Sunday, November 11th, 2001 - “Remembrance Day”
On this day in 1918 armistice was signed in what was then called the Great War. By that point 9 million soldiers had died, millions had been wounded, and millions more returned home with horrors from the trenches encroaching on mind and soul. Post-war despair and confusion battled with idealism and hope as people tried to sort out what had happened and what could be rebuilt. Some of that same tension can be seen in the readings for today, readings of other times also struggle with what is lost and what is yet alive in God.
If you would like to stay seated for any or all of the “standing” parts of the service, please feel free to do so.
Prelude “Let There Be Peace On Earth” by Miller & Jackson
A time of silent preparation—Lighting the Christ Candle
Call to Worship (Responsive)
One: God is kind and wonderful and beyond our understanding.
All: God is always patient and loving.
One: God is good to everyone. God takes care of all creation.
All: God is always patient and loving.
One: Gather together, worshippers, God is here!
All: Praise God!
One: Let us continue to pray.
All: Loving God of justice and peace, you are the voice that never fails to sing; you are the hand that never fails to open; you are the heart that never fails to love. In this time of worship, bring us into your presence that we may be strengthened to sing your song, to share your riches and to love your world. Amen.
Hymn #697 “O For A World”
Presentation of the “Canadian Peacekeeping Medal” to
Master Warrant Officer
James G. Hayward, O.St.J., C.D., C.Th. (Retired)
Today it is my pleasure to be asked to present the Canadian Peacekeeping Medal to Master Warrant Officer James G. Hayward. This is the first medal distinctly Canadian (all others are issued by the UN)
To military, police, and other para-military professions, a medal reflects experience, loyalty to Canada, competence and honour. It also visibly represents a greater cause – the commitment of Canada to protect the weak and strive for making opportunities, throughout the world, for non-violent settlements of bloody conflicts.
In times other than world war, medals are somewhat rare. United Nations medals are the most common seen, and it’s internationally acknowledged that Canada often leads the way in having Her soldiers standing between two hostile armies bent on killing one another – and Canadian soldiers do this with only a Blue Beret and a stiff spine!
I believe Canada’s dedication to this U.N. role (formerly the League of Nations) began in 1957 during the Suez Canal crisis. One of Canada’s greatest statesman, Lester Pearson, received the Nobel Peace Prize for his part in drawing peace loving nations together in pursuit of universal peace; with Canada taking a leading role. So, when people see a United Nations Medal, or the new (and long over due) Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal, I would hope that the most significant awareness of that symbol will be the determination of the citizens and government of Canada to turn swords into ploughshares throughout the world.
“A letter to our church and to Jim Hayward from the Canadian National Defence Headquarters reads in part
1) We are honoured to inform you that you have been awarded the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal under the authority of the Governor General of Canada, The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, C.C., C.M.M., C.D.
Who is Jim Hayward? Glad you asked.
Born, bred and raised in Medicine Hat.
Enrolled in Canadian Army (Reserve) 1961
Transferred to Canadian Army (Regular) 1962
Transferred to Canadian Forces (Reserve) 1988
Retired 1991 (due to medical restrictions)
He was Employed by Westminster United Church as office manager until 1994.
During military career served in Borden, Manitoba, Montreal, Cypress, Lebanon, Edmonton, Egypt, Israel, Calgary, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Calgary again and eventually back home to Medicine Hat. Usually Mary Anne, Jim and three daughters “served together” in Europe and Canada!
Jim’s health often prevents him from attending worship since his tour of duty in Egypt netted him an exotic virus that has attacked his immune system. But, make no mistake, he is very much an integral part of Westminster United and remains a worship participant through the tape ministry which keeps him connected week by week.
I would like to invite all the children to join me please at the chancel to experience the Peacekeeping medal and to be present as it is presented to Jim Hayward.
Then….. Jim Please join me.
“On behalf of the Minister of National Defence, The Honorable Arthur Eggleton, I have been asked to present this medal in recognition of your (Jim Hayward’s) contribution to world peace, while serving on an international peacekeeping mission.
Please accept our congratulations as well as our gratitude.
The Sunday School & Youth leave for their classes.
We Remain in God’s Presence Through Confession
Holy God, violence and hatred have so often overwhelmed our world. Today we remember and repent as we acknowledge that, even in our own lives, hatred sometimes obscures love, and violence sometimes overcomes peace. Heal us, assist us as we work for peace in our homes, our community, our church, and our world. Call us again to live lives of love, caring, generosity, and concern…(Silent Confession)
Assurance of Pardon (One)
Hear the vision of the prophets: “and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Trust the God who longs for peace. We are forgiven, strengthened, empowered to be peacemakers in our world. Thanks be to God.
Biblical Notes
The Splendour of the New Temple
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 From the Epistle Pg. 258
The Wicked One
The Question about Rising from Death (Read from the New Revised Standard Version)
One: This is the Good News of Jesus Christ
Hymn #691 “Though Ancient Walls”
We Respond In Giving And Gratitude
For the gift of creation, the gift of your love, and the gift of the Spirit by which we live, we thank you and give you the fruit of our hands. May your grace be proclaimed by the gifts that we give.
God, by the power of your Spirit working in the midst of earth’s devastation and human degradation, bring new hope, we pray. Use this offering toward the creation of a whole new world beyond our imagining but not our believing, a world where peace and justice, mercy and kindness prevail. Amen.
Hymn #527 “God! As With Silent Hearts”
Commissioning (One)
Let us stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that we were taught. And may our Lord Jesus Christ give us eternal comfort and good hope as we go forth from this place.
Choral Amen
#298 “When You Walk From Here”
When you walk from here, when you walk from here. Walk with justice, walk with mercy, and with God’s humble care.
Postlude “God of All Nations” by Higgins
* At 11:00 a.m. we will observe two minutes of silence framed by the playing of the “Last Post” and “Reveille” – The Trumpet is played today by Gillian Sissons.
Thought For Today
“God gave us memory so that
we might have roses in December.”
by Cyril Connolly
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We all need mirrors to Remember who we are.
Those mirrors come in a lot of different shapes.
In Steinbach’s novel The Grapes of Wrath set during the Great Depression he tells the story of a family leaving the dust bowl of the mid-west states and heading west with dreams and hopes. Their packing meant that only some of the family belongings could be taken onboard the family’s dilapidated vehicle.
Discussion about what should be loaded for the trip and what shouldn’t ensued and at one point, the family photos were being considered for discarding. A child perks up and says, “if we don’t take our photos, how will we know who we are when we get to where we are going?”
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Out of the mouths of babes.
The “mirrors” that that child recognized were met in the family photos. Without a sense of looking at who we are through the reflections of our lives how can we know who we are?
For people of faith it has always been the stories that we recount and share that help us not only remember who we are but temper our views about where we may be going. Scripture then, is a mirror. Like a physical mirror, we may notice something in a reflection that we didn’t notice before…the wrinkles around our eyes. The energy or lack thereof evedint in our faces, the blemishes that just seemed to appear overnight.
I think that all of the mirrors that really mean anything in our lives offer us that same sense of new discovery… even in the old.
We look at the mirror of our family albums… our church history albums …the scriptures themselves and we find new views, new ways of remembering.
We learn from our memories and we learn to reinterpret and to ponder the place of God in our interpretation.
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Haggai, speaking to the people of the exile into Babylon who had recently been freed by Cyrus’ invasion said you remember the temple well look at it now and tell me what you think? He talks about the centre and the place of commerce and of national pride, a symbol of hope and of the abiding presence of God. But it was destroyed.
Two months ago today another symbol of national pride another centre of world commerce was destroyed and the images of that destruction loom in people’s minds today. In recent weeks, I have found myself looking at my images of the twin towers from my trip to New York and thinking about the nuances of commerce etc that emanate from that small piece of Manhattan.
A new mirror, a new image has replaced the towers for many people, it is the image of the facia of the towers peeled off and protruding from the earth precariously yet defiant…that remnant of concrete and steel has now been removed but continues to be the image of CNN’s digital leader for any of the stories concerning “America’s New War.”
There are other mirrors too. The medal, it was my pleasure to present to Jim Hayward is a mirror certainly for Jim of the contribution that he personally and Canadians collectively have made to world-peace.
For the generations after Haggai, and those privy to the second temple and later in Jesus time the 3rd temple …each of the temples became defining images of a people. And with the destruction of each of the temples it was “the stories” of the temples that became the mirrors that helped define a people.
Canada too has had its mirror images defined. On this day, armistice day, from the 1918 original has risen the memory of that first global conflict that we participated in as a nation. As a country we grew up with the reality of that image to reflect upon.
What is Remembrance Day if not the long stare into the mirror of our history—of global and national history—what is it if not the look at the sacrifices and the bravery, the determination to make a difference for freedom, what is Remembrance day if not the calculation of the cost of children without parents and parents without partners because their lives were claimed by the conflicts of the ages.
Is it morbid to entertain these images? No! it is foolhardy to try to live without a sense of our past.
We can only know who we are by seeing where we have come from.
Some of the mirrors are cloudy some have caused us to change our memory of events some allow us to see where we have pretended bravery when it really wasn’t there … some have helped us see our vulnerabilities and to trust more in the presence of God…some like the mirror of the words of Haggai have challenged us to build new realities out of the rubble of former realities. Haggai’s challenge is 2500 years old and it is as fresh as this morning’s breeze.
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Today we re-encounter ourselves in some of the mirrors that have been provided for us to do just that.
On April 9th, 1917, four divisions of the newly created Canadian Corps began an assault that has become known as the Battle of Vimy Ridge. It was the first time in history Canadian forces fought together under their own command. If you go there today, you will see not only the Vimy Memorial, But also shell holes, trenches, craters and 11000 trees that represent the number of Canadian dead whose final resting place is not known.
By all accounts, the battle of Vimy Ridge was a defining moment for Canada. Our young men fought and they held the trenches and put up with the rats the sickness and the wet and cold in a place they didn't want to be.
They finally did take Vimy—a place that the allies deemed was a must and today if you go to the granite monument that marks the place you will be standing on Canadian soil since the land was given to the people of Canada. Today it is a park and it is also home to hundreds of craters from the mortars and shells that pummelled the spot while the Canadians prepared to take the ridge. On top of the ridge it is a flat as glass and you can see the monument from ever a great distance.
During World War 1, the holes and hills above the tunnels were given the names of Canadian cities so that it allowed the Canadians who spent 2 years there to feel at home.
The story of Vimy Ridge is one of the stories that help us see who we are.
The Canadian folk musical group Tanglefoot have recorded the song Vimy in which they have managed to get behind the sense of heroism and bravery to the horror, pain and confusion of the young Canadians who represented our nation in the war to end all wars.
I watched a benefit concert for Sept 11 victims a few weeks ago - Clapton, McCartney, Elton John, etc. Always nice to hear Clapton play, but other than that, the only thing worth noting - aside from Richard Gere getting booed for mentioning peace - was a profound statement by (of all people) the Canadian comedian Jim Carrey, who said:
“Freedom comes at a terrible price … and God help us if we don’t do something great with it.” It was true for the Hebrews returning to build their temple in 538 B.C.E. and it is true for us today.
Seeing has always been about reflection… Today, again, in scripture, prayer, song and acts of remembrance we are invited to do our own reflection and we are again challenged to see. Amen.