I can't take the credit for the poem, it is a very famous and often quoted one, and I am sure that during my studies I must have picked up ideas from others. So I thank you, those who have made me think and weave together the thoughts below...
‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.’
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.’
As a child, living in a crowded town in an area where there were row upon row of houses opening straight onto a pavement, things that grew were cultivated, they didn’t get there by themselves. I had lots of experience of fields and farms unlike the other children around me, and I was intrigued by growing things. I knew that things in the country grew by themselves so to speak; I knew that things in the town grew because someone planted them. Poppies were an enigma. They grew on bits of waste ground, bits of grass that hung around on the edges of spaces, around crumbled buildings, and were there was a gap between houses that nothing filled. I loved them; I loved the red of them and the shape of them and the fact that they, like me, seemed to hang around where no one else seemed to want to be. They seemed brave somehow, pushing up through the hard ground and flaunting their loveliness in the dereliction around them. I had little to no idea of the significance of the poppy of course; they were just my flower, bright and lovely. Although I gathered up buttercups and daisies, I never broke the stem of a poppy, it seemed wrong to do so, as if I would be removing a badge of courage from the ground. As a child, I reasoned this, I felt this. Somehow, my childish reasoning must have picked up on Remembrance Day and built in me a subconscious reverence for the flower and its meaningfulness.
Remembrance Sunday isn’t a looking backwards day because when we remember those who died, it brings them into the present-day. As long as we do not forget them they are part of our human community here and now. Their lives and their deeds are still meaningful to us. If we ever forget them then they will truly be left in the past. So by remembering those who gave their lives for us as we do today we are not living in the past –we are enriching our appreciation of the present..
Remembrance Sunday is a time for looking forward too. There is a close relationship between remembering and hoping. Hoping is like the future tense of remembering.
When we hope for something which is yet to happen its like remembering what we believe in and trust in – and so the thing we are hoping for also becomes part of our present day – because what we hope for guides our actions here and now
If we remember the dead but have no hope for them; again it is as if we had left them behind in the past. So as we remember our war dead also we have many hopes. We hope they will never be forgotten in the future. As we remember why they died, we hope that their death will not have been for nothing. As we remember the scale and the horror of war deaths over the last 100 years and all the misery and destruction that flowed from these wars also we hope that there may be no more wars like those in the future.
The Scriptures urge us not to grieve over the dead as if there was no hope. We are to remember what and in whom we believe and have hope – remember what happened to Jesus – he died but we believe he was raised from death. So Christian hope is the dead will rise again. As we remember God; who holds all life in his hands; as we remember Jesus and what he taught and what happened to him; then may we hope that the dead will see a day when they know that they are not forgotten but are forever alive in the love and memory of God.
Remembrance Sunday helps us to make that vital link between people in the past who served us well and our hope of peace in years to come. Today is an opportunity to make the link -as we honour those who died, as we support the work of the British Legion, we are in some way securing some sort of future peace for their families and friends at home. In addition, we honour them by working towards a hope for peace in the future.
Remembrance day reminds us that the peace that we have enjoyed for the last 50 or so years here in Great Britain was not bought cheaply.
It is not just a reminder of those who died in the First and Second World Wars - important as they were. It is also a reminder of other conflicts that our armed services have been in
The Korean War
The Aden and Malayan Emergencies
The Falkland War
The Cyprus Conflict
The Northern Ireland Police Action
The 1st and 2nd Gulf Wars
The Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts
And it gives us an opportunity to say “Thank you” for the sacrifice that so many made - so that we in the United Kingdom can enjoy peace and we can do so in an informed and thankful way. As Christians we have our book of memories to help and guide us towards the ways of peace and righteousness. Our Bible is a book of memories.
There we can recall God’s goodness to his people starting with the stories of the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Old Testament.
There we remember – in the New Testament – the story of God sending his own Son Jesus into the world to bring mankind back into a right relationship with God - culminating with the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf on the Cross. Thus a book of remembrance, a book of the present, and a book of, and for, the future, our future and the future of all humankind.
There we remember – in the New Testament – the story of God sending his own Son Jesus into the world to bring mankind back into a right relationship with God - culminating with the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf on the Cross. Thus a book of remembrance, a book of the present, and a book of, and for, the future, our future and the future of all humankind.
For every one who suffered, Christ suffered too. For everyone whose body was bloodied and torn, so too was his body. For everyone who was wracked with pain so too was he. For everyone who cried out with despair, so too did he cry out. For everyone who entered into a living hell, so too did he, and he took on the hell of the dead, and was victorious, for them, for us, for always.
‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.’
When fighting ceased in 1918 the mud of the battlefields was allowed to rest and nature began to be restored and before long the wild flowers grew and bloomed including the poppy. The colour of red reminded people of bloodshed and the sacrifice made by millions of brave soldiers. And so the poppy became the symbol of sacrifice.
We, in the Christian Church, also have a symbol. It’s the Cross of Jesus. One of His great sayings is: ‘Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). And that’s just what He did.
Amen.
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.’
When fighting ceased in 1918 the mud of the battlefields was allowed to rest and nature began to be restored and before long the wild flowers grew and bloomed including the poppy. The colour of red reminded people of bloodshed and the sacrifice made by millions of brave soldiers. And so the poppy became the symbol of sacrifice.
We, in the Christian Church, also have a symbol. It’s the Cross of Jesus. One of His great sayings is: ‘Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). And that’s just what He did.
Amen.
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