Peace: Today is Remembrance Day. We remember that on the ‘eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month’, in 1918, the armistice was signed to bring peace after war.
Around war memorials, in churches, today and tomorrow, there will be a minute’s silence and we shall remember. In school each year we came together and remembered; the facts of war, local families who had lost loved ones, our desire for peace.
Pups: Yesterday in our local paper there was news of baby grey seals on a Norfolk beach. Over the next month many more will arrive. Last year nearly four thousand were born on that stretch of coast. There was a picture of an adorable, contented, fluffy-faced seal pup.
We would all like an adorable, contented, fluffy-faced puppy world. Sadly it isn’t.
Power: Yesterday was the anniversary of Martin Luther’s birth – in 1483. Luther’s remembered for opposing the power of the Roman Catholic church, in particular Pope Leo X, ‘a man of greed, laziness and wickedness’.
The Crusades had already been fought. Power in religion and politics continued to lead to conflict and bloodshed. We saw it in Northern Ireland; today we see continuing in Israel and Gaza. There are pictures not of peace and pups but of war and death.
People: Last night we watched the film ‘Hacksaw Ridge’, based on the true story of Desmond Doss.
Because of his strong Christian faith Dos refused to handle a rifle. With a strong moral obligation to serve his country as a medic, he wanted ‘be like Christ: saving life instead of taking life.’
Despite alienation, physical abuse and attempts to have him discharged, in 1944 Doss served as a medic in the Battle of Okinawa, repeatedly running through enemy fire, bringing about seventy-five wounded comrades, ordinary people caught up in the conflict, to safety.
Doss became the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor, stating that he owed his life to God, who he believed saved him on numerous occasions.
malcolmsmusings.org 