Remembrance Sunday 13th November 2016

Might the fact a supposedly Christian Europe devoted four years to self-destruction be our greatest sadness as we gather on the Centennial Anniversary of the Somme?

The sadness that flows down the last century from that conflict lies of course in the families and descendants of the 72,200 whose names are recorded at Thiepval some of whose names are replicated on our own memorial.

The Somme commemoration began on 1^st July this year which was the day of the first offensive by our troops. Fighting was focussed in the area close to the village of Thiepval and the valley of the River Ancre. Thiepval was captured in late September 1916 although it fell back briefly into German hands during the spring offensive of 1918 just before the final end of the Great War.

Thiepval today is famous for its Lutyens memorial to the missing, an enormous brick arch that stands on a ridge, a canopy over Lutyens classic stone of remembrance which is a common feature of larger war cemeteries. The stone and arch recall the traditional altar and covering ascended by many steps as to be found in Westminster Cathedral which has a feature on Thiepval in its November Magazine.

On Remembrance Sunday we ascend the altar of God in heart and mind through such images for, in words uttered at this altar earlier this morning, although death comes to us all, yet we rejoice in the promise of eternal life; for to your faithful people life is changed, not taken away; and when our mortal flesh is laid aside an everlasting dwelling place is made ready for us in heaven.

It is Christian faith that the sadness of death gives way to the bright glory of immortality as expressed on that Somme memorial stone Their name liveth for evermore. There is reverent ambiguity about whether that evermore is on earth or in heaven. This leads me to an aside, if we are talking about the earthly memorial side, to salute those who work with the Royal British Legion and Commonwealth War Graves Commission in this village to maintain our war memorial, the Knapp grave and ensure the peaceable beauty and good ordering of our Churchyard. It is a considerable burden to our hardy group of volunteers led by Hilary Nicholson and is worthy of not just the voluntary but the civic support it receives and sorely needs.

Back to the ambiguity about how we see those words on the Somme memorial their name liveth for evermore. Our scripture readings give insight and indeed challenge concerning the otherworldly sense of that statement about the honourable dead. The reading from Ecclesiasticus is a prayer of entreaty which could well be imagined as from a battle field: My soul drew near to death, and my life was on the brink of Hades below. They surrounded me on every side, and there was no one to help me; I looked for human assistance, and there was none. Then I remembered your mercy, O Lord, and your kindness from of old, for you rescue those who wait for you and save them from the hand of their enemies. (Ecclesiasticus 51:6-8)

How could such a prayer be unanswered by a merciful God? Even through death, being taken to God, since the ultimate victory is beyond armed conflict but the one over death itself. This is the frame for our Royal British Legion service hosted on the Lord’s day, the day of resurrection. As our second reading expresses this: Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed… For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality…. thanks be to God, who gives us [the] victory [over death] through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:51, 53, 57)

Here is the full sense of Lutyens’ altar stone inscription. It’s not evident to the intellect unaided by the gift of faith to listen as Paul invites to Jesus Christ and take him at his word as the death defying Lord he is to us, through whom, indeed, our name liveth for evermore.

To know you have eternal life through openness to Christ’s gift is wisdom, for the greatest knowledge you can ever find must be about what defies death, since all of us live in its shadow.

Such knowledge doesn’t exclude sadness. Christians, someone said, are sad people saved from despair by the Cross of Christ. Looking at the world this Somme Centennial weekend there’s so much you might despair about a century on, not least at the scenarios our armed forces are engaging with in the Middle East, God bless them. Yet to know a love that’s overall and in all the hearts who’ll welcome its embrace is to draw the sting of despair reducing it to residual sadness at man’s inhumanity to man.

Today we have such sadness but it’s something we need to search deeper into inasmuch as we’re able. Premature death in war, or even the self-pitying thought of our own death is saddening but we’re called to search deeper into sadness. As a country priest I’ve been drawn to the French writer George Bernanos Diary of a Country Priest which covers the bearing of sadness in the priesthood. You could summarise his book as a statement that the only sadness worth having is sadness about not wanting to be a saint. To want to be anything less than holy and see the full flowering of all that you are into what God intended is very sad indeed. Many people believe wrongly that to be holy is to be stifled, less free, less themselves and how sadly wrong they are!

Lack of holiness, lack of self-possession, humility and love is at the root of the self-destruction of warfare, which is why we have it in ourselves to act counter to this vanity, which is why the Royal British Legion Service invites us to make a commitment to responsible living and faithful service part of this morning’s commemoration.

God desires to give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). His call for us to be holy is for us to come close to him in regular worship and prayer and be fulfilled, which is not to repress but rather to expand our deepest desires.

You can become a saint. No one and nothing can stop you - and your choice, besides reducing your sadness, will impact the peace of the world over the next century and beyond.