Words for Worship

Ministry Today

 

The early morning mist

across the Picardy countryside

promised

a warm July day –

but it was not to be

a good day.

 

In fact, for tens of thousands

this would be

the worst day

of their lives.

 

Because, for them,

it would be

their last day –

their last day

on the Somme.

 

The first move

was made

by British troops

at 7.20 am

after an unprecedented

barrage firing

150000 shells a day.  

 

No wonder the enemy

coured in their deep shelters

often driven

literally mad

by the noise.

 

Then a vast underground mine

was exploded.

 

It was here

that the Haig showed

his incompetence

for the artillery

was stopped

giving the German defenders

time to crawl out

and man their machine guns.

 

Not surprisingly

as 150000 attackers

rose in companies

100 yards apart

they were cut down.

 

And so at the end of the day,

57000 were dead –

all for

a 1000 yards of mud.

 

Of course,

that wasn’t the end

of the battle of the Somme.

 

Because when it petered out

on 27 September 1916,

the allies had advanced

7 miles

at the cost of

418,000 British,

195,000 French

and 650,000 German lives.

 

No wonder until very recently

its carnage stood

as a warning

to our political leaders

about the dangers

of making war.

 

And needless to say,

we must all hope

and pray,

that it will soon again.

 

Yet such

almost immeasurable suffering

even 90 years ago

calls out to us

to make a personal response;

a response

as citizen Christians

concerned

that those soldiers legacy

is not lost;

a response also

as compassionate Christians

concerned for

the genuine welfare

of today’s service personnel

and the response

of witnessing Christians

to the ever increasing demands

for military action

around the globe.

 

When the First World War

broke out

the British army

was a small, professional force.

 

However as the need

for manpower rose,

Kitchener raised

a huge army of volunteers.

 

Indeed across

the length and breadth

of these islands,

men were seen parading

at schools

in preparation

for their baptism of fire

in the trenches.

 

And an ill preparation it was.

 

For a great many

of these brave men,

their only subsequent experience

of warfare

would be the few seconds

that it took to climb out

of their trenches

and then falling dead

from bullet or shell.

 

The 31st division

for example

lost two out of three

of its number

and the Tyneside Scottish

was annihilated

with every one of its colonels

perishing

at the head of his battalion.

 

Yet in the interim

between village green

and no man’s land

these ‘pals’ brigades

kept something

of their hometown

or county alive

in their company.

 

Maybe indeed

it was the thoughts

of their community

that was so much part of them

as well as their families

that inspired

their selfless profligacy

towards their own safety.

 

And it is that

same sense of community

we too

must maintain

in their memory today.

 

Because who can doubt

the cohesiveness

of any locality

is not only under attack

but dashed near defeated.

 

Too often districts

and towns

are no more than places

to go between work

and the night out;

places where dads

take their children

for the few hours of access

allowed them;

places to keep

the sky TV

and the internet

which displays

what is on

the far side of the world

but never

what is going on a street away.  

 

Because it is

one of modern life’s ironies

that the person next to you

on the train or bus

is happier talking

to someone

on their mobile phone

at great expense

than exchange

a few free words

with you.

 

And while this state of affairs

allows

almost infinite individual freedom,

it has a significant danger

that is only now emerging

in our nation.

 

Because without community

there is

no true detection

of moral malignancy,

there is no common life

where faith and friendship

can offer reconciliation

and there is

no agreed ethical compass

that warns everyone

of wrong and right.

 

As a result,

we are very close

to Britain being

55 million isolated souls

flying gradually apart

on their individual

moral headings.  

 

And surely,

that is not

what those who died

in the world wars

gave their lives for,

that is not

what many

fine men and women

are fighting for today

and that is not

the legacy

we would wish

for our sacrifice of lives

of hard spiritual work.

 

Surely, indeed,

that is not the way

to win the victory

for the pals brigade

that is

the whole human family of God.

 

Let then us resolve

to bring fellowship back

to our place of habitation;

let us resolve

that our congregation

will be a locus

for community renewal

and let us steel ourselves

to give voice

with the whole Christian faith

to the moral guidance

that will rebuild

an all inclusive kinship

in a land

fit for its past heroes.

 

Leonard Sellers  

in his book-

For God's Sake Shoot Straight –

deals with one

of the darkest aspects

of the First World War.

 

For he wrote –

" It was a great shock

when I opened the file

listing details of executions

in the Great War.  

 

What I found amazed

and deeply troubled me.  

 

For they were so young,

so vulnerable and so alone.   

 

The knowledge of this

is horrific,

and has deep implications."
 

And he is

of course

referring to the soldiers

shot for apparent cowardice

from the trenches.

 

A situation made

the bleaker

by knowing

that the allies executed

over 1500 soldiers

whilst the Germans

only 48.

 

Worse still

was that these unfortunates

where not given legal counsel,

time for their defence

or even a medical examination.

 

As a result,

most executed

were probably suffering

from what we call

today –

post traumatic stress disorder.  

 

Either way,

how can anyone

who had not suffered

as they had

condemn them.

 

Therefore, I took pleasure

in the current secretary of state defence

giving each a pardon.

 

Yet we must not forget

the veterans

who still suffer

from mental illness today

after service

in a war zone.

 

And, sadly,

many are discharged

before their condition

is apparent

or fully treated.

 

It is then,

shockingly,

they are on their own.  

 

Take the story

of a soldier who,

during the Falklands War,

was being landed

to man a rapier battery

at Bluff Cove

when his troop ship

was hit

by Argentine bombs.

 

He survived

but many others,

like Simon Weston,

were hideously burned.

 

Very tellingly

he writes of

his experience

of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

like this:

 

I'm happy and sad

Compassionate and bad

Cant sleep at night

Cant do anything right

I wanna be alone

But not on my own

I'm in love but I hate

I'm a burden on the state

I'm possessed by the war

I killed what for?

I see shrinks

I see docs

Remember my arctic socks

I'm disloyal cause I'm ill

Is it right to kill?

I can hide in a crowd

My face a grey shroud

I cry for no reason

My country shouts treason

All the pills and the booze

Make bad memories ooze

I was 19 in June

Under a bright crystal moon

I died that day

But I'm still here to say

For the brave and the free

 

 

 

Therefore here is

a task for ourselves

as compassionate Christians

grateful for the freedoms

we enjoy;

as ethical Christians

bent on rebuilding community

at the heart of our nation;

as remembering Christians

this Remembrance Day.  

 

And it is to ensure

that those

who suffer physically

and mentally

due to their war experiences

are well looked after

both in the military

and outside.  

 

This requires us

to remind

our political representatives

that genuine

and grateful remembrance

is not thought

but action

and action

for every day of the year.

 

Nevertheless,

we too have a part

to play.

 

And we do that

by supporting charities

such as Hollybush house.

 

For this self-supporting charity

provides treatment

to mentally ill veterans

when the nation’s provision

has failed them.

 

This is all done

via a welfare system

that also gives community

to the ill.

 

Because they admit

that one of the main challenges

in helping sufferers

is to engage with them

and get them

to accept treatment.

 

Many feel misunderstood

by health professionals

and society generally

so withdraw

and suffer in silence.

 

Others carry so much guilt

within themselves

that they feel unworthy

of accepting help.

 

Let us then challenge

our regenerating community

not just to allow those

who have served us

to feel worthy of treatment

but that they know

we are honoured

to offer it.

 

Because only then

are we serving

in return.

 

I suppose it is a story

almost as old

as warfare.

 

And it is

the warrior

leaving behind

a message

for his loved ones.

 

Certainly Gunner Lee Thornton

wrote such a letter

to his girl friend

when he returned

to active service

in Basra

this year.

 

In it, he asked

that she never forget him.

 

For as Michael Simpson,

of the Imperial War Museum,

says –

there was a long tradition

of soldiers

penning moving valedictory letters

from the front line.

 

Soldiers in the First World War

were encouraged to do so. “

 

It seems a way

that the dead

can keep faith

with the community

of the living.

 

Sadly Lee

was killed by gunfire

on the 5 September

and today

we  - the living –

keep faith with him

and do not forget.

 

But if we hope

to genuinely rebuild community

in our land,

then we

as witnessing Christians

must also protect

is tender shoots.

 

If we hope

to truly honour those

who have fallen in war

then we need also

to be outspoken Christians.

 

Because, of course,

servicemen and women

do sign on the dotted line

to give their lives

if need be.

 

But that offer

is made

in the clear understanding

that such a sacrifice

will only rosked

in the most extreme circumstances

of oppression

or threat

to our own national community.  

 

We then

who are less bound

than our sailors,

soldiers and airmen

have a commitment

to remind all

in British public life

that those

who breach

this sacred vow

sworn before God

both threatens

the reconstruction

of genuine community

but also fail

those dependant

on their judgement,

provision  and power.

 

Indeed, they risk

so many more

in the pain

of a postman’s call.

The countryside

near Thiepval

was quiet

when Prince Charles

visited the Somme

battle site

this summer.

 

Yet he could not forget.

 

For he described

the battle

as "unutterable hell"

and said "mere boys"

fought with "deep courage".

 

It was then whistles

were blown

as they were

90 years ago

as the signal to attack.

 

Let us then blow

the whistle

this Remembrance Day

as a much more

meaningful signal

than any nonsense

over white poppies.

 

For we must blow

the whistle

on the threats

that are destroying

our fellowship

of neighbourliness,

reconciliation

and moral consensus.

 

We must blow the whistle

on the lack of support

of ex-service personnel

suffering from war.

 

And we must blow

the whistle on

any breach of trust

with those

who go out

to the sound of battle

and those

who must stay

in the community

and wait for news.

 

 

Amen

 

Our offering will now be received

as we sing

Seated

HYMN………………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembrance 2006 - The Somme