One hundred years ago this very day, the world was still convulsing immersed in the historical event we know as the First World War.
But they would not have thought about it in those terms then. The major powers of Europe, were bleeding themselves dry, in this apocalyptic event. but they understood that this was the war to end all wars. No one could conceive that after this hellish slaughter, anyone would go to war again. This event was to mark the end of war.
That was a common understanding then. Our own president, the 28th in line, Woodrow Wilson had even devised a program that would ensure a lasting peace. It is remembered as his 14 points.
The 11th hour, on the 11th day, of the 11th month in the year 1918, the Great War was brought to a close.
But the concept of establishing lasting peace evaporated in the harsh retaliation against Germany in the Armistice. Wilson was all but ignored, his 14 points dismissed. The war ended but we did not have peace. The world was not changed for the better.
Fought from 1914 to 1918, World War 1 literally involved the whole world. In 1917, 100 years ago this past April, our nation was irresistibly drawn into this conflict.
Because of German military and diplomatic miscalculations, America was transported from a rigid isolationist, to rabidly anti German disposition seemingly in a fortnight.
Declaring war on 6 April, 1917, we had the first 14,000 soldiers in France in June. by war’s end approximately a year and a half later there were 2 million American soldiers in France.
By war’s end we had contributed our 53,000 military deaths to the over 6 million soldiers killed in this great war. It was estimated that 6,000 soldiers died a day, every day, during the four years of war.
European nations were devastated. Entire generations of young men between the ages of 18 and 30 disappeared from areas of England, France, Germany and Austria. Economies collapsed. Empires dissolved, becoming new countries, some democratic, one Bolshevik. The political map of Europe and the world was forever changed.
And, ironically, the war to end all wars laid the foundation for what would become known as World War Two, which in turn led to the Cold War and its varied conflicts. Korea and Vietnam, even the roots of today’s conflicts can be traced to the war to end all wars.
All humanity desires peace. I think it is part of the image of God in us that births this desire. We have laws and courts, diplomacy, counsellors, because we want peace in all our relationships.
But it seems that no matter how hard we try, there is always the potential for conflict, between nations, political parties, families, husbands and wives, or parents and children, because we want peace but we want it our way.
Ultimately, all conflict is the consequence of human sinfulness. It has spiritual roots. It is part of an ongoing spiritual battle.
We war because we are sinners. We all have the propensity to make wrong decisions, to want our own way, and to do evil, as individuals and as nations. In varied times and places, evil bubbles to the surface, and if not challenged it will be victorious. Someone once said that all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
So we have it that at times our government has had to call upon its common citizens to fight, to wage war, that evil not triumph.
Over the years, our citizens have been called to risk themselves their futures, their lives, for something greater than themselves. To stand in the gap for others they mostly do not know, for others they do, and for their country and its ideals, however imperfectly those ideals are realized, and that is something noble and heroic.
Just last week we celebrated All Saints’ Day, a Christian feast, where we remember all those in the Church who ventured all for our God and the sake of his gospel.
On Veterans’ Day, and Memorial Day, we recognize all those citizens who ventured all for their country— that America continue a sovereign and free nation and its founding ideals survive.
What connects them are the qualities- the characteristics exemplified by the individuals we celebrate. Most were not superheroes. They were regular folks, with regular lives in their times and places.
They were folks just like us, with all our foibles and idiosyncrasies. But there were some things that they knew, could not be compromised. And circumstances caused them to commit to the truth of who they were, be it the Christian saint in his duty to God, or American citizen in his duty to country.
They came to believe that particular truths were, in reality, of greater import, of greater significance than their own comfort or even their own lives. They were people when called to duty they stood up and risked all for what they believed.
We can read about these qualities in the Bible—in Christian history–about the heroes of the faith.
and we can read about these qualities in accounts, in the lives of the veterans we recognize today.
These are all stories that speak of honor, and self-sacrifice, commitment, integrity and devotion to duty.
They are qualities that raise people from the realm of the common, to the realm of the noble. The ancient Roman philosopher Seneca critiqued humanity writing: “Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is in the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man’s power to live long.”
There are qualities that cause common Christians to become saints, and cause common citizens to become heroes.
Ultimately it is in Jesus, our Lord and Savior that we see the superlative example of these qualities. In him, we see the noble, lived out in completeness, as God giving himself up to become a man.
In the garden of Gethsemane we see him face the struggle of every man to either live nobly, or for self. He then laid down his own life, suffering and dying, giving up himself for us; undeserving sinners, in a war against evil for the survival of our souls. His life purchased victory for us.
The movie Saving Private Ryan, is one of the most impactful movies I have ever seen. Its opening scene sees Private Ryan, now an old man with his family, present day, entering the American cemetery at Omaha beach in Normandy.
the events that shaped this man’s life are then exposed in a flashback to the experiences of D-Day told with brutal realism. it revealed a story of a captain and his platoon risking and sacrificing their lives for a guy they don’t even know.
Ryan, you see, was the surviving son in a family whose other sons had already given their lives in service to their country. the mission was to keep Ryan from the same fate. It was a mission accomplished, but at great cost. After a fierce battle securing Ryan’s salvation, the Captain, mortally wounded, whispered his very last words into Ryan’s ear: James, earn this. Earn it!
In the last scene returning to present time, Ryan kneels at the grave and speaks to the Captain’s grave. He says: Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. And I’ve tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that at least in your eyes, I’ve earned all of what you have done for me.
Ryan then calls for an accounting of his life. Standing there at the grave, he looks at his wife, with a pleading look on his face, and asks her: Have I lived a good life, have I been a good man?
He weighed his life in terms of the price it cost for him to be there; to have been married, to have children, to have been able to live the life he has lived.
There was a personal debt paid for his life, and he needed assurance that that cost was not paid in vain, that he had not squandered that which was so preciously and so dearly purchased by the lives of these men, buried there at his feet.
Ryan asked: Have I lived life worthy of its cost?
That is a good question.
What about us? Do we live lives worthy of all that has been paid by others for our lives?
Looking at the cross of Christ, in worship today, do we count the cost of what was paid for us to be here, to be in relationship with the living God, to have the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of eternal life? Are we living our lives in a way that honors and recognizes the cost that was paid for our salvation?
this Veterans’ Day, as we honor these veterans here, as we consider those who never returned, do we count the cost of what was paid for us to live the life we have today? Are we living our lives in a way that honors and appreciates what it cost to purchase our freedom?
How we live our lives is important. It tells whether we truly value what has been paid, whether the sacrifice and death of Christ has been in vain, whether the sacrifices of our veterans have been in vain.
Our lives, our souls, our salvation, our freedoms both in this life and the next have been purchased for us at extraordinary price. I pray this day we would remember– and pledge to live lives in light of those costs. It will make us much better Christians, and much better citizens.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
23 Sunday after Pentecost
12 November 2017