View From the Vicarage
“Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (George Santayana 1863 -1952)
Wise words and certainly needed in our world
today because it’s reckoned that since the end of the Second World War there has never
been a day in which there has not been a conflict somewhere in the world. That
is why this year, the celebration of Remembrance is especially poignant because
with the ending of the First World War there was the hope that this would
indeed be ‘the War to End all Wars’.
But why do wars begin? After all, you would
have thought that the human race would have realised that conflict inevitably leads to
misery with the weakest and the most vulnerable invariably the casualties.
Surely it stands to reason that “ jaw - jaw is always better than war - war” (Churchill). Yet tragically
there are those who appear only interested in pursuing their own ambitions no
matter what the devastating consequences may be for others. No wonder then that
we choose to remember the courage and sacrifice of both men and women who at
great cost to themselves refused to allow injustice to triumph and aggression
to succeed.
However, despite the safeguards of the United
Nations and
NATO, conflicts continue because at the heart of the human problem is the
problem of the human heart. As Jesus himself said, “from the inside, from a
person’s heart , come the evil ideas that lead him to do immoral things, to
rob, kill and do all sorts of evil things; deceit, jealousy, slander, pride,
and foolishness” ( Mark 7:14 – 23). Or as the Apostle James put it, “What cause
wars, why do you fight and argue with each other? Isn’t it because you are full
of selfish desires? You want something you don’t have and you will do anything
to get it. You will even kill! But you still cannot get what you want, and you
won’t get it by fighting and arguing” (James 4: 1 – 10).
Because deep down all of us need something
which only God can give, a new beginning, a new birth (John 3 :1-21) if you like, a new
heart so that we begin to love God with all our heart and love our neighbour as
ourselves (Matthew 22 : 34 -40). As Charles Colson, President Nixon’s Special
Counsel wrote, having been released from prison for his part in the Watergate
Scandal (1972), “Governments cannot change what is in the hearts of people.
The alienation which afflicts mankind, which divides us in so
many places, is not the weakness of institutions, but the sickness of human
hearts. The only answer that can change people’s hearts is the power of God
through Jesus Christ”.
On the night before she died, executed by a
German firing squad for assisting Belgian and British soldiers to slip through German
lines and regain their fighting units, Edith Cavell (1865 – 1915) the British
nurse said, “They have all been very kind to me here. But this I would say,
standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism
is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”
So we thank God for the sacrifice made by so
many in order that we, 100 years later, can live in a free society. And we also thank
God that by faith in the death of Christ for us we can be transformed from
being God’s enemies (Romans 5:6 -11) into His friends. For as Jesus himself
said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. This is my command.
Love one another” (John 15: 12 -17).
Charles
