Remembrance Day 2013

Trinity Church Halifax

Thomas Hardy's, "The Man He Killed."

Had he and I but met
    By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
    Right many a nipperkin!

    But ranged as infantry,
    And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
    And killed him in his place.

    I shot him dead because—
    Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
    That's clear enough; although

    He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
    Off-hand like—just as I—
Was out of work—had sold his traps—
    No other reason why.

    Yes; quaint and curious war is!
    You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
    Or help to half a crown.

I stand here as a priest in the Church of God.

I can only understand reality through Jesus Christ.

I am also a former naval officer.

So, there are many conflicting thoughts and emotions that course through my body on Remembrance Day. That is, of course, when I allow this day to be about something that it is not. This is not a day of politics; a day of who was right and who was wrong, or a day of boasting. It is not a day of the moral relativism of should we, or should we not be, involved in this war or that. This is a day of remembrance. A day we set aside to remember those who died in war.

This is a day when we should say, “Thank You” and a day to reflect on the expression “Lest we forget”

There are a great many opinions about wars, just as there are a great many wars for which to hold opinions. Here are a list of some wars many going on: the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Lybia, the war in Syria, the war in Somalia, the war in Egypt, the war in Nigeria, the war in NorthWest Pakistan, the war in Sudan, the war in Yemen, the war in Palestine, the war in Kasmir, the war in Burma, the war in Darfur, the war on drugs.

We live in a wonderful but deeply wounded world.

We must remember. We must remember.

I have been told the trenches of Western Europe had a smell that one never forgets. It has been described as an odour of death.

I have been told that the smell of fuel burning in the mid-Atlantic had a smell that one never forgets. A putrid stench of salt, oil and ash.

I have been told that to hear artillery shells pounding the trenches as young men huddled in tunnels is a sound not to be forgotten. Like a pounding on the heart of the universe.

I have been told the engines of the Motor Torpedo Boats in the English Channel made a powerful reverberating sound as they resonated on the cliffs of Dover.

I have been told the sounds of airplane engines returning from battle was a welcoming sound for ground crews hoping their aircrews were safe.

I have been told by our Merchant Navy sailors that there is nothing like hearing the sound of a torpedo hit a ship in a convoy. The sound came after the flash had focused the hearers attention.

I have been told the taste of victory is bitter sweet. A confused dance of elation, grief and hope.

We feel the consequences of war long after the political declaration of victory. Whatever that even means anymore.

War has a heavy cost.

We must remember.

We must remember them.

We must remember never to glorify war.

I was told a story by a veteran this past Remembrance Day when during the second World War a Canadian place was shot down near Lorient, France. A number of the citizens of Lorient wanted to go to the site of the crash to retrieve the bodies and give the airmen a proper burial. The Nazi regime which was in control of the area forbid this act of compassion. Ten citizens went anyway.

The Nazis shot the ten dead.

We remember the inhumanity of war.

We remember those who gave their lives in hope for a better world.

Give thanks to those who return from it; love them as God commands us to love one another.

But also remember that ….remembrance is not passive.

Remembrance is grounded in the hope that the world can actually be a better place and that it take a tremendous amount of effort.

Remembrance is about bringing hope forward. It is about embracing hope and bringing hope forward.

This same hope motivated so many to give so much.

Without hope we are lost. Without hope our only dance partner is despair.

But Hope involves difficult work.

Lest we forget. Lest we forget that we live in a land of plenty. And from those to whom much is given, much is expected.

Much is expected from us.

Many people have claimed that the world changed on 9/11. The world did not change on 9/11. Technology was used in a new and hideous way, but the world didn’t change. 9/11 is a reminder that the world hasn’t changed enough. The world remains overrun with greed, hatred, envy, gluttony, pride and selfishness. Nothing changed.

We remember the self-sacrifice of war. We do not celebrate war. We remember the dehumanizing injury of war. We remember the inhumanity of war. We remember the waste of war.

And we fall on our knees in praise and thanksgiving of all God achieved through God’s very self, Jesus Christ. The way, the truth and the life.

Take, eat…feed on it in your heart, with thanksgiving.

Amen.