Readings: Isaiah 2: 1-5; Romans 12: 9-21
I have been reading a book by a theologian called Paul Knitter - thanks to a recommendation from [X]. In that book Paul Knitter recounts this story of a meeting of something called the Inter-religious Peace Council in Israel/Palestine in 2000. He writes:
“We had spent more than a week listening to the grievances,
the fears, the angers of both Palestinians and Israelis. We were gathered with students and teachers
at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, on Holocaust Memorial Day, after an
emotionally wrenching ceremony remembering the victims of Nazi terror. In our subsequent discussions we heard the
Jewish participants talk of the ‘the need to remember,’ never to forget, so
that ‘never’ again will such horrors occurs.
As the conversation flowed easily back and forth, Geshe Sopa, Tibetan
monk and scholar, raised his hand then quietly but forthrightly asked the Dean
of the Hebrew Union College, ‘But why do you have to remember’.
After an awkward, almost horrified moment of silence, Geshe
continued, ‘What would happen if you let go of such memories of suffering?’ He went on to speak of the sufferings [that]
the Tibetan people are enduring from the Chinese, adding that what is important
now, in the moment, is not to cling to memories of the past but to understand that
the Chinese are acting out of…ignorance… .
The reaction that follows such understanding is compassion for mistakes
made. We must feel compassion for all who
are suffering, on both sides. We [Tibetans]
don’t look at the Chinese as evil, but try to find a peaceful solution and make
them happy and peaceful.
Unfortunately, but also understandably, there was no further
discussion of Geshe’s question and suggestion.
It was so different, so un-imagined, that it was, probably, not
understood. A similar silence was the
response a few days later when Geshe made a similar statement to the director
of the Dehieshe Camp for Palestinian refugees [in Bethlehem]."
Paul Knitter goes on to say “To let go of angers from the past [and fears for the future] in order to be free of them and so fully present to the moment is something very difficult for us Christians and Westerners to understand. Or perhaps we are afraid to understand. "
This idea that we need to let go of our responses to suffering in and to the past is I think relevant to our act of remembrance just now. Our Christian faith is a historical faith with a strong sense that God has intervened in history – in particular in the history of the people of Israel - and culminating in the death our founder – Jesus – on a particular Friday in around the year AD 33. So we are bound to have the sense that history is important. In a way we are a people defined by the past. But we have a choice as how we remember that past. I would like to suggest that there is a good and a bad remembering when it comes to Remembrance Day. A bad remembering is in essence to hold on to the past: a good remembering is to let go of it. To let go is to let God., as I will aim to explain later.
But what precisely are we remembering on Remembrance Day? Our
liturgy just now summarised this with the words, ‘We remember with thanksgiving and sorrow
those whose lives, in world wars and conflicts past and present, have been
given and taken away.’ This means, of
course, not just the people who lost their lives in the First and Second World
Wars but in all wars right up to current wars including that between Russia and
Ukraine. And, of course, Remembrance Day
is not just about remembering lives lost but also the suffering and grief that
is caused by war for those caught up in it – both combatants and non-combatants. Perhaps there are even some here today who
have suffered – and may continue to suffer - because of war. If so we should remember them in our prayers
and I am sure we will do so later in this service.
However a bad way of remembering wars and conflicts is to
glorify them. By that I mean to remember
the lives lost in victories rather than in defeats, of those on our side rather
than on theirs. To glorify war is to see
war as necessary, even as God’s will, instead of a mistake. It is to view it as a series of courageous acts
of bravery worthy of medals rather than of the much more mundane daily living
in terror and fear, the loss of courage and of decent into despair. It is I think worth remembering today that there
were about 100,000 British soldiers who deserted during the Second World War
whose stories are seldom told.
On Remembrance Day we are sometimes urged to see lives lost in
wars as acts of sacrifice – analogous to Jesus laying down his life for his
friends. I think we should be suspicious
of such sacrifice language. It is to
give a meaning to war, even a justifiable purpose, which is to come close to
glorifying it.
Furthermore most of those who lost their lives in the First
and Second World were conscripts - as a many of the Russian soldiers in the
current Russia-Ukraine war. These
conscripts did not and do not voluntarily give up their lives, their lives were
and are being taken. Rather than sacrifices,
most lives lost in war are reasonless slaughter or worse the results of orders
from politicians and military leaders far from the fighting.
But there are good
ways of remembering wars. There are those
that result in lessons learnt so that we might avoid wars in the future. I also want to suggest that a good remembering
helps people let go of their anger, their grief, their suffering as a result of
the past as a step to resolving conflicts in the present (as Geshe Sopa suggests).
To remember wars in a good way is the opposite of glorifying them. It is to see them for what they are but then
to let go of the memory.
Our readings today, from the book of Isaiah and then from
Paul’s Letter to the Romans, were about war and conflict – and of course the
authors cannot but acknowledge their reality.
Neverless they do not dwell on
past wars and conflicts. The eyes of Isaiah
are firmly on the future and of Paul are firmly on the present.
Isaiah, in his prophecy of the future, sees a time when
there is no more war, when people ‘shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks [and] nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more’.
Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, in the passage we heard
today, talks about conflicts between neighbours rather than nations but what he says is relevant to all conflict.. Paul here, is echoing the Sermon on the Mount,
where Jesus tells us to ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute
you.’ Paul, similarly, urges the Roman
Christians not just to bear with their enemies but ‘No, if your enemies are
hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. He then rather spoils this, in my view, by
claiming that by this means they will be heaping burning coals on their
enemies’ heads.
Neither Isaiah nor Paul ignore the reality of past war and
conflict. But both recommend handing over
the ultimate resolution of conflict to God. Isaiah says,‘He (God) shall judge
between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples.’ Paul says, ‘Beloved, never avenge yourselves,
but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I
will repay, says the Lord.’ In other
words, if we have taken sides in a war or conflict, we are to cease our
partisanship and let God decide who was or is right or wrong. This is of course almost impossible when the
conflict is current such as the China-Tibet conflict or the Russia-Ukraine war
Now it might seem paradoxical to suggest that remembrance
should be linked to letting go. Because
to let go might seem to be to forget.
But I am not saying that letting go is to forget what happened – rather
to let go of the feelings that those memories of what happened invoke.
When I was a child there were still people who felt grief
and sorrow for family and friends lost in the Second and even the First World
War. And indeed many people in Britain
were still angry with the Germans and the Japanese. But those of us left commemorating
Remembrance Day in church today can have no memory of those who died in the
Second World War – let alone the First World War. However war and conflict are very much still
with us and we may know people who have died or suffered in more recent wars: in
Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine.
So are we to let go of our grief at those losses? Yes I think so. As the
writer of the book of Ecclesiastes puts it: ‘There is a time to weep, and a
time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. More
important perhaps is to let go of our anger: in particular that directed at our
former or even current enemies. Letting go of our anger generates the
possibility of forgiveness, of reconciliation and therefore of peace.
Jesus says in John’s gospel ‘Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if
it dies, it bears much fruit.’ It is in
dying to self – and in that I would include our letting go of our anger about and
grief for the past – we find a new life, a new way of looking at death and
suffering.
Letting go of anger and grief – indeed dying to self - may
be almost impossible for us to do by ourselves and that is where God comes
in. To let go is to let God. To let God is to let God take responsibility
for what is seemingly impossible for us.
God has given us the final answer to war and conflict by dying on the
cross. His is the true and final
sacrifice. There is no need for any
more.
Paul says to the Galatians ‘I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me.’ This is a remarkable
text but I think Paul is saying here, amongst other things, that we to let go
of self is to allow Christ to be Christ in us and that this new reality is
something we should seek.
So to conclude. By
letting go of our anger and grief about past wars and conflicts, and even
current wars and conflict, we open ourselves to the possibility of God’s
loving, presence in our lives. A loving
presence which will transform us, give us peace and help us bring peace and compassion
to others. This is worth remembering
not just for Remembrance Day but for all our lives.
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