To honour this 100th Anniversary of the Armistice of 1918 we will be marking the 2 minutes of silence as close to 11:00 as possible (so pretty much at the end of the service).
The Scripture Readings for this week are:
- Micah 4:1-5
- Joel 3:9-12
- Matthew 5:1-10, 38-40
The Sermon title is To End All Wars
Early Thoughts: 11:00 November 11, 1918. After 4 long bloody years of warfare (most of which was spent in virtual stalemate) the guns stopped. The war which had hopefully and idealistically (or naively and nonsensibly) been called the war that will end war had come to an end. [Technically the war was not over until 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles was signed (or imposed on Germany) but to all intents and purposes the war ended when the fighting stopped.] And ever since people around the world have paused for a Pittance of Time at 11:00 on the 11th day of the 11th month..
One of the themes that has run through the last century of commemorations has been "Never Again". There has been some hope that eventually we will get to the time when warfare is part of the past and not the future. But we have yet to find the war that will end wars.
AS people of faith what do we do on November 11th? We stop and remember as many others do. We respect the price that was paid by so many over the "great" wars of the 20th Century. But is that enough? Within our stories and writings of faith is a promise that in the end war will be no more. The vision of God's Kingdom is one where lions and lambs lie down together and weapons are turned into tools. One of the criticisms that has been leveled, rightly or wrongly, at Remembrance Day celebrations is that the glorify war, that they glorify the sacrifice more than lament the loss. As people of faith what do we do with a hope for the peaceful Kingdom and the reality of a violent warring world.
And then it does not help that parts of our faith stories and writings seem in fact to be a call to arms, as this weeks' reading from Joel shows us.
As people of faith I think the question we need to ask is where is God in all of this? Where is God leading us? Which is not to say that the cure for war is for everyone to turn to Religion. After all it has repeatedly been proven that religion can be as much a force for war as a force for peace. But still it seems that the God we meet in Judeo-Christian Scripture has a hope for peace, "neither shall they learn war any more".
AS I look at the example of Jesus I see part of the path. Don't return violence for violence. Don't return evil with evil. Don't seek payback and retribution. It reminds me of the slogan often seen at anti-war protests -- "Fighting for peace is like [having sex] for virginity". Maybe that is why we have failed to find the war that will end war?
IF we are to find peace, if we are to become the peacemakers who will be called children of GOD we need to find a new path. We need to push our leaders to find a new path. Because the governments of the world (in conjunction with what Eisenhower called the Military-Industrial Complex) have shown little real intent to actual bring an end to war, as Buffy Sainte-Marie laments in the song "The War Racket".
This year we will once again pause and remember and lament. How will God push us to change ourselves and our world so that "Never Again" is more than just a motto once a year?
--Gord
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