9th November 2025 –
Thankfully most of us do not experience actual warfare. Of course we see it in pictures and films, or read about it in the various forms of media or in books. Yet, today is still tremendously important whether we have actual experience of war or not. However, we remember today not only the two world wars, but also the other conflicts that have gone on around the world in which our armed forces have been involved. We also remember all those others who against their will were, and continue to be, caught up in the cruel and devastating violence of war. Remembrance must be all-embracing and far-reaching.
All of us are the sum of our memories. Our identity is shaped by our memories and past experiences. Some will have memories of active service in the armed forces. Some will have memories of those who were loved and lost. Some remember stories of relatives and friends living through the bombing of our towns and cities in Word War II. Some will remember when no-where on mainland Britain was safe from IRA bombs. And we all know the closeness of the current Islamicist terrorist guns and bombs or the threat of any crazed ideological group. Today we cannot hide from what we might have chosen to pass over at other times.
It is easy to romanticise memories of war. Some films are humorous about what was devastating. Dad’s Army makes everything look funny and almost something that we would have wanted to be a part of. The arial bombardment of the Second World War can make us think of camaraderie and singing songs deep in shelters or on London Underground platforms. In that way Dame Vera Lynne still sings. We might even dare to think people enjoyed it. Of course, it wasn’t like that. It was the horrors of the destruction of countless ordinary people’s homes and the destruction of great civic and ecclesiastical buildings. For those of us who never lived through such horrors it is almost impossible to imagine what it must have been like to emerge from air raid shelters and find whole streets destroyed – perhaps even one’s own home.
This day does not glorify war, or, heaven forbid, aim to defend in any way the cruelty and the agony of warfare and terrorism. We are not here to label all wartime deaths as a sacrifice, for sacrifice suggests a degree of choice that was not present for many serving in the armed forces. We are here to remember all those people, of whatever country, who have died in the pursuit of freedom, justice and goodness. We are here to give thanks to God for this cause. We are here to acknowledge publicly and before God that countless people have given their lives for us, for our freedom and for others and their freedom, freedom to live, speak and think according to conscience and under our agreed laws.
We are always hopeful that there will be no more war. But we are not free from war and the pain of war. Our purpose today is to acknowledge that and to pray for peace. It would be a mistake for us to think that remembrance is simply about the past, about what has happened. Our remembrance is something that we make present here and now as we realise the significance for each of us. Today we acknowledge love laying down its life for others and we recognise that there is no greater love than to offer one’s life for another. Today we acknowledge our need for God’s grace, for alone and unaided we cannot bring about true peace, or justice that is merciful, or happiness that will last.
