This was written the day I was supposed to be writing my sermon for Remembrance Sunday but was also the day Donald Trump was named as the next President of the USA. I thought long and hard about what to preach and in the end I decided I didn’t want to offend on this poignant day. For many it is full of emotion and pain, I did not need to add my emotion and pain to it. So instead I wrote this and put it here, this is what poured out of my heart…
The reading is Psalm 62 which is quoted throughout.
For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
My soul is not waiting in silence today. It is aggrieved, angry, lacking in comprehension. But begrudgingly my hope remains in God.
This week we remember the millions who died in conflict, particularly in the first and second world wars. We remember their sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice. Made so that we who live on, who reach into the future, have freedom. Freedom to love our families, to live in our homes, to live in the hope that we will never have to face what our ancestors did, our grandparents, great grandparents. To live free from fear.
Every year talks and sermons eloquently remind us that this must never happen again. We must be thankful. We must learn the lessons of our past. But have we? Perhaps our collective memory is actually quite short? Perhaps as those who experienced these wars first hand have died, we have lost the knowledge of the true horror they experienced.
The Crock family for example, who lived nearby in Lewes, whose 4 sons, father and uncle all died in the first world war. The fifth son survived but was badly injured. Later his son Patrick fought in WW2 and was killed in action. How much tragedy and trauma can one family face?
So often on these sorts of occasions our remembrance becomes nebulous, non specific, vast numbers of deaths mean it is hard to focus on the individual. The past can seem so far away and yet when we make connections like this, it becomes all the more real.
Every death, every casualty, every griever is a person. A human being. A neighbour. They had a story, a life, a family, people who loved them. Their stories become our stories as we remember them. I read out the names of the Crock family men for 6 years, I will never forget their story.
None of any of this started with one decision, one bomb or shot, it started with a culture shift, a change of attitudes, unrest, propaganda, with lies and division sown.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
And yet I feel shaken. Where are the lessons of our past? How is it that propaganda and lies are still, even now building an ‘army’? How is that brains are being washed, failures erased? How is that the sacrifice of hard won freedoms is being desecrated by so called ‘free speech’ that hides racism, sexism, prejudice, xenophobia in plain sight? Where is the post war call to come together in difference? – Nato, the EU community, alliances that were built to form bonds that would last?
Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
Where is the refuge from those fleeing persecution, hatred, war, those who just need a better life? How can they trust when this self-made God is shutting doors and creating division? Is this how it begins, people ask? Is this what it was like? The put downs, the racist comments, the othering, the labelling of those worth less. Is this how fascism takes control?
If we are pouring out our hearts, is God even listening?
…Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’ And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
He says “I will make America great again” and immediately they follow him.
Those of high estate are a delusion… Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Sigh…
This man thinks he can end a war in a day, makes friends with dictators and puts money above all things. He thinks God saved him from assassination – so that he could ‘make America greater than ever before’. *
How is this worthy of a God who loves the lost and the least, whose own son would have been kept out by a wall or a travel ban, perhaps even labelled like other immigrants: a pet eater, criminal or rapist? The othering of those from different places or religions, the name calling, the put downs, the superiority of one nation over another, the propaganda and lies – ring any bells? Have we really learned from our past?
Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work.
Power belongs to God and yet our planet, created in divine hands, is at the mercy of a climate change denier, who talks of ‘hoaxters’ and ‘perennial prophets of doom’. Where is your power God, as your beautiful world is broken and weeping?
We are called to forgive, to turn the other cheek, to take the plank from our own eyes before pointing out the splinter in another’s and yet this line feels like justice: For you repay all according to their work.
I should not say this, after all I am one who teaches that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness, but right now I feel like: I bloody hope so. I know I will be judged by that same attitude but today I just don’t care. I want justice, I want fair. They say when someone shows you who they are, believe them. Why are so many not believing that the next President of the US is a liar, a misogynist and a rapist? Why is a man whose CV includes fraud and a criminal conviction thought to be a good fit for the role of President? Why are values of honesty and integrity, compassion and love, being ignored so that this self styled saviour can take on the most powerful role in the world?
Today I feel like our acts of remembrance are hollow. As I read out a list of names of the fallen this morning, I am reminded that these are our brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends, children, colleagues. They are not just names on a sheet, a few among the millions. I think of the people he has mocked and labelled, accused and put down, the threats, the incitement, of the people who will not be safe under his rule. I honestly wonder if this isn’t the start of something that people will look back on and ask: how did people not see it coming?
My hope is from God and so I hope. Because without it there is just despair.
I hope and pray I am wrong. I hope that as we remember, there will never again be a list of names to be read out once a year. I hope that those who feel unsafe and scared right now will find a place of refuge and comfort. I hope that the largest nations in the world take climate change seriously and act. I hope that this President takes on the responsibility of his office in a way he has never done before, and that his heart is filled with understanding for what being saved by God actually means.
Lord have mercy
Amen
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