Remembrance Sunday

Church was surprisingly good today, including the sermon.

I had to laugh when the assistant minister started off by saying “This is the day the Lord has made”, in somewhat response to the rainy London weather. If someone had said that to me yesterday, while standing in the pouring down and sideways rain, I would not have been amused. But, when you think about it, that phrase would have been just as true on that rainy afternoon as it was on a sunny morning.

I digress. Today is Remembrance Sunday in the UK, and Europe. 11/11 this year marks the 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War, in which 1.1 million Brits lost their lives. That’s 1,100,000 people. Mind boggling.

A member of the US military was there and gave a speech for remembrance, and it was quite good. I liked his line, ‘glorify the warriors, not the war.’ Being in Europe for this day has made me think more about the Wars, and the act of remembrance. In the U.S., I feel like Veterans Day is a forgotten day, which is a shame, when you consider what these men and women did for the safety, security, and liberty of all of us. He quoted part of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (given 19 Nov 1863), and it is fitting for all of us to remember :

… But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain …

Also referenced, and relevant is the passage read from Isaiah 2:1-5, with v4 as follows :

He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

As the speaker said, ‘what we choose to remembers defines us individually and collectively.’

What, and whom, do you choose to remember?