. War is waged as a last resort and it never provides the solution that leads to peace – it simply makes that solution possible through further negotiation and surrender and ultimately some form of agreement. But these are thoughts for another day.
Today, I remember my Grandad who was wounded in the battle of Dardanells and whose war stories fed my imagination as I grew up in the aftermath of World War 2 – in a time of national austerity and rebuilding of damaged communities. I have Grandad’s medals, his certificate of honourable discharge from the army, and a curious piece of tapestry which shows a number of flags, including the Union Jack and which was never quite finished. He was given the tapestry to do at the military hospital where he recovered from his leg wounds. The tapestry was presumably a form of occupational therapy and it is incomplete because he was discharged before he could finish it. For me, of course, this is a tangible and vivid link between him and me and between the sacrifices of yesterday with the longing for peace for our broken world today. This, together with the reminiscences of my family who lived through the Second World War and those of my cousin who served in the Aden conflict in the late 1960’s, has become part of my own story.
I am also reminded of those who sought to protect the civilian population here in England. Part of my own story includes the possession of a Whistle which is inscribed ARP – Air Raid Precaution, and it was used by another of my relatives who was an ARP Warden. The whistle was blown as she shepherded people into the Air Raid shelters. These are part of my wartime memories which are in my thoughts. Today all over the land and in War Grave cemeteries throughout Europe and the Far East and in military camps in Afghanistan, people will be remembering loved ones or distant relatives who died for the cause of Freedom.
Increasingly, and sadly, other names are being added to the long list of the fallen in our own times. The conflict in former Yugoslavia, the Terrorist attacks in Northern Ireland; the Iraq War, and recently Libya, together with the on-going conflict in Afghanistan brings home to us the human cost of War. New stories are being added to those of the past.
Last night, at the Annual Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall, we heard some of the stories of those still alive but who showed incredible bravery and courage and determination to engage in the battle of good over evil which is a constant battle for all of us whether we are serving in the Armed Forces or doing battle as Christians in the way that Paul’s letter to the Ephesians tell us – the battle against the cosmic forces of evil which unchecked would destroy humanity and with it, the planet.
We heard of the bravery of the helicopter crew who, against all odds and in great danger, rescued a wounded soldier, snatching him from a Taliban stronghold and airlifting him to safety. They were told on their return that it was their lives that were at risk and their safety brought immense relief. We heard too of a Bomb Disposal Unit who regularly risk everything for the safety of others and the matter of fact way in which a soldier spoke of her love of solving puzzles – and with remarkable nonchalance spoke of a ticking bomb as just another puzzle to be solved. We heard of the incredible bravery of a Ghurka soldier, who single-handedly held a position against immense odds as the Taliban chucked everything at him but failed.
My heart was warmed by the old warriors – the Chelsea Pensioners who gave us snippets from their war-time experiences and urged us that this Remembering must never stop. One old soldier, his eyes moistened with tears, said They gave their lot. You can’t give more than that!
All these personal remembrances are woven into a great Tapestry of National Remembrance which through the heroic and brave and the simple and kind actions tell us of the triumph of goodness over evil. These human stories stand for the struggle for a peaceful, more just and more settled world. A world idealistically painted for us by the Prophet Micah in our Old Testament Reading today. After a time of conflict there will be peace which the Lord God gives and which will cause the weapons of war to be turned into agricultural implements; swords into ploughshares; spears into pruning hooks. No longer shall the land be devastated by war but cultivated in peace.
It is a powerful image, made even more so by the placing of the mountain of the Lord in the centre of the picture. From this high place God reigns over His people giving security and confidence to all. He sits as a judge settling the disputes which divide the nations. Micah tells us of a lasting and longed for peace that will descend. It is both an idealistic picture and a prophetic one. It is idealistic because it never happened as Micah hoped it would. It was written during a period when the Jews returned from Exile and re-entered Jerusalem after they returned from being exiled from their homeland. They carried hope of a new beginning after a time of desecration and destruction. This ideal was never quite turned into reality but it became a prophetic utterance in the story of Jesus Christ.
This hope which encapsulates the hope of all today who long for a more peaceable and less fragmented and damaged world, needs another human story to give it both context and fulfilment. It is in the human story of Jesus, and in the exercise of his divinity through that humanity, that gives context to all the stories of those who lived and died or who lived and returned maimed, and those who survived unscathed in body if not in spirit. The Epitaph, much loved on this day that for our tomorrow, they gave their today is right at the heart of the one true perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. For our futures Jesus gave his life. To re-echo the words of the Chelsea Pensioner – You can’t give more than that.
But in His giving – in his story – Jesus also gives us a hope we can embrace. In today’s Gospel he gives us the greatest weapon by which we can defeat evil, build a just and equitable society, and broker a lasting peace in our world and our communities- that of Love. To make that a reality rather than an ideal, Jesus commands us to Love one another and he points to the example He has set us – as I have loved you.
Referring to his own sacrifice of laying down one’s life for one’s friends – a sign that cannot be bettered, He tells us in no uncertain terms that to make His story an essential part of ours we must obey his command to love as He loved. And, as he further commands us – we are chosen to be his ambassadors (active representatives) of this love in the world – the transforming, sacrificial love which is near to our thoughts today in our remembrance – but which is absolutely at the heart of our Lord’s self-giving. And from the centre of that self-giving, Jesus gives us a command- not a request, not a thought, nor a wish – A COMMAND – I am giving everything so that you may love one another.
That is at the heart of all the human stories we remember today – and in the sacrifices they offered. It is all so that we can learn the way of love – sacrificial, self-giving and costly love. For when we learn that and practice that, the world is already turning – turning away from darkness towards the eternal and stupendous and amazing Love of God. When that is at the heart of our own human story – we are honouring those we remember today but more than that, we are honouring God and obeying Jesus Christ. Our poor, fragmented, delusional and misguided world is already a better and more healed place to be. We must therefore make the command to love one another absolutely central to our own human story.