Joshua 4:1-9 & Ephesians 2:12-22
Remembrance Sunday is always a poignant day. Whether or not it falls on the 11th of November it is important that we take time in the context of worship to remember the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in the service of their country.
Important to do so in the context of worship as it gives us the opportunity to bring to God our thoughts and our feelings.
In the passage we read from Joshua we heard a tale of the building of a memorial – a memorial to the power of God. In the previous chapter of Joshua God had just made the River Jordan stop flowing, so that his people, the Israelites could cross over safely with the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was the special chest that the people understood was God with them.
The memorial the Israelites build had twelve stones in it – each one representing one of the 12 tribes of Israel. The memorial that would provide a powerful visual reminder to anyone who saw it of God’s power. A Cairn of sorts.
Most of us will have at one time put a stone on a cairn at the top of a hill or at some beauty spot. A stone that represents the person who put it there. In the same way the stone on the Israelites cairn represented the 12 tribes – each stone at the top of Ben Aigen or Ben Rinnes represents a hill walker. A reminder or memorial to the effort made.
In this church we have many different memorials of many different kinds – some commemorating sad events and some happier ones – but all a visual reminder of someone or something.
And it is good and right to remember – what has gone before shapes our future. To think otherwise is to not understand life.
Following our service this morning we will make our way outside to the War Memorial in the church garden. The War Memorial has some names on it – to most of us these are the names of strangers – to a few perhaps the names of family members. But each of them is a person – each name has a story behind it.
A Young man who had his whole life ahead of him before the advent of a war dashed that.
A life is cut short and lives are changed. It is essential that for our future we never forget what these young men did for us. And how their sacrifice has shaped our lives and our futures.
Whether or not you agree with war – and I respect anyone’s right to disagree with the need for war it its most bloody of meanings – what we must never do is forget the name and stories behind each of the names on our War Memorials.
Our War Memorial tells its own story and it is sad that the end of World War Two did not end wars altogether and that the world has not learned that there are better ways to live together than in conflict.
God’s people in Joshua build a memorial to the twelve tribes – it marked a union – a shared history and a shared future. How sad that today that that land is in turmoil and that the Holy Land should be a place of conflict. I do not begin to understand it all – the politics of it, the history. But it is a mark of the world that the land where our story as a church began – is a place of disagreement. Where people are willing to fight and commit humanitarian atrocities on one another – and yet profess faith in a God who must surely weep at what he sees.
Our second reading from Ephesians is a powerful one – one that I found quite emotional when reading it. Hear again these words:
At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God’s chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God’s promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God.13 But now, in union with Christ Jesus you, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.[a]14 For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies.15 He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace.16 By his death on the cross Christ destroyed their enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God.17 So Christ came and preached the Good News of peace to all—to you Gentiles, who were far away from God, and to the Jews, who were near to him.18 It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come in the one Spirit into the presence of the Father.
These words were written by Paul to the church in Ephesus – a Greek church in a foreign land – not one that was part of God chosen land – Israel. Paul, a former Jew and now Christ’s apostle – is making clear that God’s love is for all. Not just the Jews but for all – no matter where they were born. And he is stressing in this passage how Christ himself breaks down the barriers between people. And through this brought peace to all.
How sad that when we look at our fractured word that so many walls still exist. In Aberlour at our service there we are going to firstly build a cairn and then use the stones from the cairn to build a wall – the stones will begin by representing the stones on the cairn built by the twelve tribes – such a hopeful memorial.
Then we will then take the stones and build a wall with them – and as we do we will be thinking about the many things that cause disagreements which form barriers and buttresses in our own relationships – and when taken on a grander scale cause wars. The stones once a hopeful memorial now represent twelve causes of hurt and disagreement.
Starting with pride – Thinking we are important – more than we really are – always thinking we are better than others. How often do we see that lived out in politics – between countries? Too often.
Jealousy – wanting what someone else has – whether that is clothes, money or land – disliking them because they have it and we don’t.
Selfishness – always putting ourselves first – making sure we are ok even if it means hurting others.
Prejudice – treating people unkindly or unfairly – just because they are different to us in some way.
Insincerity – we feel a bit small or insignificant so we hurt other people as a distraction from what we think of ourselves.
Greed – not satisfied with what we have we want more.
Being unable to forgive – hanging to angry feelings – holding a grudge.
Hatred – seriously disliking someone.
Fear – when scared we do one of two things – its fight or flight.
Wealth – we might have it or we might not – either way it can cause problems for us.
Equally poverty – when in poverty desperate people can do desperate things.
And finally power – some people are just power hungry and will to do anything to gain even more. More often than not causing even more suffering for some of the world most fragile people.
These words can all be used when we think of not just war but also our own relationships. Where there is a balance in favour of one – another suffers.
And where an equal balance does not exist then a proper relationship cannot flourish.
All of these words which we have very quickly explored – cause a misbalance – they cause walls to go up – whether that be metaphorical or real walls.
Paul in his letter to the Ephesians reminds them that Jesus takes those walls down – he breaks the power games and makes everyone equal.
Jesus brings peace – the imagery Paul gives of Jesus breaking the wall with his own body is a powerful one. Jesus gave his live so that the world could know the real love of God – the real will of God – Peace & Love, Hope and Joy – a world of equals, a world where no-one was worth more than another – where no life is worth more than another.
Each November we take time to remember the price paid by each life lost in the name of peace – each one a heavy price – each one a legacy.
And yet what have we learned? Surely we should have worked out that life is costly and the loss of life painful. Why is it that we preach forgiveness, and I don’t just mean via the pulpit, and yet find it hard to do the other bit – the forgetting.
A friend and colleague wrote the following in her blog yesterday and I want to share with you Julies thoughts as they ring true for me. She wrote:
Forgiveness is bitter sweet; it needs to be given, and it also needs to be received.
The specifics need to be forgotten to allow healing,
What we remember is the why & the what;
Why was it necessary?
Why did we believe it was worth it?
What has been achieved?
What is the outlook for the future?
We in Britain, in the Western World, may be seen as meddlers in other people’s problems
As arrogant dictators who think they have all the answers.
We impose our worldview on others and expect them to abandon their culture, their context, their society, for the bright shiny Western Ways – oh how arrogant we can be!!
Yet, what we fight for is what we fought for more than half a century ago – freedom to be ourselves; freedom to make our own choices; freedom to live as we wish.
To move forward we need to leave behind the accusations; forgive and forget – but remember the price that has been paid: lives laid down.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends
The ones who paid that price are ageless, timeless – forever young
We who remain remember the sacrifice and embrace the freedom
Julies words are a stark reminder of why we have fought in wars and continue to fight.
And what whilst it is right to forgive and forget – that forgetting does not mean we do not remember the sacrifice of others on our behalf.
This is something that God understands – it is something he experienced and experiences still today.
For peace to exist we must forgive the past and forget our hurts, but we must never stop remembering those who paid the ultimate price.
Lest we forget:
Take up your quarrel with the foe;
to you from failing hands we throw
the torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
