Resurrection hope

Sermon for Remembrance Sunday -13th November 2011

Readings: Ezeikeil 37: 1-14, John 15: 9-17

My wife and I have visited several Cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in France. It is a very sobering experience. I am always struck by the sheer number of graves; row upon row of white stones. And we are reminded that a great sacrifice has been made; a very great human cost has been paid. There is a great sense of loss, of young lives that have passed away. And then we drive away, and it seems that we have not gone half a mile before we pass another cemetery and once again we are confronted with row upon row of white stones; many, many soldiers that have died.
And perhaps these feelings of sacrifice and loss tell us something about what Ezekiel was feeling in his extraordinary vision that we heard about in our first reading. Ezekiel was writing in the sixth century BC at a real low point in the history of the Jewish people. They had been utterly defeated by the Babylonians. Zion had been overpowered; Jerusalem had been destroyed. The temple had been desecrated and looted and many Jewish bodies lay scattered over the ruins of Jerusalem, with no-one to bury them. The survivors of the onslaught, had been taken away into exile in Babylon, where life was miserable. It was here that the Psalmist wrote, “By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Ps 137). But among this pitiful remnant of his chosen people, God placed the prophet Ezekiel. And through Ezekiel God had a message for his chosen people and the message was this. The exile would not last for ever, it would come to an end. God would send his people back to Jerusalem. They would rebuild its temple and restore its walls. Although they felt utterly defeated and broken, God would restore them and make them whole once again. This is the primary meaning of Ezekiel’s vision – just as God brought back to life many, many dried bones scattered in a arid valley, so he would breathe new life into the people of Israel. He would restore them to wholeness and bring them back to Jerusalem and Judea.
But beyond its primary, meaning Ezekiel’s vision points us towards the resurrection of the dead. God say, “And you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves O my people.” In fact this is one of the earlier prophecies of the resurrection of the dead, but such prophecies become more common over the following centuries, and then in Jesus it becomes a clear promise (e.g. John 5: 25-29 or 6: 40, 1 Corinthians 15: 20-end, I Thess 4:13- end), signed sealed and delivered by the resurrection of Jesus himself from the dead; a resurrection in which we are all called to share. Now, it has to be said, the resurrection of the dead does remain one of the most strange and mysterious aspects of the Christian promise. The promise is that at the end of time there will be the trumpet call of God announcing the second coming of Christ. This is followed by the resurrection of the dead and then by the last judgement. Our resurrection bodies will have a spiritual quality and will not be subject to corruption and decay like the bodies we know at present. Personally I find that I cannot get my head round this. I can’t really understand how the resurrection of the dead can come about scientifically or in history, but it remains a key part of my Christian hope; something to look forward to at the end of time. And it is deeply, deeply integral to the Christian faith, and to the way we think about people who have died. Every time we recite the apostles creed we are reminded that we believe in “the forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” The hymn “O Valliant Hearts” that we have just sung talks of those who gave their life in war, who lie in those great cemeteries I was talking of earlier, await the last clear trumpet-call of God. The hymn is clear that by linking their sacrifice with the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, they too will share in the resurrection of Christ.
This great resurrection is the result of a sharing in the resurrection life of Christ. It is brought about by abiding in Christ, and by having Christ abide in us. Especially it is brought about by sacrificial giving. In our gospel Jesus said, “Abide in my love – if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love... this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this; that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Well this is what Remembrance Sunday is all about; remembering before God those who have laid down their lives for us. It is the supreme act of love; the supreme act of giving. We have everything to be grateful for, and everything to hope for, in the resurrection of Jesus.
And this sacrifice, this gift, this great act of love, calls out to us encouraging us too to live better lives, to be more giving towards others, more generous towards others, more ready to make sacrifices for others. In our present society it is rare that someone is asked to give up their life for another person, but time and time again in our daily lives we are called to do smaller things for others; to give help with the washing up, to give time and attention, to be patient with someone infuriating, to forgive someone who has wronged us...
So as we mark solemnly the great sacrifices made by so many for us today, let’s seek to be ready to make the sacrifices for others that daily life demands of us. And let’s do so believing that love and sacrifice is not in vein. On the contrary it is precisely the way that we come to share in the great resurrection of Jesus.