Remembrance Sunday Reflection Nov. 6, 2022
Remembrance Sunday Reflection November 6, 2022
Churchill Gilford United Churches
Minister: Krista Moore
www.churchillgilforducc.ca
Today we honour those who have fallen. We cherish our memories and reflect on God’s promise to restore all that is worthy to life again.
Scriptures:
Haggai 1:15b-2:9
Luke 20:27–38
Scripture Summary: After the Babylonian exile, in the time of King Darius, a prophet Haggai offers hope to the “remnant” of the people known as Israel, that God’s spirit abides with them, and that the temple will be restored, with greater splendour than before.
In the Gospel message, Jesus answers a riddle that the Sadducees ask, if a widow marries 7 successive brothers and they all die, who will be her husband at the resurrection? Jesus uses the law to show that none of them will be her husband as they will all be with God like angels in heaven.
Sermon Focus Statement: God abides with us and restores what is lost. Jesus promises eternal life in the resurrection.
Sermon Function Statement: Remember and cherish your memories, but do not despair in war or death. God restores all that is lost to life again.
Krista’s “Three Things” to ponder and reflect on this week.
1. Remember and cherish your memories.
2. Know God will restore all that is valuable and worthy.
3. Honour the fallen and celebrate lost loved ones who are with God in Spirit.
Krista’s Reflection:
WAR. LOSS. DEATH. That’s what we experience here on earth.
LIFE. LOVE. PEACE. That’s what God promises – ETERNAL THINGS that death cannot take away.
Today we honour those who were lost in two World Wars, and many other conflicts that have perpetuated here on earth from time immemorial.
Remembering what was lost gives us meaning and teaches us what is important. For example:
LIFE is important.
LOVE is important.
War in itself is not important – we cannot glorify war – but we can aspire to the values of life worth living and dying for – like FREEDOM, JUSTICE, and standing up for one’s FRIENDS.
As Jesus says in John 15:13 “there is no greater love than to lay one’s life down for one’s friends,” and so we remember, Christ laid his life down for us, just as many who died in war made the ultimate sacrifice for their loved ones. And we benefit from that sacrifice today.
In today’s scriptures we hear of the Israelites as a tiny remnant after years of war. They were taken away in exile to Babylon, and now they are returning to their 3 homeland in Jerusalem. They must have been so battered and broken after being away so long, years of war and loss, and death, trying to survive in a foreign land.
God asks them, DO YOU REMEMBER your homeland in its former glory? The older ones might remember, but it’s been a long, long time. They have been an oppressed people for longer than they can remember.
Then God promises to RESTORE all things, BETTER than they were before. God says TAKE COURAGE, for my SPIRIT ABIDES with you.
I’m about to RESTORE all things, all that was LOST will be FOUND – a new temple will be rebuilt. In other words, after war and loss and death, a new age is coming of LIFE, LOVE and PEACE – God’s dream for us will be fulfilled…
In Bible Study last week, we talked about war and struggle and hard times. And we realized God doesn’t prevent war, loss, and death – but as one participant said, God promises to BE WITH US while we go through hard times. It might feel like a DARK night, and we’re not sure if it will ever get better. But then MORNING comes again, and we feel restored.
Just as the psalmist says, “Weeping endures for a night, but JOY comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5).
God takes war and gives us PEACE.
God takes loss and gives us LOVE.
God takes death and gives us LIFE again.
Everyone here has lost loved ones, and most experience great loss and sorrow. None of us can escape the hardships of this earthly reality – war, loss, and death. But we will experience a day when all these things will be distant memories – and LIFE, LOVE and PEACE will be our new reality.
How is this so?
In the Gospel message today, JESUS is asked a riddle – the Sadducees (religious leaders) don’t believe in resurrection after death, and so they are trying to trip him up, or trap him.
They ask: If a man dies leaving a widow and he has a brother, according to Moses’s law, the brother must marry her. But what if he also dies, and there are seven brothers who marry her, and they all die leaving her childless? And then she dies?! So, after this “resurrection” of the dead, who will be her husband?
But Jesus surprises them with his truth: NONE of them will be as her husband on earth (in that time, a husband’s job was to be the procreator, to carry on his family line and to preserve the Jewish culture). Once they have all died, that job is no longer necessary – because all God’s people will be together in Spirit, as Jesus promises us ETERNAL LIFE.
Jesus is saying to us – don’t worry about earthly things – like war, loss, and death – there will be trials and tribulations. But I have come to raise you up to new life – an EVERLASTING LIFE.
In both scriptures we see – Nothing on this earth – not war, or loss, or death, can stop the LOVE of God who will RESTORE all good things to LIFE. Jesus fulfills this promise with his life, death, and resurrection at Easter – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Today is a solemn day to be sure. Many of you have memories of loved ones who have served in the war – we remember and honour them. And some of you have even served in the military or experienced war first-hand. We honour you.
We still experience war, loss, and death in this age. We see the evils of this world perpetuating unnecessary loss of life and destruction like the war in Ukraine and Russia, China, Somalia, Iraq and Iran and many other places. From the first wars of civilization to the current wars we still witness today, countless MILLIONS have suffered oppression, violence, war, loss, and death, destroying innocent lives and whole cultures from the earth. We mourn for this loss of life and pray for God to restore our sanity, our world, and our love for one another.
We cannot promise as flawed human beings that we will resolve all our conflicts peaceably nor do we know how to overcome death or restore what’s lost to life again.
But God does. God PROMISES to be with us through our trials and hardships, through suffering, war, loss and even death. God PROMISES to RESTORE All that is Good and Worthy to life again – And Christ promises us ETERNAL LIFE.
So, what can we do while we are waiting?
First, REMEMBER those who served and died for us; and CHERISH our memories.
Secondly, know God will RESTORE what is lost and worthy to life again.
And thirdly, have HOPE because Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice, he died for us, and his promises are true – those who have sacrificed their lives for us are still alive in Christ, with him in the Spirit, and in our hearts and minds too. We look forward to reuniting with them someday and so we say “Until we meet again.”
Finally, we pray for the day when there will be no more war or loss or death, and we look forward to God’s new reality of LIFE, LOVE and PEACE.
Amen.