Remembrance Sunday 2026 (Isaiah 2:2-5 & Ephesians 6:10-18)

More than 100 years since the end of the first world war, why do we still remember?

Or perhaps, I should stop and rephrase the question and say ‘what are we doing when we remember?’

This isn’t just remembering to switch off the lights before leaving the house

Or remembering the names of all the planets of the solar system in order, although that is sometimes helpful, particularly when you go to a quiz.

When we remember, we show respect, we show fellow feeling, we show gratitude and we show sadness.

Today we are remembering all the sacrifice, sorrow and wounds of war.

We are remembering that the Armistice was an agreement to stop fighting, and so we are also remembering that we should be building a peaceable kingdom.

We are remembering that sometimes in the interest of justice and peace, sadly there is a need to take up arms against the oppressor, or in self-defence.

And sometimes there can feel like there is an apparent conflict and tension, in all these elements of remembering.

Indeed, there seems to be a certain tension between our two bible readings this morning.

We began with a beautiful vision of future peace in Isaiah, where we are told this is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

‘In the last days, the mountain of the Lords temple will be established as chief among the mountains, it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say,

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’

The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more.

Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

With beautiful imagery, Isaiah prophesies of a time when there will be war no more, when the implements of war, will be turned into tools for farming.

This is an image of hope and peace.

As I read this passage, I am often reminded of a trip we made as a family to the war graves in northern France, when our children were teenagers. We spent several days, walking through massive cemeteries, reading the names on the graves, and remarking on their ages. It was harrowing to see row upon row of neatly ordered graves … and how young most of the men were.

But in amongst the pain and the deep sorrow, I caught glimpses of hope

At school, I had learnt of course, about the Christmas truce, when for a brief moment, the fighting ceased along large parts of the front line, and soldiers emerged from both sides of the trenches, exchanged Christmas gifts and played football together.

But what I hadn’t been taught about in school was Trench art … this I discovered as we visited museums along the way, and in every museum, we would find, beautiful examples of trench art, where shell casings, had been transformed into beautiful pieces of art work.

As I saw these items, I could picture, the men in the trenches, beating these shell casings, these weapons of violence, and transforming them into useful objects, such as vases, or cigarette cases … with the imagery, offering an insight into their feelings and emotions.

It reminded me of the image Isaiah gives of swords being beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks.

And then in our second reading, we come across Paul writing to the Ephesians, about putting on the full armour of God.

On first appearances, this seems to conflict with the image we are given in Isaiah of God being the judge of the nations and ultimately the bringer of peace.

But then, what is this armour of God that Paul is writing about and for what purpose, dig a little deeper and of course, Paul is writing about spiritual armour.

Pauls scope in Ephesians has been cosmic, from the very beginning of the letter he draws attention to the unseen world, and now he describes the spiritual battle that takes place against evil in the heavenly realms.

Whilst these verses are referring to a spiritual battle, I want us just for a moment to think about some of the armour of God, he refers to, in particular the belt of truth, and the shield of faith.

We live in a world where we are never far from conflict, where we are constantly bombarded with headlines, which talk of war, indeed according to the international committee of the Red cross, there are 130 armed conflicts being fought today, the highest level since 1945.

Some of the conflicts around the world today, may seem far off, in distant lands, the Democratic republic of Congo for example, which has been stricken by decades of conflict over its mineral wealth and unresolved tensions from the 1992 Rwandan genocide, or the civil war in Somalia which has been ongoing since the 1980’s, these are conflicts we might hear about occasionally, but they are not constantly at the front of our minds, and then there are the ones that are more obvious to us, they appear to more directly impact on our daily lives, and to a greater or lesser degree we might have opinions about who is in the right and who is in the wrong and what should be done about it.

We might think here of the conflicts in the middle east, or even closer to home, Ukraine.

And in the midst of the media headlines and social media posts, which often appear to contradict one another, the truth, can sometimes be hard to discern, but Paul reminds us to put on the belt of truth we are to hold on to that which we know is true, that God is sovereign over all, and that we are called to follow Jesus, who said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.’

And we wear the shield of faith, a faith, that reminds us of the vision we have in Isaiah, that there will come a time, when God will judge between the nations, and there will be war no more.

And so in faith and seeking truth, on this day when we remember the sacrifice of so many, not just in the two world wars, but in all the wars and conflicts since, those who continue to serve to preserve our freedom and fight against injustice and oppression.

We remember the love they have shown and continue to show.

And we commit ourselves afresh to working for peace.

We look for ways that we as individuals and as nations, can turn from all that is hateful and harms, and seek ways to bring peace and hope.