Remembrance

Remembrance

Nov 04, 2022

We are about to commemorate Remembrance Day. No matter who you are, we are all aware of the poppies, the war memorial and the need to remember who have sacrificed themselves for others. Each year brings around new conflict. Part of the reason that we remember them is because we cannot forget as humanity’s inhumanity to each other continues.


It could be argued that every Sunday is a Remembrance Sunday for us; we remember a dying and a death. At the Eucharist we hear, “Do this in Remembrance of me”, but that is individual, and it is specific. It is one man’s pain and his blood. When we learn about the horrors of warfare, we end up dealing with numbers that are so large that it is hard to comprehend.


There is a hymn that was written just after the Great War called, “O valiant hearts”. Although I wouldn’t say that it is a great hymn, it does look at all those who died in the light of Christ, asking God to, “look down and bless our lesser calvaries”.


It tells us that God suffers in every human soul that is changed by war, each of us is cherished by God, each death matters to him, or might we say that each soul changed diminishes him just as it diminishes us? The cross links our human suffering to God’s for eternity, nothing can take that away.


We remember. God remembers.

Rev’d Mark


Readings for Sunday 6 November (3rd before Advent)

Job 19:23-27

‘O that my words were written down!
   O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
   they were engraved on a rock for ever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
   and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
   then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
   and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
   My heart faints within me!


Luke 20: 27-38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’



Readings for the week

Monday 7th – Titus: 1: 1-9, Luke 17: 1-6

Tuesday 8th – Titus 2: 1-8, 11-14, Luke 17: 7-10

Wednesday 9th – Titus 3: 1-7, Luke 17: 11-19

Thursday 10th – Philemon 7-20, Luke 17: 20-25

Friday 11th – 2 John 4-9, Luke 17: 26 - end

Saturday 12th – 3 John 5-8, Luke 18: 1-8


Readings for Sunday 13th (Remembrance Sunday)

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labour we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.


Luke 21: 5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’
They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.

‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.



Readings for the week

Monday 14th - Revelation 1: 1-4, 2: 1-5, Luke 18: 35 – end

Tuesday 15th – Revelation 3: 1-6, 14-end, Luke 19: 1-10

Wednesday 16th  (Margaret, queen, philanthropist) – Revelation 4, Luke 19: 11-28

Thursday 17th – Revelation 5: 1-10, Luke 19: 41-44

Friday 18th – Revelation 10: 8-11, Luke 19: 45-48

Saturday 19th (Hilda, abbess) – Revelation 11: 4-12, Luke 20: 27-40