From Ugliness a Beauty Emerges

Remembrance Sunday, and our theme for today could not be more apt. Today, I have taken the service in Broughton, where I live, going on into town this afternoon for the civic gathering around the cenotaph followed by a service (this year) at the Methodist church. This town event is very well attended outdoors, but few come to the service afterwards. Maybe a rethink next year.

We tried today to have all four of our churches observe their 2 minutes silence at 11am with the rest of the nation. At Broughton, we are fortunate that our wireless mikes work well outside the building, enabling older folks to stay inside; while we also now have an extension speaker which enabled us on this occasion to play Last Post & Reveille on the CD player, and have it transmitted outside. Worked perfectly!

In our churchyard we have a war grave: that of Cpl Roland Dalton who died of his injuries at the Somme on 15 November 1916 - 100 years ago on Tuesday. We will be having a short memorial to him around his grave, with school children, on the anniversary day. Cpl Dalton was only 30 years of age. His widow, Esther, was a Broughton lass, and he left behind 3 small children aged 6, 3, and 2 weeks. I wonder if he ever saw his baby? Did they perhaps visit him at the hospital in the 5 days between his return to England and his death?

Telling a story like this makes the reality of war so much more powerful, than simply remembering the numbers of those who died, although watching all those poppy petals fall at the National Festival of Remembrance never ceases to move me. The poppy itself is such a powerful symbol, not just because of its blood-red colour but because of the fact that it grows profusely in areas where the soil has been been broken up and marred. 'From ugliness a beauty emerges.'

In our Bible readings, we have faced the fact that there is much war and violence in the Old Testament, much of it in obedience to a perceived divine command. Take Deuteronomy 7 where the invading Hebrews 'show no mercy' to the seven native tribes who live in Canaan. In the Gospel (Matthew 15) it is as if Jesus heals history with mercy as he not only heals the daughter of a Canaanite woman, but goes on to heal the sick and disabled of that area, and feeds 4000+ people - with 7 baskets remaining. The same number as the tribes originally conquered by the Israelites.

The fullest revelation of God is in Christ, his death and resurrection. One day, there will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain (Revelation 21) as God dwells among not just a chosen race, nor even in a God-man, but among all his people. They will be his people and he will be their God. Meanwhile we live with 'future present' looking forward to that time.