Remembrance Sunday

Thank you to everyone who attended the Church service and Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial.

Transcript of the talk given during the church service:

When I was a small boy the subject of ‘the war’ was always there in the background, whispered at family gatherings, as it had ended only 20 years earlier. From those days to today we’ve all remembered those who sacrificed their lives for peace, and I’ve been grateful for living in a country that for the most part has not seen war since then.

But war has never gone away; around the world from 1945 to the present, states have been constantly at war with other states or groups. The shadow of war has never left the world. 

One of the early aims of social media was to connect people to support each other however today much of that connection seems warlike rather than peaceful. Last July arguments and verbal fights on social media spilled over to violence on the streets of a quiet town trying to grieve the loss of its children. This warlike behaviour seems very close to all of us and casts its own shadow.

So where do wars come from? James’s letter from the Bible offers a clue. To the question “what causes fights and quarrels among you” it responds with “don’t they come from your desires that battle within you” ?

It has a view on the kind of language used in social media. It says the tongue is a restless evil.

This letter also shows us a path to take. Humble yourself. Listen. Perhaps even ‘count to five’. 

The full text is humble yourself before God and he will lift you up but I know many of us do not know God that well. So let’s just humble ourselves.

A wise man approached Jesus and summarised the Jewish law in two statements. 

These were to love God with everything in you, and to love your neighbour as yourself. Again if we don’t know God that well, then let’s be kind to those around us. Love our neighbours – those around us – as ourselves.

So let us resolve to do this, as difficult and strange as it seems, to bring healing to our families, our community, our country and our world.