Blog
Lest We Forget
| Posted at 07:58 PM on November 11, 2009 |
TODAY, November 11, 2009, my wife and I stood by our Southwestern Ontario cenotaph with a crowd of between five and six hundred people, comprised of all ages -- from mothers with youngsters in baby-buggies, to middle age, and to very senior. More than half of our number was made up of several hundred elementary schoolchildren from our public and Catholic schools.
What a beautiful fall day it was, with sunny blue skies and a hint of fresh breeze, but not too cold. A lone piper led the Legion colour guard and organization representatives and town dignitaries along the street, his bagpipes sounding their characteristic strident, yet plaintive skirl. The Last Post and Reveille were sounded, the padre's prayer was offered and a young lady led in the Canadian National Anthem and God Save the Queen. Wreaths were laid. We'd seen it all before, many times. But we needed to witness this, yet again.
This service will stand out in May's and my memory, since we expect this to be our last Remembrance Day in this community. The memorial phrase, Lest we forget. Lest we forget, has a slightly different ring for us now. Of course, we hope to be spared to observe this significant tradition next year, elsewhere.
I'm glad and thankful that our community's schoolchildren were released from class for this commemoration. Now is the time for them to be made aware of the price of freedom, and to be sensitized to the heartache and loss, as well as the heroism of ordinary people.
It's good that they learn about those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and those who've suffered devastating injury and trauma. These kids are growing up in a world in which violence and war are glorified through various media, especially in the virtual reality of certain video games flooding markets and impressionable young minds.
The ranks of stalwart Royal Canadian Legionnaires are thinning out in many communities, and WWII veterans are passing away at the rate of about 400 each week. Korean war vets are getting up in years and have depleting ranks, too. Who will help our society remember and honour our war dead then?
The Legion does a great work of ensuring that we don't forget them. Perhaps a new generation of younger people will take up the torch, so that our veterans and wounded soldiers from recent and present conflicts, and families who have already been bereaved, will find the recognition they deserve and support they need.
More, even than that worthy organization, I hope and pray that a new generation of Christ followers will arise to bear the message that there is One who paid the ultimate price through making the supreme sacrifice to provide forgiveness of all sin, and secure peace between us and God, therefore providing a basis for peace between each other.
Jesus said, when instituting the service of Holy Communion in which the bread and wine/grape juice are shared, "Take, eat; this is my body which is [broken and given] for you ... this cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, whenever you drink it in remembrance of me." (1 Cor.11:24-25 / Mat. 26:26-28)
This remembrance ordinance wasn't at all for Jesus' own sentimental comfort; it was and is for our good. Salvation, forgiveness, peace with God, the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and hope for life spent in His immediate presence beyond this life, will only be truly anticipated, appreciated, and enjoyed, through our knowing, acknowledging, and embracing the means by which they were obtained for us.
That calls for remembrance of the divine method and means:
~ The Righteous dying for the unrighteous.
~ The Immortal Eternal One dying a mortal death to bring mortals to immortality.
Yep. That's another aspect of the "greatest story ever told" -- The Incarnation, and we'll be caused to remember it in just a few weeks from now, during Advent and Christmas. Let us prepare our hearts now to celebrate it well.
~~~
Categories: Remembrance, War , Communion
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8 Comments
I like it! I've preached a message or two about that very subject over the years. And I love Robert Robinson's hymn, "Come Thou Fount," and the verse which says,
"Here I raise mine Ebenezer / Hither by Thy help I'm come/ And I hope by Thy good pleasure/ Safely to arrive at home / Jesus sought me when a stranger / Wandering from the fold of God / He to rescue me from danger / Interposed His precious blood."
Personally, I believe that western evangelicalism, in its avoidance of empty, powerless ritualism, has tended to throw out the proverbial baby with the bath-water and overlook valuable opportunities for teaching and impressing on the young significant testimonial events and lessons which declare the faithfulness of God.
Peter Black says...
Ebenezer stones, Fay.
I like it! I've preached a message or two about that very subject over the years. And I love Robert Robinson's hymn, "Come Thou Fount," and the verse which says,
"Here I raise mine Ebenezer / Hither by Thy help I'm come/ And I hope by Thy good pleasure/ Safely to arrive at home / Jesus sought me when a stranger / Wandering from the fold of God / He to rescue me from danger / Interposed His precious blood."
Personally, I believe that western evangelicalism, in its avoidance of empty, powerless ritualism, has tended to throw out the proverbial baby with the bath-water and overlook valuable opportunities for teaching and impressing on the young significant testimonial events and lessons which declare the faithfulness of God.
Your kind responses serve to remind me (that's in keeping with the "remembrance" theme) how much we depend on each other. Even writing, often considered a lonely craft, in this way becomes a community in which we share and build each other up -- even as Paul urges in his letters.
