Sermon: Remembrance Service Sunday 13th. November, 2005
Reading: I, the Lord, will always remember my people…….. Exodus 28.29 (GNB)
On countless memorials, in granite, bronze, brass or wood,
up and down the length of the land, here in our own church too, those long
lists of names from 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 in memory of those who died.
Arranged either in alphabetical order or, sometimes, by regiment………. with those names over
and over again – words like these:
‘They shall be
remembered’
‘Their name liveth for
evermore………’
You see, we may be remembered in many ways, by what we said, or what we did, by our characters, by our kindnesses, by our
sorrows, but in whatever way we are
remembered, or for whatever reason, whenever we are remembered
we are always remembered by
name……….
so, beside those long lists of names………
so often these words
‘They shall be
remembered’
‘Their name liveth for
evermore………’
This was literally the case for Eric Wreford Brown, a
Captain in the 9th. Northumberland Fusiliers in the First World War…….. I was
reading a poignant story recently* of how his name was not forgotten………
He was simply one soldier out of the hundreds of thousands, of course, but his sister Mabel, kept the photographs and papers which tell his story….. so we have two letters home in 1915, a list of the entertainers at the forwarding camp behind the lines, a sketch of the trenches near Hill 60, and then after this, his last letter home – simply a card, dated 4th. July 1916, saying he was wounded…. short days later, however, he died.
Now, while his brother’s name can be found on the Menin Gate
in the Town of
At the end of the war, his sister asked relatives to go and
look for information.
At the Record office in
One day, however, in early September 1920, 4 years after
the battle of
and suddenly, quite by chance saw the name “Eric Wreford Brown” on one of the headstones. They knew the name, remembered him, remembered who he was………….. and wrote back to let his sister know……….. in that poignant moment - a name, remembered.
Names remembered are to be found throughout the Bible;
the name of Abraham, and his great pioneering
faith in old age,in the love and grace of God
the name of Moses, and God’s purposes for
the names of the great heroes and kings of
Perhaps the most poignant and moving moment of all is that
moment at the Tent of Meeting in the desert, recorded for us in Exodus, and
Leviticus.
On the Day of Atonement,
all
a silence
descends on the thousands gathered there, as the smoke of the altar, the smoke
of the incense drift over the Tent itself surrounded by the great central area.
And in this solemn sacred moment, Aaron, the High
Priest puts on
the breastpiece, as commanded by
the living God.
The twelve precious stones of ruby, topaz, beryl, turquoise, sapphire, emerald, jacinth, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, on the front of the breastpiece flash and spark in the light as it is lifted up to be bound on Aaron’s shoulders, over his chest and back. A poignant moment.
For on the breastpiece, on each of these twelve stones is
the name of every single Israelite tribe, the family group of every single
person there in those crowds.
Every tribe, every family, every person, then, is remembered,
when the High Priest, Aaron,
goes into the
Aaron brings, by God’s command, the names of all the
families of
and when in the Holy of Holies, in
the presence of the living God, Aaron the High Priest prays, he prays for all
the families of
and so - their name lives…..
and they are remembered, remembered
by name………….
Now, turn to the New Testament, to the letter to the Hebrews,
and you will find written in the
letter to the Hebrews this:
that that Tent of Meeting, there in
the desert, the one we have just been speaking about, picturing in our minds,
That Tent of Meeting, was a picture, a forthtelling, a
vision, a promise
of
what would one day come in Jesus Christ.
What the Tent of Meeting pointed to in its worship, and its patterns,
– is fulfilled in
perfection in Jesus Christ !
So Hebrews declares this: that as our High Priest, Jesus
Christ bears upon His soul, the name of each of His people, our names.
Or as John’s gospel declares, He is the One who says I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, the One who calls
His sheep by name.
the One who, in the gospels, remembered and
called Peter, James, and John by name on the sea shore,
who remembered and called Nathanael by name as
he sat under the tree,
who remembered and called Lazarus by name from
death and into life………….
the One who - remembers and calls us by name…….
He who, Hebrews declares, offered Himself as a sacrifice for us
in self giving love,
so that once and for all, we can
come into God’s presence,
prays for us and remembers us by name
and so we are not forgotten,
Long after monuments of stone have crumbled into dust,
long after all our work, our
sorrows and our joys, all our labours are forgotten,
long after our names have ceased to
be remembered,
He who called Peter by
name,
met and spoke to Mary in the garden by name,
who quietly called John by name
the living Jesus Christ, who prays for us and
remembers us by name
will call us, to life everlasting,
by name.
AMEN
* see http://www.newhavenfort.com/
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