Home » Thoughts for the Week » Remembering should change us (10 November)

Remembering should change us (10 November)

The thought this week is written by Graeme Ross, EBA Regional Minister

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 the First World War ended, and we remember this momentous occasion on Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday with a 2 minute silence at 11am.

As we pause, we remember the service and sacrifice of all those that have defended freedom and the great and terrible price that people were willing to pay for the good of humanity. We remember the Armed Forces, and their families as well as the vital role played by the emergency services and those that have lost their lives as a result of conflict or terrorism.

For several years following, it’s release, I would watch ‘Band of Brothers’ in the weeks leading up to Remembrance Sunday. The series tells the story of “Easy” Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division, from training through its participation in major actions in Europe, up until the end of World War II. One of the most moving scenes in the series comes at the end of episode 3. Easy company have played their part in D-Day landings and the fighting that followed and a weeks later they return to their base in England. The episode ends with Sergeant Malarkey going to collect his laundry from Mrs Lamb and you can watch the scene here https://youtu.be/0aMnxQjDGDU.

As he turns to leave the shop, he is asked if he can take the Lieutenant Meehan’s laundry and, in that moment, Malarkey freezes, because Lieutenant Meehan has been killed In action. As Malarkey takes the laundry, Mrs Lamb says, ‘you couldn’t be a dear and help me with a few others?’ She names several other soldiers who she doesn’t know have lost their lives and the episode ends with a caption that tells us that during those few weeks of fighting that Easy Company lost 65 soldiers.

Kohima is a hill town on the India-Myanmar border and from April to June 1944 a battle took place there, as British, Indian and Gurkha units, sustained by supplies dropped by the RAF, defended against and defeated a Japanese offensive intended to disrupt the planned Commonwealth advance into Myanmar.

The 2nd Division’s war memorial at Kohima bears the epitaph:

When you go home,

Tell them of us and say,

“For your tomorrow

We gave our today”.

These words, which are an adaptation of an epitaph written by John Maxwell Edmonds at the end of the first world war, remind us to live our lives well and not to squander the freedom that we have been given.

We will remember them! As we do, I hope and pray that we are changed.

Last Sunday I was privileged to share communion with the church family at Nansen Road Baptist Church and on their communion table was a small cross with a poppy which was marked ‘IN REMEMBRANCE’

If we borrow the words of the epitaph, it’s humbling to think that for our tomorrow that Jesus gave his today.

Jesus was willing to give his life to deal with the sin that separates us from God. He gave his life to defeat sin and death and he rose from the dead to prove that he was victorious.

As we remember his sacrifice, my prayer is that we would be moved, challenged and changed as we continue to discover more of the love that brought Jesus into this world. He has begun a great work of salvation and he longs for us to join him in sharing his good news with a world in need.

We will remember Him! As we do, I hope and pray that we are changed.

The image with the wording from the epitaph is one I have created and churches are welcome to use it in their publicity,