Let me tell you a story, a brief made-up-Dennis-Posno story.
It is not a true story, yet it is a story truer than we dare to think.
It begins this way …
He was nineteen years old.
Strong.
Healthy.
Good looking.
The kind of boy you’d like your daughter to marry.
He had just finished high school …
he had dreams that he was dreaming
and high hopes that he was pursuing.
He not only had the desire, he also had the ability
to bring those dreams and hopes to life.
Then war broke out.
He volunteered to serve his country.
He went to boot camp for military training.
Barely out of school …
not old enough to drink legally …
he had just started to make a living …
he exchanged his dreams for a gun
and his hopes for the reality of a world at war.
His folks saw him off as his ship sailed out of the harbour.
His sweetheart’s heart ached at the thought of him leaving, at the thought …
and she cried through the smiles at the thought that grasped her.
In another place.
Another young man.
Twenty-two years old.
Strong.
Healthy.
Good looking.
The kind of boy you’d like your daughter to marry.
He was working, too.
Making something of his life.
Making his parents proud.
His young wife’s face glowed, knowing she carried his child.
And war broke out.
The same war.
He enlisted, too.
And trained.
Things had just begun to fall into place.
His job.
His home.
His family.
His life.
He exchanged them for this call to duty.
He was sent, along with other young men just like him, to defend their shores.
And then, as fate would have it,
these two young men met.
In battle.
In another time and in another place
they might have become friends.
They had so much in common.
They had so much to live for.
But now they met, not as friends, but as enemies.
They were strangers.
No name.
Just a uniform.
No face.
Just the enemy.
Trained to kill.
Both were there to fight for freedom …
to fight for their country, their people, their home …
to fight for their dreams.
Both had prayed to the God of their faith
and both had chaplains pray for them.
As fate would have it, they met in battle.
Face to face.
Their eyes met.
Young men’s eyes.
More full of fear than of hate.
More full of wonderings than of certainties.
Shots were exchanged. At close range.
One of them lived. One of them died.
The one who died was carried away by his comrades.
The one who lived and walked away had something die inside of him.
His innocence.
His idealism.
And back at home, someone cried tears of joy
while, at another home, someone cried the uncontrollable tears of grief.
And the great loving God of the universe wept, too.
Wept for both of them.
Wept for all of them.
Days like today are not easy days,
and sermons like this one are not easy to write.
I say this because, although we long for peace
and sing for peace
and pray for peace,
we are not at peace.
Days like today are not easy days,
a sermons like this one are not easy to write
because although we hate war and what it does
there are times, it seems,
when war becomes the only way to stop genocide
or aggression
or tyranny.
That’s the toughness of the day.
Nobody said it would be easy.
And it is that toughness which pushed me to ask questions.
And it is the way we answer these questions
that will determine how the days unfold.
And we includes not just us
but every person who lives under the same sky we live under …
includes those who will hear this message
and those who won’t …
includes those who share our faith and the outlook it gives us
and those who embrace other faiths or no faith at all.
The way we answer the questions matters.
_____________________________________
Here’s a question.
If I were to ask you “What is the most familiar passage in the New Testament?”
my guess is that most of you might say, “John 3:16,”
words which were read this morning.
You know how it begins … and you know how it ends.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
We know the words and many have embraced the faith because of them ~
not just the words, though, but the God to whom the words point:
the giving and loving God behind the words …
the God who so loved the world.
Think of it.
It is astounding.
What and who does God love?
The world.
Not just a part of it.
Not just a few in it.
But the world.
And everyone in it.
The great God of the universe …
the One who brought the world and all that is in it into being …
the One who, in Jesus, loved us to death …
the One whose Spirit is present in this place, and every place …
this God
loves everyone here …
loves everyone everywhere.
Loves the two people from the story.
Loves us all.
The question is: Do you believe it? Do you really believe it?
And if you do or if you don’t, why?
_____________________________________
Here’s another question.
If I were to ask you to sum up the teachings of Jesus
my guess is that most might cite words we know as the great commandment,
words of Jesus which were read this morning:
“Love the Lord your God
with all of your heart
and all of your soul
and all of your mind
and all of your strength;
and love your neighbour
as you love yourself.”
The God who created us loves us.
And the God who was one with us in Jesus
has taught that we, too, are to love:
our God …
and our neighbour,
even as we love ourselves.
I believe with all my heart,
that these are the words that all of us should embrace as a people of faith:
words that define our relationship with God
even as they define our relationship with each other.
So here’s the question.
Who is our neighbour?
Who are the ones we are to love
even as we love ourselves?
The people who live under your roof.
The people who live next door or across the street.
The kids you go to school with
or the kids you teach
and the people you teach with.
The person sitting beside you in the pew.
The person sitting in a pew at the Anglican and Presbyterian
and Roman Catholic churches in our neighbourhood.
And the person who meets with other believers in a mosque or synagogue or temple
and the person who has no faith at all.
The person wearing a ball cap and the person wearing a turban.
The person whom you like and the person you don’t.
The people who have everything going for them
and those who have nothing going for them.
Your friends and the strangers.
The people who live down the road on the other side of the world.
The baby that was baptized today and the billions of children around the world.
Those with whom you easily agree
and those with whom you are in fundamental disagreement.
The saints and the sinners.
The good and the bad.
The loveable and the unlovable.
The two young men spoken of in the story.
Who is our neighbour?
Jesus’ teaching is that everyone is our neighbour.
And we are to love them.
Love them.
Because without love, something happens.
And the something that happens
is that everything falls apart.
The question is: Do you believe it? Do you really believe it?
And if you do or if you don’t, why?
_____________________________________
Nobody said it would be easy.
It’s easy to say “love one another.”
But it is not easy to do the love.
It’s easy to embrace a faith that teaches this to us.
But it is not easy to live that faith.
It’s easy to proclaim the good news of God’s love.
But it is not easy to be that good news.
It’s easy to cry for peace.
But it is not easy to bring the peace.
It’s easy to preach about tolerance.
It is not easy to be tolerant.
Nobody said it would be easy.
But whether it’s easy or not,
this is Jesus’ challenge …
this is what Jesus calls us to do.
_____________________________________
And there’s something else I think we know to be true.
In many ways, we are, we become, what we’re taught.
So be careful what you teach.
And be careful what you learn.
Because, in the end, if we’re taught to hate, we’ll hate.
If we’re taught to judge others, we will.
If we’re taught to be suspicious of others, we will be.
If we’re taught to be intolerant, we’ll be intolerant.
And we know what all of this can lead to.
We are witness to its tragedy every day.
But.
But.
If we’re taught to love, the possibility exists that we will love.
And love gives us a chance.
Love gives the world a chance.
_____________________________________
Around the world there are monuments erected …
national memorials …
designed, not to celebrate war, but to commemorate it …
designed, not to cause us to simply remember
but in the remembering to never forget the sacrifice
and suffering
and struggle
of the many who, ironically,
sought to bring peace through war.
And the memorials were erected, not to the generals …
not to the heroes …
but to the Unknown Soldier.
To the nameless, faceless soldier
who put his life on the line
and lost it for a world he hoped to save through his sacrifice.
In that one, the millions were remembered.
But although the monuments at which wreaths of poppies were laid
and will be laid this Wednesday
mark the Unknown Soldier,
there is no Unknown Soldier.
He is not some unknown phantom …
some imaginary person …
some figment of our imaginations.
The unknown soldier ~
and the millions of unknown soldiers
whose simple white crosses in Flanders fields
and other cemeteries around the world mark their place ~
was a somebody.
Like the soldiers I spoke about in the story.
They were somebody’s son or daughter.
Somebody’s lover.
Somebody’s dad or mom.
Somebody’s friend.
Somebody’s grandson or granddaughter.
Somebody’s brother or sister.
They might have been yours.
They were somebodies.
They loved … and were loved.
They laughed … and they cried.
They knew both joy and sorrow.
They were somebodies.
They lived with hopes … and they lived with fears.
They saw the morning sun and the star-studded sky.
They felt the breeze on their faces
and delighted in the smell of a rose
and knew the touch of a friend.
They were somebodies.
And as God loves us, you and me, God loved them.
Even as God loved the two I soldiers in the story ~
the one who lived and the one who died.
_____________________________________
Today we have remembered.
But remembering is not enough.
Unless we can somehow, by God’s grace,
translate this solemn remembrance
into a solemn vow to be peacemakers …
unless we can somehow, by God’s grace,
not just pray the words
“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace”
but live those words …
unless we can somehow, by God’s grace, do that,
the sacrifices that have been made will have been made in vain …
and the victories won hollow victories …
and the peace for which we all long will forever elude us.
Why should we strive for such a noble thing?
One of the reasons was baptized this morning.
Why?
One of the reasons read the Honour Roll today.
Why?
One of the reasons is sitting beside you.
Why?
One of the reasons will be receiving a shoe box this Christmas
filled with more than the box can hold: loving concern.
Why?
Three of my reasons are now in their thirties.
Why?
Because God loves us … loves us all …
the whole world … one person at a time …
regardless of race or creed or age or colour.
Why?
Because it is God’s will for us … and in God’s will is our peace.
Nobody said it would be easy.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
SCRIPTURE
John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Matthew 6:9, 10
"This, then, is how you should pray:
'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.’
Matthew 5:43-45
"You have heard that it was said,
'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Matthew 5:6-9
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called the children of God.
Mark 12:28-31
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him,
"Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this:
'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
There is no commandment greater than these."
