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Remembrance Sunday
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 11th November 2007
Revd. Matthew Vernon
Today, Remembrance Sunday, we remember the grim realities of our world.
We also remember the hope of our faith that the world can be a better place.
Memory is an essential part of our identity and our faith.
We know who we are because we can remember where we're from,
• where we live,
• the important people in our lives,
• our name
• and so on…
We are remembering constantly.
We know who we are as children of God because we can remember our faith story:
• experiences of God;
• feeling God's love for us;
• the stories of our faith;
• what we used to believe;
• what we believe now.
I used to believe that God helped me find parking spaces for my car.
Now, I'm embarrassed I was ever that self-absorbed.
But then being self-centred affects our faith more deeply than we realise.
There are extraordinary examples of people whose memories don't work properly.
A musician in England can stand in front of an orchestra and remember music and how to conduct.
But he can't remember that he had breakfast with his wife this morning.
Every time they meet he greets her as if it's been years since they were last together.
Older people know about senior moments –
• when you can't remember something.
The truth is the memories of young people are unreliable too.
Pretend for a moment that I'm still a young person
• and I'll share a personal example.
Phoebe (my daughter) was baptised here two Sundays ago by my Dad.
So I asked my Dad who baptised us, his children.
I was confident that Dad had baptised most of us.
Turns out, I was making that up.
Dad ran through that list of the clergy who had done the water splashing.
I have a clear picture in my memory of my youngest sibling, Tim, being baptised.
Inside the Garrison Church in Colchester, England;
• family and friends gathered round the font –
• and Dad baptizing Tim.
But no, Dad didn't do it.
A friend of his did.
My mind had created the image to fit what I thought was the case.
Continuing the personal theme, Mum would be quite shocked by the things we remembered.
Some memories made her anxious because she had no recollection of them at all.
But then it was unfair to expect her to remember the experiences of 6 children!
Memory and church are very closely linked.
A significant part of our Sunday Service is remembering the story or stories of our faith
We remember the story of our salvation in the Creed and in the Eucharistic Prayer.
We remember stories in the Bible with our Bible readings.
We remember God's goodness to us in the hymns and prayers.
These are words we've heard and said and sung countless times before,
• yet we need to be reminded of them regularly so that faith remains primary in our lives.
It's the same as reminiscing about old times with our friends or our families.
"Do you remember when…"
"I love the time we went to…"
Those conversations help maintain our relationships,
• they affirm our closeness to the people we love.
In church, our remembering maintains our relationship with God
• and affirms our closeness with the One who is love.
Today, Remembrance Sunday, we remember the grim realities of our world:
• our broken; divided; conflict riven world.
Our world in which as I speak there is conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, The Sudan, Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka…
• where people are dying at the hands of other people
• where mothers and fathers watch their children maimed;
• brothers and sisters lose sisters and brothers;
• children learn that their mother or father won't come home again.
Today we remember the men and women who have died for the country in war.
We remember people who have lived and died in the service of humanity.
God's children who gave their lives to defend the freedom we enjoy.
Who gave their tomorrows for our todays.
We remember that those who don't learn the lessons of history and bound to repeat them.
That even when we do know our history we still repeat the wars and the bloodshed.
Today, Remembrance Sunday, we remember too that God calls us to a different kind of living,
• to create a different world in which swords are beaten into ploughs and spears into pruning hooks;
• tanks are turned into tractors for farming and guns into hospital equipment.
A world in which conflict is turned into co-operation;
• tension is turned into mutual respect and tolerance.
• war into justice and peace.
A world in which the victims of war are re-membered not forgotten:
• not disadvantaged in the race of life.
It's an awesome task.
Have you seen the film Amazing Grace?
It's wonderful and powerful and moving.
It remembers the extraordinary effort of William Wilberforce for the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.
He, and others, campaigned for many years in Britain
• against the horrors of shipping people in chains from Africa to the West Indies plantations.
At the beginning he was one of very few voices crying out:
• a voice crying in the desert;
• crying for justice
• whilst many other members of parliament had vested interests in the slave trade.
The film ends with the wonderful, moving scene when Parliament votes to abolish the trade.
The Home Secretary stands and says that men are remembered for different things.
Men like Napoleon are remembered for war and conquest.
They achieve great wealth and worldly glory.
But in their beds they remember the many who have died at their hands.
Men like Wilberforce have a far more noble memory.
Theirs is not wealth or glory.
They are remembered for their service to God and humanity.
And when William Wilberforce rests his head on his pillow,
• he will remember that the slave trade is no more, thanks to his effort.
Today we remember the grim realities of our world.
We also remember the hope of our faith that the world can be a better place.
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