To remember is to be human: we acknowledge in gratitude and regret our common and sometimes flawed past and then use that knowledge of the past to inform our present and future. In remembering we may find that we have difficult choices to make when we live in the present and prepare for a future.
The historian and theologian Owen Chadwick, writing in the journal History in 1976 put forward the idea that he expected the observance of Remembrance Day to die out. In his article he writes that in the 1930’s young people misbehaved during the services in several places including Cambridge where undergraduates disrupted the university service. In defence of these youngster’s actions, it was said that unlike their parents who had been involved in the Great War, they had not experienced the horror of war. Little did they know that they were the very generation who would, in 1939 face another world conflict.
Only a handful of World War One veterans remain, even those who were in their teens in World War Two are now well into their seventies and eighties. Yet, many people still make a conscious choice to remember. Since the end of World War Two there have been other wars and conflicts, more casualties and more dead to remember. Since the end of World War Two there has only been one year when a British serviceman or woman has not been killed in conflict. There are a significant number of people who make the choice to gather around memorials up and down our country and anchor themselves in the past events which have shaped our current situation. The news broadcast into our homes every day remind us that conflicts where members of our armed forces are being killed or injured are never far away. Since the last Remembrance Sunday services of last year have ended more women have become widows, more children have lost fathers and more friends have had their lives prematurely ended as a result of conflict. As the current conflicts continue it is sobering to think that there will probably be people gathered around memorials today who may well be mourning family and friends next Remembrance Sunday.
Sometimes it is not easy to make our past relevant and meaningful in an age when we are encouraged to be politically correct, multi faith and multi cultural. In remembering our past we may offend our former enemies and dig up the wounds of past conflicts. There is a tension between remembering and digging up things which may be better left in the past. The past is another country- they do things differently there. That saying is very true. We can’t look at the past through our 21st century eyes and with the benefit of our hindsight. We hear a call for a pardon for the men executed during World War One, a noble call it may be when we look at the situation from the relative comfort of the 21st century. However, we seem to forget that as brutal and as horrid as it was, execution was how the army responded to acts of what they termed cowardice. We can’t go back, we can however learn from our past mistakes. Like my old metalwork teacher said- “The person who never made a mistake never made anything”. Sometimes we can only learn and move on, ensuring that we never make the same mistake again. It is with some regret that the words of William the Silent ring true- “History repeats itself, it has to because no one listens.”
Remembering the past means that we have to grapple with difficulties, with our deepest convictions and with complex ideas. Do we support our country’s intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan? We meet today in difficult times, killing continues in these places and our service men and women face danger every day. The numbers of those dead and injured continue to rise and there seems little end to both these conflicts. I recall well attending a remembrance service in 2001, just after the attacks of September 11th and the invasion of Afghanistan. In a small church in the town of North Berwick the local British Legion were appalled by the sermon in which the preacher condemned the action of our government. As time has moved on I wonder if that preacher would get the same response today when senior British Army officers voice similar opinions about the war. Do we remain silent, supporting the action of our Government or do we exercise the freedom that was won for us by so many we are remembering today and oppose the government. The freedom we have and enjoy carries with it a responsibility to make choices and voice our opinion without fear of oppression. That choice is your choice and yours alone, the sermon on Remembrance Day is not a place for either the glorification of war or the condemnation of the actions of our democratically elected government.
Remembrance is a common link between religion and our society which so many experts now claim is secular. For those of us who claim to have a religion, the act of remembrance is central to our worship, sacraments and our scriptures. Remembrance anchors us in our history where we find our traditions and identity and at the same time points to our future where we can find hope. As a Christian that central act is the Eucharist, Holy Communion or Mass. The death of one man for the healing of many – “Do this in remembrance of me.” This act was never meant to be a simple re-telling of God’s past actions The true community of believers re-enacts, re-members and re-presents God’s work Sunday by Sunday.
Today when we gather here we do these things at our service. We re-enact when we speak of what those who have participated in war have done, we remember when we put back together the pieces of the past and we re-present when we when leave here to try to move on and learn from our past mistakes.
May we never forget that for our today so many people gave their tomorrows.
