It’s 107 years since the end of the great war that was meant to end all wars. It didn’t. In fact a second world war was fought just 21 years later. We were meant to learn from the evils of that war too, particular the horrors of the Holocaust yet antisemitism and the appeal of far right politics and rhetoric remain very much alive today.
The reality is that whilst we haven’t named a conflict as a “World War” , since 1945, there has rarely been a day where there hasn’t been conflict if some kind. Indeed, the Cold War was a mixture of stand off, nuclear threat and proxy engagement. Perhaps that was World War 3 and if so, it is possible that we are entering the 4th. Indeed, maybe if we recognize that we have already got through WW3, that will make the next World War a little easier to face.
I share these reflections because we are at Remembrance Sunday. When I first took on responsibility for church leadership back in Bearwood, we still had people who had served in World War 2 and others who remembered those days as young children. I now am part of the leadership team in a church where our oldest members are in their 70s, they were born in the 1950s, a significant time after that war ended. Living memories of those wars have almost faded away.
It was tempting to think, back 15 years ago that we primarily observed remembrance to honour those older people. However, I think it is younger people that need it more. Scripture shows that remembering and forgetting are corporate matters. We remember or forget together and the big way we forget is because a generation dies without passing the memory on. We need to pass the remembrance on.
We need to remember because those past wars meant sacrifice and it’s important to know why people suffered, sacrificed, died. Indeed there was a national loss for countries like Britain.
We need to remember because at times the fears and the rhetoric of the 2020s sounds all too similar to that of about 100 years ago. We need to be equipped to oppose the same ideology resurfacing that led to the horrors of the 1930s and 40s.
We need to remember because whilst we long and pray for peace and justice, we know we will not see perfect lasting peace or perfect justice until Christ returns. So we look back and remember in order that we might look forward and hope.
Faithroots 