Micah 4:2-4
2 Many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3
He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
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.
4
Everyone will sit under their own vine
and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
Reflection
I have been blessed
I have lived untouched by war
I am 68.
I am in the minority in this world.
And I don’t understand war.
When I was travelling in France in my 20’s I was horrified and tearful at the sight of hundreds of white crosses- row on row- each one representing one soldier and every single life his life touched- family, friends, community.
How many lives?
Recently reading about the beginning of the First World War I was reminded of the greed and lust for power that was behind it all and the arrogance that perpetuated and allowed for people to become fodder for the machines of war.
I got to Gallipoli campaign in April of 1915– and could not go any further – 130,000 soldiers died that was enough killing, enough insanity for me. Altogether there were just about 400,000 casualties - there was enough sadness to last a lifetime in the story.
We call it the Great War – but it was a war like many wars before it fed by the unjustified lust for power and wealth.
Does it make the men and women who fought and died, who fought and lived, who fought to keep those wounded and sick alive, less heroic or courageous- I don’t think so – those brave men and women came when their country asked them to come and fought and served where their country asked them to fight and serve. We remember them – all of them because they were people just like us and had families just like ours.
But when we remember warfare in truth, it is not just heroism and victory, but also brutality, boredom, terror and the dreadful, stupid waste of life. And it is the selfless acts, the moments of astounding courage. It is personal goodness breaking out repeatedly in a place of evil and the failure of humanity.
Those who gave their lives did so in the belief that they would bring about a better, fairer, more peaceful world.
So what do we learn?
From these stories of slaughter like Gallipoli:
Ypres April 1915 6,035 Canadians, one man in every three, became casualties of whom more than 2,000 died.
Passchendaele- 4,000 Canadians killed, 12,000 wounded
Beaumont-Hamel - July 1, 1916, of the 801 Newfoundlanders who went into battle that morning, only 68 were able to answer the roll call the next day, with 255 dead, 386 wounded and 91 missing.
Somme- July 14, - late August 1916 - Canada 24,029 casualties, The Allies had suffered some 650,000 casualties, and both sides had about 200,000 killed.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge would prove a great success, but it would come at great cost. The 100,000 Canadians who fought there suffered approximately 11,000 casualties, with almost 3,600 soldiers killed
By the end of the First World War, Canada, a country of less than eight million citizens, would have more than 650,000 servicemen. The conflict took a huge toll with more than 66,000 Canadians losing their lives and 170,000 wounded which does even begin to address the number of men and women who came home changed – because war and killing and blood, mud and trenches and artillery fire take their toll on that which is fragile in all of us.
What do we learn that does not betray the hope that gave these brave men and women to do what they did and sacrifice themselves so that we about 100 years later live in a country that allows us freedoms and rights so many still fight for.
What do we learn so that every time we send troops off to fight we don’t deny our dead their hope.
What do we learn so that we truly honour their sacrifice?
What Micah tells us is that we must ceaselessly work for peace, and the justice from which peace springs. In our communion services we break the bread and raise the cup saying “Do this in remembrance of me.” That is an invitation to make a new world, to build the kingdom of heaven upon earth, where the swords are beaten into ploughshares and the poor are lifted up, the mighty are cast down and “each one may sit beneath their vine or fig tree at peace and unafraid.”
I hope that to remember is to grow wiser, to bring history in a desired direction, a better direction- in the direction of peace. We were not given freedom just to enjoy it, but to make it grow for others.
Our soldiers, in the First World War, in the Second World War, in the Korean war, the Gulf War, in Afghanistan, and in the peacekeeping missions, must mean something more than Canada participating in other people’s wars- we must stand for something.
I believe that our soldiers’ lives were given in faith to their country and they stand for the hope that peace will come, that their lives made a difference.
To remember is serious work. It isn’t just the one morning in November, it is a constant awareness that we are in the debt of those who have gone before us.
So we remember by lifting up to God the foolishness and arrogance that propelled our history and propels it still and by lifting up prayers of hope that wisdom will bring us to a world and a time of peace - for everyone.
Prayer
Holy God
Help us to remember the courage and the sacrifice
of all those who fought bravely in the wars
that protected our freedoms here in Canada.
Let us remember those who still suffer
the horrors of the wars and treat them
with the dignity and the gentleness they deserve.
Give us the longing for justice
and the hunger for peace,
and above all the vision to build a better world for all people.
Holy God
We, who, are blessed
by family and friends and country
grant that we in gratitude
remember those
who have given themselves so completely
and every day,
at the going down of the sun
and in its rising in the morning
let us remember them.
Amen
2 Many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3
He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
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.
4
Everyone will sit under their own vine
and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
Reflection
I have been blessed
I have lived untouched by war
I am 68.
I am in the minority in this world.
And I don’t understand war.
When I was travelling in France in my 20’s I was horrified and tearful at the sight of hundreds of white crosses- row on row- each one representing one soldier and every single life his life touched- family, friends, community.
How many lives?
Recently reading about the beginning of the First World War I was reminded of the greed and lust for power that was behind it all and the arrogance that perpetuated and allowed for people to become fodder for the machines of war.
I got to Gallipoli campaign in April of 1915– and could not go any further – 130,000 soldiers died that was enough killing, enough insanity for me. Altogether there were just about 400,000 casualties - there was enough sadness to last a lifetime in the story.
We call it the Great War – but it was a war like many wars before it fed by the unjustified lust for power and wealth.
Does it make the men and women who fought and died, who fought and lived, who fought to keep those wounded and sick alive, less heroic or courageous- I don’t think so – those brave men and women came when their country asked them to come and fought and served where their country asked them to fight and serve. We remember them – all of them because they were people just like us and had families just like ours.
But when we remember warfare in truth, it is not just heroism and victory, but also brutality, boredom, terror and the dreadful, stupid waste of life. And it is the selfless acts, the moments of astounding courage. It is personal goodness breaking out repeatedly in a place of evil and the failure of humanity.
Those who gave their lives did so in the belief that they would bring about a better, fairer, more peaceful world.
So what do we learn?
From these stories of slaughter like Gallipoli:
Ypres April 1915 6,035 Canadians, one man in every three, became casualties of whom more than 2,000 died.
Passchendaele- 4,000 Canadians killed, 12,000 wounded
Beaumont-Hamel - July 1, 1916, of the 801 Newfoundlanders who went into battle that morning, only 68 were able to answer the roll call the next day, with 255 dead, 386 wounded and 91 missing.
Somme- July 14, - late August 1916 - Canada 24,029 casualties, The Allies had suffered some 650,000 casualties, and both sides had about 200,000 killed.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge would prove a great success, but it would come at great cost. The 100,000 Canadians who fought there suffered approximately 11,000 casualties, with almost 3,600 soldiers killed
By the end of the First World War, Canada, a country of less than eight million citizens, would have more than 650,000 servicemen. The conflict took a huge toll with more than 66,000 Canadians losing their lives and 170,000 wounded which does even begin to address the number of men and women who came home changed – because war and killing and blood, mud and trenches and artillery fire take their toll on that which is fragile in all of us.
What do we learn that does not betray the hope that gave these brave men and women to do what they did and sacrifice themselves so that we about 100 years later live in a country that allows us freedoms and rights so many still fight for.
What do we learn so that every time we send troops off to fight we don’t deny our dead their hope.
What do we learn so that we truly honour their sacrifice?
What Micah tells us is that we must ceaselessly work for peace, and the justice from which peace springs. In our communion services we break the bread and raise the cup saying “Do this in remembrance of me.” That is an invitation to make a new world, to build the kingdom of heaven upon earth, where the swords are beaten into ploughshares and the poor are lifted up, the mighty are cast down and “each one may sit beneath their vine or fig tree at peace and unafraid.”
I hope that to remember is to grow wiser, to bring history in a desired direction, a better direction- in the direction of peace. We were not given freedom just to enjoy it, but to make it grow for others.
Our soldiers, in the First World War, in the Second World War, in the Korean war, the Gulf War, in Afghanistan, and in the peacekeeping missions, must mean something more than Canada participating in other people’s wars- we must stand for something.
I believe that our soldiers’ lives were given in faith to their country and they stand for the hope that peace will come, that their lives made a difference.
To remember is serious work. It isn’t just the one morning in November, it is a constant awareness that we are in the debt of those who have gone before us.
So we remember by lifting up to God the foolishness and arrogance that propelled our history and propels it still and by lifting up prayers of hope that wisdom will bring us to a world and a time of peace - for everyone.
Prayer
Holy God
Help us to remember the courage and the sacrifice
of all those who fought bravely in the wars
that protected our freedoms here in Canada.
Let us remember those who still suffer
the horrors of the wars and treat them
with the dignity and the gentleness they deserve.
Give us the longing for justice
and the hunger for peace,
and above all the vision to build a better world for all people.
Holy God
We, who, are blessed
by family and friends and country
grant that we in gratitude
remember those
who have given themselves so completely
and every day,
at the going down of the sun
and in its rising in the morning
let us remember them.
Amen
