95 years ago today in 1918, at the 11th hour of
the 11th day of the 11th month - the First World War came to an end.. It is
thought that about 9 million soldiers lost their lives, and about 27 million
were wounded - many of them permanently disabled
So today we mark Remembrance Sunday a
day to stop reflect and in the case of many people to give thanks to God for
those who have given their lives not just in the 2 great wars of the last
century, but in many other conflicts as well including most
recently Iraq and Afghanistan, and Today I wear the poppy not with pride
but with a deep humility as I think about the awful loss of life and the
continuing suffering and the deep pain of those left behind and I will
pray for peace with justice to come to the earth
I am also deeply thankful for the
continuing committed indeed heroic work of The Royal British Legion who produce
the red poppy that so many millions wear -an
appropriate symbol because a poppy grows so well in disturbed earth
ripped open by war and was one of the few things that would grow in the
barren battlefields of The Somme and Ypres
In fact next year marks the 100th
anniversary of the start of the Great War and the government has announced this
centenary is to be marked by a four year programme of events that will
commemorate that war- The
events range from church services to educational visits
Many have questioned how appropriate
this commemoration is In fact I heard this being discussed on the Jim Hawkins
show last Monday morning
Some feel it is an unnecessary
glorification of war
Others that it is a colossal waste of
money
Others that in 2013 it is simply
irrelevant to how we live today
Now anyone who celebrates war is plain
daft to put it very mildly but I have no problem with commemoration
because we should never forget
The words at the going down of the sun
and in the morning we will remember them have authentic power ,for as someone once said If we fail to learn the
lessons of the past we will be condemned to repeat them
A few years ago I visited the grave of
a man I had never met His name was Fred Watson he was actually my mother’s
uncle as a young man Fred had emigrated to Canada from the family home in
Scotland but at the outbreak of war he had out of a sense of duty come back to
fight
in 1916 he was killed near Sanctuary
Wood and unusually his grave is in Zillebecke
Parish Church
near Ypres
Today I will remember Fred and his
brother Stan who died at Loos and whose body was never found and I will think
of my dad who survived the Second World War but was forever changed by it
And thousands of you will have similar
memories and some of your memories will be much more recent and far
more personal
But even if you don’t have personal memories of those who gave their lives
their names are around wherever you are in Shropshire
if today
you should you pass a war memorial whether in Tilstock or Telford ,Condover or Clun select one of the names
engraved on those memorials and remember they too had hopes and dreams
ambitions and desires before their
lives were cut so tragically short
The writer Rudyard
Kipling author of The Jungle Book was enthusiastic about the outbreak of
war and wrote pamphlets encouraging young men to join up and fight he
used his influence to get his own son John into the army despite the fact that
John was severely short sighted and had failed the medicals on more than one occasion
Tragically John too was
killed at Loos and Johns body was never found and Kipling’s attitude to war was
changed forever It is Kipling
who composed the words on every war memorial where the body of the deceased
could not be identified the inscription contains just 3 words Known unto God
As a Christian I believe every human being is Known unto God made
in His image we should all seek to live a life that brings Gods
love and peace to the people we come into contact with day by day
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