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As we mark the 60th anniversary of VE day I have
been thinking about how important remembering is, and the danger of
forgetting. A stanza from Laurence Binyon's famous war poem, For
the Fallen, will have been repeated at Cenotaph's around the country
as wreaths were laid "in remembrance of the fallen":
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow
old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Of course the number of those that are left to grow old from those times is dwindling and soon there will be no living memory, only archives and histories. There must have been remembrance events following many conflicts in the past, conflicts that are now simply history, fallen combatants who are now long forgotten. Shakespeare has Henry V rally his troops before Agincourt thus:
He that outlives this day and comes safe home,
Will stand tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours.
And say, 'To-morrow is St Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say, 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day…
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
We remember Agincourt perhaps but who do we remember, apart from 'Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester', whose names are in the histories and plays? Yet it is important to remember for all sorts of reasons.
Some 2,500 years ago Herodotus, the Greek historian, began his fascinating history with these words:
These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus,
which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the
remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and wonderful
actions of the Greeks and the barbarians from losing their due meed
of glory.
Yet we do forget all too soon.
Remember that you were slaves
When Jehovah brought the people of Israel out of Egypt he commanded through Moses that they should:
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that
the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an
outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe
the Sabbath day. (Det.5:15)
Yet, true to form, Israel forgets too easily the exploits of God and must be brought back to that place of remembering. Through Isaiah God reminds the remnant:
Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who
remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were
conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and
grey hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and
I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken
me that we may be compared? Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh
out silver on the scales; They hire a goldsmith to make it into a god,
and they bow down and worship it… Though one cries out to it, it does
not answer; it cannot save him in his troubles.
Remember this, fix it in your mind, take it to heart you rebels.
Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is
no other; I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from
the beginning, From ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My
purpose will stand, And I will do all that I please. (Is.46:1-10)
Our reading, Deuteronomy 8, explains very clearly why we forget.
Be careful that you do not forget your God,
failing to observe his laws and his decrees…Otherwise when you eat and
are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when
your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and
all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you
will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of
the land of slavery.
In Christ we who believe have been brought out of a greater slavery, that of sin, and we too are admonished to remember. I fear we are too comfortable. I fear our flocks are too big, our houses too fine, and we all too often eat beyond satisfaction. As we commemorate the sacrifices of so many who "gave their todays for our tomorrows" let us also remember thankfully the sacrifice of God's only begotten Son on the Cross of Calvary that those who die in him, whether in war or peacetime, may know eternal life.
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