Every year, we mark Remembrance Day – a time to honour, to show respect, to those who have served and sacrificed in wars, conflicts, and peace keeping and peace making missions.
We reflect on the courage of those who have been overseas; on those who have served in domestic deployments, on those whose service has been as civilians, as families, as communities.
For most of us, the concept of Remembrance Day – or Armistice Day – began as we remembered the first and second World Wars.
May God bless the veterans of those wars; may God comfort all those who supported them.
As time has continued, however, we sadly recognise that conflict continues.
The veterans of today are not just the courageous folks from the last century; we have veterans of all ages, still among us.
We recall those who have served and who now serve, and we give thanks for them: for their courage and dedication, and for their legacy of the peace and freedom we enjoy.
These are folks whose efforts are to combat evil, to diminish strife and suffering: who invite us to remember – and to work for peace.
It’s beneficial to note the difference between remembering and recollecting: for many folks, to speak of international conflict is an abstract concept. So we do not have the personal memory:
Yet – we remember.
For when we remember, we put back together the parts that have been separated. We reconnect the members, to make a whole.
When we think about the effects of armed conflict, we remember the loss; the pain; the suffering.
When we re-member, we are affirming that evil must never be allowed to triumph in the world; that we honour all aspects of life – for all people and for the planet.
Remembrance Day calls for us to be thankful for those who have taken these courageous actions in the past, and it reminds us to renew our commitment and resolve to strive for peace and concord in our world, in our time.
For when we do not remember, we face the real potential to fall back into situations and circumstances that take us back where we do not want to be. To places where we miss out on our respect for others, where we do not uphold the dignity of all, where we do not see the value of life that God has blessed us with.
So we remember.
And with our faith, we commend those who made their sacrifices to God: to the loving and eternal holiness that embraces them, taking away all struggle, all distress, all the things in which the world was unfair.
The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God; no torment can touch them.
Re-membering is an integral part of our Anglican experience: each week we gather, we hear God’s holy word, to pray, to come to the table:
For at the very heart of our Anglican experience, the Eucharist, we remember.
Even as we recall that the life, the peace and the freedom that Jesus offers each of us, was also won at a price - the price of his own life, taken through violence, on the cross.
At this holy table, the timeless Jesus himself invites us to remember, daily, the power of God to overcome the powers of sin and death; the promise of God to bless us with the gift of community in our communion.
God re-connects us with Christ, and with one another, across all time and space - in the mystery that transcends all explanation. God collects us together:
In this world, and in the next.
At the heavenly banquet.
Where sorrow and pain are no more.
Where every tear is wiped away.
Where we are reunited we all those that we love: re-membered as members of the body of God.
So we remember: and we give thanks.
We remember: and we work for peace.
We remember.
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