Readings:
Wisdom of Solomon 6: 12-16;
Psalm 70;
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-end;
Matt 25: 1-13

Collect:
God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Reflection

A little while ago there was an ad on TV for baby milk - the ad featured little ones playing games, the way kids do - maybe playing with a wooden railway, taking their teddy’s temperature, or dancing in their bedroom. But then you see them as grown ups - driving a train, walking the hospital corridors, or performing on s tage. The ad suggested that the milk helped them to grow up into whatever they imagine they are. 

Well, that’s baloney of course, but I like the idea of being able to catch a glimpse of the future when you look at a little child’s preferences and games. And we know the psychology that says the experiences you have as a child have an effect on the kind of person you grow up to be. I can certainly say looking back that I can see God’s creativity at work in me from my earliest days. Each day God is still calling me to fulfil the particular purpose for my life, that purpose  in me from childhood, perhaps even from birth. 

This weekend we mark Remembrance Sunday, bringing to mind all those people who lost their lives fighting for freedom and justice and righteousness. People who lived and died, some of them, quite a long time ago; others more recently, in the conflicts that still scar our earth. Some died on the battlefield, some died away from the action, after injuries sustained, others lived for a long time afterwards, but fought a daily battle with trauma and the shattering memories they carried with them. 

Each and every one of them - some remembered by name, some unknown - each of them grew from a little child: a child who played games and imagined the future, and who carried the spark of God’s creativity within them. Some of them will have imagined being a soldier, or a medic or whatever, but I should think very few of them could ever have imagined what the reality of battle would be like - the noise, the adrenaline, and eventually the shock and pain of injury or death.

Many of us have heard or read the work of at least one of the so-called ‘War Poets’ - Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Eleanor Farjeon, Robert Graves, Vera Britten. They wrote movingly of the reality - using their God-given gifts to try to bring home the sorrow, and the horror, of it all. That was, quite possibly, their purpose in life, their calling, put in them from childhood. 

But many more, the millions who’ve died in conflicts of all kinds, may well not have fulfilled their complete purpose in life. War and sin and death took that away from them. How many bakers, musicians, mechanics, writers, teachers, parents did war remove from life before they had a chance to become fully themselves? What a tragedy. 

But what is incredible about those who fought, and still fight, is how willing they were to fight for what is right, even if it meant giving up everything they imagined or hoped for, even life itself. Not just soldiers in the First World War trenches, but those in the Second World War too, and those who’ve fought and died in Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Afghanistan, Iraq and so many other places too. 

There’s always a lot of politics surrounding conflict, the decision to go to war being, quite rightly, questioned; the decisions made during the course of it all being held up to scrutiny, and not often coming out smelling of roses. Power and the pursuit of it is always an ugly thing, especially when it’s real flesh and blood people who pay the price. But whatever the politics across the years, however profound the mistakes, however doubtful the decisions of leaders, those who fought were ready to be called upon, and gave it their all. 

God mourns the death of each and every person. But maybe those who died did fulfil a greater and higher purpose after all. Maybe it isn’t all just a senseless waste. They were ready to go, to stand up for what they believed in, what they thought was right. Their readiness reminds us of the importance of courage, of self-sacrifice, of willingness to serve one another even at a cost to ourselves, of giving our all. They remind us to be ready to go into action whenever these things are needed. They made it possible for you and me to have the kind of chance at life that they never did. 

It’s a sacrifice that echoes the sacrifice Jesus made - facing death so that we could have life. Their bodies may be gone, but the legacy of those who have fought and died lies within each of us. Lives laid down have made it possible for us to fulfil our life’s calling. The fallen call out to us to fight for love and peace and a better world. And the greatest sacrifice of all, the Son of God, risen from the dead, promises us, and all who have gone before, a new hope and a new dawn.

Sharon Grenham-Thompson