A short reflection shared at The Cenotaph on Portland, Dorset, at the Remembrance Sunday Observance on 13th November 2016 at which there were around 700 people present.
John
15:12-14
My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.
Today is a day when it is right to
think about laying down life. And laying
down life can be about how someone dies, but it can also be about how someone
lives.
On Friday, March 6, 1987, the Ferry MS Herald of Free
Enterprise capsized in just 90 seconds as it set sail from Zeebrugge, Belgium,
towards Dover with the bow doors still open. The disaster claimed 193 lives. There
was great sadness on that day, and as always in the face of awful disaster
great acts of heroism as some lost their lives and others……
Let me tell you about
one person that day. Andrew Parker used his 6ft 3in height
to bridge a gap between two metal barriers and allowed his wife, daughter and
20 other passengers to crawl across his back to safety. He lay down and became a human bridge in an
extraordinary act of courage. He was
awarded the George Medal. Andrew did not
die that day. He lived but he still laid
down his life.
I tell that story because it reminds
us that lives can be laid down in different ways. We meet today and remember the lives that
were laid down in death – those who were part of the Armed Forces specifically,
but we remember many others who were caught up in conflict and who lost their
lives.
In John’s Gospel we have the words Greater love has no one than this: to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends.
We remember those who made that
supreme sacrifice of their lives. But we remember too that those of us
who are left, those who are alive, can also lay down our lives. Both those who have laid down their lives in
death and those who have laid down their lives in life can make a difference
to this world.
Jesus was talking about himself in
those few words from John’s Gospel. He
was going to lay down his life for his friends. He was to die on a cross where
he formed a bridge between God and people.
He expected his followers, his friends, to follow his example – in death
if need be, and always in life.
So in honour of those who have laid down
their lives (Jesus in a way that was different to all, but others who have
made that sacrifice whom we remember this day) might we make a decision to lay
down our lives each day that others discover something better, something more
of life?
Sometimes
it’s not so difficult and sometimes it is so difficult.
Do the shopping for
someone;
Look out of the window
and check that the neighbours lights are on or off at the right time;
Join a community group;
Support a charity that
helps others;
Hold a coffee morning to
raise funds for a good cause;
Join a political party –
or create your own – to make the world a better place;
Stand up to the bully
you see picking on the weak and vulnerable;
Resolve to lay down your
life – as a way of life.
Sometimes
it’s not so difficult and sometimes it is so difficult. But
it is always worth it.
Take seriously the words of Jesus to
lay down your life – in death and in life, that we might honour those who have
gone before and help to make the world a better place.
