REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY
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Readings: Job 19: 23-27a; Romans 8: 31-39 and John 15: 12-17
.“To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask ‘why’?”
That must rank as one of the shortest poems ever written. It comes from the pen of W.H. Auden – a man with Colwall connections – and he entitled it “Epitaph to the Unknown Soldier.” The title is nearly as long as the poem itself!
It’s not quite clear in the poem who is speaking, nor whether ‘you’ is singular or plural. Nor do we know who ‘the man’ referred to is, except that he is evidently an Unknown Soldier, or the Unknown Soldier. Maybe Auden was inspired by the tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, representing the 1.1 million British soldiers from the First World War who have no known graves. Of course, we don’t just remember the two World Wars of the 20th-century today, but the many subsequent conflicts in which our service personnel have been involved; nor do we forget today the deaths of millions of civilians, either deliberately or as the fall-out of conflict.
It was Prime Minister William Gladstone who said, “Show me the manner in which a nation or a community cares for its dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender mercies of its people, their respect for the laws of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.” Just lately we have heard some gruesome accounts of slaughter in parts of Sudan and streets littered with dead bodies; we have heard of the return of the bodies of Israeli hostages taken two years ago, and some distressing mix-ups that have occurred. We hear of soldiers laying stricken and dying in the no-man’s land between Russian and Ukrainian forces, with no-one able to reach them for several days. When the hate of war takes control, not every society is concerned about the care of the dead.
Fortunately, we live in a country and society where due respect is shown for the dead. Remember how the people of Wootton Bassett gained a royal title for their town in recognition of the respect they had shown for the hearses bearing repatriated dead soldiers from Afghanistan through their town. I would also like to pay tribute to the professionalism of funeral directors. I must have conducted 400 or so funerals during my ministry, and I have been consistently impressed by the quality of service offered by the funeral directors themselves, and crematorium staff, many of whom see their work as a vocation – taking care of families. I know crematoria are not people’s favourite places and can be soulless, but in my experience, that is not the fault of the staff, who, in 99% of cases are anxious to get things right and oblige families.
To return to Auden’s epitaph. “To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask ‘why’?” It is tempting to wonder what Private William Martin, Little Malvern’s one war casualty, would think. I’m sure he would be gratified, maybe is gratified, to know that he is remembered 108 years on from his death. I hope he would appreciate the earnest keeping of this Remembrance Sunday in so many countries; communities coming together perhaps also asking ‘why?’ – collectively ashamed of the great slaughter of war, and praying for peace.
Each Remembrance Sunday brings particular anniversaries. This year we remember the 80th anniversary of the Second World War. But I notice that a hundred years ago, in 1925, the Royal Artillery Monument in London was unveiled. This memorial was controversial because it depicted a dead soldier. The monument depicts a Howitzer gun on a cruciform plinth and four soldiers on the points of the cross – an officer, a shell-carrier, a driver – and the dead soldier. Many people thought the sculpture of the dead soldier was too graphic; too distressing to families who had lost somebody they loved in action, and that the memorial should rather be a consolation. Others considered it inappropriate that the sculpture of the gun should be so prominent. Physical reminders of the fighting were often avoided in immediate years after the war. But the first curator of the Imperial War Museum was impressed by the monument, and described the inclusion of the dead soldier as ‘a poignant and tremendous statement of fact which unconsciously makes the onlooker raise his hat.” The Manchester Guardian also approved, noting that the frankness of the portrayal was ‘a terrible revelation long overdue.’
It’s often been said that truth is the first casualty of war, and we know, for example, how reluctant the Russians and Ukrainians are to tell us how many soldiers have been killed in that ongoing conflict. Maybe we shall know in due course. But we do know the exact number of British casualties in the two world wars, and this is partly due to the fact that ‘Remembrance’ is taken seriously. Let us give thanks that the free and civilised world does remember its war dead, thanks in no small measure to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Today, in nearly every country, both civilians and authorities who govern them will be looking back with regret at the appalling waste of life created by war. This seems entirely at odds with the sending of young men into unnecessary conflict, such as Russia has done in the last three and a half years. I believe last year I mentioned the words of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, in 1916, when he and his staff came to a hillock covered with scores of dead bodies. “Ich habe das nicht gewollt” – ‘I did not wish this.’ A commentator asked whether the Kaiser’s feelings were genuine, but added, “Give remorse the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes the pain, the waste of it all, is overwhelming. The obscenity of total war has the evil momentum of a juggernaut, which nobody, nothing, except bankrupt exhaustion, can stop.” Bishop Paul Mason, the RC Bishop of the Forces, asks, ‘Why is peace so difficult? – Please God, we learn through the growing pains of our actions, of our history, and come to realise that with God’s saving help, all good things are possible. That left to our own devices we stumble, we fight, we fail and we fall.”
Today’s readings offer Christian hope. I wonder why churches became the focal point for observances such as this when Remembrance became so important after the horror of the First World War. Partly, of course, because churches were – are – large spaces for public gatherings, but also because parish churches had been there, to say something on all occasions – baptisms, weddings, funerals, harvest, Christmas, Easter. But also I think it was – is – the symbol of the cross that spoke and still speaks powerfully to people. In the first reading we heard the famous words of Jesus, better known as ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ It is a text that appears on thousands of war memorials, of course. These words of Jesus wouldn’t have such an authentic ring about them if it wasn’t for the fact that that is what he himself did on the cross. This great act of self-giving caused St. Paul to reflect that nothing can separate us from God’s love, that love which was willing to give his Son up for all of us. Jesus died, and was raised; he was justified, and he now prays for us. The Christian hope is that there is right, and there is wrong, and, through Christ, right will prevail. Bishop Mason, who I quoted earlier, says that this day reminds Christians that ultimate peace lies in Christ and is not simply the absence of war. From the Old Testament we heard a famous text from the Book of Job – yet another line to be found in Handel’s Messiah. “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has thus been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side.” It’s a cry of hope and an assurance of vindication.
But today is primarily a day of remembrance. We, with millions all over the world, honour the memory of the dead and show our respect for human life. We salute those whose deaths symbolise the values we cherish and that we find deeply enshrined in the Christian faith and see in the person of Jesus – goodness, truth, peace, freedom and self-sacrifice. We honour them today, and pledge ourselves personally to live with Christian hope, in a way that promotes those values, as we strive to play our part in ensuring that goodness will always overcome evil, and that God’s kingdom will come.