Prayer: My I speak in the name of the father, son and holy ghost, and let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, Amen,
Remembrance Sunday, an introduction.
Today is remembrance Sunday as we know, and it is very important event in our church calendar as it not only helps us remember those who gave their lives, but it also helps us appreciate the peace we have today, and the freedom for which they fought.
Figures, the dead and dying.
Unfortunately, that peace came at a cost, a very heavy cost as we all know. … Figures vary, but it is estimated that in World War 1, there were over 20 million who died worldwide, 7 million of which were civilian. In World War 2, it is estimated that there were over 65 million deaths worldwide, 40 million of which were civilian.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I cannot imagine death on such a scale, nor the wanton destruction which ensued, and worse, I don’t want to imagine the horrors that these poor souls endured, and that is why it is important that we give our respect.
And neither do I want to imagine the pain and torment of the “lucky” wounded, who suffered, and who were never the same again … not to mention “those left behind”. Whatever way you look at it, it was absolutely horrible in the extreme.
Remembering war, and the horrors of war is difficult, but we do remember and pay tribute: to the dead, (both military and civilian) … to the wounded, (who tend to be overlooked), and to those who suffered for others, we give you our thanks for your sacrifice.
Other conflicts to remember.
And if this wasn’t bad enough, there has been other conflicts before, and since, there are modern conflicts that are also worth remembering, like the Falklands War, the Gulf War, the Iraqi Wars 1 and 2, the War in Afghanistan and of course the illegal war we have in Ukraine today ... a war where we feel so helpless.
To the dead and dying of all conflicts, we remember them, to the displaced civilians and their suffering, we remember; … to the innocent, our hearts go out.
Misery today.
Now as we remember them, we also remember that we have our own troubles as well. Our political establishments seem to have lost their way, and with them, the forecast for our economy is all but doom and gloom. We also have some political leaders trying to do something for our climate, which is good, but we know deep down it will not be enough as we have just witnessed about 5 or 6 weeks of constant rain and, temperatures more appropriate to our summer than November.
And to add insult to injury … we have Jesus telling us in our gospel reading this morning that: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdoms against kingdom; and there will be great earthquakes, and in various places, famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents (or warnings), and great signs from heaven. Where then is our hope?
Introduction to hope.
Now, I have painted a pretty gloomy picture this morning, because that is what most of us are consumed with today … whether we speak off it or not. Our futures seem far from rosy, and regardless of what is happening, or about to happen … we must somehow … endure this turmoil … and hopefully emerge healthier and happier than we are, at this moment in time.
How then do we do that? Well notice I used the word “hopefully”, because hope is the mechanism to help us get through all this. … I mean we need copious amount of hope, hope for our future, to get us through, we need hope for the present to lift our spirits, and hope, that our pasts won’t catch up with us. … We also need hope for our world and its affairs, hope for our country and its info-structure, hope for our economy, hope for our friends and family, and hope for ourselves that we have the strength to endure.
Where then could this hope possibly come from? Well in church this morning, we are here to worship our Lord Jesus Christ, the only man who conquered both sin and death … the only man who can save us from this world, and prepare us for the world to come … and … the only man who can give us hope; the living Christ.
And notice I have said the living Christ, because it was only he, who conquered death, and it is he whom we are here to worship today, the son of God himself, in-front of whom, we need not fear our past, our present nor our future. He is the one with us, he is the one in us, and he, is our hope of glory.
The hope of glory.
Now there’s that word again, hope, hope of glory, Jesus is our hope. Jesus is the one who brings the light into our darkest hours … when all else fails … and Jesus is the one who still loves us … when everyone deserts us … yet he is the one who still listens to us, because he really wants us … as he is the only one who can bring glorify to us, when all hope has gone.
Listen to the words of Jesus, words of both hope and glory in John 15:9-13: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. … I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: love one another as I have loved you. … You are my friends, and if you do what I command … I will share everything that I have learned from my Father. … You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you so that you may go forth and bear fruit – fruit that will last – AND that whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you.
What powerful verses, there is so much to hope for in there. Jesus loved us enough to go to the cross and die for us, that we might live. … His death and sacrifice paid the price for both our Sin and Death. … Sin that we be forgiven before the father, and death that we look forward to his kingdom when we die. … As Jesus paid the price for all who place their trust in Him … what then should we fear … because no greater love can, or ever will … be shown to us.
But there is a catch, because in return, Jesus expects us to die for Him. … He expects us to die a death … not a physical death, but the death of our sinful nature. You know, that part of us that says, “I want”, “I demand”, “I must have”, “it’s all about me, me, and me. … Jesus demands that we stop living for ourselves … and start living for him; so that we can become closer to Him … to understand him … to learn from him, that we may receive from God the father, and as we have just read: “that whatever we ask in his name, the father will give us”.
One of the best and easiest ways to do this, is by being grateful, and by showing our gratitude to anything, and everything that pleases us. … Anything from a blast fresh breath of air, upwards, because if we cannot be grateful with the small things in life, we will never be grateful for anything significant or substantial.
Gratitude and love are related, they are very similar qualities, and its hard to have one without the other. … By displaying our gratitude towards something, we are in effect showing love towards that thing.
How often do we take time, to thank God for something, or something that he has done, or shown us in our lives? … How often do we just stop, and just appreciate the moment, and thank Him for being present in that moment?
Here’s a question … do we want more blessings in our lives? … Of course, we do … then to receive more, we must should start by thanking the Lord more, more than we do now. To start thanking him for the blessings we already have in our lives … because somehow, the lord seems to respond to that … because the more we thank him, the more he gives us to bless in return. … Have you ever noticed that … no matter how poor and deprived you think you are, give it chance, and you will be very pleasantly surprised how much you have, and how lucky we are.
Now, we can certainly find time to stop and complain, and we can all do that … but by finding the time to appreciate something puts us into a completely different realm … a realm where we start looking for something to appreciate … and actually finding something to appreciate … and a realm where things of value suddenly appear, and come our way.
This is the way of our Lord, and it is not the way of this world. The way of the world is like our media, our news media, who are always finding something bad or something worrying to report on.
This then is a good time to remind ourselves of one of the oldest books in the bible, the book of Job, in particular, Job 3:25 which says, “What I feared has come upon me, what I dreaded has happened to me”. What I feared, has happened. … There is nothing new here, but for some reason we are all guilty of focusing on the bad or those things which we fear.
Can you see now, that the way of the Lord is the exact opposite … because when we stop and thank him for something … that thing grows, and becomes attracted towards us. … And if you think about it, we are only going to thank him for things we like. … We cannot lose, the more we focus on the good, and thank him for the things that bless us, the easier it is for us to grow and grow … and the healthier and better off, we become.
We must therefore choose what we should be focusing on. … If it is fear and destruction, we will find it, and plenty of it … much to the detriment of others. Whereas, if we consume ourselves with gratitude, love and blessings for the things we like, guess what, we will find more and more of them in our lives too, and … be a blessing to others.
All of us have many things to be thankful for, if we only but look. All of us have experienced love, mercy and grace at some point in our lives. … All I am saying this morning is, when we see something we like, we need to get into the habit of taking time to appreciating that which we like … and start enjoying the moment … and I guarantee you; it will change your life.
By thanking God for what he has done, he will in turn bless us by giving us more of what we like, more of what we are thanking him for, and more importantly, we are beginning to communicate with the Lord in a more effective way.
God is everywhere, God is with us, God is always with us. There is no place that we can go to escape the loving presence of the Lord. Yet, sometimes life takes its toll, and takes the legs clean away from us … and when it does, our first reaction is to ask, where is God in this situation. … We have all been there, but what I am saying this morning, is that there is nowhere we can go without finding something, to thank him for, even if it’s just the air we breathe, and our good health, (or the good parts of us that are still working). … If we can only thank him for one small thing, we are witnessing his very presence, and welcoming him into our lives.
As long as we can thank him, he is there. … Today is the day we remember, and show our gratitude to those who died and suffered in war, and the freedom we enjoy as a result. Today we also with gratitude, remember Jesus, who also suffered and died, that we may enjoy everlasting life. Today we also take time to thank him for the good things in our lives, that they may grow and develop.
True gratitude therefore demonstrates the love of God. True gratitude shows us his presence in our lives. True gratitude also gives us a chance to grow, with hope for our future.
Amen.
