St Mary's

Today Talk from Revd Samuel

10th November 2024

“May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you O Lord my refuge and my redeemer amen.”

There is no doubt that today is a very important day for all of us, because today we are all gathered in the church so that, one, we can worship God, and second, we can remember those people. We can breathe freely because of their sacrifice and bravery. Today we remember those brave and veteran soldiers, and their sacrifices, who sacrificed their lives without caring about their own lives for our bright future. According to Wikipedia, 

“Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in November (the Sunday nearest to 11 November, Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in World War I in 1918. Remembrance Sunday, within the Church of England, falls in the liturgical period of All Saintstide.

This day It is marked by ceremonies at local war memorials in most cities, towns and villages, attended by civic dignitaries, ex-servicemen and -women (many are members of the Royal British Legion and other veterans' organisations), members of local armed forces regular and reserve units, military cadet forces (Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force and Air Training Corps as well as the Combined Cadet Force) and youth organisations (e.g. Scouts, Boys' Brigade, Girls' Brigade and Guides) … Wreaths of remembrance poppies are laid on the memorials, and two minutes' silence is held at 11 am.

The focus of remembrance for the dead of the First World War originally fell on Armistice Day itself, commencing in 1919. The first UK commemoration of the end of the First World War took place at Buckingham Palace, with King George V hosting a "Banquet in Honour of The President of the French Republic" in the evening of 10 November 1919.”  

Whatever I have just shared with you, or whatever we know, read, or hear about today, and if we think about their engagements and programs today, or see, the only thing that comes to our mind is that on this day we remember those who have done so much for us. To remember them, to think about them, to talk about them, to remember what they did, and to tell them to our future generations is our responsibility and it is the duty of all of us.

But at the same time, we have another responsibility that we find in the passages we read today. If we repeat the reading of the letter to the Hebrews again in our minds, we see that it is written there

“For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy place year after year with blood that is not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

The question arises here, what is the meaning of this verse? Why did Jesus appear before God for us? Aaccording to NIV Quest Study Bible,

“Like the Old Testament priest, who offered blood on behalf of the people, Jesus appears before God to offer His blood as the price for our sins. In God’s presence, Jesus acts as our advocate and defensive attorney as well as our intercessor.”

And this is our responsibility to tell all this to the people. Let us tell them how God took on human flesh for us, how He was born into the world as a mere child, how He made Himself equal to us human beings. That he might be tempted in the world as we are, as we have just heard in the reading of the gospel account, how he was tempted as we men are, yet he remained pure and fulfilled the work for which he came into the world. Similarly, those people, whom we are remembering and honoring today, also fulfilled their responsibility and sacrificed for the country and its people.

If we look a little closer at today's Gospel passage, we see that Jesus called his first disciples in today's Gospel. And these people accepted the call of Jesus and became the first drop of water for others.

In the same way, these soldiers, whom we are remembering today, set an example for others that will be remembered for the rest of the world. And the saving work of God will continue till the end of the world, and it will be our responsibility to continue to advertise this work with our actions, words and thoughts.

As we gather today to remember a special purpose, let us look at our individual, family, and church lives and see how far Jesus' sacrifice and atoning work reaches people. It is our responsibility, among other things, to do the work entrusted to us by God with all sincerity. So today we must ask ourselves. How are we fulfilling our responsibility?

I would like to end with a quotation from Kat Campion-Spall, who is rector of the Bristol Harbourside Churches, she wrote in The Preachers Companion 2024 that,

“In the silence this morning there is space for whatever we bring: pride, grief, shame, disconnectedness, horror, ambivalence: hope that the sacrifices made by so many have a difference, or fear that they haven’t. But as a Christian community, in that silence for which we have no words, we are brought back to the silence of that sealed tomb on Holy Saturday, to that silence as the spilt blood is lifted up as the cup of life in which we share.”

May God bless you all.

Amen.