Remembrance Sunday 10/11/13
Today
is many things. To some it is a day of
mourning, to others a day of celebrating our freedom, and to some it is a day to reflect
on the heroism and bravery of British and Empire soldiers past and present.
Because it is a day of many meanings I have a number of thoughts to share with you.
Because it is a day of many meanings I have a number of thoughts to share with you.
Firstly,
any time of remembrance, even one of mourning such as a funeral, should begin,
or at least include, thanksgiving. Today
we give thanks to God Almighty for the victory we have received at His gracious
hands and by His mighty arm. Great
Britain has been blessed with victory more than any other nation in all of
history. The history of the British
military is one of legendary proportions and global reach such as had never before
been seen or ever after till this day been known.
When
Napoleon tried to subject Europe under his self-messianic dictatorship, Britain
formed that thin red line in the sand of Egypt through to the grass of
Waterloo. By British soldiers and ships
He was twice defeated and his dangerous empire left in ruins.
When
the German Emperor Wilhelm II start World War I, hell bent on conquering
Europe, we went to the aid of our allies, we sacrificed our men on Flanders’s
Fields for their freedom. And by God’s
grace we were victorious.
When
Hitler, one of the darkest and most evil, most vile of men, sought to bring the
world under his darkness and hatred; When Hitler invaded Poland, crushed France
and left Europe on its knees, defenceless before him, when he killed millions
of Jews and Romani; When he had the ill and infirm, the sick and disabled,
rounded up and killed – Britain did not stand idly by. When Hitler sought our allegiance and our
hand, even in the face of near certain defeat we spat in his face. We defended our land from the bombs and the
planes, we fought in the lands where our fathers had died in the trenches. We stood for freedom, freedom written in the
blood of our heroes. Imagine if Hitler
had won – how evil our nation would be, how evil the world would have
become! But against all odds, by God’s
guiding hand victory was won for justice, equality, freedom.
When Korea was torn apart in the 'forgotten war' and the North invaded the South to try an impose communism, over 14,000 British soldiers were sent to fight in a country they knew nothing of. Over a thousand never returned. But God gave a victory against seeming impossible odds.
When Korea was torn apart in the 'forgotten war' and the North invaded the South to try an impose communism, over 14,000 British soldiers were sent to fight in a country they knew nothing of. Over a thousand never returned. But God gave a victory against seeming impossible odds.
When
the Argentineans invaded the Falkland’s we would not stand for the insult, for
the destruction of freedoms, and we travelled half way across the world with
only a tiny force to take on a whole nation.
And by God’s hand we fought, we lay flat their entire military, air,
land, and sea, to such an extent they have still not recovered. And the Falkland’s were once again free.
Or
think now of the wars that rage, the war we fight against terror, against an
enemy far more insidious and silent – silent till the trigger is pushed and the
bombs explode. The war we wage to be set
free from the fear of our enemies. Think
of the soldiers barely out of school who died in the fiery hell of the
Iraqi desert and Afghani mountains. But
victory will be ours.
Today
is indeed a day to reflect on all I have just said, on the evil that could have
been, and it is a day to praise God the King that He could not allow it to
pass.
But
today is also a day to mourn the loss of our fathers and our mothers, our sons and
our daughters, our brothers and our sisters, our family and our friends. Those whose light has been snuffed out by
evil whilst fighting against the encroaching darkness. It is a time to remember the pain of a whole
nation where in World War I alone only 53 parishes knew not death in all of
England, Scotland, Wales, and the entirety of Ireland put together.
Yet
what was the point of their deaths and sacrifice if nothing is changed?
Today
is a day to remember the evil of humanity, the evil and darkness in all of us,
in each and every one of us. The Germans
who shoved Jews into gas chambers were no different to you or me, they were
normal people told to do a job, given permission and set free to do what in the
depths of their hearts, and ours, is to be found – evil, darkness, depravity,
and sin. The lust for power, the greed
for more, the hatred and anger against others, the smut and the passion for
physical gratification that is in each of us is the source of the world’s
evil. When a man wrote to The Times
newspaper asking “what is wrong with the world” one man recognised the truth of
it, and replied “Dear Sir, I am. Yours G.K. Chesterton.” Chesterton was not a Hitler, he never killed
a man or raped a woman, but he saw clearly the truth of it – in his heart, in
his secret thoughts, he was no different than the worst. Today is a day to recognise this sin in us
and throw ourselves on the mercy of Jesus Christ, on the mercy and pity and
love of God, who will come again and judge the living and the dead, who will
come again and judge you and me.
In
1882 the German Philosopher Nietzsche boldly declared “God is dead... And we
have killed Him!” He said it as a boast,
he took pride in it as if it were some great achievement of mankind to be rid
of true religion – that is to say Christianity the only true religion and the
only way to heaven. He and so many
others saw the success and the power of man and machine, of innovation and
science. They asked “Why do we need God? Can we not explain everything in this
universe? Can we not heal our own sick? Can we not give sight to the blind and
make the leper whole? Can we not cure the insane? What need is there of God in a Golden Age of atheism
and science?”
What
need is there of God in a Golden Age of atheism and science? Indeed!
More
have died at human hands in the past one hundred years than all the centuries
before combined. Famed atheists Jospeh
Stalin and Pol Pot killed more of their own people in forty years than all the
Christian crusades and inquisitions of history put together. Never has poverty
been so easily solved and yet forced to remain because of selfish greed. Never
has the gap between the super-rich and super-poor been so great. Never have depression and anxiety afflicted
so many – in the past ten years the amount of anti-depressants prescribed has
more than doubled, 46 million people are on anti-depressants in the UK, in
Wales one in five people are prescribed drugs to help battle depression. One in
Five!! Here in Cleveland one in six adults is on such medication. Today there
are more slaves in the sex industry than there were slaves in total at the time
of William Wilberforce. An estimated 27
million people are slaves of some form today.
As I speak over 2 million girls under the age of 16 are being exploited
as sex slaves against their will.
If
the past one hundred years has been an experiment of what a world is like where
“God is Dead” then it was an error in conception and a disaster in
execution. And the world knows it.
Christianity
worldwide is growing faster than ever. Christianity
in Britain is now growing and not dying.
Why? Why would people who have
the glories of science and the joy of total autonomy turn to Christ? Because a godless world can never satisfy
those who were made in the image of God Himself.
And
this is why Remembrance Sunday so resonates within our hearts. This is why this day plays the strings of our
hearts more than any other.
C.S.
Lewis (or Tolkien, I forget which!) once said that all great stories are merely
a retelling of the one true story of God and His saving love. When we read of good triumphing over evil –
either on a national scale like World Wars or on a personal level like
overcoming addiction – it is so powerful because we know deep down,
spiritually, it is what we long for in our own lives. We long for victorious living, we long to be
saved from all that is wrong around us, and especially - if we are truthful –
all that is wrong within us.
It
is no accident that superhero movies are so successful. It is no accident that in them there is
almost always a moment of humiliating defeat or a time of weakness and humility
that the hero must go through to save the world or win the girl.
It
is no accident that often the heroes are so... ordinary. Think of Harry Potter, a boy who had no great
physical strength, who lived in poverty under the stairs in a dysfunctional
family. Think of Peter Parker –
Spiderman for those of you wondering who I am speaking about – a boy who was
orphaned by the death or leaving of his parents and who grew up with his aunt
and uncle in no fantastic wealth, a boy bullied at school. Think of Bilbo or Frodo Baggins, Hobbits of
small stature, not warriors, great only at eating and smoking and
gardening. Hobbits who are the least of
all the peoples of Middle Earth and yet save the world from the greatest of
evils. Think of Luke Skywalker, a no-body
growing up parentless in a desert as a moisture farmer – some country bumpkin
who knows next to nothing of the universe or the Empire he is soon to bring to
its knees. All these heroes fight the impossible from a
place of weakness, they are all so normal, so relatable, to frail.
These
are so successful, so memorable, because they are but a pale shadow of Jesus
Christ.
There
was a bridge near Dunkirk in 1940 stained with British blood. As their friends were evacuated some soldiers
stood their ground, made their last stand to stop the Nazis from getting
through. They fought till there were no
more grenades, no more bullets, they died with knives in their hands and
bayonets in their rifles. That day they
sacrificed themselves and saved the lives of many of their friends and family,
their brothers in both blood and arms.
It was a modern day 300 and we must never, ever, forget them.
But
on a hill outside Jerusalem, just under 2000 years ago, a greater sacrifice was
made, a greater victory won, a greater freedom purchased by the blood of God.
What
made this unique was that Jesus didn’t die for His friends as our brave
soldiers did at Dunkirk. He didn’t even die for His family. He died, willingly, for His enemies. Listen to What Saint Paul in Romans 5 tells
us of that fateful day:
“6 For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! 9 Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!”
“6 For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! 9 Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!”
We are helpless sinners, lost in our sin, at
war with God – doomed to the coming judgement. We are evil - whether deep down
inside or plain for all to see. We turn
against God day and night; we are under the righteous wrath and anger of
God. We deserve to die in penalty for
our sins and wickedness, and we have no right to any future but eternity in
hell, an eternity in torment, burning fire, and choking darkness. We deserve the worst internment camp, the
worst Prisoner of War Camp imaginable.
We are not just sinners we are active enemies of heaven and all that is
perfectly Holy and Good.
Yet “while we were helpless” “while we were
still sinners” “while we were enemies” Christ Jesus died to reconcile us to
God. By His blood and His blood alone
can we be saved from the righteous wrath of God. For those who believe in Jesus as Lord, God,
and Saviour – for them Christ Jesus took all our sin on Himself, He became
helpless and put Himself in our place, in the shoes of an enemy of God – and He
took our punishment, our just deserts, our judgement and our penalty. And He died in agony in our place, sacrificed
up for us that we might be set free from sin, from our evil nature, and from
Devil himself.
Be reconciled to God today, this minute,
this moment. Remember the freedom that
was bought for you by British soldiers that you may choose Christ as your King
and not fear death and punishment from the state or others. Throw yourself at the foot of the old rugged
cross where Jesus wept and bled and died.
Throw yourself on the mercy of God almighty, repent of your sin,
acknowledge the evil within you and cast it upon Him, open your heart to the Holy
Spirit that He may fill you with joys unspeakable and hope unstoppable!
In Oxford there is a street that I dare say
is my favourite in all the nation – St. Giles.
On one end is found the war memorial for Oxford, a cross rising up out
of the ground as a monument to the heroic dead of war. A monument to celebrate the freedom we have
from tyranny of evil empires and rulers.
At the other end of the street rises up something
like the ornate spire of a cathedral, it is a monument to the deaths of three
men who were burned at the stake just down the road. Those men were Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley,
and Thomas Cranmer – the Oxford Martyrs.
They died defending the true faith from superstition and heresy, they
died that we might know the freely given love of God, they died that we might
know mercy and hope, that we can know that it is not what we do that saves us
but what Jesus did on the Cross. They
died for the true religion, the Protestant, Reformed, faith.
Here in that one street we have two great
blessings – freedom from evil on the one hand and freedom to God on the
other. Take up the call and do not
squander their gifts to you this day, make a new start in Christ Jesus –
rejoicing that you can do so without fear. And
then, through faith in Jesus, one day you will meet Latimer, Ridley, and
Cranmer, and many of those who died in the World Wars and you may thank them as
you all feast at the greatest banquet the universe has ever known.
Amen.
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