Sermon for Remembrance Sunday

November 12th, 2017

Readings:

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Matthew 25:1-13

 

This past March, Dame Vera Lynn celebrated her 100th birthday. If you don’ know who Vera Lynn is, you should. She was known as “the forces’ sweetheart” and her songs were largely the soundtrack of the Second World War.

 

For her birthday, they projected her picture and a birthday greeting onto the white cliffs of Dover in England, a nod to one of her most popular songs: “there’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover.” Her first hit though, and my favorite by far, is “we’ll meet again.”

 

We’ll meet again

Don’t know where

Don’t know when

But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day

Keep smiling through

Just like you always do

‘Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away

In one song, I think she perfectly voiced both the hope of those going off to fight in the war…and the uncertainty. Hope that someday they would be victorious. Hope that someday they would be reunited with those loved ones they were leaving behind, but uncertainty as to what that would look like, and how it would happen.

 

I challenge you to listen to that song and not feel both the sadness of goodbye and the optimism and hope of a better tomorrow. Listen to any number of Vera Lynn’s songs and you will find the same thing: a recognition of the pain of living in dark times, but an undying hope for a brighter future. I find that I have to stop myself when I am listening to her and remind myself that when she was singing these songs, she didn’t know how the war would end. It’s easy to get cozy and sentimental about “when the lights go on again all over the world” when you know they did, when you know we won, but that was not a certainty when Vera was singing. It was a hope.

 

I love listening to the music of that era. Just like I love to watch old movies from the 40s or watch old newsreels. When I was little I spent countless hours listening to my grandfather tell stories about his service in Germany. Occasionally my grandmother would chime in about her experience building ships for the war, reminding me that wars aren’t just fought by those on the front lines alone. She used to keep a shoebox under her bed full of the letters that she and my grandfather had sent to each other when he was in the army. I remember reading them with her, and at the time I don’t think I fully appreciated how difficult living in that period must have been. Not knowing when, or if, you would see someone again. Not knowing when or how the war would end. And yet, instead of pessimism and despair and hatred and division, more often than not what I find when I look at the attitude of that period and those that lived through it, what I find is determination and hope. People were eagerly looking to the bright day that was to come and they were going to do everything in their power to make sure that they didn’t miss it, they were going to do their part to bring about and welcome the victory.

 

I find that attitude to be incredibly inspiring.

 

Today is our Remembrance Sunday, a day when we remember and give thanks for our veterans and honor their sacrifice and a day when we pay particular attention to those who sacrificed all. In World War I and World War II and in every combat since then, brave and noble individuals have given their all for a greater good, and have dedicated their lives to something other than their own self interests. That is something that is worthy of honoring and remembering; it is something that Dame Vera has dedicated much of her life to remembering as well.

 

But I am convinced that there is more to Remembrance Day than just saying ‘thank you’. Yes, we absolutely need to honor and say thank you to those who fought and died for what we currently have, but we also need to learn from their example of how to struggle and fight with evil in the world, because the fight isn’t over as we are all well aware. That’s not to say that our ancestors didn’t make mistakes, of course they did, and we can learn from those too, but we shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking that there is something special or unique about the times we are living in or that past generations have nothing to teach us, because they do. They have much to teach us, if we will only take the time to remember what they lived through.

 

We need to remember.

 

We need to remember, whenever we are worried about random acts of terrorism,

We need to remember that during the blitz, civilians huddled and slept in subway stations to protect themselves from the random bombs that could at any moment bring death and destruction.

 

Whenever we are worried about getting shot at a public event, we need to remember the men and women in the trenches and on the front lines that had bullets flying by their heads daily or that suffered through grenade attacks or mustard gas.

 

Whenever we are worried about someone vandalizing or damaging our church building, we need to remember those individuals that spent night after night on church grounds and on cathedral ceilings trying to protect their faith and their heritage from Hitler’s incendiary bombs.

 

Whenever we get frustrated when we can’t find exactly what we want in the store, we need to remember those that fought the war on the home front, living with rations, saving every scrap of food, and making do with shortages we could never imagine.

 

Whenever we are hungry, which lets be honest, is pretty rare, we need to remember those soldiers content to eat cold rations from tin cans.

 

Whenever we are upset that the internet or wifi is patchy or that someone hasn’t replied to our text within 30 minutes, we need to remember all those people that had to go months without hearing from their loved ones, and then only a letter.

 

Whenever we feel inclined to complain about our taxes, we need to remember the people that willingly bought war bonds, actually freely gave the government their money, so that our troops could have what they needed to fight a war for us.

 

Whenever we start to feel sorry for ourselves or our circumstances, we need to remember what those that came before us had to endure.

 

We need to remember that there once was a time when people weren’t just looking out for number one, but when entire communities came together to help each other

 

We need to remember that there was a time when duty, and honor and respect and dignity meant something

 

Whenever we feel overwhelmed by the evil in this world which we have to fight on a continual basis, we need to remember the evil that our fathers, and grandfathers and mothers and grandmothers and great-grandparents had to confront.

 

The power of remembering their struggles and their sacrifices, is not just that it moves us to show the gratitude that it is only right that we show, the real power of remembering their struggle is in how it can change how we live now.

 

We need to remember for our sake.

 

Remembering their lives, has the power to change our lives.

 

This is a Christian church and part of the Christian hope is being reunited with those we love. You know, one of the very first things that was written in the New Testament is the Letter to the Thessalonians that we heard this morning where Paul talks about that hope we have of joining with those that have gone before us on the day the Lord comes. For me, “we’ll meet again” although it is a secular song, does express an important conviction of my faith. I live in the hope that we will meet again. I live in the hope of a future sunny day when we will meet the Lord in glory. That will be a glorious day when we see them again and greet the Lord face to face.

 

The bigger question for us though, and I think the question that the gospel asks of us…is how are we going to live in the meantime? How are we to live with uncertainty? What will be our response to living through dark times? Their battle may have ended, but we know that our fight goes on.

 

Are we to be like the foolish bridesmaids, impatient and unprepared, or are we to be like the wise: facing uncertainty with determination and hope?

 

How are we to keep our lamps burning bright in a dark world?

Well, until we meet them again, maybe we should remember those that have already done it.