Elie Kirk

"Greater love has no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for his friends". Jesus words as recorded in St John's Gospel will, hopefully, be quoted often and pondered much as we approach and then commemorate Remembrance Day on 9th November. In Churches and at War Memorials throughout our land we will remember with gratitude the men and women who "For our tomorrow gave their today". And we will remember also those who are presently serving in situations of conflict and for whom war is a present reality.

In recent years we have heard voices raised in protest at what is seen as the glorification of war. We have been told that to remember "Old unhappy far off times; and battles long ago" is to perpetuate human divisions. We have been urged to cease our annual Remembrance Day Services. How has it come to be that the sense of duty that lies deep within the human psyche and that we call patriotism has such a bad press? Didn't Dr Johnston call it "the last refuge of the scoundrel"? Didn't George Bernard Shaw put it into the mouth of one of his characters "you will never have a quiet world until you knock patriotism out of the human race"? Who am I to quarrel with the weighty Doctor or the loquacious Dubliner, but wouldn't they have been nearer the truth if they had named nationalism rather than patriotism as the source of communal terror?

To heed these calls would surely be wrong and unchristian. Gratitude, expressed sincerely, blesses both giver and recipient. Ingratitude, as the Bard wrote, is a "marble-hearted fiend". The expression of gratitude, appreciation and indebtedness is an essential element of both Christian worship and Christian living. Gratitude becomes us as the recipients of the common and the special grace of God. The scriptures are replete with expressions of praise and thanksgiving to God for His numerous, gracious blessings and "mighty acts". Also they are full of injunctions that we should remember with thanksgiving all that God and our fellowmen have done for us and the sacrifices made on our behalf.

The late Professor John Baillie of St Andrews University once preached at a Remembrance Day Service a sermon on a text from St Paul's first letter to the Corinthians where we read "You are not your own. You are bought with a price". The Act of Remembrance underlines in a most vivid way, the truth of that text, that a price has been paid for all that makes our lives what they are and we ourselves have not paid that price. So let us this year, as we meet in remembrance and to lay our poppy wreaths, pay full and due tribute to all those who made the supreme sacrifice. Let us remember those who fought and died for peace and freedom and in the hope that the world would be a better place. And, because there is a spiritual as well as a human dimension to all the Acts of Remembrance and because many of us will be in Christian Churches as we pay our tributes, let us also remember Jesus Christ who for the sins of the world set his face to go steadfastly to Jerusalem there to give up his life. And finally let us remember St Paul's words in that first letter to the Corinthians, act upon them and show that what we do is not just a traditional outward act that is outdated and unnecessary in the 21st century. Rather it is our grateful and heartfelt tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for us and to Almighty God for His unfailing love and grace shown to us in Jesus Christ:

"Because God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself... You are not your own. You are bought with a price….Walk worthy of your calling as Christian men and women"

With warmest Christian wishes.
Yours sincerely,

Brian McDowell