10th November 2024 10.30am – Remembrance Sunday

The Readings

Isaiah 1.16-19

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,
says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;

1 Thessalonians 4.13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Scripture Quotations are from: New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The Sermon
By Kath, Reader at St Mary's.

I think I can say, without fear of contradiction that our world is in a mess right now, perhaps more so than it has been for a long time. This description could be applied to the climate crisis, mass migration, financial crises, public health, crime and many other areas of life, but this being Remembrance Sunday it is conflicts throughout the world that I want us to focus on.

A few years ago, I think in preparation for a sermon, I looked up how many active conflicts there were and although I can’t remember the exact number, it know it was big and it really took me by surprise. I looked again the other day and according to to an organisation called Vision of Humanity there are 56 wars going on right now with 92 countries involved in conflicts outside their own borders. This number apparently does not include gang wars and the like and is the highest since The Second World War. Even though we see or hear reports of war pretty much daily through the various media, these numbers may surprise you. But sadly, most of these conflicts, terrible as they are, seldom if ever make the news, at least in this country. Perhaps there are two ways of thinking about this. One is to feel troubled by our lack of knowledge about them and another is that if we were aware of the scale of all these human tragedies we would feel overwhelmed and paralysed by them. Feeling helpless about the ones we know of is hard enough to bear, especially over the last two or three years.

Looking back through history it seems that there were always people fighting somewhere or other but some wars really stand out and last long in our collective memories. The first and second World Wars, the American Civil War, Vietnam, Korea, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, the Cold War to name but a few. It can feel like we never stop fighting with each other. When I was younger this really got to me at times. The Northern Ireland troubles felt very close to home, especially when there were bombings here on the mainland in pubs and night clubs. These were just the sort of places my friends and I might go for a night out together. It was frightening, even though we were very much on the periphery of this particular conflict. But hard as this may be to believe, people get used to war and its effects and it can become a way of life that has to be coped with, just as it did in the World Wars and as it is in Ukraine and other places today.

Another sad fact that we have to acknowledge is that for all sorts of reasons, war suits some people’s purposes, especially those hungry for power, influence, control and vast wealth that they couldn’t otherwise acquire and many of them have no scruples whatsoever about how they acquire it. We cannot afford to be naïve about such people and need to be aware of these sort of agendas if we are to avoid being manipulated into conflicts that benefit the few at the expense of everyone else. I don’t know about you but sometimes when I watch the news I just can’t understand why groups of people or even whole nations choose what appear to me to be awful leaders or regimes who are repressive and cruel. But often there are reasons, that again don’t make the news, such as people who are repeatedly not listened to or who are struggling against deep seated corruption that blights all efforts to to do good. Their choices, however bad they may very well be, are the least worst option open to them and have outcomes they didn’t foresee or want. We see this in places like Afghanistan where the choice was a very corrupt government or the Taliban.

So many people, both military and civilians have fought and sacrificed bravely for what they believed to be right and against what they believed to be wrong and yet here we are in the 21st century with more conflicts than ever. Why does the path to peace continue to elude us? How do we stop repeating the same patterns and mistakes? I was struck by the straightforward words in our reading from Isaiah, “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression”. An awful lot of the strife we see in the world is caused by oppression, a lack of justice and deeds that are undeniably evil. Again in the words from Isaiah, when God says “Come now, let us argue it out “he is inviting us to be part of the solution.

When faith based solutions are suggested, for many people they can seem too slow or, dare I say, a bit airy fairy, they want something more dynamic with rapid results. But in reality things seldom work that way. Instead of feeling discouraged, we have to take what feels like a slower path and hold onto the values God has given us and do our utmost to practice them in our daily lives, whatever the challenges. In a world where standards of decency and respect for others is often in decline, this can be hard to stick with but if we lower or abandon our own standards of how we treat our fellow people we already know what the results will be because we are already seeing them; people being trolled or ridiculed or persecuted by those who disagree with them, pretty much anyone being fair game for those bent on exploiting them, civilians being targeted or tortured as weapons of war,.

All this can feel very disheartening but one of the benefits of getting older is that I have seen many of the interminable conflicts that have happened in my lifetime, come to an end. Even the Hundred Years War came to an end and the ones that are going on at the moment will eventually cease. What war weary victims really need is the opportunity for healing and well-being, space for rest and recovery. They need peace. We all do and we should never stop working to achieve it.

The Prayers

Let us pray for all who suffer as a result of conflict,
and ask that God may give us peace:

for the service personnel
who have died in the violence of war,
each one remembered by and known to God;
may God give peace.
God give peace.

For those who love them in death as in life,
offering the distress of our grief
and the sadness of our loss;
may God give peace.
God give peace.

For all members of the armed forces
who are in danger this day,
remembering family, friends
and all who pray for their safe return;
may God give peace.
God give peace.

For civilians, children and adults
whose lives are disfigured by war or terror,
calling to mind in penitence
the anger and hatreds of humanity;
may God give peace.
God give peace.

For peacemakers and peacekeepers,
who seek to keep this world secure and free;
may God give peace.
God give peace.

For all who bear the burden and privilege of leadership,
political, military and religious;
asking for gifts of wisdom and resolve
in the search for reconciliation and peace;
may God give peace.
God give peace.

O God of truth and justice,
we hold before you those whose memory we cherish,
and those whose names we will never know.
Help us to lift our eyes above the torment of this broken world,
and grant us the grace to pray for those who wish us harm.
As we honour the past,
may we put our faith in your future;
for you are the source of life and hope,
now and for ever.
Amen.

St Marys Walkley

The Church on the Road: inclusive, eucharistic, a safe place to be with God

10th November 2024 10.30am – Remembrance Sunday