November 12, 2017 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 Remembrance Sunday Private George Lawrence Price was a Canadian soldier born in Falmouth, , on December 15, 1892. He moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan as a young man, where he was conscripted on October 15, 1917. He served with "A" Company of the 28th Battalion,) Canadian Expeditionary Force. The 28th Battalion received orders for November 11 to advance from just south of Belgium to secure all the bridges on the Canal du Centre. The battalion advanced rapidly starting at 4:00 a.m. Experiencing light German resistance they reached their position along the canal facing Ville-sur-Haine by 9:00 a.m. where the battalion received a message that all hostilities would cease at 11:00 a.m. that morning. Private Price and fellow soldier Art Goodworthy were worried that the battalion's position on the open canal bank was exposed to German positions on the opposite side of the canal. They could see bricks had been knocked out from house dormers to create firing positions. According to Goodworthy, they decided on their own initiative to take a patrol of five men across the bridge to search the houses. Reaching the dwellings they discovered German soldiers mounting machine guns along a brick wall overlooking the canal. The Germans opened fire on the patrol but the took cover in one of the houses. Aware that they had been discovered and outflanked, the Germans began to retreat. However, George Price was fatally shot in the chest by a German sniper as he stepped out of the house into the street. He was pulled to safety and treated by a young Belgian nurse who ran across the street to help, but George died a minute later at 10:58 a.m., November 11, 1918. His death was just two minutes before the armistice came into effect at 11 a.m. Private George Lawrence Price just 25 years old is traditionally recognized as the last soldier of the British Empire to be killed during the First World War. We can only imagine the cruelest of crucifixions that awaited George’s family upon receiving this heartbreaking news.

1 None of us alive today can remember the horror of the War to end all Wars. We can only imagine how mud and disease, death and destruction swallowed up many parts of the globe as proud empires crucified one another. However the turn toward resurrection was not to be counted in three short days but in 4 long years. Finally, on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, 99 years ago yesterday, everyone was sure that the resurrection was finally dawning. And yet, as we now know, the very seeds of the next world conflict, World War 2 were sown in the one sided terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Now, after decades of relative peace and small regional warfare, stirrings of a new possibly global conflict are developing between The United States and North Korea. So, what kind of resurrection can we recognize or expect on Remembrance Sunday? Certainly not a bodily resurrection hoped for in the Apostle Paul’s day, for we did not get our war dead back, alive and in one piece. Certainly not a political resurrection, for the War to end all Wars begat the Second World War soon enough. Certainly not a peaceful resurrection, since regional wars continue to this day and global tensions now threaten to spill over into nuclear conflict. So just what kind of resurrection has been emerging from the crucifixion of civilization we called WW1 and WW2? And what is needed for resurrection today? In our Epistle Reading the apostle Paul expresses some of the belief in the new popular ideas about bodily resurrection and the Day of Judgement arising as a result of the almost 200 years of Greco-Roman occupation of Judea. Paul identifies with this growing belief that God will vindicate the Jewish martyrs who periodically have been killed by these unclean invaders while protecting the sanctity of the Temple. God will now annihilate the Romans on a Day of Judgment and gather the faithful Jewish martyrs into a new world order.

2 However, Paul connects this idea to the martyr Jesus, and the faithful followers of Jesus: Those who have died some as martyrs of the Way, and some of natural causes. Paul believes that God will collect these followers of Jesus good as new, and raise them up from the grave on the last day to live in paradise along with we who remain. He expects this divine intervention to occur at any time in the near future. Paul was writing before the second Jewish War with Rome 66 to 70 C.E., before Jerusalem was laid waste, the Temple destroyed, and thousands slaughtered. However no bodies were returned whole, complete and alive. What’s more the world did not come to an end, and still hasn’t after 2,000 years. Paul simply got it wrong! His hope was genuine just not accurate. This inaccuracy has led to the present day Rapturists beliefs fed on the “Left Behind” series of novels or other End Times folk fed up with this sinful world and anxious for Armageddon to finish things off for good. This is world denying stuff. But Jesus’ God and our God is a world and life affirming God. So, resurrection is not about turning the clock back. It’s not about religious resistance, or righting wrongs. It’s not about getting even or getting our final and just reward at someone else’s expense. Resurrection is not about coercive power, God acting against the forces of creation. It’s not about God resisting the Greeks or the Romans or any other military powers. However, Resurrection is about relational power, God working within the forces of creation: God creatively connecting life to life even beyond the grave. Resurrection is about a relationship now that extends into everlasting. Instead of meeting Jesus in the air, we meet him in prayer. Instead of meeting Jesus on the battlefield, we meet him as we are being healed.

3 Meeting Jesus is a relationship now, which inspires and empowers us toward creative engagement and creative transformation. It is a relationship that allows life to be less and less about us, and more and more about God’s grace. Those who live in the resurrection now allow themselves to lose their self-centredness, stop resisting, and find the Spirit living creatively through them. It’s a relationship that sees and accepts all things in God and God in all things. Those who live in the resurrection now find a shared cosmic consciousness. It is a deep mutuality that recognizes that we are all in this together. It allows us to lose our individual consciousness and find our-self in the larger shared life in God which extends unbroken into everlasting. We find that the first fruits of resurrection are to be tasted in this life. Resurrection is a relationship that leads us to just become the change God wants to see in the world. And in so doing, we discover that over time it becomes effortless effort. What we find with the Mystery in the midst of life is so much more than the self- centredness we must lose in order to get there. We find care and compassion for others which is so much more than the righteous calls to resistance. Application for Today Resurrection: Not in the air but in prayer. Not on the battlefield but as we help one another be healed.

4 Meditative Prayer Let’s settle into this worshipful moment. Follow your breathing inward to that prayerful place.

Open your heart to God’s presence. Breathe in the light that is always there. Breathe in the love that is always there. Breathe in the peace that is always there.

Know that you are connected to heaven and earth. Now, as one now connected to heaven and earth, send the light, send the love, send the peace to places of conflict around the world.

Send the light, send the love, send the peace To those serving in these places.

Send the light, send the love, send the peace To the civilians caught in the middle of these conflicts.

Send the light, send the love, send the peace To the refugee camps.

Send the light, send the love, send the peace To those still in flight seeking asylum.

Send the light, send the love, send the peace To those returning home wounded in body mind or spirit.

O God in all prayers, all prayers in God.

And now let us pray as Jesus taught us saying….

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