God of peace and love, on this 11th
day of the 11th month we once again gather to remember.
We remember that in Jesus of Nazareth you have called us to be people
of peace saying, “Blessed are the peacemakers” and reminding us
that we are to love our neighbour and our enemy as we love ourselves.
But we also acknowledge that there are
times when we as a global community fail to live out those words,
times when young men and women hear the call to don the uniforms of
their country and serve under their flag.
Today we give thanks for all who have
chosen to serve their country. We give thanks for their bravery,
their commitment, and their love.
But we know that when armies meet on
the field there are always some who don’t come home.
And so we pause in the memory of those
who went and did not return to mothers and wives and children left
behind.
We remember battles at Ypres, and
Passchendale, and Vimy Ridge in the war we were told would end all
wars, battles where the blood of enemies mingled in the mud and water
of France and Belgium.
And we remember those who fell in the
war that came a scarce generation later. And again young men died in
places like Hong Kong, and Ortona, and Dieppe, and Juno Beach, and in
the Netherlands.
We remember all who fell and were
buried far from home, or who sank to a watery grave in the cold
Atlantic.
Then as the years past the roles
changed and we sent our best to help keep the peace in places like
Cyprus, and the Golan Heights, and Cambodia. And still some died and
were buried.
And then, in this century we sent that
our young back to the battlefield, only to have dozens of them return
in a coffin carried solemnly to a waiting aircraft.
God, whose hope for the world is peace,
on this day we not only remember the fallen of Canada who lie buried
under a military tombstone. We remember also the fallen of Germany,
and Japan, and France, and Australia. Or Italians, and native
Afghanis, and English. This day we honour all who die as a result of
humanity’s common failing to live in the peace you have hoped for
all these millennia.
God, we pray too for those who returned
from battle forever changed by what they had seen. For those who
bore, and still bear, wounds of body and soul.
And now, God of love, as we have
remembered and honoured, we prepare to go back into our everyday
lives. May the remembering we have done here today reawaken and
strengthen our commitment to work for peace, true peace. Help us to
remember that peace will never truly come from a gun barrel but from
the depths of our hearts. Help us remember our calling to be
peacemakers at home and abroad, in the big things and in the small.
And may we never forget the cost that has already been paid.
Creator, Life-Giver, Source of Hope, on
this day of remembering we pause to share words of thanks. Thanks
for all those who have gone before us in this world to create those
things that make our life easier and better, thanks for all those
things that we too often take for granted, thanks for food on our
tables, roofs over our heads and money in our pockets – even while
we know that others struggle for the same blessings, thanks for
family and friends with whom we share our lives. We also pause in
the midst of our remembering to hold in our hearts, minds and souls
those who struggle this day. May they know that they are not alone.
May Your promised word of peace touch the disquiet and disorder in
their lives.
God of peace that surpasses all
understanding, we pray our remembrances and our hopes in the name of
Christ, the Prince of Peace, who taught his friends to pray by saying
together:
Our Father, who art in heaven…
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