November 6th 2006
Today, and in coming days we come to remember … but it is worth asking ourselves what it is we remember, and how we live out those memories.
It is easy to pin on a Red Poppy and walk around and say – “We remember …” Yet when we pick up the newspaper or turn on the news we are flooded with news of wars across the globe, and in recent months we in Minnedosa, to say nothing of Canada have been reminded in a vivid way that this is not just a peacekeeping mission far away. Our nation is at war – it is not on a scale like World War One or Two, nor is it like the combat our troops faced in Korea – but we are at war.
This year, that reality came to Minnedosa when we tied yellow ribbons around town and began to pray and hope for our soliders to come home safely. The risk of war came home with Scott Collen who continues his long recovery at home with his family.
We are at war. We may not like it. We may not believe we should be there. But we can not wave a magic wand and simply make the situation in Afghanistan disappear and have everything peaceful and violence free.
We remember. Today we remember the cost of freedom. Today we remember the fallen, both those in uniform and those euphemistically called collateral damages … Today we remember the cost of war and the true value of peace.
We pin on our red poppies – we speak our poetry – we recall our stories (both our own and those passed down through our friends and family) and we REMEMBER.
But it is the HOW of remembrance that should concern us. The very act of Remembrance must be more than two minutes each fall … it must be more than a week or so of wearing a poppy.
The very act of Remembrance must move beyond the narrow confines of a day set aside to honour those who have known the horrors of war.
As we struggle to Remember we have before us two powerful quotations … from scriptures that remind us of devotion, dedication and compassion – the very heart of Remembrance.
We begin with the Biblical figure of Ruth saying to her mother-in-law Naomi, “where you go, I shall go. Where you live I shall live. Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God …”
Then we turn to the Gospel story and we hear Jesus telling his disciples, and us – “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength, and the second is this – ‘you shall love your neighbour as yourself …’”
On this Sunday of Remembrance, both statements are powerful reminders to the tasks that we have before us as we remember …
Ruth is the paragon of devotion. She abandons her old ways – her family, her god, her traditions to stand with Naomi, her widowed mother in law. Ruth sets her face and her life, and she chooses to follow Naomi and the God named Yahweh … ad God who in time spoke through a wandering Rabbi from a little village called Nazareth, who was a descendent of Ruth’s and who would tell his followers that there are only two Commandments that truly matter.
Jesus challenged his followers to live out the commandment that “WE shall love the Lord your God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind and with all our strength, and the second is this – ‘we shall love our neighbour as ourself …’”
Every time I read or hear those words I am struck at the profound truth they contain. They are words that are common to every human faith tradition. The Muslims, the Taoists, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Jews, The Christians and every faith tradition teaches and echoes that teaching – “look beyond our selves to our God, our creator, our higher power, and treat others with the same love, care and respect that we would want …”
Those are great words. They are easy words to proclaim and say – “this is how we should live our lives … these are the values that we should expound … this is what we HAVE to do …”
Then we encounter a Hitler … or a Hussein … or a Bin Laden … or any number of leaders or people who consciously chose to ignore this Universal human teaching …
What do we do in that moment? What do we do when acts of horrific violence are enacted upon us? Do we stand by our words, and leave the rest in God’s hands? Or do we work – do we commit ourselves to live out those words?
Today we remember the cost of those words … There is a better way than ceaseless combat and violence. The words of Jesus and the others who remind and challenge us to look up and see that better way are powerful reminders of what could be …
There was a comedian named Bill Hicks who ended his routines by telling his listeners that WE can heaven on earth right now, we can have peace on earth right now – all it takes is the courage to change our perspective. He rightly said that in our world today we see things through the eyes of fear – eyes of fear that pour trillions of dollars into weapons and security – eyes of fear who see threat in every stranger – eyes of fear that demonize those who are different from us. Hicks challenges his listeners to change our perspective – and to begin to see the world through eyes of LOVE.
Eyes of Love that put aside the fear. Eyes of love that see the world as it is, not as our talking heads and political leaders claim it to be. Eyes of love that have the courage to live the words of people like Jesus and Gandhi and Hillel who have told us that we need only treat others as we WANT and deserve to be treated … It’s THAT simple …
Today we remember the profound cost of war … Today we remember the fallen. We remember the veterans. We remember those who stand on the front lines. And we remember the wounded and the battered who continue their recovery.
Today we remember the high cost of war and we simply say – that cost is too high to let it continue unfettered … Too many young lives have been snuffed out on foreign soil, or lost in cold distant waters … too many lives have been shattered … we know the stories – we need to share the stories … but as we remember the cost, and as we thank those who have paid that bill. We must begin to listen to that whisper that says – “see the world in a new way – see the world through eyes of love … and let’s find a better way than war and conflict …”
Wasn’t that the message that John McCrae offered from the battle fields of Europe 90 years ago when he wrote the words of Flanders Fields … he looked at the horrors around him and said quietly … never again …
Maybe one day we will Remember THAT … and we will learn … and our world will change … and the sacrifices and the losses and the memories of our Veterans will be fully valued for what they are …
Maybe one day it will be so … until then we keep Remembering, we keep hoping and we keep working for a better way … May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment