We've been thrown a torch!

Remembrance Day Message
Scripture Focus: Matthew 18:21-35
Before I gave my reflection, the youth retold the story in a drama called,
"The Unfair Student."

The question is, How many times should we forgive?

Jesus tells this story about a king who forgives a huge debt.
A debt that the servant who owes it -
would never be able to pay off.

In the retelling that we just watched,
about a teacher who decides to help a failing student,
we see the same kind of forgiveness and understanding.
We see the mercy of the king
or the teacher.

Jesus tells this story to teach his followers about the nature of God.

God offers us grace.
Grace means we get welcomed
even when we don’t deserve it.
Grace means we get forgiven
even when we can’t pay back for what we have done.

God offers us grace.

But we have trouble with that.
So we do like the servant in the story,
we take the grace that God has offered
and then attack each other.
In our play, Sally the student, took the grace the teacher offered
and turned around to attack another student

Jesus was trying to shake his disciples (and us) up
To show how this kind of thing can damage us,
and our relationship with God.
He told a story that showed how God forgives
and we don’t.

The king forgives the equivalent of
say “a million bazillion dollars!”
An unimaginable amount of money.
The teacher extended help and love to Susie.
But…

We can be like Susie in the story we just watched,
we can take nice things,
and then turn around and are mean in return.

What about when people start out by being mean and unreasonable to us?
What do we do?.
What do we do when a bully is actually hitting you?

What is the Christian thing to do?
Well,
I know a kid who got into an argument at recess with some other kids -
over some snow balls.
It ended up with this kid on the ground
being sat on by other kids
and this child could barely breathe.
Should they fight back?
Will they get into trouble?
What about zero tolerance?
What about breathing?
What do we do as a nation when someone is threatening us?

This is especially important when we think about war,
peace
and Remembrance today.

I want to share a few thoughts from Captain Nichola Goddard and her family.
Captain Goddard was killed in action last year in Afghanistan.

I didn’t know Nichola
I know her parents a little
and I admire them greatly.
Sally (Nichola’s Mum) is a fabulous, gentle woman (with an iron will!)
one of the things she does
is working with women to help them turn their lives around.
Tim (her Dad) is an educator
a professor of education
– active in post conflict zones -
helping communities turn around.
I have met two of their daughters.
A wonderful family, amazing people,
each with their own unique gifts.
Nichola was a funny, strong and vibrant woman.
A cross country skier.
A leader of her men.
A new wife.
(I remember my in laws rounding up beds
to lend to the Goddard family for visitors when she got married.)

Within this family an argument happened that is happening all over Canada
It was an argument over the meaning of conflict and war.
I want to read a short segment from Nichola Goddard’s eulogy,
given by her father.

“Nichola was an articulate and passionate individual. At Christmas last year we discussed the role of the military in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur. She supported the view put forward by Michael Ignatieff in his book, Empire Lite, that military force is required in order to permit the reconstruction of civil society. I disagreed, arguing that education is the key to development for the minority and marginalized peoples of this world, for the poor and the oppressed and those in greatest peril, and that by working with teachers and other community workers we could help them develop the strategies that would be right for their context and would help them achieve their own emancipation. We ought to seek democracy and civil society through Paulo Friere’s notions of a pedagogy of the oppressed.

Quick as a flash she punctured my professorial balloon. “You can’t do that when the bad guys run things, dad”, she said, “they just shoot you. You have to have peace and good government in order for the rest to happen. I do what I do so you can do what you do.”

As always, she was right. But through her death in combat, killed by people who were apparently hiding in or near a school, perhaps we can bring these two elements together, and make some meaningful tribute to her life and death.”

We know that we are called to be peacemakers.
But we struggle over how to do that.

And God knows it.

That’s where grace comes in

Jesus says many difficult things
- like this story of the king
and his unforgiving servant.

The disciples, the ones closest to him
The ones who knew him best
were confused and worried

After hearing about this king
and how someone who is forgiven acts
the disciple knew that this is how regular people behave
not just characters in a story.
We can take advantage
We can return kindness with trouble
We can return trouble with even bigger trouble, even hate

So the disciples threw up their hands and asked
"Who then can be saved?"
Then Jesus looked at them and said,
"With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

With God all things are possible
Even Grace
Even Forgiveness

And we can choose to respond to that Grace
We can choose to forgive
We can choose to try and find a way for Peace
And Peace doesn’t mean
not fighting
or giving in

Peace means
justice
equality
food
education

Listen to Nichola’s words from a letter written a few days before her death

Dear Mum and Dad,
The days seem to move along at their own pace. Some days fly by, and others creep along. We are officially at the half-way point now, though. I can’t believe that I’ve been here for 3 months. In some ways, it feels like I’ve been here forever. In others, as if I just got here. I am sort of getting used to things, I guess. I try to remind myself to appreciate every experience – even the ones I don’t really enjoy :)
I have been thinking a lot about fate lately. It was such an accident of birth that we ended up where we did when we did. That we are where we are now, with the choices that we have available to us. It seems to me that we have such a burden of responsibility to make the world a better place for those who were born into far worse circumstances. It is more than donating money to charities – it is taking action and trying to make things better. You have both shown me that throughout my life – but here, I realize it more than ever before.
My current job and role in Afghanistan is part of that – but it is more the non-governmental organizations that come later. They are the ones that really make the difference. I like to think that my being here means they will be able to come that much sooner, and operate more freely. I will be looking for more opportunities to volunteer in Wainwright and to really try to make a difference. It is very humbling to be here, part of something so much bigger than myself.
Love always, Nichola
We are made to be peacemakers.
Even the warriors.

In WWI people went to war,
so that it would never happen again.
Many of them died
but many returned home
and made new homes
and raised families
and tried to work so that it would never happen again.
But there wasn’t real peace and justice
and the door opened again for conflict and violence.

In WWII people again went to war
so that people could be free.
Many more people died:
soldiers and civilians.

Then the war ended.
Again people came home
or made new homes
and worked to repair the damage of the war:
physical
mental
and international.
Peacekeeping was invented.

Since that time Canadians have been part of other wars,
other peacekeeping efforts
so that all people can have dignity and hope

And now in Afghanistan,
soldiers like Nichola are fighting, and dying,
so that peace and justice can be brought there.

But it is not ultimately the fighting that leads to peace.
As Nichola wrote, it is the work that comes after.

Soldiers like her do what they do
so we all can do what needs to be done.

Burying the anger and resentment
Building peace
We can choose to respond to Grace
We can choose to forgive
We can choose to try and find a way for Peace

So let us, as the poem in Flander’s Fields urges
pick up the torch
and use it to spread light in our world
The light of economic justice
The light of food security
The light of education for all
The light of good medical care
or maybe a light for a first aid station in Papua New Guinea
like the children and youth are working to provide the money for….

This is the torch we have been thrown
This is how we can remember and honour
those who died
and those who survived.
This is the light of hope and peace
real peace.

With God’s help
All things are possible.