Symbols Of Sacrifice - Remembrance Day (Memorial Day)

Sermon for CATM - November 13, 2022. Remembrance Day - Psalm 105:1-8 "Symbols of Sacrifice"

My grandfather, Gilbert Hyde Parker, was a naval engineer in WW2. He was on at least one navy ship during the war that was bombed by the Nazis and sank in frigid waters.

There are unconfirmed family accounts that he may have been on a total of 3 ships, all of which met the same fate.

Each time he was rescued, it was after being in freezing water for too long. This led to lifelong health issues.

This year is the 80th anniversary of Operation Jubilee, better known as the disastrous raid at Dieppe. The raiding force was made up of almost 5,000 Canadians, approximately 1,000 British commandos and 50 American Army Rangers.

The Allies’ plan was to launch a large-scale amphibious landing, damage enemy shipping and port facilities, and gather intelligence on German defences and radar technology.

Recent research has suggested that the desire to capture a top secret Enigma code machine and accompanying codebooks was also an important factor in mounting the raid.

My grandfather was also at Dieppe, and his role was to direct the landing craft that took the Canadian soldiers from the Dido Class Cruiser that worked with the RCN Destroyers to that fateful shore on August 19, 1942.

As soon as the Canadian soldiers got out of the boats, they began to be picked off one by one by German snipers.

It quickly became obvious that it was going to be a bloodbath. Soldiers who were the last to leave the landing craft and who saw their brothers dying ahead of them, ran through the water back to the boats shortly after jumping out, begging to be allowed back in.

A few were able to climb back in. My grandfather then received orders to return to the ship from which the smaller landing craft were launched.

He had to close the boat’s doors to the cries of these young soldiers who remained in the frigid water, most of them between 18 and 22 years old.

They begged my grandfather to let them come back into the landing craft rather than being picked off in the water.

He closed the doors and then watched from the relative safety of the boat as it returned to the cruiser, as those same soldiers who begged him to be allowed to come aboard were, one by one, shot dead in the water.

This traumatic experience led to lifelong struggles that included constant nightmares and general trouble sleeping.

What the military learned from the disaster at Dieppe was an obvious lesson that led to the success of the Normandy invasion later and near the end of the war: you can’t do a land assault by sea on a heavily fortified coast without air cover.

That fact that that is a no-brainer was sadly missed by the people in charge.

There were 3,367 casualties, including 1,946 prisoners of war; 916 Canadians lost their lives. From Toronto alone a great many lives were lost in that war.

Why talk about this? Why does something unpleasant that happened so long ago have anything to do with life now in 2022?

How is this useful or relevant to now? Even the symbols of remembrance, like the poppy, what’s really the point of keeping up that tradition?

Remembering does many things. And symbols of remembrance are more important than we perhaps realize.

Remembering brings us back to the reality of what actually happened.

It encourages us to see the dedication of those who fought and died.

Remembering should stir within us a sense of gratitude and appreciation, and it should strengthen our own resolve to do our part in serving God and others.

Remembering can also limit how quickly a nation and a world might choose to return to the horrors of war.

War is sometimes the failure of relationship and diplomacy. It is also, as in the current war in the Ukraine and in WW2, caused by evil leaders wanting to dominate others.

Remembering at times like this is important, because as human beings, we really are inclined to be so caught up in today that we forget what happened yesterday, often to our harm.

Throughout the Bible, God’s people are instructed to stop and recall what He did for them. Psalm 105 in its entirety is a song of remembrance of God’s goodness to His beloved ones.

It traces His direction, provision and protection through their history.

As believers in the 21st century, we can look back over a much longer history and see how God’s plan has and is unfolding, and observe His incredible goodness and faithfulness to us.

Psalm 105

1 Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. 2 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.