Church of the Holy City

How to Remember?

How to Remember?
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
November 9, 2014

Isaiah 65:17-25 Revelation 21:1-7 Psalm 18

When I thought about Remembrance Day, the present overwhelmed me. Traditionally, on Remembrance Day we think about World War I and World War II. But all I could think about when I thought about Remembrance Day was what a different world we now live in.
I thought about the recent attack in Ottawa. I thought a little further back to Montreal. And the Boston Marathon bombing. And of course the World Trade Building attack on 9/11. This led my thinking to Iraq and Afghanistan.
World War I and II were about soldiers attacking soldiers, country attacking country. Now, civilians are targets. It is no longer nation against nation. It seems more like individual against individual. Our whole understanding of who the enemy is has changed.
The modern enemy is not a country, it is more an ideology. The closest parallel to this would be in World War II. In World War II Hitler created a national mythology about the Aryan Race that he used to mobilize his country. But this mythology was closer to a fantasy, indeed, even a falsity. It certainly had no real historical grounding. But this national fantasy was sufficient to generate genocidal horrors unlike any previously seen.
Today we are seeing fighting—I don’t even know if war is the right term—for an apparently religious cause. We who know little about world religions have difficulty understanding the nature of the great religion that has become radicalized in some people. For many of us, all we know of the great Muslim religion is what we hear from radical fundamentalists who misuse the name of the Prophet. These days when we hear about civil unrest, it is all too easy and all too common to see the labels and not the persons. The danger in this is that people will be painted with broad strokes drawn from the worst examples of a given label. And moderates and caring individuals can be seen under a label that extremists claim for themselves. And we especially need to keep in mind that by far the greatest number of victims of the conflicts in the Middle East are innocent Muslims.
The kind of work I do at the Edmonton Interfaith Centre has never been more important. At the Interfaith Centre I know on a friendship basis Muslims who decry the terrible events committed in the name of their own religion in the Middle East and here in North America. At the beginning of their Muslim prayers, which I have been privileged to participate in, often they will begin, “In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.” The Allah my friends worship is good and merciful, not inclined to war. I have heard citations from the Koran about not acting in hate but in justice.
We Christians need to remember that in our own past, violence and warfare has been perpetrated in the name of our religion and our God. And some of these wars were between rival factions of the same Christian religion. It was Protestant against Catholic in the 100 Years’ War—both Christians. And there were the crusades, when over a period of several hundred years Christians waged war on Jerusalem for its wealth and in the name of religious purity. We need to remember, too, that knights who fought in the crusades were promised a place in heaven if they died in the great cause of the Christian crusades. And earlier still, Charlemagne–called “the Great”–converted much of Europe to Christianity at the point of a sword.
But war and fighting aren’t the only expressions of religion. Those who hate religion will use these examples to criticize religion one-sidedly. There are countless examples of beautiful cultural contributions of religion–from Mosques to medieval cathedrals, from paintings, mosaics, statues, to music and poetry. And good people of all religions personally embody the best qualities of their faith when they live honorable lives, justly and with love, and with kindness embrace their fellow humans.
I chose two beautiful readings from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures today. Their language is so close that it is clear that John borrowed from Isaiah when he wrote Revelation 21. These two parallel passages show us that the human hope for a better world lives in the Jewish Tradition and in the Christian. I think that it is a universal human hope. We all look forward to a time when God will wipe away every tear from every eye. We hope for that time and kingdom when, “Death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” Perhaps we think of that kingdom where there is no more death nor mourning nor pain nor crying, perhaps we look forward with hope for the next life. But both our readings from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures speak of a new heaven and a new earth.
I think that we do hope for a new earth when there will be no more hurt or destruction. We hope for this and we work for this. Otherwise why would we struggle and fight in distant lands? We wish to secure peace on our homeland, of course. But I think that we also feel a sense of obligation to support and protect those innocents who are unable to defend themselves. We wish for them to have the good things in life like those simple things stated in Isaiah:
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,
and their children with them (Isaiah 65:21-23).
These are the reasons why we fight. These are the reasons why honorable men and women have given their lives on the battlefield. These are the reasons we continue to fight. And in the midst of this troubled world, we look forward to a new earth in which God will wipe away every tear from every eye and there will be no more hurt or destruction.

PRAYER

Lord, we read in your Bible about a time when you will wipe away every tear from every eye. We read about a time when the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the lion will eat straw like the ox. And yet when we look at the world, we are grieved at the violence and bloodshed we see. We long for that time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Yet we continue to strive in this world to bring about justice and peace. We pray for you to end the trouble of these times. We pray for justice and peace in these difficult time. And in the meanwhile, we hold fast to the hope of a time when there shall be no more mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things will have passed away. For it is this hope that sustains us as we struggle to bring peace to this troubled world.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.