Remembrance Sunday

1989 (Year C), 12 November /

Pentecost 26

St Peter de Beauvoir Town

Another, much more tragic version of the first story we heard read today goes like this:

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe one by one.

War is all about building walls. For Wilfred Owen it was parapets and trenches. So many different walls have been built to exclude and protect. Barbed wire on land, exclusion zones at sea. No go areas between communities. War is about invasion and the violation of space that those walls were designed to protect.

Fear of war causes people to erect all kinds of barriers; the French built the Maginot Line. Our coast is still littered with the remains of our defences built to keep out Germans during the last war. Fear of war caused people to erect those walls. Even in peace countries surround themselves with trade barriers to protect their industry. And during the peace which followed the last world was the most powerful image of all, the Berlin Wall, was erected.

I don't know whether it's just ironic or whether it is a parable that we miss at our peril, but this week when we remember all those who have died as a result of war and all these walls being erected, this most significant memorial to the mistrust of nations over the last thirty years – the Berlin Wall has been breached once and for all.

Something different has been at work here, fear has been replaced by courage and a determination that things will not be as they were. It seems that Berliners will not be denied, and the tears, and the joy as they begin to demolish the wall with their bare hands, a wall which has been part of their lives for so many years has been almost overwhelming.

Almost overnight in Germany things have been transformed, for some the unthinkable has actually happened, families and friends are reunited. Yet even in the depths and awfulness of war people exhibit qualities which transform themselves and their situation. They discover that they have been given the keys and they use them to change things. Out comes courage, endurance, bravery, patience and love. All given by God. All transforming.

To the people of his creation God gives the keys which are able to unlock and transform the way things have always been and free us from that which we feel binds us.

Walls and defences have become so much an accepted part of life that we cannot believe that things will ever be any different. It is significant that the breaking down of a wall has made as many headlines as it has. And the people of Berlin continue to tear down one of the things which divides them. If we have ears to hear we will find that those people with the axes and the chisels are engaged in a supremely Godly task.

For the children of the heavenly Father are called to live as if in heaven and the vision given us of the heavenly city in the last book in the Bible is one that is without traditional defences yet it still provides peace for everyone. All can live in security and there is no need to close the gates of the city either by day or by night.

May we who are so fortunate, never have to endure the agony of war before we discover we have the means to break down the walls which divide us from our sisters and brothers.

Most gracious God, accept the people who find us unendurable, and awake love for them in our hearts. Give peace in the midst of conflict. Give love where people hate each other. May your kingdom come and the law of retaliation pass away. May your suffering transform us from enemies to friends, who can rejoice in one another in your peace. AMEN