Parades and Prayers

War is the strongest manifestation of human weakness.

War testifies to a profound flaw in the human psyche with complicated roots: in perhaps a selective memory regarding history, a lust for power and domination, and a profound insecurity in finding compromise and living with differences (even those that are irreconcilable).

Today we are witnesses to bloodshed in regions that one would have thought might have learned lessons from their traumatic and terrifying history. Not even one hundred years ago. The millions dead in Ukraine and Russia, the holocaust, the slaughters of millions during both World Wars. Survivors of these atrocities have spoken in whispers, some who had the strength shouted. Those to whom they spoke are alive today, hard of hearing.

Tragically, it has not been enough to deter repeating the same acts now.

Tomorrow we gather for parades, speeches, bowed heads, the evocative sounding of the Last Post, poppies ablaze on chests – as we remember those who have given their lives. And remember we should. Truth be told, many hardly gave their lives. They were conscripted, they were placed in situations by others who never had to sacrifice as much. There’s nothing romantic in this remembrance. We cannot paint this day as noble on the surface when we created the horror and insanity that led to these absurdities.

It’s like pointing a gun and someone, shooting, and then wondering why they fell dead to the ground. And repeating the action again and again. Having a ceremony to provide dignity to how they fell so gracefully. “Why did you shoot?” “Someone told me they were dangerous, if I didn’t our world would collapse, they are not like us…..” When we walk up close with smoking gun we discover a young boy in his late teens with a hole in his heart and a puzzled expression on his face. He looks like me.

Or consuming endless medications for a terminal symptom but never tackling the root cause.

This insanity among humans has gone on throughout recorded history. What are we parading for and praying about? I’m not being disrespectful here or cynical in posing the question. Anyone who has attended a Remembrance Day Parade can testify that it is fitting, important, and moving to stand with others and remember those who have fallen in battle, no matter the cause.

However, in remembering we need to reflect that we are remembering people who have gone before us who did something that cost them their lives. They were fighting for a better world, for peace, for the opportunity for those whom they loved to have a better life far removed from war and strife. For us.

Perhaps the greatest way we can honor their memory is to resolve to do something more than parade and pray – during the rest of the year. We can all do something. Perhaps beginning with a check on our attitudes to others with whom we disagree. The way we speak about nations, races, religion, the poor, the addicts, the homeless, the politicians. Perhaps we might listen better to what others around us are actually saying, and doing, in order to understand better why they are upset or enraged. Most of us could probably bite our tongues and humble ourselves by doing a better job of informing ourselves on an issue before pontificating. How about avoiding the lazy tendency of brushing a whole nation or people group with negative attributes and then standing on that flimsy foundation as if it were fact? And for others who retreat into silence, say/do something.

Wars and ugly situations don’t arise from nothing. Seeds are very powerful. Seeds of hate ignite and spread before you know it. I played with matches as a kid and set a whole hedge on fire. I was shocked and terrified, “I didn’t mean to do that!” Likewise, the seeds of goodness and love are like salt and light that may seem ineffective, but they seep into relationships and the wider world with an impact we may never be aware of.

The key to ending wars has always been to address the human heart, which is where the seeds of good and evil germinate, explode, and propagate. Which is why I believe that the greatest day in the calendar is Good Friday, when a life was voluntarily surrendered on a Cross to defeat evil and make possible a ground-breaking healing of the human heart. Forgiveness is the antidote to revenge, sacrificial love leaves hate gasping for breath, and the resurrection from death in Jesus, blows our little minds at the possibility of hope that defies our logic and understanding. Why are our remembrances of those who have fallen marked with crosses?

The bottom line is that we humans cannot save ourselves. If we could have, we would not be so ripped and bloodied by the conflicts of our own making today. We are tragically lost, like sheep gone astray. We cannot talk with civility in political chambers, we have broken, addicted, and homeless people in our streets. There is no financial equity or distribution of wealth in our societies that offer hope and equal opportunity for all. We turn blind eyes to the deeds of some, while handing out harsh and unfair consequences to those who cannot afford flashy lawyers with silver tongues. There is absolutely no evidence that we are growing better in character, altruism, or compassion as a species. Of course, thank goodness, there are glimmers of light that proves the exception, but we have a long way to go.

I can never escape this sacrilegious thought. Imagine if we celebrated Remembrance Day with chocolate bunnies and remembrance day egg hunts, balloons, and a holiday? People would be quite rightly, outraged at the superficiality, the disrespect, and even the decadence. Yet, when God offers Himself to humanity, that is what has become of His Remembrance on Good Friday and Easter. Don’t appreciate his input or action, leave it to us. Another manifestation of where the true battle is being fought.

As I attend a parade and pray tomorrow I will thank God for those who have given their lives in battles not of their own making. I will pray forgiveness for the failings and blindness of myself and my fellow humanity. And I will ask God to release fresh revelations of his reality, his love, and his hope among the nations of the world. I will pray that human hearts will be touched, even in these days, by the sacrificial love, life, death, and resurrection of his son Jesus. In him alone are the seeds of courage and transformation that can take hold of a human heart and make it new again. He can make enemies into friends, the blind and prejudiced to see with new vision, and for the swords to be laid down and forged into ploughshares. We have not been able to do any of those things.

In the light he gives, I will Remember through the darkness of our deeds, the hope he offers.

“Here I am Lord, forgive me, change me, use me – I pray.”

The two songs below encapsulate most of what is written above. The Green Fields of France is one of the most powerful and evocative testimonies to the futility of war I have ever heard. And the second song to the hope God graciously offers in the sacrificial gift of his beloved son.