Biblical Texts: Psalm 23, John 15v9-17, Revelation 21v1-6

Remembrance Sunday is a tough service to deliver a talk. Here we are at the beginning of November, remembering those who died in war, and in just a few weeks we’ll enter Advent, where we often hear Jesus described as the Prince of Peace. It feels like an odd disconnect between the two. Even more so if we watch the news regularly. Something is deeply wrong with our world. So what, if anything, does God have to say to us today? I’d like to suggest three practices that might help us think through the difficulties of today. I want to help us look back with gratitude, look around with love, and look forward with hope.

First, we look back with gratitude. We’ve heard three passages from the Bible today, and the first one is Psalm 23. Many adults have portions of it memorised without realising it. It begins, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want,” and has those beautiful words, “he makes me lie down by still waters.” It sounds like a Psalm of comfort, but it’s not all peace. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” The book of Psalms is full of poems and songs that deal with all sorts of emotions, not to mention the various problems that bring those emotions about. The Bible might be a book of hope, but it does not deny the existence of evil.

I doubt any of us here can remember World War I, but many of those fighting then would have had hope that this was going to be a war that would end wars. They went to fight. hoping they could make the world a safer place for those that came after. They may well have succeeded there, for a time at least, but there’s no doubt wars and conflicts have not ceased. We still see problems all around us. But, just as God commanded the Jews again and again, it’s good to remember what has come before, and we remember those who came before us and sacrificed their lives, and we are thankful for them. We look back with gratitude.

Second, we look around with love. In our reading from John’s gospel today (‘gospel’ just means ‘good news’), Jesus is talking to his followers, his disciples, and telling them how he expects them to behave, what they should do. ‘Love one another,’ he says, ‘as I have loved you.’ To be a follower of Jesus means to love others. But this is not a mushy or romantic Valentine’s Day kind of love. Love is about action, about doing. Whether or not I love my wife and son is shown in how I act when I’m with them, how I take care of them.

In that passage from John, Jesus also says, ‘Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’ We often hear that verse on Remembrance Day, which makes sense. Many in the armed forces lay their lives down for others…but that doesn’t capture everything Jesus meant. We can all lay down our lives for the sake of others, in the little things we do every day, the way we look to the needs of others first. It’s about giving up our desires to provide for others’ needs. And that includes those we don’t like, we all have a few of those right?

So we look back with gratitude, and we look around with love.

Finally, we look forward with hope. One of the reasons I’m a Christian, is I believe God created this world, but I also believe it’s not the way God wants it to be, and I look forward in hope to a time all will be made well. Our third reading is from Revelation 21. In that brief passage, the Bible looks forward to a time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, when there will be more tears, no suffering, no more pain, no more death. All will be made right again. And this is not the same as hoping for a particular present at Christmas, or for your team to win. This is hope in God, a God we can trust to carry out his promises.

So as we go through this Remembrance Day, I want to encourage you to look back with gratitude, look around with love, and look forward with hope.