NOVEMBER 2011

What are we remembering every Remembrance Day?

At first thought, there is an easy answer: we remember those who have died in battle (and served) in wars and conflicts from the First World War to the present day. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning – we will remember them.”

Remembrance Day is about being thankful as a nation to all who have suffered and given their lives for our nation in the wars of the last 100 years. And we are talking about considerable numbers: 1,700,000 British casualties in the battles on the Western Front in World War I, and that does not take into account other fronts, and the casualties of other nations. There were less military casualties in World War II but many more civilian casualties. Since World War II, there has been only one year (1967) when no British soldier was killed in action. Remembrance Day gives us a chance to express our appreciation of our armed services and their sacrifice.

Most of us have individual members of our family (going back 2 or 3 generations maybe) who served in either World War or other conflicts, and we will all have different memories on Remembrance Day.

Christian remembrance brings –

Firstly

that there is help that God can bring:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid.” (John 14 v 27)

Faced with the worst situations, Christians can still have hope. Hope that comes from God’s comfort.

Hope that comes from knowing that there is a life to come, for all those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. Many Christians in battle have been able to face the future with confidence even if that future is death.

Secondly

Christian remembrance also focuses on Christ’s great sacrifice. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15 v 13). We often think of this verse in the context of those who have died in war, and it is very relevant. But Jesus was referring particularly to his own laying down of his life.

This is the most amazing story in the whole history of man – Jesus, the Son of God, coming to earth to teach us about God; to demonstrate the reality of God, and then, supremely, to be crucified for us, that our sins might be forgiven and the way back to God made available.

It is a thing most wonderful
Almost too wonderful to be
That God’s own Son should come from heaven
And die to save a child like me

Remembrance Day is still very important for national collective remembrance, for individuals remembering other individual people, and for Christian remembrance of the hope there is in God and about his great sacrifice for us.

“We will remember them,” we say. We could couple this with, “We will remember Him.”

Jim Reaney