Remember the Sacrifice for Peace

This Sunday we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One. Armistice Day or Veterans' Day is also a day upon which we reflect on Jesus' words about giving your all.

"As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’"  Mark 12:38-44

The poor widow voluntarily gave all that she had to live on. In War, people are the sacrifice, and all sides typically consider that those lives are given for a cause, be it a just cause or not. The survivors, the veterans, owe their lives to those who died so that war might end. Few go into war with the express idea of being counted among the dead unless they are jihadis or kamikaze pilots, but every soldier and civilian in modern warfare must understand that they may be killed. In the United States we say that our men and women in uniform are "in the Service", and the military as a whole are called the "Armed Services". Jesus taught us about servant leadership a few weeks ago in another Gospel lesson. We are the beneficiaries of their service, and unlike the scribes described by Jesus, we need to accept that sacrifice with humility. I myself understand that I might lose a nephew currently serving in the military, and it humbles me to think that my lowly life might be worthy of such a gift as his sacrifice.

Last week when considering God's love for us, I mentioned the fact that He is willing to die for me as factor in understanding love.

Jesus said,

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 King James Version (KJV)

War is always fought with the goal of peace of some kind, as a means to an end, or as

"the continuation of policy by other means." Carl Philipp Gottfried (or Gottlieb) von Clausewitz

We celebrate the peace, and not the war that promised to bring peace.

From "COME UNTO ME A SHELL-HOLE MEDITATION" by Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy,

Come unto Me
It sounds like mockery,
A voice that calls a wounded man
Across a weary space
He cannot travel o'er;
For we would come to Thee,
We long to see Thy face,
But we are wounded sore,And evermore
Our weakness binds us,
Darkness blinds us,
We stretch our hands out vainly toward the shore,
Where Thou art waiting for Thine own.
We groan, and try, and fail again,
We cannot come--we are but men,
Come Thou to us, O Lord.
Come Thou and find us.

Shepherd of the sheep,
We cannot come to Thee.
It is so dark.
But hark,
I hear a voice that sounds across the sea.
"I come."