Micah 4:1-5
John 4:46-end
On this day, the guns of the Great War fell silent for the last time. It was the end of a conflict that scarred the nations that took part very deeply. It began 111 years ago and ended 107 years ago.
The years of remembrance have helped new generations understand more of what their grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great grandparents and maybe even more greats went through. The hardships they faced, the courage they showed and the faith they shared have become more real to us.
Maybe this is why more people seem to attend Remembrance Sunday services; there is an upward trend in attendance. Poppy sales would appear to be growing. Maybe some of you watched the Festival of Remembrance last evening or will catch up with the Cenotaph on iPlayer later. It would appear that we care about this stuff! Remembrance Sunday captures something in our individual and collective memories, touches a nerve, moves us to give our time, our money.
This year marked the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War; VE Day was celebrated in May and VJ Day in August. The number of those who served and survived is rapidly decreasing as they reach great ages.
Many of us will know people who served in the World Wars. We will know them as real people we had relationships with – parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts & uncles and cousins. We know them as more than stories. We miss them. We march into history at different times.
Micah was an Old Testament prophet whose messages from God to the people of Jerusalem were mostly negative and critical. Micah had to call out their sinfulness, bad behaviour towards the poor, they were greedy and full of pride. The people of Jerusalem were going to pay for it when the Babylonians swept through and sent everyone into exile for many years.
Then the tone changes. Micah looks beyond the present crisis to a time when the people return to Jerusalem to learn the laws of God and there will be peace between them. Everything will be reversed. All that was destroyed will be made right. Even relationships between people.
The royal official whose son was dying was looking for a reversal in his situation. This man went to Jesus to beg for his son’s life. We know some of the stories of prisoners of war who had to beg for their lives. Maybe some of us have had to beg God for the life of a loved one. Many of us would know what it is to plead for salvation and mercy. This royal official, probably not one who had to beg for much, invites Jesus to come to his son. Jesus responds by telling the man to go home and his son would live. The man believed what Jesus told him.
This story is one of trust and belief. Trusting that God will redeem and restore – life, health, situations. The exiled people of Jerusalem had nowhere else to go. The royal official had likely exhausted his own resources on his son and it still did not improve the situation.
There are places in the world that need disputes settled, weapons to be laid down, training for war to stop. We need to listen to God again as people, as a village, a nation and as part of the world.
What a different world it would be if we could abide in God’s love and live out the commandment to love one another as God has loved us. Maybe we would not be here today? Maybe I am a little idealistic. Like many people, I yearn for a world that is fair, peace-filled with love, joy and forgiveness for all.
As we remember those who have died in the theatre of war, we can be reassured that because of the resurrection of Jesus, it was not for nothing. The cost of their service came at a high price; it cost everything. The love, the life, the sharing of burden and suffering, the service required to work together for a greater good is not lost in death. There is more to the story.
So Charlwood, as we meet today to remember those who have died in war and tell their stories and share our many talents, let us do it from a place of love. Leave the judgment to God and work towards peace and respect for all. We need to march into history leaving things better than we found them.
