St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, November 5, 2006

Remembrance Sunday

The Greatest Commandment – Rev. David Mundy

Ruth 1:1-18 Mark 12:28-34

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Halifax, Nova Scotia is a city with a military history that goes back hundreds of years. It’s hard not to notice that Halifax continues to be a military centre. The commissionaires in hospitals and other institutions are veterans.

One day I was hiking along a coastal trail and glanced up to see, rather to my surprise, one of our ill-fated submarines cruising by. Another afternoon I was at the tiller of a parishioner’s sailboat as he coached me past a navy frigate. He seemed to find it amusing that I was a little nervous that we might be run down!

Every year the outdoor Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph at Point Pleasant Park draws hundreds of military personnel and hundreds more civilians and it is a moving ceremony with the ocean in the background.

On an October afternoon in 2001, not long after the terrorist attacks in New York, I stood at the mouth of Halifax Harbour with my then seventeen- year-old daughter Jocelyn as two naval vessels set sail to participate in what was called Operation Active Endeavour. It was an event important enough to draw the Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, and there was a poignancy to it all because families were tearfully waving farewell.

I felt that it was important to be there as a sign of solidarity with the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces. As the ships sailed out the harbour the crowds along the shore applauded even though the sailors couldn’t possibly have heard. It was a recognition of their willingness to serve and be separated from their loved ones. At one point an older man began to sing our national anthem, O Canada, in a loud, clear voice. It was an emotional moment.

Eventually the people moved away toward their vehicles and I chatted with my daughter as I drove her home. It had been emotional for her as well, but she had questions. Who was the real enemy, she wanted to know? At that point the “War on Terror” was a new expression for all of us. She also wondered what the role of our naval personnel would be considering that Afghanistan didn’t have a coastline. We agreed that we lived in a changing and rather ominous world. Of course many Canadians sensed that our nation might be compelled to move beyond the peace-keeping role of the past forty years.

This is Remembrance Sunday and this year it seems important that we honour not only those who served and died during the wars of the past but those who have lost their lives in conflict during the past year and all who continue to serve their country and what they believe to be a greater cause. The film footage of Canadian soldiers in battle situations and the sobering sight of flag-draped caskets carried by comrades-in-arms reminds us regularly that we are a nation at war.

The gospel reading for this day is about love rather than war, as Jesus responds to a question from a religious leader about the greatest of the commandments. Just prior to this in Mark’s gospel Jesus has been backed into a corner about whether to pay tribute to the Roman emperor.

The Jews of Palestine resisted the Roman army of occupation and the Zealots, a group of which Jesus’ disciple Judas was probably a member, were the insurgents of their time. The image of the Caesar represented everything the Jews hated. Jesus “dodged the bullet” of that conversation, if you will excuse the pun, but then he was asked about the greatest commandment. Of course everyone present knew the commandments which Moses received on Mount Sinai, which included loving God. As Jesus answers the scribe he affirms love for God and to this he adds loving neighbours as ourselves.

Is it possible to live out the love of God and be involved in armed and deadly combat at the same time? Some Christians would say no. Groups such as the Mennonites and the Amish have steadfastly refused to participate in military conflicts on religious grounds. Other Christians have chosen to serve in noncombatant roles such as stretcher-bearers and ambulance drivers during wars as a form of active protest. Some ministers refuse to acknowledge Remembrance Day in worship which I obviously consider a mistake, although it is not hard to understand in some respects. In what is often called the Christian manifesto, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that we are blessed if we are peacemakers, and while in the Garden of Gethsemane, shortly before his execution Jesus warned that those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

Yet we realize that loving our neighbour can be costly. These words in Mark echo the commandment which Jesus offers at the Last Supper, at least according to the writer of John’s gospel ‘‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’’s life for one’’s friends. John 15:12-13

What do we think of when we hear the words “command” and “commandment?” This is an imperative, not unlike a military order to act in a loving way. While it seems strange to think that anyone can be ordered to love, there are times when love issues in costly action rather than just sentiment.

It is understandable that in the history of Christianity there has been an uneasy relationship between the purposes of nations in conflict and the religions of those nations. In his Pulitzer Prize winning book Guns Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond contends that the larger societies become the more complex they are in their organization, the more patriotism and religion are invoked in the face of perceived threat. The cross has been wrapped in the flag of empires and nations far too often through the centuries.

Yet even when in those circumstances where we assume the role of peace-keepers there is the prospect of danger and death. Not all that long ago Canadian troops were in the former Yugoslavia as part of what was described as an NATO peace-keeping mission. The concern of the international community was that the innocent would be slaughtered in what has been termed “ethnic cleansing” and I have heard that one of the fiercest firefights of that conflict came as Canadian soldiers and other NATO troops defended a Muslim town.

Our storied history of keeping peace includes the deaths of more than a hundred blue bereted peace-keepers. While we have changed the focus of our engagement in Afghanistan the ultimate goal is to support an elected government and ensure basic human rights for all people. It wasn’t that long ago that our United Church and other religious groups were decrying the subjugation of women in Afghanistan and other forms of oppression. Whatever we may feel about the success or futility of this mission, our troops are there not just to fight terrorism but to support a new order which includes equality for all people.

There are other versions of this same story about the Great Commandment and Luke Jesus attaches the commandment to love one’s neighbour to the parable of the Good Samaritan. As I’m sure you know it is the story of a traveller from one ethnic and religious group who stops and assists a man from another religion even though doing so puts him at risk.

So what conclusion should we come to this Remembrance Sunday about the meaning of love in the context of war? Perhaps the best we can say is that living as truly loving people always carries a cost.

It seems to me that today we need to be praying for those who are paying the price within our military. We pray Canadian troops stationed in Afghanistan, asking for their protection, not only as they are engaged in combat with insurgents but as they work to win the essential battle of good will and distribute humanitarian aid.

We need to pray for the families of these men and women, not only for the ones who have lost loved ones or who must cope with injury, but those who wait. There are children who are growing up without the presence of a parent and there are spouses who go to bed each night, hoping that they don’t receive a dreaded phone call. Very little is said about the strain on military families but it is immense.

We can also pray for the resolution of conflict in Afghanistan and the establishment of peace. While this appears next to impossible, we were told not long ago that all during this conflict there have been negotiations with the various insurgent groups, including the Taliban. Not only did Jesus tell us to love our neighbours, he also wants us to love our enemies.

As we are here in safety this morning, wearing our red poppies, Canadians soldiers are in a country where the last of a bumper crop of poppies which will be used for producing heroin is being harvested. As you can see, the poppies of Afghanistan are white rather than red. Do you know that in the 1930's a group of British women created white poppies for peace in the hope that they would be worn alongside the red poppies of remembrance? While the notion never became popular, it is an important reminder today.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter was the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world and although he is a committed Christian he was required to make difficult decisions to use force a number of times while he was in office.

The unchanging principles of life predate modern times. I worship Jesus Christ, whom we Christians consider to be the Prince of Peace. As a Jew, he taught us to cross religious boundaries, in service and in love. He repeatedly reached out and embraced Roman conquerors, other Gentiles, and even the more despised Samaritans.

Despite theological differences, all great religions share common commitments that define our ideal secular relationships. I am convinced that Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and others can embrace each other in a common effort to alleviate human suffering and to espouse peace.

President Carter went on to point out that, sadly, religion is often used to escalate violence rather than quell it, but he appeals to the best instincts of religious people everywhere. At the conclusion of his speech he offers this, which I have quoted before but I think bears repeating:

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices. God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes - and we must.

We can choose to follow the commandment to love God and our neighbour as ourselves.