Reflection: Remembrance Sunday, 9th November, and for the week ahead:

Alternative Collect for Remembrance Sunday:

God, our refuge and strength, bring near the day when wars shall cease and poverty and pain shall end, that earth may know the peace of heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Reflection

Remembrance matters. It is about community gathering, story telling, honouring those who have suffered and died in war and those who live with scars of mind and body because of what they have seen and experienced. The dead and the living are not forgotten by us because we come to remember, and neither has God forgotten.

For God, outside of time, all history is now, which means God sees and knows all the stories of horror and all the stories of bravery and courage, all the time. Many of these stories are lost to us, but not to God who always sees.

The dead are not forgotten, the suffering are not abandonded, there is hope in the here and now, through comradeship, the help of military charities, chaplains and aid agencies. And there is also hope in the Christian message that death is not the end - the promise of eternal life is there for all.

Lyn Hayes ALM