Remembrance Day Sunday ~ November 10, 2024
Hymn: # 833 “O Canada” (Sung Unannounced)
Call to Worship:
Happy are those whose hope is in the LORD,
For God keeps faith with us forever.
Praise God who brings justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
We will praise the One who lifts up all those who bear heavy burdens.
God will reign in mercy and righteousness for all generations.
Let us praise the LORD with our lips and honour God with our lives.
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
2 Minute Moment of Silence
Hymn: #330 O God, our help in ages past
Prayer of Approach and Confession:
God of justice and peace,
We gather at this solemn time of year,
aware of the costliness of human history.
In the face of hostility between nations and neighbours,
you have come to us in Jesus Christ,
carrying no sword, calling us to serve as peace makers.
In this time of worship, renew in us the hope
that you will turn swords into ploughshares ,
and lead the world you love away from making war for pride or profit.
By the power of your Spirit,
renew your promise of peace with justice for all your peoples.
May it be so.
God of justice and mercy,
we confess that the world around us is in a mess.
Nations turn disputes over territory into acts of aggression.
Old enemies stir up conflict with their rivals.
Threats of violence keep us all on edge.
We confess we have not learned from past conflicts
what leads to peace with justice among nations and neighbours.
Forgive us, and lead us in a better way.
Assurance of Pardon:
Jesus said, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Friends, through God’s mercy, our sin is forgiven.
Hymn: #624 Blest are they
Anthem:
Scripture Readings: Psalm 146
Praise the Lord.[a]
Praise the Lord, my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8 the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Meditation: “Encourage One Another”
As I was preparing this week’s sermon, I must admit that I’m what some would call sentimental. I have always loved the poem “In Flanders Fields.” I know that it is highly commercialized in today’s society, but I have always loved the vivid imagery that the author has used. I see the poppies blowing between row a upon row of plain white crosses that mark the brave individuals that fought to protect the rights and freedoms that I’m so greatly blessed with today and in doing so they laid their lives down. I can see those brave men sharing a meal together before their lives ended. I can understand how they felt seeing the first signs of the sun rise in the morning and the beauty of the glowing sunset. I imagine them thinking of their families and friends at home and those standing beside them in the trenches. When I see these imagines, it haunts me to think that as I stand before you today those brave individuals often years younger than myself were fighting for their lives and for all the people’s lives that have sense followed. The saying, “Lest we forget” is a powerful slogan that is used, and it saddens me to think that in the years since the end of WW1 and WW2 that in a lot of cases my generation has forgotten. It has been years sense I have been in a public place where at 11:00am on November 11 I have witnessed a moment of silence. Have we forgotten those that lived but short days ago? Now for me growing up in a family where my father was a historian who loved any and all things history, I heard a lot of interesting facts and figures about the world wars. It was impressed upon us children that we are to respect those individuals who sacrificed their lives for the greater good of ours. Every year, my siblings and I would make our way downtown to watch and partake in the Remembrance Day Parade. We would watch the veterans form up and march by on their way to the cenotaph. Row upon row of soldiers would march by with smiles on their faces and a clip to their step in time with the marching bands. My family and I would stand on the sidewalk waving and trying to keep warm. Remembrance Day for me is one of the most important events of the calendar year. While I worked in a nursing home, over the years I have heard a number of stories from different people about what it was like to live during the war. Some of the most powerful stories I have heard are the ones about people supporting and encouraging each other in times of struggle and suffering which we learned today from our scripture readings that this is an essential part of keeping our faith. One resident that I knew years ago was a fighter pilot during World War 2. He often said that the first time he flew his stomach felt like the new wringer washer that his mother just bought. What wasn’t being sloshed about was being squeezed dry. He was new to the crew; an 18-year-old tail gunner which he informed me was the most dangerous position in a bomber. For him it was a sobering thought. He explained to me that you couldn’t see much in the dark. They’d left England ages ago and were crossing the black water toward France. He kept hoping they were going in the right direction but often wasn’t so sure. He said that the worse part of the mission wasn’t the dark so much but the unknown of the first attack. Suddenly the sky behind them let up in an explosion that sent a tremor through their aircraft. Then another one went off. It was his first taste of enemy fire, and it was a frightening thing. Suddenly, explosions were going off all around like a hundred flash bulbs all at once. He said the thoughts that kept running through his mind were what if we get hit? What if we don’t make it home? What if…? All Andy wanted to do was turn around and go home. He said that he felt near panic but hearing the captain’s voice on his headset saying, “How’s it going Duke? If you’re a little scared that’s okay. The rest of us are a little scared too. But we’re here together and we each have our job to do. I know that you can do yours. Just settle down. Sing a song for us, why don’t you. We’ll be out of this in no time. You’ll see.” The only song that Andy could think of was Jesus Loves Me. A song that I found a little humorous and highly fitting for the moment. So, he started singing it: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…” When he finished the second verse, he said that he could hear a few snickers from the rest of the crew. But he figured that this meant that they were listening which meant that they cared. They got back to England safely on that first mission. Two aircraft from their squadron weren’t so lucky. The encouragement that Andy received from the rest of the crew was such a big help. It was so good to know that they were there, that there was someone who knew what he was going through and that he was not alone. He often said that he would never forget the act of support and encouragement that those guys provided. There was another resident who kept a journal about her time as a nurse in the war. Her children would often come in and read to her from these books that she had kept. One story I remember hearing was all about giving and supporting someone during a time of trial. It went like this. The stretcher bearers brought the unconscious soldier into the field hospital and laid him in the waiting area. Then they were gone again. His right leg was shattered – part of it missing. There was a tourniquet on it. The first aid team had done their job well. I started to clean him up and look for any less obvious injuries. With a wet towel I began to clean some of the mud off of his face and neck. What I discovered was the most beautiful face. It was boyish and without blemish – like the face of an angel. I paused for a moment. As I was looking at him, his eyes flickered and opened. They were a clear, deep blue. At first, he was confused and scared, still in shock. I told him who I was and where he was and that he was going to be okay. He said he was scared and could I stay with him. I looked around. He was the only one waiting for surgery. “Sure,” I said. “I’ll stay with you as long as you want.” Then I took his hand, and he squeezed mine tightly. We sat there like that for more than half an hour. He would drift in and out of consciousness and when he woke up, he was always scared. But when he looked up and saw me, he would relax, squeeze my hand and, once again, close his eyes to rest. Finally, it was his turn for surgery. He squeezed my hand one last time and was gone to the O.R. That was the end of his soldiering days. It’s tough to march on one leg. He was stabilized and, the next day, shipped further back behind the lines toward England. For the longest time, the image of his angelic face stayed in my mind. I wondered how he made out. Then, one day, I got a letter from him. In that letter, he told me what a comfort I had been to him during those very dark hours. “I still wake up frightened sometimes,” he wrote,” but when I do, I think of you there beside me, holding my hand, and I feel a lot better. You will never know what an encouragement you were to me. Thank you.” These stories of encouragement are some of the most powerful stories of all. Encouragement comes in many forms. Through an embrace, through words, just by being there. People were able to communicate their concern and their care for one another. This is similar to the story that we read today in 1 Thessalonians; the Apostle Paul tells the young Christians another story. It is a story that is meant to encourage them in times of persecution that they were beginning to face. It was not a story about what had happened in the past. It was a story of what the future was going to hold for them. “The day of the Lord is coming,” he wrote, “when the heavens will open up and we will see Jesus Christ descending through the clouds to be with us once again, forevermore. He will come to gather us up to be together – the living and the dead – and to be in God’s Kingdom. Until that time, take heart, have hope and never stop encouraging one another.” Paul doesn’t take the time in this letter to describe the Kingdom of God in any detail but, in other places, it is spoken of a place of peace and justice. God’s reign will be one in which there will be no war and no suffering. It will be a place where everyone has enough to eat and drink and a roof over their heads. No one will be a slave to another. There will be no subservience or subordination. No one will be oppressed, persecuted or marginalized. That is the time toward which Paul and the early Christians were looking. In the face of pain, the coming Kingdom was the image that gave the people hope. Sharing that image encouraged the people to carry on in the face of great suffering. In an odd kind of way, I have come to believe that those young Canadians who went to war were working toward a vision of the Kingdom of God. For sure, God’s Kingdom is not one of warfare, bloodshed and suffering. It is, however, one of self-sacrifice and one in which persecution and injustice cannot be tolerated. We all know that that Kingdom will not be completed until Christ returns at his Second Coming to finally defeat the forces of evil once and for all. In struggling against the human forces of evil, all of the people who contributed to the war effort sought to offer a glimmer of light to many for whom the world must have seemed a very dark and bitter place. We need to remember them, their struggle and sacrifice. And we need to thank God for the encouragement that they gave and continue to give to us when we wonder where our world is going and sometimes are tempted to lose hope. The torch of justice and freedom must be passed on to each generation. May we hold it high and honour it as a legacy to be cherished and continued. Lest we forget. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Hymn: #739 Lord, make us servants of your peace
Invitation of Offering:
The Scriptures today speak of generosity and the risk it involves, as well as God’s faithfulness to generous actions. In this season of Remembrance, the risk and generosity of others is often on our minds. Let their legacy inspire us to risk generous gifts as we present our offering.
Doxology: #661, We give thee but thine own
We give Thee but Thine own, Whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone, A trust, O Lord, from Thee.
Prayer of Dedication:
Receive our gifts this day, O God, and bless them with your love and power. Use them in the work for justice and peace to prevail. Bless all who take a stand against injustice, here and everywhere, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Prayers of the People and Lord’s Prayer:
God of all the ages past, hope of years to come:
We gather in this season of remembrance,
grateful that you hold each one of us in your memory and your mystery,
now and for all the time to come.
Today we remember all those who have served to uphold justice and freedom
in the wars of the last century,
in conflicts of our own generation,
and in peace keeping and relief efforts around the world.
Especially we pray for those who have died in this service
and for those who carry scars on body & soul, having returned from conflict.
We remember their courage
and we pray for their families who still ache for lives surrendered at great cost.
O God, we remember before you the victims of current conflicts,
hiding in forgotten corners of the world, longing for safety and peace.
We remember victims of violence in our own country,
still fearful and uncertain about what the future holds for them.
Give us the courage to speak out for their protection and recovery.
O God, we remember those around us who carry on
under the burden of sad and hard memories;
those weighed down by grief, disappointment, anger, pain and loss.
Inspire us to offer a listening ear and an understanding heart whenever we can.
O God, we remember those around us who struggle to remember day by day;
those who fear forgetting those who matter most to them,
and those who face the fear of being forgotten.
Help us remember to reach out in comfort and support
so that no one is forgotten.
God of all the ages past, hope of years to come,
help us remember you day by day.
Strengthen us to be disciples of your gospel
so that hope is renewed in our lives, your church and the world
for the sake of Jesus, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
Hymn: #350 To God be the glory
Benediction:
Jesus said, Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called children of God.
Go as God’s children, to bring peace into the lives you encounter this week.
Now may the LORD keep us and bless us,
May the LORD make his face to shine upon us
and be gracious unto us,
Now and for ever more, AMEN.
Choral Closing: “Go Now in Peace”
Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.