by Callum Macleod (Moderator of the 2024 General Assembly)
Monday 11th November is Remembrance Day 2024. At the end of the first world war, the guns fell silent on the western front at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. We unite across faiths, cultures and backgrounds to remember the service and sacrifice of the Armed Forces community from United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.
On Remembrance Day, we recall the events and the people of the past. The fabric of our everyday lives is woven with the threads of the life and experience of previous generations. We are inextricably connected to them. We are the product of our forefathers. The peace we enjoy today is not the product of our endeavours. The world in which we live is the product of those who fought in two World Wars and in other conflicts. We recall the efforts of the Armed Forces, and their families, from Britain and the Commonwealth, and the vital role played by the emergency services and those who have lost their lives because of conflict or terrorism. We also recall those who have lost loved ones and who suffer today in the ongoing conflicts in the Ukraine, the Middle East, and Sudan.
On Remembrance Day, we recount the cost of the peace we enjoy in our country today. Perhaps we do not appreciate peace until we have lost it. And peace is not restored without cost. The words on the Kohima Epitaph in Northeast India remind us of that cost – ‘When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’ The Armed Forces of past generations gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have peace. The words of Jesus remind us that there is no greater sacrifice – “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). We are the beneficiaries of the fact that they sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of peace.
On Remembrance Day, we reflect on the fact that the peace which they secured with the sacrifice of their lives was ultimately credited to God. We remember the words of Sir Winston Churchill on VE Day, 8th May 1945. Addressing the House of Commons, the Prime Minister made the following motion – ‘And I therefore beg, Sir, with your permission to move: That this House do now attend at the Church of St Margaret, Westminster, to give humble and reverent thanks to Almighty God for our deliverance from the threat of German domination.’ It is the living God who gave to our leaders of the day the wisdom to respond to the threat of our enemies; it is the living God who gave courage to our Armed Forces to engage in the intensity of conflict without fear; it was the sovereign and timely interventions of the living God thwarted the advances of those who were openly hostile to us, and that ultimately led our Armed Forces to their final victory.
“We give thanks to Almighty God for all those who sacrificed their lives in past and current conflicts.”
On Remembrance Day, we respond by way of thanksgiving and prayer. We give thanks to Almighty God for all those who sacrificed their lives in past and current conflicts. We pray for their descendants and families who each day have their memories and for whom Remembrance Day is particularly poignant. We pray to God that He would bring to an end the current conflicts in the Middle East, in the Ukraine, in Sudan, and in other parts of the world. We pray that the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ would shine in the darkness. We pray for peace to prevail in the world. We pray for grace for us all each day that we may embrace the things that preserve and protect our peace. And we pray that, as inhabitants of the world, ‘we would love the Lord our God with all our heart and love our neighbour as ourselves.’
On Remembrance Day, we remind ourselves of the grand purpose of the God of Peace (Hebrews 13:20) to establish everlasting justice, righteousness, and peace across the whole world, through His Son, the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). We reach out to Him as we embrace the sure and certain hope that His final intervention will bring an end to all hostility, conflict and strife for ever.
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”