We Will Remember

Tomorrow is a big day at St. Mark’s by-the Lake. This year Remembrance Day falls on a Sunday and we will take the time in our prayers to remember those who have offered their lives for peace and justice in a world mad with war.  

Benjamin Franklin philosophy was “Never has there been a good war or a bad peace.”  There is no doubt that we are thankful for the sacrifices of our forebears as we all know the terrors that this world had lived through in the last century. Yet the two “great” wars have to be for humanity something that we look at and mourn rather than celebrate. As I think at this time of the year of the young men and women from our country who felt so strongly about freedom that they went willingly, in some cases lying about their age to be able to go, I am grateful for their sacrifice and at the same time saddened about their loss and the loss that comes to humanity when we are warring.  Today we face these same problems and we must pray for peace. As Christians we are called to be a people who will NOT give up on the idea and notion that there should be dignity and peace for all people. We need to take a time like this to take a look at where we have come from, mourning the losses of the past, and in response call our attention to the world issues that face us today. So many are hungry, so many are dying from the scourge of AIDS and so many are just forgotten and our attention today is directed in other places. In the middle part of the last century Dwight D Eisenhower summed it up well when he said; “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”  Humanity is in need of a good dose of the baptismal covenant. We need to take hold of our promise "to seek and serve Christ in ALL persons loving neighbour as self." We need to stand firm in our resolve “to strive for peace and unity among ALL people and respect the dignity of EVERY human being.” (These promises are found in the baptismal covenant on Page 156 of the BAS). Once we lay hold of these ideas we can accept them as a way of life, as a life statement and we can show the world around us by how we act, that there is a better way. This will allow us to thank a Veteran for what he/she has done for us and at the same time work to make that kind of sacrifice unnecessary in our world. Eleanor Roosevelt seemed to “get it,” if you know what I mean. “We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.”  The world is in need of conversation and dialogue. I hope this weekend as we look back that we also acknowledge the need for the world to come together.

We will have a great opportunity tomorrow to renew our own commitment to our baptismal ministry as we remind ourselves of who we are as community as we engage in the work of bringing more people into “the household of God.”  

Tomorrow we will welcome The Bryceland family and the Warke-Shantz family as we celebrate the sacrament of baptism. As the children presented tomorrow are baptized let us pray that they may know a world of peace and that they might be part of making that peace happen.

PS – we are trying hard to get our plans together for the Annual Steak bbq and auction – if you plan on coming you can help us tomorrow by picking up tickets after church. Plan on joining us – it is the best deal in town – a great dinner and a great night out for a $25 Ticket – by a table for you and your friends!