INTRODUCTION EARLIER IN THE SERVICE
Today is Remembrance Sunday. It’s a time for remembering. In Britain, I think we’re good at remembering the people in the armed forces who gave their lives in conflicts over the past century or so.
Yesterday, the Royal British Legion held Festivals of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
Probably every church in the country – 40,000 or so churches – is holding a service of remembrance at the moment.
A National Service of Remembrance is being held now at the Cenotaph on Whitehall.
Similar ceremonies are taking place at war memorials in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch and all over the country.
There will be further acts of remembering tomorrow to mark Armistice Day.
So, as a nation, we take the task of remembering seriously. But what should we, AS CHRISTIANS, remember? I’d like to suggest that we remember three things. First, there are things to SACRIFICE for. Second, there are things to FIGHT for. And third, there are things to HOPE for. We will think more about those later in the service.
MAIN TALK
At the start of the service I suggested that on Remembrance Sunday we remember three things. First, there are things to SACRIFICE for. Second, there are things to FIGHT for. And third, there are things to HOPE for.
Let me start with things to sacrifice for.
One of the most moving stories of sacrifice that I’ve come across is the story of Maximilian Kolbe. [Peter probably knows who I’m talking about.]
Maximilian Kolbe was Polish, a Catholic priest and a Franciscan friar. He was born in 1894. After the First World War, Kolbe taught at a seminary in Krakow. He went overseas as a missionary for a while but returned to Poland in the 1930s to work at the monastery he had founded. When the Second World War broke out, Kolbe and a small number of other friars remained at the monastery. During this time, they hid about 2,000 Jews from the Germans. But in 1941, the Germans shut down the monastery and arrested Kolbe. After a few months, he was transferred to Auschwitz.
At the end of July 1941, a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz. The camp commander decided that ten men should be starved to death in order to deter further escape attempts. One of the men selected was Franciszek Gajowniczek [‘Franchijek Gayovnichek’]. When Gajowniczek heard that he’d been chosen he cried out, ‘My wife! My children!’
At this point, Kolbe stepped forward and told the commander, ‘I want to die in place of this prisoner.’ Gajowniczek took the man’s place. The ten men were starved and deprived of water. After two weeks only four were still alive, Kolbe being one of them. The guards wanted the bunker where the men were being kept so they decided to kill the remaining prisoners by injecting them with poison.
Gajowniczek lived another 53 years. During those years he constantly honoured Kolbe. Just before he died, he said that as long as he had breath in his lungs, he would consider it his duty to tell people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe.
Kolbe’s sacrifice WAS an act of love. It was one of the greatest acts of love. Jesus said, ‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends’ [John 15:13].
Kolbe made a sacrifice. It goes without saying that soldiers make sacrifices. There is a war memorial in Westbury-on-Trym in Bristol which has the following words:
‘When you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’
In times of war, people make sacrifices, perhaps even their lives, to gain something for others. During the two World Wars, about 1.3 million British soldiers were killed in combat. It’s an appalling number. Thankfully, the number of soldiers killed has been much lower since the end of the Second World War.
On Remembrance Sunday we remember the sacrifices people in the armed forces made. I hope that as we remember their sacrifices, it will inspire us to make sacrifices too.
WE are not called to go to war. But we often need to make sacrifices. Let me give a couple of examples.
Let’s suppose we have young children. We’re tired and we want some ‘me’ time. But the children also want our time. Do we sit the kids in front of a TV and let the TV do the parenting? Or do we sacrifice some of our precious time for them?
Another example is caring for Planet Earth. There are all sorts of things most of us want to do or get. The trouble is that lots of them produce carbon emissions. Our planet needs us to radically reduce our carbon emissions. Do we still do all the things we’d like to do? Or do we sacrifice some of those things for the sake of the planet?
On Remembrance Sunday, let’s remember the people who gave their lives for others. Let’s not only remember them but also take inspiration from them. Let’s follow their example and offer the sacrifices that our own situations call for.
My second thing to remember is that there are things to fight for.
We’ve thought about the fact that members of the armed forces made sacrifices. Many gave their lives. But we mustn’t forget that these men and women went to FIGHT. The fact that they went to fight reminds us that there are things to fight for.
Fighting can be wrong and often is wrong. But fighting can also be right.
At the start of the Second World War, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor. He was staunchly opposed to Nazi dictatorship and joined a plot to assassinate Hitler. The plan was to kill Hitler by detonating an explosive hidden in a briefcase. But the bomb was too far from Hitler when it went off and he suffered only minor injuries.
Bonhoeffer was a pastor but he wasn’t against fighting. He believed that there is a place for fighting. He wrote, ‘Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.’
Bonhoeffer was arrested and hanged on 9th April 1945.
Some Christians object to fighting on principle. We could look at this but I don’t feel this is the time. I don’t believe that the Bible tells us not to fight if there is a just cause. On the contrary, I believe the Bible requires us to fight.
God demands that we, his people, should stand up for justice. Perhaps the most famous verse in Micah is Micah 6:8. Micah writes:
‘He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
BUT TO DO JUSTICE, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?’
What does the Lord require of you, O man? First on the list is … ‘do justice.’ God requires that we do justice.
What does that mean in practice?
What do you do if you see that a law is unjust?
What do you do if you’re the head of a department and see that a member of staff is bullying someone?
What do you do if you’re a leader in a church and someone is being divisive?
In all these examples, some element of fighting is needed. You have to stand against what is wrong.
What do you do if a friend is fighting with depression?
In this example, you don’t fight with a person. But perhaps you fight in your prayers for a person.
Sometimes, we face spiritual battles. There were demons in Jesus’ day and they haven’t just disappeared.
On Remembrance Sunday, let’s remember the people who fought. Let’s not only remember them but take inspiration from them. Let’s follow their example and courageously engage in the battles we face.
My third thing to remember is that there are things to hope for.
We live in a world of conflict. The New York Times ran an article about war in 2003. It estimated that over the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for just 268 years. War has been with us all throughout human history and we may suppose that war will always be with us. I’m not saying it will be. But if we think it will be, it’s a very depressing prospect.
Wars are not the only reason why people might feel depressed. As we look into the future, there are all sorts of things which don’t look pleasant.
But God’s people have reason for hope.
Wars will not continue forever. Peter read Micah 4:1-4 for us. Let me pick up on verses 3 and 4. Micah prophesies:
‘He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide for strong nations far away …
and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks…’
Instruments of war will be turned into agricultural tools! It looks like war will come to an end! That’s exactly what Micah says in the next two lines.
‘nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more…’
Wonderful!
‘but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
AND NO ONE SHALL MAKE THEM AFRAID,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.’
‘No one shall make them afraid.’ There will be no army, no oppressor, no abuser, to make us afraid. This is what we have to look forward to. We have reason for hope.
There are many other passages in the Bible which give us a similar picture. But it’s Revelation which presents us with our future most clearly. John has a vision of the new heaven and the new earth. God is dwelling with man. John writes, ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away’ [Revelation 21:4]. This world, with all its wars and hostility, will come to an end. There will be peace!
On Remembrance Sunday, we remember the people who hoped for a better future and were willing to fight to secure it. As Christians, we hope for an eternal kingdom with Jesus as king. Let’s keep our Christian hope firmly in our minds and hearts. The writer of Hebrews calls this hope ‘A sure and steadfast anchor of the soul’ [Hebrews 6:19]. This hope gives us reason to sacrifice and to fight.
What are we going to take away from this talk?
On Remembrance Sunday, let’s do some remembering.
Let's remember those who gave their lives, and remind ourselves that as Christians there are things WE should sacrifice for.
Let's remember those who fought, and remind ourselves that as Christians there are things WE should fight for.
Let's remember those who hoped, and remind ourselves that as Christians WE have so much to hope for. And may that hope give US reason to make sacrifices and to fight.
TALK GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, 10TH NOVEMBER 2024, 10.30 A.M. SERVICE.
