Exodus 33: 12-23
Psalm 99
1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10
Matthew 22: 15-22

There is a wonderful phrase that comes from Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”: “hoist on his own petard”. To be hoist on your own petard is to fall into a trap you have laid for someone else; or if you choose to take it literally; it is to be blown up by a device designed for someone else. In the context of today’s gospel passage, “to be hoist on your own petard is to assume you are smarter than the one you are testing and then find out that it is the other way around.”

Today’s gospel reading tells an account of Jesus being tested. Or rather, having a trap laid for him, and answering in such a way that the testers realize they are the ones who have failed.

This passage may seem to present a Jesus who likes to go around trapping people because of his deeper spirituality, his closeness to God or his superior intellect. This is not what we are talking about in this passage. We are talking about a situation in which those who come to Jesus are there to show him up. They have no intention of hearing his answer in a way that would change their lives. Theirs is not the spirit of honest inquiry. They are out to get him but und up, to make use of another metaphor, “with egg on their faces”.

When we deal with any of the stories of Jesus’ controversies with the religious authorities, it is important to realize that this story was written down in an era when the synagogue and the church were involved in some pretty heavy conflict, so this may colour their memories and may indeed make the religious leaders out to be worse than they actually were. It is important to realize that not all of the leaders of the Jews were such strident opponents of Jesus.

It is perhaps most important to realize that these stories are scriptural because successive generations have found in them the word of God for their own time. We may indeed find ourselves standing in the shoes of the Pharisees and the Herodians.

Lets look at a few key points here.

The question is a little confusing: Is it lawful to pay taxes? Of course they are talking about religious law. The civil law mandates the taxes to be paid and it is against the law not to pay them. They are phrasing it in terms of the religious law YET there are civil implications.

If Jesus said no he could be arrested for treason or sedition and if he said “yes” he would certainly run the risk of losing the loyalty of a people who oppressed by the power of Rome. As far as I know the tax was a head tax; an equal amount per person regardless of income.

So Jesus begins by asking them for a coin suitable for paying the tax: a roman coin; the only kind that was legal tender and they have no trouble producing such a coin.

We need to know that in Jesus day there were 2 kinds of money: temple money and Roman coin. One was the only kind allowed inside the temple. It did not have any human images on it. It may have a sheaf of wheat on it, for example. Human images on coins were seen as contrary to the commandments. However, in order to pay this Roman head tax it was necessary to use a roman coin and they were quite another story.

It seems that they had no trouble producing such a coin - and they were already on shaky ground when they did. The roman coin had a picture of the emperor on it and words similar to this: “Tiberias Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus”. That proclamation flew in the face of the belief in the God of heaven and earth that would accept no rivals and demanded complete loyalty from the chosen people.

In essence, Jesus’ answer is: Give God what is God’s and caesar what is Caesar’s. In other words he is saying: “Pay the tax and pay Caesar no more mind. You owe nothing more and nothing else to Caesar.” Jesus is saying that we all owe our loyalty to God and to the ways of God in the world; not the ways of those who would pretend to be gods and demand the loyalty that should belong only to God.

In 2008 in Canada our leaders don’t claim to be divine and we are under no illusions that our leaders are that, yet we are constantly being asked about our loyalties. We open our wallets and we find images of the Queen and various long dead politicians on one face of our money and on the other symbols significant to our nation’s culture or history. And every so often the money is redesigned to reflect different aspects of our history.

Yet as Christians in 2008 we need to ask ourselves if we buy into the common societal values of what is important in life and what are our goals.

In the last little while there has been a great deal of coverage in the media about the world economic crisis. It is in this context that we read Jesus comments about paying taxes, this year and it is in this context that we hear his warning about giving Caesar only what we must.

We live in a very materialistic world and time. Now more than ever we need a steady supply of money. It seems that everything is disposable and not designed to last. If we cannot afford this year’s model of cell phone or i-Pod or whatever, we just put it on plastic. Last year’s fashions are replaced with the new ones and again, our comes the plastic. People have, for one reason and another, bought much bigger houses than they could afford and the banks were happy to lend them the money.

And now it has all come crashing down. People are very worried about the future and we are asking serious questions about the future. We are all worried about the price of oil for the winter and it seems that people are at least talking about curtailing their spending.

One of the sectors that is worried at this time is the charity sector, and not just the churches. As I said, the price of oil is going to seriously impact many low and fixed income families but with many people cutting back not only on their buying but on their donations, charities are going to have a very hard time to have anything significant with which to work this year.

It seems like a good idea, on the surface to save your money in case it starts raining, and raining hard, but as a people of faith we are called to respond to crisis situations in faith rather than in fear.

This is where our passage for this Sunday meets our situation. When Jesus asked the religious leaders for a coin they produced a Roman one that symbolized the values of the Roman world and way of being. Jesus taught and modelled a different way; Jesus modelled the way of the human person, and that is ALL humans, being created in the image of God. We all are created in God’s image and it is in each person that we catch a glimpse of the divine. So its not our money and the ways of the world that are supposed to set our priorities and goals in life; it is that image that is stamped on each one; the image that reminds us of our call to give priority to the ways and things of God.

We are not on a faith journey alone; seeking to be close to God as if we were the only ones around; but we are called to seek to be in community together, respectful of the image of God which we find in all people.

It is this call to Christian community, the call to Christian outreach that can be what motivates and enlivens us. In the early church the care of those who fell through the cracks, namely the windows and orphans, was a major function of the church’s outreach.

Being able to share with others in community is about being able to say that we do not think we can do it all on our own and we don’t need to. Being able to share what we have with others is bing able to proclaim that we are seeking to be free from the compulsion to place out trust in the things of this world and the false gods that seek our loyalty - day after day- and rely on God and, in essence, give to God what is God’s.

Our call in this frightening time is to remember who we are and whose we are: we bear the image of God. Our call in this time is to be as authentically the people of God we can be - together - and to give to Caesar what we must and then trust the Spirit with the rest.

Amen.

Deuteronomy 34: 1-12
Psalm 90: 1-6, 13-17
St James 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8
Matthew 22: 34-46

After his, “I Have A Dream” speech, the words, “I have been to the mountaintop and I have seen the promised land”, have become some of the most famous words of the American civil rights leader and preacher, the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. As a conclusion to a speech delivered in aid of the sanitation workers in Memphis Tennessee on April 3 1968, King expressed his hope that the march toward freedom and full equality would continue even though he might not see that “promised land” himself. As it turns out, his “mountaintop speech” were his last public words; he died the next day from an assassin’s bullet.

King was, of course, referring to the story recorded in today’s reading from the book of Deuteronomy. Moses, at the end of his life, is taken to the top of a mountain and shown (symbolically) the entire promised land, but then he dies. He does not live long enough to go to that place to which he had been heading for the last 40 years of his life. Joshua, a leader he himself appointed, will be the one to lead the people into this new phase of their lives.

I have always felt a pang of sadness for Moses; and no small amount of indignation. Why didn’t God let him finish what he had started? Why couldn’t God have let him set foot in that land of promise? Why now, after 40 years? Why, when the goal was so close? It simply wasn’t fair. He deserved it, if anyone did! The text tells us that even though he was 120 he was not “an old man”. He was not an old man, yet it was “his time”.

His tasks had been to deal with Pharaoh, to was to lead the people from slavery into freedom and to form them into one people under the leadership of their God. His task was to change this rag-tag slave population into a nation. His task was to take them to the Jordan and then hand the leadership to another.

One of the traditions recorded elsewhere in the scriptures tells us that the reason Moses was not allowed to enter the land of promise was that he was being punished for one act of doubt on the wilderness journey.

All that being said, I think there is a broader meaning to this “look but don’t touch” episode. The story is more than a story of Moses’ journey; it is the story of the journey of a people and it is designed to help form the identity of successive generations.

The events are told by an expert story-teller, with every detail full of meaning and purpose.

It is clear that Moses has done his work; the leadership needed for the next phase in the life of the children of Israel required new ways and new eyes. Moses was well suited to the task for which he had been called. Schooled in the Egyptian court he came of age in the desert, herding sheep. He has served God well in both his challenge to Pharaoh and his ability to help a large group of people survive in a harsh climate. He knew little of life in a walled city; he knew little of “nation building”; he had earned his rest and his place in the hearts of his people. The people now had new challenges and had to learn of God’s will in differing times and circumstances.

We are told that they mourned for Moses and then they prepared to go forward under the leadership of Joshua.

As I looked at this passage I began to reflect on how true that kind of thing is for every generation, but perhaps it is particularly so for the situation in which we find ourselves at this time.

We have come to a time and place in our history when we are being asked to take seriously the damage currently being done to our planet but our over consumption of just about everything. Like Moses some of us are having to give up the old ways for the new. We now know that the earth can no longer absorb our waste and our abuse - and ironically are being asked to reconsider some of the more sustainable ways of our ancestors, such as “smaller is better” and “reduce - reuse- and recycle”.

I saw an enormous motor home one day with this bumper sticker: “I am spending my children’s inheritance”? Perhaps there is nothing wrong with enjoying your hard earned money and not saving it for your children - who may well have enough of their own - that’s a personal and family matter, but that attitude can go too far. What I find interesting and disturbing is the attitude that the only thing that matters is now! As long as we have what we want now, we are ok. As long as we have enough fossil fuels for our lifetime, we are happy. As long as we have enough trees to build our houses and make our newspaper, who cares about the trees the forest companies or the government or Scouts Canada are not planting. As long as the planet doesn’t warm up and die in my lifetime I really don’t care.

There are some people, who don’t bother to conserve anything, they don’t try to recycle or sort their garbage, not because it’s too hard, (and it IS annoying and time and space consuming) but because it is never going to be “their problem”. As long as the landfill will have lots of room for their lifetime they wont worry about the time when other options will be needed.

I have seen another bumper sticker, “I want to live long enough to be a problem to my children”. Now I suspect that the owner of that sticker had teenagers with minds of their own and strong ones, and that it was mostly tongue in cheek.

If we do have 40 years of fossil fuels left, or 40 years before global warming destroys life as we know it (and I just pulled those figures out of my hat) some here don’t need to worry - but there are a great folks who do, as do their unborn children, that we owe some personal and community sacrifice and some very intentional stewardship.

Again, it’s this attitude, if taken to extremes, that shows that we have not always thought things through in terms of being faithful to God’s call to us. We need to be very proactive in not leaving almost unsolvable problems for generations as yet unborn.

I think this also has something to say to the situation in which our churches fund themselves in this place and time.

Our ancestors were very well intentioned in leaving us these beautiful churches but we have come to the point when we have to ask the question if our children can sustain these gifts or if we they have served their purpose and if we need to make changes so that the church might continue to have a viable place in the lives of successive generations - which is what our ancestors wanted in the first place.

We are invited to look into the future and open ourselves to changes that will give the church of our children and grandchildren a viable future.

The people of Israel needed to be reminded of their history but they also needed to be reminded they could not live there - they were not meant to stay there - Moses had to leave the work to others who would continue some things the same way but who would also make some changes. The times had to change because change was inevitable.

We notice that they mourned Moses and then left his bones in the wilderness, in some unknown place and brought only their memories with them. Some people equate respect of their ancestors with keeping things the same as their ancestors had them. We have been given beautiful churches and tried and true ways of doing things, yet we are being called in new directions. Our communities have changed. We all know of the changes brought about by paved roads, school consolidation and the move to more mechanized farming and fishing. We also know what globalization has done to our economic security. The church is being called in new ways in these times. We just don’t have the people to do things the way we used to, and the costs of being in the business of church are rising steadily. Our ancestors provided for us in many ways but we are called to go forward in their memory, but not to live in the past, to live toward the future. It does no disservice to them to change something they gave us if we have in mind the journey of faith to which they were committed and upon which we are all called.

The gospel passage for today leads us to ask the questions: “How do we love God and self and neighbour in these changing times. What does all of this have to say to a situation of declining financial resources for the church and increased demands on those resources.

What is our call as church - is it to cling to everything of the past, and try as much as possible to keep doing those same things in the same way, or is it to take from it what we have learned and go forward as God’s people into a new and exciting (and even frightening ) future.

I am sure Moses shed a tear or two - the people certainly mourned his passing, but then they took with them their memories and their stories and crossed the river into the future knowing once thing for certain. God went with them; God did not stay back in the past.

Our God goes with us into our future - so let us go in faith - not fear.

Amen

Joshua 3: 7-17
Psalm 107
1 Thessalonians 2: 9-13
Matthew 23: 1-12

Some biblical stories become more important than others in specific cultures. In the 19th century in the United States there existed an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by American slaves to escape to freedom in Canada. It was called “the Underground Railroad”. Some of the biblical imagery in Negro Spirituals, such as references to “crossing the river” were a way if connecting the biblical stories the real hopes and dreams of an enslaved people. Some of the songs were thought to contain coded guidance to help them reach their destination. Slave owners would dismiss them as meaningless but their slaves knew they were singing for their lives and their freedom. Last week I referred to the way in which the Rev Martin Luther King used the image of Moses standing on the mountaintop as a way of connecting the long ago words to the very real and very current hopes of his people.

As Christians we are a people searching for biblical imagery relevant to our situation as the first decade of the 21st century winds down. We live in a time of massive change and seemingly impossible decisions. On our quiet and gentle Island, the ways we have known are disappearing and it seems that we are at the mercy of the global economy. We genuinely don’t know what to do or whom to follow.

The images from today’s passages provide us with a lens through which to view our world and its dilemmas. We are again standing at the point of no return being invited to continue the journey into freedom by stepping into the mighty raging river and trusting that God is with us.

When it comes to ponds, pools and oceans, I don’t like the water. Actually that isn’t quite true; I love the sound of rushing water; it reminds me of home. There is a certain sound the water from the spring freshet made as it rushed over the dam that is so comforting.

I love to stand on the shore on a windy day and look at the water churning and breaking on the shore. I do try to take the ferry once a year or so to remind me that PEI is still an island and to be some place where you can see nothing but water for at least a few minutes.

BUT I certainly don’t like jumping into the water. I’ll walk in at the beach or gently climb down the ladder of a pool but don’t ask me to jump in, especially if the water is over my head, though once I am there I can swim, after a fashion.

You might not believe it, but I, who do not like swimming, once taught a boy in my congregation to swim. We were at Berwick Camp and he decided that he trusted me enough to help him overcome his fear of water. I carry the celebration picture his mother took in my preaching binder. Now he has far more swimming badges than I ever earned. Sometimes we can overcome our fears in order to lead others to freedom.

When I was a child I watched quite a few movies, probably on the “Wonderful World of Disney” which depicted the journey of families travelling across the unsettled prairies to their new homes. In the movies they travelled by covered wagon and often had to make more than one decision about what to leave behind at a difficult point on the trail. Quite often an organ, a piano or a barrel of china was left by the side of a riverbank or at the bottom of a hill as families had to limit their load to what was essential for survival. What was essential for survival were the bags of seed, the farming equipment and their stores of food.

Sometimes we have to decide what it essential to take with us on our journey into freedom and what we have to leave behind.

In our scripture reading for today we continue to hear the story of the people of Israel as they journey toward the land of promise. Today they cross the Jordan river, a natural as well as symbolic and theological boundary between the wilderness that had been their home for 40 years and the land which had been promised to their ancestor Abraham. Just as the crossing of the Red Sea marked their passage from slavery to wilderness this crossing of the waters of the Jordan marked the end of that wilderness journey and the beginning of their life in the land of promise. It was no ordinary tip though, the story tells us that this was a careful and highly ritualized crossing. The Ark of the Covenant, which contained the tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written, was carried to the middle of the Jordan which had been miraculously transformed from a rushing rain fed torrent to dry ground with a heap of water on each side.

Picture that for a minute: a HEAP of water.

This was a grand transition and it is told in grand terms and using grand images; as the people reflected on it and wrote the story down generations later they remembered that it was as if all of nature stood up and took notice. There knew there was nothing ordinary about this because the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of promise, the God of heaven and earth was there, guiding them and standing with them.

But what does this mean for us in 2008? It does not offer most of us any kind of literal guidance. We won’t be able to cross any streams in this fashion - even if the elders and I stand in the middle of what used to be a stream holding the biggest pulpit Bible we can find. Yet the message is real and very relevant.

There are several features of this passage that I see as relevant for our lives here and now. First of all, this was a community event and it was accomplished in the midst of the faith community. This is not really a story about the individual journey of faith (there are other stories for that) but it is a story of the community and it was a community which held their basic covenant rules at the very centre of their journey. Notice that the waters are held at bay with the power of God’s covenant. Not only was it the Ten Commandments but it was the promise “I shall be your God and you shall be my people.”

There are so many problems that we face and they seem to be insurmountable. Farmers have had their worst years since the Great Depression. Rural communities are in crisis. The gulf between rich and poor grows almost daily and we know more and more that this is not just rhetoric. I don’t need to go on.

What I take from this passage is that these crossings, these journeys are something that is done in the power of the community working together. The people of Israel on the march were a force to be reckoned with.

Yesterday, Louise Higgenbotham and I went to Hunter River to attend and Agricultural Awareness Day sponsored by the Presbytery and we know that the problems in the farming sector are great. We talked about what we can do together and personally to support our farmers. What could happen if we all went to our local Sobeys and Superstore and CoOp and IGA and demanded local produce? What would happen I we all stood up for justice in a given situation. Just maybe the waters of power would stand up in a heap and take notice.

Second, we notice that the first ones to approach the riverbank had to step into the water before the dry ground appeared. They had to get their feet wet and to risk the second step and then the third and so on.

Sometimes living in faith is about crossing barriers. Sometimes living in faith is doing something we thought was too hard for us or even impossible.

Some churches have trouble being places of welcome. Some communities have trouble being truly welcoming. Speak to a stranger ? Dangerous if you are a child alone, but in broad daylight at the IGA or Sobeys, or in that new neighbour’s driveway, now really what could go wrong?

Speak to a stranger you see in church even less dangerous, I can almost guarantee that! Some former parishioners of mine spent a lot of time every winter driving their motor home through the States. Their usual habit is to find an RV park on a Saturday afternoon and then go and find a church so they will know what time services are on Sunday. They have told me that a number of times total strangers have invited them home to lunch after church and they have felt welcomed and have met Christian community, not only in word and song but also in action.

As a people of faith we are called to cross borders and boundaries. We cross borders and boundaries when we take a risk - a risk of doing something new or something old in a new way. . I get a kick out of those commercials about the kids from Toronto who are visiting their grandparents in the Maritimes (I think it’s a bologna commercial) and when they turn their noses up at seaweed pie the grandmother says, “You have to be willing to try new things”.

I suppose you won’t know if seaweed pie is edible or if cracker pie really, really tastes like apple pie, untill you taste it yourself!

When we cross into the unknown we do so because we have no choice OR because we anticipate that what is on the other side is better than what we know now. Most times, the crossings in front of us are a bit of both.

The people of Israel were on a journey of faith. They knew they did not want to stay in the wilderness forever, but the wilderness was all that they knew. All they knew was the desert and even though it was a hard life it would have been a familiar one. They had been in the desert an entire generation and no one knew of the hardships of Egypt. No one knew of the life before Egypt either. but what they were able to grasp a hold of and believe in was that the promise of God lay ahead of them and that the presence of God was going with them.

This is not to say that we have to jump on every bandwagon and embrace every proposed change and fad that comes along but that we must be always open to the leading, cajoling and challenge of the Spirit as we journey in faith. This is to say that we must struggle with our journey on a daily basis and make certain that when we reject an option that it is because it is not the faithful way and not because we are simply afraid of change or afraid of failing.

We ARE on a journey of faith - individually and as a church community. Let us be open to the guiding of the Spirit even if it is in new ways. Let us venture into the waters sure that God goes with us and that if this is so we will be able to be God’s people in a new and exciting future.

Amen.

Joshua 24: 1-3a, 14-25
Psalm 78: 1-7
1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18
Matthew 25: 1-13

Choices. Choices. Choices.

We all like to have choices; but we don’t necessarily like to make them. Most times we like to keep our options open, OR to have it both ways!

Sometimes our choices ARE “no brainers”; at least to us. When it comes to a choice between baked beans or baked haddock I will always choose the fish; when it comes to a choice between the same baked haddock or roast beef, I will almost always choose the roast beast. When it comes to desserts though, I would prefer not to choose at all; in my heart of hearts, I would like to choose one of each — and not a set of those silly little taster deserts at Pizza Delight, a full portion of each one.

The reality is though, that we cannot order everything on the menu and we must make some choices, and live with them, until at least the next meal.

Today’s passage from the book of Joshua is not about a choice between spring lamb or fatted calf; or between grapes or figs; or between Chrysler or Mazda. Make no mistake; in Joshua’s mind today’s choice is between the God of their ancestors, the God who is also the God of the future --

or --

or the smaller and lesser gods of their own sojourn in Egypt. At this point in the development of their theology the people had not come to the belief that there was only one TRUE God; that development in belief was to come some time later.

Joshua presents the choice in a black and white fashion; there are no gray areas for him here; the people will not be able to play for both teams; they will have to CHOOSE.

It seems obvious that he may also be using a little reverse psychology here by letting the people know that he is doubtful of their ability to follow the God who had called Abraham to embark on a journey of faith. Will they rise to the challenge; will they sign on the dotted line?

The task facing them will be no walk in the park; they will not have an easy road ahead of them. In an era of warring nation states and rising imperial powers, survival will involve a combination of might and diplomacy; in Joshua’s mind, survival will depend on loyalty to the ways of the God of heaven and earth.

Joshua has made up his mind and like an election challenge, he tells the people how he is going to vote and he challenges them to do the same.

I began writing this sermon on Tuesday as I was nursing this cold, and reading emails from American colleagues on how long it took them to get through the lineup and vote. Tuesday was a day of choice for our American neighbours. On Tuesday, our American neighbours were choosing a leader under whom they would serve as citizens. They were also choosing a vision by which their nation would name itself for the next four years and by which it will set its goals and priorities.

We need to be careful when we claim that we and God are on the same side. In a time of conflict and decision its all too easy for EACH side to claim, that God is on their particular side. Its way too easy. A great deal of mayhem and destruction has been excused as “God’s will” because of that claim. It’s all too easy to say that we are throwing our lot in with God, but if we really look at what Joshua is doing and saying, what he truly means, it’s quite another thing.

If we want to be on the side of God we have more to look at than what is convenient or profitable for us. We have to look at the prophetic challenge; to put it in a nutshell we have to decide if we are on God’s side.

When I was in theological school we talked a great deal about God’s “preferential option” for the poor; we were exposed to a theology which stated quite emphatically that God was on the side of the world’s poor. God was NOT on the side of those who made them or kept them poor.

I don’t think anyone here today is rich by Canadian standards, but everyone with the exception of the very poorest Canadians are rich when compared to the majority of people in Africa or parts of South America. The same economic policies that are killing our farmers and sending our jobs overseas are lining the pockets of the multinationals and despite all of these new jobs, keeping millions in the developing world in poverty.

Joshua’s question to his people on that long ago day is also our question? What God or gods will we serve? The question is: Where does our loyalty lie? What are our priorities in life? Do we serve the gods of money, power, prestige, influence, comfort, reputation, or nationalism to name a few? Or do we serve the God who has called people for many generations to a broader vision, to a way of life and community where all people have a place.

Habitat for Humanity, is a non-profit, independent organization which builds affordable houses and then sells them to families who would not otherwise qualify for a mortgage. Their work helps families to help themselves to break out of the cycle of poverty.

In Canada much of our social and community building work, outside of those we know personally, is done by government. Do we want our government to cut our taxes so that we can have more money in our own pockets or do we want the government to create a society which makes maximum use of our collective resources for the most people possible?

On Remembrance Day on Tuesday we will honour those who made specific choices in a particular time in history.

The presence of the Legion here today reminds us that all of those these who fought and those who died, have real faces, real lives, and theirs are real stories of ordinary people who were able to do extraordinary things.

What are our choices? This month’s Observer printed a challenging and thoughtful editorial on Remembrance Day. The author’s father, a Canadian, and a Mennonite did not enlist during the second world war but instead registered as a conscientious objector. This meant that he was required to give almost half of his income to the Red Cross; single men were required to do alternative service such as build roads or work in logging camps. Her father-in-law, a German immigrant, served in the German army but spent much of the war in a Prisoner of War Camp in Canada. He informed his daughter in law that, in Germany, conscientious objectors were shot. Whether he had wanted to or not; he had to put on the uniform. A number of years later he immigrated to Canada to make his life her and to commit to the hope of a better future.

My grandfather served in the Great War and the most famous battle he endured was Passchendaele - now brought back to common parlance as a love story starring Paul Gross. It was a horrific battle, even in comparison to others of that war, and any Canadian was lucky to survive.

There are all sorts of war movies made about the choices made by soldiers in the midst of battle; of illegal orders obeyed and disobeyed; of fear ; of courage; of compassion; of honour and sometimes of disgrace. I am sure that the reality of the silver screen pales in comparison to actually having been there.

We can choose to honour our veterans and to thank them for their sacrifice. We can choose to honour those who paid the supreme sacrifice with two minutes of silence on Tuesday. We can choose to remember the past, not to glorify it but so that we will always keep in mind that we must not repeat it unless all else fails.

The last veteran to see action in the War To End All Wars is gone now - but we need to remember, because that act of remembering can, if we will it, spur us to work for the peace for which each and every one of them risked their lives and many died. We remember them and the cost paid by the families, by their communities and by our nation.

We can remember AND we can choose to work for peace. I see it as two sides of the same choice. We cannot change the past but we can learn from it to make war the choice of last resort. War should only be entered into when diplomacy has failed to achieve justice and peace or when we are absolutely certain that it is the only option. And the decision should never be left to one nation or government but established bodies such as the United Nations - and after serious and considered discussion.

I have a pin I sometimes wear beside my poppy with a dove carrying a poppy on it and it says, “To remember is to end all war”.

On Tuesday I chose to remember those who fought and died in the wars in which Canada has been involved and in which we are currently involved. On all days I will advocate for a world where war is not necessary; where those who gave their lives did not do so in vain and where peace and true justice flow like a mighty stream.

Will we serve the God who calls us to be more than we ever could on our own? Will we live in fear of the unknown or will we step out in faith and courage saying that our God wishes life and health and peace and this is the God we serve.

Amen.