This morning, the 11th November, at 11am, I should have been leading the village remembrance at the war memorial in Bishop Monkton. On the 11th November, at 11am, we stop to remember the armistice: the end of the war to end all wars, they thought at the time. On Remembrance Sunday this year I was really looking forward to being in Boroughbridge, largely because it would have been my first Remembrance Sunday with serving military personnel. The base at Dishforth joins in with the service. Due to flipping costochondritis, and recovering from bleeding ulcers and a corneal abrasion both are not to be.
I have used the story many times of the little girl who wrote in her history schoolbook “Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, and since then we have had two minutes of peace every year.”
I think it’s in Nehemiah in the Old Testament there is a cry we can all cry: “they cry “peace peace, where there is no peace.” We remember the fallen of two horrific world wars this weekend, but we also remember that war and disharmony are contemporary problems.
This Remembrance weekend we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War. I was born in 1967 and was 15 when Margaret Thatcher sent the task force to the Falkland Islands as Argentina suddenly claimed sovereignty over them. For the first time in my life, war was real and it was scary. We remember this year how many casualties of that war there were on both sides.
War heightens emotions. Remember the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, who in a service after the war and after Thatcher had been jingoistic, dared to pray for the Argentinian fallen, getting into all sorts of trouble: War isn’t easy.
In a social media age, war can be in our faces. The Ukraine and Russia conflict has been going on since last March. Maybe we have stopped reacting to it. We used to hang Ukrainian flags on our churches and hold prayer meetings. Many Ukrainian families are still in this country, refugees from war. We have some in Boroughbridge who use our food larder at church each week. Will they ever be able to return home?
What do we pray today and on Sunday? We cannot solve Ukraine and the other places in the world where there is conflict, but we can do our best to work for reconciliation where we are not at peace with others around us. It seems to me military contexts aside, we just aren’t at peace…
Take government for example… Sir (really?) Gavin Williamson resigning before he is pushed because of vile bullying. Then a Home Secretary overseeing chaos with refugees fleeing terror arriving on the shores of this country by boat forced to live in inhumane conditions only known about when a child throws a bottle over a fence to let us know what is happening, and she calls frightened people an invasion.
Then there’s Matt Hancock. Matt Hancock, the former Secretary of State for health who did the majority of the 5pm bulletins at the height of the Covid pandemic who made some devastatingly wrong decisions, and now he’s there on ITV’s most successful programme, and it just isn’t right.
How come we are so disunited? Not just war and peace, but a lack of respect for those different to us who we find a threat. I hope Hancock gets to do some horrible trials and eat kangaroo penis, but really, he is a symbol of what is wrong with us at the moment.
Think about:
The mess in Northern Ireland and the DUP blocking elections for a new executive.
A Rishi Sunak government which he says will be full of integrity and compassion, yet hasn’t shown much of either yet. Can’t we have Liz back!?
A world worried about climate change as COP 27 meets in Egypt.
A church which cannot stop upsetting people became it cannot stop discriminating against those who are different, or finding out a piece of gossip and spreading it.
What do we pray for as we gather at war memorials this weekend?
May I suggest not just Ukraine or our troops, like Dishforth near us, but for us to better at relationships where we are. We cannot solve all the world’s problems but we can make a difference where we are.
The Archbishop of York has shared these words this Remembrance season:
“ On the cross Jesus confronts the hate and anger, disease and divisions of the world. And he does it with love. He receives the worst the world can give. And he goes on loving. He lays down his life for his friends. He asks us to do the same. The God of Jesus Christ is a barrier breaker, tombstone roller, barricade buster God. Sins forgiven. Those who are separated are brought together. Enemies even become friends.”
I reckon that’s my prayer this Remembrance tide…
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